- Joined
- Aug 21, 2009
- Messages
- 2,932
I finally took the plunge, and made my first knife.
(second knife started at post 13)
My goal was to make a simple shiv, kind of like a Fairbairn Sykes dagger in overall shape. I am welcoming and completely open to critique from members here, and your advice will be taken wholeheartedly and be much appreciated. I think some advice will really help for the second time around.
What I did:
I used a Simonds file for the blade. I took the advice of some earlier posts about file knives and heated it up to 450 for two hours, quenched it in running tap water, and repeated that once more.
I did most of the grinding work on a hand held belt sander -flipped onto its back. I was able to do the primary grinds as well as the edges this way. I also used a bench grinder to thin the tang all the way up to the guard area. During the grinding, I only removed a small amount at a time, and kept a pot of water close by for cooling.
When the blade was mostly finished I found some scrap brass, hacked it, and ground it to shape for the pommel and guard.
For the handle, I stacked some leather on a screw with washers and a couple bolts, soaked them in water and tightened the bolts to compress it all together, then shaped them with a pocket knife and the hand sander.
While the leather was drying out, I put threads on the pommel and the tang of the knife.
Once everything was dry, I put it all together, and did a little shaping to the leather handle and pommel using the sander. Took it apart again and put it back together, this time with epoxy on all the metal parts.
I finished it by dipping the handle into a pot of paraffin wax and used a heat gun to help soak in all the waxy goodness.
Here are some of the pics...
Primary grinds:
Edge grinds:
Original tang stamp:
Handle, pommel, and guard progress:
Some finished pics:
It might not be perfect, but I am definitely addicted at this point!
Thanks for the help!
-Max
(second knife started at post 13)
My goal was to make a simple shiv, kind of like a Fairbairn Sykes dagger in overall shape. I am welcoming and completely open to critique from members here, and your advice will be taken wholeheartedly and be much appreciated. I think some advice will really help for the second time around.
What I did:
I used a Simonds file for the blade. I took the advice of some earlier posts about file knives and heated it up to 450 for two hours, quenched it in running tap water, and repeated that once more.
I did most of the grinding work on a hand held belt sander -flipped onto its back. I was able to do the primary grinds as well as the edges this way. I also used a bench grinder to thin the tang all the way up to the guard area. During the grinding, I only removed a small amount at a time, and kept a pot of water close by for cooling.
When the blade was mostly finished I found some scrap brass, hacked it, and ground it to shape for the pommel and guard.
For the handle, I stacked some leather on a screw with washers and a couple bolts, soaked them in water and tightened the bolts to compress it all together, then shaped them with a pocket knife and the hand sander.
While the leather was drying out, I put threads on the pommel and the tang of the knife.
Once everything was dry, I put it all together, and did a little shaping to the leather handle and pommel using the sander. Took it apart again and put it back together, this time with epoxy on all the metal parts.
I finished it by dipping the handle into a pot of paraffin wax and used a heat gun to help soak in all the waxy goodness.
Here are some of the pics...
Primary grinds:
Edge grinds:
Original tang stamp:
Handle, pommel, and guard progress:
Some finished pics:
It might not be perfect, but I am definitely addicted at this point!
Thanks for the help!
-Max
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