Drawing your knife

Matt Rochester

Matt Rochester

Joined
Nov 28, 2014
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1,864
I keep seeing people drawing there designs on what looks like a cutting mat or drafting board. What is it and where can I get one. I found a few cutting mats but they didn't seem to be as detailed as the ones I've seen here and it was $250. Maybe that's what they cost, I'm not sure. Anyway, thanks.
 
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Just pick up a graph paper pad and maybe a pad of tracing paper from the local arts & Crafts store. The grids come in different sizes. The grid will help you measure and keep your drawing in proper proportion. Use the tracing paper to make tweaks or modifications to your drawing until it is the way you want it. Then you can xerox or scan & print your final design onto a piece of copy paper. Mount that to a piece of hardboard or plexiglass or something similar and cut it out so you can keep that as a template for additional copies of your knife. Either use a print out of your design mounted directly to your bar of knife steel or use the template you made to scribe the outline onto your steel prepared with a layout dye. Then grind away.
 
Great info. My friend and I tried drawing out knife designs the other night and we ended up dying in laughter at how bad they were! Maybe the checkered paper will help!

Eric
 
So far I have just drawn them on paper and traced to acrylic and then to steel. I was going to draw another chef's knife and wanted to post it before cutting so I could get feedback on the design. I figured it would be easier to critique on graph paper so you could see the deminsions and angles.

snippy said:
Great info. My friend and I tried drawing out knife designs the other night and we ended up dying in laughter at how bad they were! Maybe the checkered paper will help!

Eric
Click to expand...
 
I think the OP is referring to the underlying surface they are drawing on... like a drafting/drawing mat or pad. They run anywhere between $40-$300. I'm sure you can find suitable alternatives at the hardware/building center.
 
I don't have any formal training in drafting so my method is pretty crude.

I start with a piece of regular printer paper. I draw two lines for the width of the steel I will be working in (1 1/2" -2" etc.)

Then I decide what length for the handle and the blade and make two vertical lines. This gives me rough idea where my blade needs to start tapering, the ricasso will be, handle slope,etc.

Then I fill in the blanks and tweak till I like the overall balance and blade geometry. I find the squares distracting when I am trying to get the blade curves pin layouts. I seem to make little box knives with perfectly symmetrical pins. Haha. Perfect symmetry is not my style.
Here's an example.
View attachment 508747
Crappy pic from my tablet. Sorry. But you get the idea. Then I transfer it with a sharpie to Plexiglas and cut out a template. Simply lay the Plexiglas over the pic and trace.
Hope this helps:)
 
bigin said:
I don't have any formal training in drafting so my method is pretty crude.

I start with a piece of regular printer paper. I draw two lines for the width of the steel I will be working in (1 1/2" -2" etc.)

Then I decide what length for the handle and the blade and make two vertical lines. This gives me rough idea where my blade needs to start tapering, the ricasso will be, handle slope,etc.

Then I fill in the blanks and tweak till I like the overall balance and blade geometry. I find the squares distracting when I am trying to get the blade curves pin layouts. I seem to make little box knives with perfectly symmetrical pins. Haha. Perfect symmetry is not my style.
Here's an example.
View attachment 508747
Crappy pic from my tablet. Sorry. But you get the idea. Then I transfer it with a sharpie to Plexiglas and cut out a template. Simply lay the Plexiglas over the pic and trace.
Hope this helps:)
Click to expand...

This is how I do it too basically, minus the plexiglass thing. I will tell you though, be careful designing knives to fit a given steel. I've ran into that exact thing recently. I'm really need to order some 1 1/4" inch to make this design rather than 1", but I have inch. It fits, but just barely. They make lots of steel. Design the knife you want to make, not what your steel will hold. Now, obviously, I'm breaking my own advice fairly regularly, so take that for what you're paid for it. Lol. Just be aware of the possible pitfalls.
 
What I have seen a lot of is people using self healing quilting mats. You can use it for drawing and then use it for leatherwork if you're going to pursue that. Me personally, I sketch a rough idea out then scan it so I can trace around it in word. Word has a pretty dang good drawing utility. Then I print out my stencils. It's convenient to be able to move pin locations, stretch or shrink the OAL, add or remove bolsters, and even put in a gut hook.
I use the free form tool to click around my scan, then you can edit the points to refine your design. The very best part is it has a built in ruler. If I need a reference dimension I'll just draw a line and it will show how long it is.
8ECDC7EA-C541-402F-B751-C1A3709C7F0C_zpsljoupaz6.jpg
 
Sandeggo said:
What I have seen a lot of is people using self healing quilting mats. You can use it for drawing and then use it for leatherwork if you're going to pursue that. Me personally, I sketch a rough idea out then scan it so I can trace around it in word. Word has a pretty dang good drawing utility. Then I print out my stencils. It's convenient to be able to move pin locations, stretch or shrink the OAL, add or remove bolsters, and even put in a gut hook.
I use the free form tool to click around my scan, then you can edit the points to refine your design. The very best part is it has a built in ruler. If I need a reference dimension I'll just draw a line and it will show how long it is.
8ECDC7EA-C541-402F-B751-C1A3709C7F0C_zpsljoupaz6.jpg
Click to expand...

That's brilliant. Super simple to do basic, freehand to computer save able files. I needed a solution like that.
 
You can get free graph paper that you can print online. I use graphic design software to layout knife profiles which lets me make quit edits and store designs easily. When I'm happy with a design, I print it out on heavy card stock and cut out the pattern to be traced onto my steel. There are free graphics programs that you can get online such as Inkscape.
 
I ran in to town after church and got some trace paper and a cutting mat( $20). Sketched these out and cut them on acrylic so I could feel them out. They feel pretty good. Any suggestions on the design that would make them more functional? I know that a lot of it is personal preference but I'm sure there are some basics that shouldn't be ignored.
 
Brian.Evans said:
That's brilliant. Super simple to do basic, freehand to computer save able files. I needed a solution like that.
Click to expand...


Same here. I can't draw a nice gradual curve, but Word can.

For bigger stuff, just print 2 pages, cut and splice.

Now making it out of steel is a whole other problem. I don't have CNC eyes and hands.

Larry
Tinkerer
 
Rookie25 said:
I ran in to town after church and got some trace paper and a cutting mat( $20). Sketched these out and cut them on acrylic so I could feel them out. They feel pretty good. Any suggestions on the design that would make them more functional? I know that a lot of it is personal preference but I'm sure there are some basics that shouldn't be ignored.
Click to expand...

Looking good there Rookie. The only thing I might suggest is to make your handles a touch longer. According to your photo you would only have three inches to hang onto before the last inch of handle starts falling away. See what adding an inch to the handle looks like to you or how it feels in your hand when you cut out the template. The rest of it is personal taste. I'm not going to opine about that because you should build the knife that YOU like.
 
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Yeah I can see that now. I will give that a shot and see how I like it.

i4Marc said:
Looking good there Rookie. The only think I might suggest is to make your handles a touch longer. According to your photo you would only have three inches to hang onto before the last inch of handle starts falling away. See what adding an inch to the handle looks like to you or how it feels in your hand when you cut out the template. The rest of it is personal taste. I'm not going to opine about that because you should build the knife that YOU like.
Click to expand...
 
Rookie25 said:
I keep seeing people drawing there designs on what looks like a cutting mat or drafting board. What is it and where can I get one. I found a few cutting mats but they didn't seem to be as detailed as the ones I've seen here and it was $250. Maybe that's what they cost, I'm not sure. Anyway, thanks.
Click to expand...

when I was a draftsman, we used what we called a BORCO mat, I think it's known as a vinyl cutting mat, a 24x36 used to be about $30-$40
when it gets dirty, you can clean it with ajax
 
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