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Anybody ever try their hand at knifemaking?
- Thread starter mneedham
- Start date
this is the only one i have photos of, made from the same piece of steel as a larger wood handled knife that i sold to a friend. they came to pick it up before i found the camera.
it is not as nice in fit and finish as the one i sold my friend, but it cuts just fine
. i am looking to get some O1 very soon and start grinding some knives that i can put alot of faith in...maybe even sell.
it is not as nice in fit and finish as the one i sold my friend, but it cuts just fine
. i am looking to get some O1 very soon and start grinding some knives that i can put alot of faith in...maybe even sell.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2003
- Messages
- 1,850
I made a few , I do them in batches , when ever I get the steel and motivation in one spot at one time 
I dont go for the untouched by human hands look , I just dont like it , and besides , near on EVERY other maker tries to achieve something like perfection , machine made clones almost .. or so it seems ..
I began out of desperation , its just so dammed hard to get good carbon steel blades in Australia its frustrating , we were butchering our own meat , and I was running into obstacles as sheep with a yrs worth of wool on them just been thru a sand storm , kinda blunts the edge of the usual stainless butcher knife real fast .
I read a few books on knife making when I was in primary school , mainly looked at the pictures because my reading wasnt ever real good then spent a few years working with steels in various jobs , car smash repairs , construction , mine maintinence ... on the crushing circuits of the mines there is an amazing variety of steels that put up with awesome wear and abuse , that got me thinking about knives again ... also in construction there is stuff as chem-loc dyna bolts , that glue holds buildings down in cyclones ... be interesting to use some of the hi tech extreme steels and some of the hi tech glues availiable to make some interesting knives
when I got out of the heavy industry thing because of injuring myself too much I spent time looking at what stuff I could lay hand to as a civillian , and settled on high speed steel power hack saw blades , and polyurethane for glue , and whatever I could find interesting for handles so far its turned out good , some of the first knives I made have come back for sharpening on an anual basis , they get used for cutting steel packing straps pretty much daily , it takes a year before they are too blunt for the owners to put a good edge back on themselves , but a touch on the grinder and the stone and all is well again ...
I made one special for my bro , who used it to cut open a wrecked car bonnet and cut the battery cables and prevent a fire , he saved the life of the guy trapped in the wreck by doing this .
when I cant get power hack saw blades , I have a stack of leaf springs , I was seriously into forging blades and I reckon I was good at it or getting there anyway ... then the injuries from work got aggravated big time and now hammering at my anvil is not a viable option for me much more ...
Knife making is a hobby for me tho , but I do sell the knives I make occasionally , I was swapping them to the butcher for meat , he would sell the knives for what he wanted to the crew who is into pigging bigtime and we were both happy , then I tried ebaying a couple and they sold for well over $100 each ... that scared me for some reason , I know the knives are good and take a beating , but it felt like jumping into big league real fast .
At the moment , I make a few , sell a few , it funds the making of more ... I gift far more than I ever sell tho .
I dont go for the untouched by human hands look , I just dont like it , and besides , near on EVERY other maker tries to achieve something like perfection , machine made clones almost .. or so it seems ..
I began out of desperation , its just so dammed hard to get good carbon steel blades in Australia its frustrating , we were butchering our own meat , and I was running into obstacles as sheep with a yrs worth of wool on them just been thru a sand storm , kinda blunts the edge of the usual stainless butcher knife real fast .
I read a few books on knife making when I was in primary school , mainly looked at the pictures because my reading wasnt ever real good
then spent a few years working with steels in various jobs , car smash repairs , construction , mine maintinence ... on the crushing circuits of the mines there is an amazing variety of steels that put up with awesome wear and abuse , that got me thinking about knives again ... also in construction there is stuff as chem-loc dyna bolts , that glue holds buildings down in cyclones ... be interesting to use some of the hi tech extreme steels and some of the hi tech glues availiable to make some interesting knives when I got out of the heavy industry thing because of injuring myself too much I spent time looking at what stuff I could lay hand to as a civillian , and settled on high speed steel power hack saw blades , and polyurethane for glue , and whatever I could find interesting for handles so far its turned out good , some of the first knives I made have come back for sharpening on an anual basis , they get used for cutting steel packing straps pretty much daily , it takes a year before they are too blunt for the owners to put a good edge back on themselves , but a touch on the grinder and the stone and all is well again ...
I made one special for my bro , who used it to cut open a wrecked car bonnet and cut the battery cables and prevent a fire , he saved the life of the guy trapped in the wreck by doing this .
when I cant get power hack saw blades , I have a stack of leaf springs , I was seriously into forging blades and I reckon I was good at it or getting there anyway ... then the injuries from work got aggravated big time and now hammering at my anvil is not a viable option for me much more ...
Knife making is a hobby for me tho , but I do sell the knives I make occasionally , I was swapping them to the butcher for meat , he would sell the knives for what he wanted to the crew who is into pigging bigtime and we were both happy , then I tried ebaying a couple and they sold for well over $100 each ... that scared me for some reason , I know the knives are good and take a beating , but it felt like jumping into big league real fast .
At the moment , I make a few , sell a few , it funds the making of more ... I gift far more than I ever sell tho .
Hey Myal! Where are the pictures of that knife with a sawback you made out of a hack saw blade that was too hard to shape with anything but a grinder? I have seen it somewhere in this forum... I am working right now for a company that makes stainles steel stuff. The big stuff. Tubes, blocks, anything. We will fit their factory with Cameras, security controls, perimetral detection and stuff like that. While I was visiting the factory the first time I noticed a HUGE pile of scrap metal. Mostly was stainles steel not usefull for cutlery but there was also some carbon steel there... mostly from saws, files and stuff like that. I will have to come back any time soon so I will probably just ask the manager if I can get some of that. Might come handy for making blades!
I want to craft my first knife as soon as possible. I want to do it jus like Green Pete shows in his videos (HERE). I will try to make it (or maybe make THEM) out of some worn out files. If I can't find any I will have to buy new ones, I hope they won't get that expensive. I also thought about using leaf springs from a car... but I am not sure if they will be straight enough to shape it just doing stock removal.
When I start doing so I will probably just start a new thread on the propper subforum to ask for advice... The heat threat is going to be the hardest part of it, that's for sure.
Mikel
Mike,
Thanks, it is hardened to a 59 on the Rockwell scale, a guy I work with did the heat treating and tempering. He has been making knives for a while and was a good source of information that saved me a lot of trial and error. The second one is still in the filing process, but will post pic as I work on it.
goat