Commercial Blade Blank - Worth Building With?

K

klr

Joined
Apr 17, 2011
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6
Years ago a friend gave me this blade. It looks like one of those cheap Western bowie knives sold by Kmart. It has two small nicks on the edge and "Made in Germany" is stamped on the end. It's hard to scratch with my Swiss Army knife. It's 15.5" long with a 9" blade.

So, would this be worth using to make a smaller knife? No telling what the material is, so heat treating/tempering would be a shot in the dark even if I did know what I was doing. If I go slowly can I get by without heat treating?

No knife building experience, but a lifetime of tinkering with guns, motorcycles, guitars, etc.

Thanks.

 
My only thought is, why not???

What do you have to lose? You don't have any cash tied up in it.

Chances are it's probably already heat treated. All the blade blanks I've used in the past were.

Good luck and post pics when done!
 
Good point, especially if your experience points to it being heat treated. I'll post pics when I'm finished later this winter. Thanks.
 
I would not put the effort in without heat treating, its nice to end up with a usable knife at the end of you labor. Most likely it is heat treated, you can check to see if a file will skate across, and put and edge on it and cut some rope. When done dull the edge and put tape over to make safe to work. Looks like a bit of sanding.

Why smaller, take a bit of the edge to remove the bad edge,
 
If the blade has been sharpened then it has most likely been heat treated. It appears to be high carbon steel due to the rust. I'd be tempted to clean it up, fit a guard to it, add a nice handle, sharpen it up and display it. If you want a smaller knife and want to make it your self, get a piece of 1084 that is as close in size to the knife you want. Or buy the blade that you want and put a handle on it.
 
I wouldn't be at all surprised if that is a Linder blade blank.

Definitely worth cleaning up and handling anyway.
 
Boy that blade looks familiar and even before I read it was made in Germany. I believe I bought a blank at least very similar a lot of years ago. Sure, give it a try ! Frank
 
Clean it up and make a handle... it'll give you the bug.
I started out by putting new scales on my granny's old rusted butcher knife. That knife, that was once used for cutting up root balls on potted plants, is now my go-to meat slicer. I like it way more for that task than my expensive chef knifes. And I've moved from rehandling, to premade blades, to grinding steel in just a couple of months.
 
Thanks for the info guys. I did a search for Linder bowie blank and came up with the link below. It looks and measures the same although mine obviously isn't stainless.

I think I'll take the advice to clean it up and put a handle on it. I actually have two identical blanks, so maybe I'll ebay one and buy some steel to make a few smaller knives rather than modify my second blank.

Any recommendations for the best handle style for this type of blank?

http://www.worldknives.com/products/linder-special-bowie-blade-blank-nr-621625-1045.html
 
Some of the fancy ones have stag scales, but curly maple or walnut would work well for this type knife. Pretty much any wood scales would work, as well as elk, horn, etc.
 
The tang looks to be designed for a full guard. Source a pre notched guard, with the notch just shy or the same as the tang. Some time with some small files and you will have a nicely fit guard.
 
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