Completely new to Knife Making.

C

ckrysiak

Joined
Sep 30, 2016
Messages
3
Hello, my name is Chad.

I'm completely new to blacksmithing in general, and I'm here after being enthralled by Man at Arms youtube videos, and seeing Andy Alm's work.

I really want to make a knife, and it's pretty much all that I've been able to think about for the past month. Actually, I want to make many knives.

and then I want to sell knives once I can actually make good knives, to the point where people would say "yeah, I'd spend money on that...."

I apologize for that now. I'm assuming it's probably not tolerated around here until you have some form of clout.

I just don't want to be a cashier bot for the rest of my existence.

Anyways, I don't have any experience with pretty much anything. I don't know what the tools of the trade are called, or anything like that.

I made sure to bookmark the "standard newbie response" to knifemaking, so I'll read that later on in the day.

At the moment though, I have a few questions. Answers would be greatly appreciated.

-Around how much money would I need to get started making knives, provided that I had the space for it?

and...

-This is a stretch, but do any bladesmiths offer lessons at an hourly rate?

Anyways, this place is very cool so far. I'm glad to be here.
 
Good luck on your knife making quest.

It's extremely difficult to make any real money making knives, so I would suggest approaching it as a hobby.

Everyone has their own opinions regarding the cost to begin making knives. It can be as inexpensive or expensive as you want.

Personally, I would budget about $5,000 to get started.
 
Hey Chad!
I am pretty much in the same boat as you, except I am not looking quite so far ahead! Lol I just want to see if I like it because it seems fun, but I don't know if I'll ever be good enough to sell anything. I am just starting out with a 3/16 X 1 1/2 piece of 01 steel and a couple files. Everything else I need I'll just get along the way so I can kind of spend as I go. I look forward to seeing your progress!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
You can start making knives for very littler start up cost. It just depends on how much you want to DIY. Small single brick forges can be built very cheaply, Anvils can be made out of just about any large chunk of good hard steel.

Also, read all of the stickies, i mean all of them. I have been doing this for a couple of years now, and I still refer back to them pretty often.

For just getting started I recommend doing stock removal. Everything we do can be done without power tools. Just plan on putting in a lot of time and effort.

Ill link you an amazon wish list I made, when I first started. This is the equipment I bought from the very beginning. You DO NOT need all of this stuff! This is Just what I bought.

https://amzn.com/w/3UV2UF2ZGVH3M

I bought my anvil from centaur forge.

http://www.centaurforge.com/NC-70-l...ome-Page-for-full-details/productinfo/18NCBF/

I used a home made forge for the start but now I use an Atlas Mini Forge and an NC

http://www.centaurforge.com/NC-Whis...-Page-for-full-details/productinfo/NCMOMMAOE/

http://www.ebay.com/itm/112007645631?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

As far as some offering lessons, It has been my experience, that folks in our hobby/profession love to share and grow the craft. If there is a shop near you, I would think you would be welcome to come buy. Where are you located.
 
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ckrysiak said:
Hello, my name is Chad.

...
-Around how much money would I need to get started making knives, provided that I had the space for it?

and...

-This is a stretch, but do any bladesmiths offer lessons at an hourly rate?

.....
Click to expand...

The answer to your first question is quite complicated. Are you frustrated easily? Are you mechanically inclined? Do you have the ability to make any equipment yourself?

When I was younger, and had my first good job where I finally had a little extra cash, all the hobbies that I'd wanted to pursue finally seemed available to me. The problem was I only had a little extra money, and a lot of different interests. So rather than focusing on one, I bought a lot of cheap junk across the board. That led to a lot of frustration and in some cases contempt for what I was trying to accomplish. I also treated my stuff poorly, because "it was just a cheap piece of junk anyway."

At some point I recognized what was going on and firmly became a member of the "buy once cry once" crowd. I would rather not do something at all, at this point, than try to do it with equipment that doesn't even meet the bare minimum requirements.

And I know some people will disagree with that, they made X many knives with their Harbor Freight 1x30. That's awesome, really, because you're much more determined than I am if you're able to do that. What I'm trying to say is recognize what type of person you are, whether you can gut it out with nothing but files and hand paper, or if that will lead you to throwing in the towel to pursue other interests. If you know that up front, you will save yourself a lot of time, money, and frustration - regardless of which type you are.

I don't have an answer to your second question. I've seen people mention teaching others, but it always seems to be a "who you know" situation, which it would be for me. I'd be happy to teach someone I know, what I know, because I'd be able to evaluate whether it'd be a waste of my time or not based on my experience with the person. But I wouldn't just take someone off the street who asked, and certainly not for money, as I wouldn't know up front if what I was going to provide them in knowledge was worth the cost they paid me, which is the hardest thing for me to get over when it comes to selling something.
 
alright so I'm fairly new to bladesmithing and blacksmithing just five or six months in but I didnt spend more than $500. Look into making your own forge I did propane made from an old air tank and a bag and a half of refractory concrete 2 bags around $90. my anvil was possiblbly The most expensive I got a 75# cast steel anvil on ebay (yes its steel). If you dont mind resurfacing every few weeks and a little harder work the harbor freight cast iron anvil will work for awhile its only 60 compared to even my anvil wich was like 280 after shipping. You couls also call the rail road and try to get a peice of track for an anvil. Harbor freight crosspien hammer has served me well just redress it so you dont leave hammer marks. I just recently bought a 2x42 belt grinder it works faily well the palmgren is good for begining and there are plenty of good modifications you can do to make it run better it cost around 190. buy belts from trugrit. I know I will get flak for this but idgaf dont buy known steels right away find rr spikes and coil and leaf springs and lawn mower blades. Relize that you arent giving any knives away for awhile so learn on the cheap so called unknown metals the springs are usually 5160, or 9160 but you know if you assume that you get blasted for it. this will teach you though how to hammer and shape and harden and all that it'll give you an idea on how to work things. That is my two cents. PM me and ill send you some links for the anvil and some videos that helped me.
 
All you really need to get started is an angle grinder, some steel, and some sort of belt grinder. 1x30's or 2x42's are cheap. No more than $100 and less on Craigslist. Order some 1084 from New Jersey Steel Baron and start grinding. Walter Sorrells has some great videos for new makers on YouTube.
 
Personally I wouldn't waste my time or money buying a 1x30. You'd be better off with files. 2x42s are fine for the hobbyist, but IMO if you're really serious about this you need a good 2x72 belt grinder preferably one with variable speed. The grinder will be the most versatile as well as the most used tool in your shop.
 
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I'm in the boat of start cheep, files, hand drill, hack saw, sand paper exc. This way your not spending a lot of money on somthing that gets dropped after you make one knife. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is this. Don't get into knife making for the money. Do it because it's a passion and there is a drive to do it. If your just after the money then you will quickly give it up and move on to something else. There is one trick to making a small fortune in knife making and that is to start with a large fortune. I do it because I LOVE it and can't think of anything else most of the time. Even if I could not sell a knife I would still make them. The best way for you to see if you have the drive is to start with hand tools. It takes time, dedication and a desire to do the best job you can no mater how much time it takes.

When buying your hand tools get good stuff, good files are a must. I use to use nicoloson files but now thy are made in Mexico/China so I pass them by. I go after the good German or Swiss made files, thy are more expensive but last much longer (if used properly). Hacksaw can be just about any brand, I'm not to picky in this area as long as I can find replacement blades locally. Drill, this is where you need to be a bit more picky. You need a drill that you can control the speed. Metal drill bits will die a fast death if ran at high rpm. My drill of choice in my shop is a small jet drill press that I have worked over to make into a tast specific drill. 6" pulley on the spindle and a tiny like 1.25" on the motor. This may seam odd but it gives me a very slow rpm around a few hundred and with the small pulley on the motor allows it to slip if it binds up. It has enough power to drill 1/2" holes in steel and do any other knife making tasks I need that require metal bits.

Cutting out blades by hand can be made easier if you use the drill and drill holes fallowing the knife profile you sketched onto the steel. Then use the hacksaw to cut the small webs between the drilled holes. If you have a little extra cash you can pick up an angel grinder and use it to knock down the little spikes left from the webs. If not then use a corse file and go to town. There are lots of tutorials on making knives with hand tools so look them up and ask questions.

As to getting "lessons" on knife making from a knife maker. I'm kinda in the same boat as others and want the craft to expand and grow. But my shop time is valuable to me as I work a full time job. This does not mean I don't have people over that want to learn. I love helping people learn how to make knives and have done it a handful of times. I don't take payment for this as I like to help out but also ask that thy are respectful of my time as I can't spend all my free time "making there knife".

So get ya some tools and start working. You will quickly discover that it's not as easy as it looks but is very rewarding to craft somthing with your own hands.
 
qs8pkrcuf

copper.jpg

Heya, I'm back after a long hiatus. I've been making some efforts with regards to getting myself set up. Mostly it's just been reading and learning, and getting the basic fundamentals of what I should do down.

The picture is just a bunch of copper, around eight pounds or so, that I gathered from stripping wires with my friend.

My current goal is to smelt it with some tin (in a 90/10 ratio) using a DIY smelter, and choose to either make a cast bronze sword from a mould, or to simply make as round of a bar that I can with it, and then use that to forge the sword.

Alternatively, I could use aluminum, iron, nickel, and magnanese instead of just tin and make an alloy called CuAl8, which would probably make a better sword, due to a higher strength and higher corrosion resistance, along with plenty of other favorable properties.

(if I seem ignorant on any of this, please enlighten me. I know things are harder than they look)

A round bar of aluminum bronze 954, 1.25 inches in diameter and 24 inches in length, which weighs about 8.74 .lbs, would cost me a little under $150 - which is quite a bit of a cost to bite, and is the reason why I'm going to try my hand at smelting my own bronze.

I'm hoping to have my either my "home-made DIY aluminum bronze round bar" or my rough cast sword made sometime during this Spring.
 
I say sell the copper and buy a nice file. I would like to say I'm ok at the knife making game and even then I would not attempt what your wanting to do. Not that it's impossible to do. But casting is an entirely different creature all together. Especily casting something as long and large as a sword. Plus your not just casting with an aloy you have. You would have to make the casting aloy first. I have a bunch of copper in a tub (around 100lbs) that I am saving for the day I decide to make some bronze.

I think you should still start with a smaller knife made using simple hand tools. Start learning by doing. You can read all the books (web pages) in the world but you need experance. In my experance I find experance trumps book learning. So go out and start on something simple that you can learn as you go.
 
I started making knives about a year or so ago. The things I would reccomend, if you can afford them, are:

-Belt sander
2x72 is the gold standard but really anything will work if you can get the right belts for it. I like Norton Blaze ceramic belts, and you can get them in 1x30. Of course you CAN use files, many people do and there is something to be said for doing things the hard way first.

-Heat source
You can arrange some bricks and a hair dryer for a coal forge, line a coffe can with some kind of refractory cement or wool and use a torch, or get the soft fire bricks and carve them out it make 1 or 2 brick forge. I started out with a mapp gas torch and a propane weed burner torch. Both work fine if you're only making smaller knives.

And thats pretty much it as far as big things go. You will still need files, a hacksaw, a drill, and other non-knife-specific things but those are nice to have around anyway, even if you don't make knives.

Start with stock removal, it's much more beginner friendly. Start with a bar of known steel that is already the right width and thickness for what you want to make. Follow existing HT recipes for that steel. Make a small, simple knife. No need to re-invent the wheel at first.

If you want a career working with metal, be a machinist or a welder that makes knives on the side. Turning what is generally a hobby into a full time job is tough, especially with no industry experience. It' not impossible, but it's not something yout can just start doing in a few months or even a few years.
 
I’m not a knife maker so take my advice with a mountain of salt.

Beginners should check out a book:
How to Make Knives by the legend Robert W. Loveless.

Anvil can be expensive and hard to find. I have heard of people sinking the head of a sledge hammer into a log flat side up for using as a mini anvil.
 
Please reconsider your plans to make a sword. You don't have the tools to make a knife. It is hard enough to make a 3" bladed knife. A sword is an advanced project for people with tools and experience.
 
Without knowing how many tools (or what kind) you already have, what you have locally available, etc... it's hard to give a precise estimate for cost and such...

I've seen guys forge blades on anything from old cast weight lifting plates, to hammer heads stuck in a bucket of concrete, to rail track and other odd masses of steel.

If you're looking for complete entry end "anvil shaped" junk, $50 to $100 might get you something lightweight to bang on. If you want a "real" anvil that's in decent shape and has some real mass, expect to pay $800 to $2k+ in today's absurd market prices.

Next you need to decide if you want a wood or coal fired forge, vs propane/gas fired. Depending on fabbing and scrounging abilities, this could run anywhere from $50 to a few hundred bucks to get something decent going. Then there will be all the little odds and ends that you don't really think about until you start to need them: Vises, clamps, tongs, drills and bits, quench tanks, files, abrasives, cutting tools, etc....

My advice, if you want to get something going sooner than later, is to start with some known good flat stock (like 1075, 1080, 1084) that is already annealed, and grab some files and sandpaper, a decent drill press, and go to town. Make a couple of knife shaped objects and then see if you still want to pursue it. Maybe find a local maker and ask for a shop visit or two.
 
Just a few cents:

Aldo Bruno at http://newjerseysteelbaron.com/ sells some very good steel, especially for new makers. His steel is annealed and ready to be shaped and heat treated.

I don't have a real anvil myself currently. I am not sure what companies are around you but out here (Pennsylvania) there is a company very close to me called Greiner Industries. They do metal building framing and bridge work etc. I stopped over there one afternoon and looked around in their scrap and got a 50-80 pound 4x4x15 block free and it works really well. It is not as hard as a real anvil but I have only had problems when I missed the hot steel and the hammer put a small dent in the block. I am sure if I looked longer and was ready to lift some 200 pounds, I could have found a larger block. If you have them around you, scrap yards really can provide nice anvils. A good idea if you get a block similar to mine (I am planning on doing this) is getting a steel washbucket and setting the block in with quikrete. (please do not spend 30+ on a foot piece of rail. I did and then found stuff at yards and so much better. People know they can get new guys to buy it because it is easy to get desperate for one and they can be hard to find.)

There are many haters of what I am about to say but: The grizzly g1015 knifemaker grinder is a very nice piece of equipment for the price. I have heard guys say "why would you spend $550 on a half decent grinder and then buy a nice 2000$ grinder later anyway?" To that I reply that the grinder is well worth the money if you use it for a year or two and get a better one. And if you can make parts, it can be a base that you can modify if you don't want to invest more. I have a friend who has made more than 100 or maybe more that 200 knives with the grizzly and he does amazing work. You can see his gallery at beckerforge.com. most of the knives in his gallery were made when he was 14-20 years old.

I built my shop and everything in it for about $2100. I have been keeping track of everything I purchase for knifemaking from propane to sandpaper, from canola oil to shop rags.
Here is a list of some of the larger things:
-Grizzly g1015 sander --------------------------------------------------- $525
-homemade forge (from old propane tank) ---------------------------- $260
-small 8x12 shed (yes, I do everything in here) ----------------------- $140 (I got a bunch of discounts. Got the stuff from where I work)
-First order of steel (1084 and 1075) ----------------------------------- $150
-Three sanding belt orders (supergrit.com) ----------------------------- $200
-usaknifemaker.com order (handle pins etc.) --------------------------- $70
-Handle wood order (bellforestproducts.com) -------------------------- $70
-other misc items (files sandpaper propane oil vice tongs etc.) ------- $200

A few things that I already had before I started that you want to look into: Drillpress!! A drill press is very important because straight pin holes are so much easier to work with. Angle grinder. You gotta cut the knife blanks out with something.

(I feel like I am missing a few things...)

If some of this doesn't make sense (like terms or something), let me know and I will explain.

Stay sharp,
Ian
 
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If you promise not to START BY SMELTING AND CASTING A SWORD and sell that ball of wire then buy a file I'll mail you a 7" piece of known steel to make knife with.

ckrysiak said:
qs8pkrcuf

copper.jpg

Heya, I'm back after a long hiatus. I've been making some efforts with regards to getting myself set up. Mostly it's just been reading and learning, and getting the basic fundamentals of what I should do down.

The picture is just a bunch of copper, around eight pounds or so, that I gathered from stripping wires with my friend.

My current goal is to smelt it with some tin (in a 90/10 ratio) using a DIY smelter, and choose to either make a cast bronze sword from a mould, or to simply make as round of a bar that I can with it, and then use that to forge the sword.

Alternatively, I could use aluminum, iron, nickel, and magnanese instead of just tin and make an alloy called CuAl8, which would probably make a better sword, due to a higher strength and higher corrosion resistance, along with plenty of other favorable properties.

(if I seem ignorant on any of this, please enlighten me. I know things are harder than they look)

A round bar of aluminum bronze 954, 1.25 inches in diameter and 24 inches in length, which weighs about 8.74 .lbs, would cost me a little under $150 - which is quite a bit of a cost to bite, and is the reason why I'm going to try my hand at smelting my own bronze.

I'm hoping to have my either my "home-made DIY aluminum bronze round bar" or my rough cast sword made sometime during this Spring.
Click to expand...
 
Right on, I feel you guys.

Ordered a couple 1074/1075 High Carbon Steel Billets, 1.5" x 12" x .187, from Rose Metals, and going to order a bench desk grip, and some decent files, some masks, etc. and go from there.

The billets were 15 dollars a piece. I'll take a picture of them once I get them.

Thank you for all of the input.

As for the wire, I'm going to keep it and keep building it up.

Maybe in a couple of years when I have more experience, and a decent amount of material to work with, I'll try my hand at smelting.
 
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