Cheap Blanks, Lesson Learned.

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daspope

Joined
Aug 3, 2014
Messages
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So when I got a wild hair up my arse that I wanted to start customizing/building knives I looked on ebay and impulsively purchased a knife blank from some cherokee knife supply place for $11+shipping.

They shipped it super fast and it arrived today, and well... The saying "You get what you pay for" was painfully obvious as soon as I unpacked it.

The first thing I noticed is the bolsters are only 1/8" thick making the total width 3/8" if I made the scales fit flush to the bolster like I planned this will be a mighty thin handled knife.

upon closer inspection I noticed the bolsters are no where near being symmetrical, if this was made on a machine, it need calibrated, if it was made by a person, I think they are cross eyed.

But hey, I got this knife for practice and that's just what I'll do, I have a bunch of scrap walnut so I will make it a basic handle and pin it. if I dont mess up the pins or anything I guess I can toss this in my tackle box as a utility knife for when I go fishing :)

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In other news, I got some cheap mild steel from lowes to practice with, I am going to make a mini KA-BAR style letter opener as my first "real" project.
 
Great practice. Make it as nice as you can with good wood and finish the bolsters off as well as you can. At the worst you will have had cheap practice and a blade that you can use to cut wall insulation or rubber hoses and so on. If it turns out well all the better and you can give it to the first friend who likes it. This is much better than grinding your first blade out of expensive steel and then botching the wood work. I made knives from purchased blades my first several months of knife making and it gave me the confidence to buy a 2x72 grinder and make knives from bar stock and chunks of wood. Try Jantz Knife Supply, Texas Knife supply, and K&G Knife Supply for decent stainless steel blades. I gave away over 30 knives to my friends my first year of knife making. Two or three of those friends turned out to be knife lovers and have bought many of my knives since. Don't sweat it and have fun. You might really like doing it.
 
I actually have a question too now that I think of it...

My neighbor is a self employed machinist with a garage shop, I was thinking I could have him toss this on his surface grinder and grind the bolsters to a perfectly flat edge.

If he did this could I then weld some steel on to whats left of the bolsters to build them up thicker? or should I just have him grind them all the way off then punch/drill out whats left of the pins and start over?
 
If you can get them off then you can buy some bar stock out of Brass, 416 stainless, or Nickel silver in a 1/4 inch thickness and make your own. That would be great practice also. You can sand down 1/4 inch to any thickness you like .
 
Ooohhh, I like the idea of brass bolsters and a dark walnut handle on this knife. I think I will talk to him about getting some time with that surface grinder soon :)
 
Get your blanks from Gene Martin or one of the other great guys here. Gene uses a lot of d2 and does a good job with it. His other materials are good too.
 
Just a suggestion and this is my .02, don't bother messing with mild steel. If you're going to make a knife, make a knife. Even if it doesn't turn out great it's still a knife that you made and it will likely be sharp enough to use as a knife even if it's "ugly". At least you'll have gone through all the steps and see what's involved in making a knife. Draw up some patterns, post them on here if you want some critiques, when you're ready make a cardboard cutout of the design you want and see how it feels to use as a knife. Then when you're confident on the design just go for it on a steel that can be hardened, if you're not able/comfortable to heat treat it, send it out somewhere like Peter's or any other known good HT place and finish it off to the best of your ability. As you go along you're going to learn more and more from each build and they'll get better and better.
 
Fletch Helical said:
Just a suggestion and this is my .02, don't bother messing with mild steel. If you're going to make a knife, make a knife. Even if it doesn't turn out great it's still a knife that you made and it will likely be sharp enough to use as a knife even if it's "ugly". At least you'll have gone through all the steps and see what's involved in making a knife. Draw up some patterns, post them on here if you want some critiques, when you're ready make a cardboard cutout of the design you want and see how it feels to use as a knife. Then when you're confident on the design just go for it on a steel that can be hardened, if you're not able/comfortable to heat treat it, send it out somewhere like Peter's or any other known good HT place and finish it off to the best of your ability. As you go along you're going to learn more and more from each build and they'll get better and better.
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I was planning on starting with knife worthy steel, but all lowes carried was mild steel and I wanted to get something to grind on while I wait for some 440 to come in the mail from Jantz ;)
 
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