First knife, start to finish

[DirtyBrad]

So, this started back in October. I was looking to replace my current camp knife for a December river trip. I went from not being able to finding one I quite liked to thinking about making one from a kit, to deciding on going from scratch. I wound up wildly overshooting my estimate. Start to finish took three months and one day.

I wasn't counting on the high value of mistakes as part of the learning curve here and ended up starting over a couple times and redoing things a couple more. This is the third piece of steel I worked. The first two were 1095, but I scrapped that in favor of 0-1. My mom is a glass maker so I have access to a kiln and could use regular oil for quenching.

Anyway, I got a lot out of the WIP threads while I was working on this, so I thought I'd post pictures of the whole process. Picture quality isn't great, but hopefully someone will find some of this helpful.

Here's the stock. 0-1 from Jantz, 3/16" thick, 2" wide:

I wanted to use all hand tools on this first one to get a feel for how things worked. I'm in a small apartment, so I used a portable workbench with vise I build a while back. I'm using a high-tension hacksaw for the rough cuts. Cutting was a lot easier than I was expecting.

All the saw cuts done. Couldn't resist this shot.

I used hand files to finish the blank. For the edges, I made a sanding stick to keep things square. On the handle curves, I did the same, but with the paper wrapped around a drumstick (okay, it was a Rock Band drumstick).

The blank all finished. This pictures is dull for some reason. It actually looked very nice. I finished to 400-grit.

For the plunge, I used a small round file and worked very, very slowly. I really screwed this up on the first 1095 piece, so I wanted to be careful.

One of the longest parts was filing the bevels. I used a 12" mill bastard to draw file. Took forever, but did a pretty nice job. I marked it with a sharpie a bunch to make sure I was taking metal off where I thought I was.

Holes drilled for the pins and a few extra for glue rivets. I actually wound up using electricity here. I couldn't find a hand drill locally and figured drilling holes isn't exactly something I have to learn from the ground up. All ready for heating treating.

 

[DirtyBrad]

I used ATP-641 on the blade to help prevent scale. I heated the steel to about 150 and brushed on five or six coats, hitting it with the hair dryer in between.

My mom's glass-making kiln. A little big, but worked great. I soaked at 1475 for 20 minutes.

For the quench, I used a gallon of canola oil. Which proved not enough to fill the pan deep enough, so I caved in the sides with a rock and set it at an angle.

This is a screen cap from video I shot of the quench. I thought there was going to be lots of smoke and fire. Knife looks purple here, but it was red in real life.

There was a little flare up during the quench, but not much

There wasn't much scale after the quench, but it looked terrible after the temper. I did two two-hour cycles at 400F. Fortunately this stuff sanded off without much trouble.

 

[DirtyBrad]

I decided to make my own Micarta. This turned into one of the biggest drains of time and money on the project. The first batch, I used West Systems epoxy, which was crazy expensive. I did that in layers of brown. I ended up scrapping it because it looked too flashy and I thought the epoxy was leaving too dull a finish. That part wasn't right. I just hadn't polished it enough. After that, I moved to just black t-shirts and fiberglass resin. I picked up some shirts from the thrift store and got some boards and c-clamps.

I wound up doing 25 layers, which was about 5/16" in the finished piece. This shot was one of four duds. I used about twice as many clamps on the final piece.

Despite the wax paper, the piece was glued to the board, but it popped off easy. One thing I wasn't counting on was how much wider it winds up than the cut pieces because of the clamping.

I cut it into blocks and then scribed the outline of the handle on. The scribe mark winds up being just slightly wider than the tang, which is just right for the rough cutting.

I cheated on this and used a Dremel for the rough shape. My grandkids will still be finding this dust. Use a mask.

I used the pins to keep the handles aligned when on the tang or off. Here it is roughly finished. I wound up getting it close to finished before attaching, but didn't take pictures like I should have. I epoxied it on with System Three T-88, which is awesome. However, I really screwed that up and got epoxy all over the outside, which took ages to sand off. I also went back and forth on the handle finish a lot. I tried a coat of epoxy on the outside, but ended up thinking it was too shiny and hid the grain, so I sanded all that off. The lesson learned is that the Micarta (at least my homemade version) just needs a TON of sanding to look good. I went to 1500-grit for the final.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Last thing before sharpening was etching my maker's mark. I went with part of my last name. This is knife number 1. I used two 6v lantern batteries wired in series, some alligator clips, salt water, and q-tips.

I experimented with cutting vinyl electrical tape, but wasn't loving it. I've seen how people order the nice stencils from a shop, but I thought doing it by hand fit the spirit of this knife more. I wound up using a thin layer of wax and marking it with a nail. The first run came out a little thin, so I recoated and did it again a couple times. You can see the mark through the wax so it's easy.

Here's the finished mark. A little rustic, but I think it fits nicely

Here's a shot without the flash that shows the grain of the handle pretty well

 

[eygen]

Dude, that's awesome

Except for the butt part, which sticks out more than I think looks good, it looks great!

 

[eygen]

Yeah, double ._.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Here's the finished knife after sharpening. Seems to cut well so far.

Which just leaves the sheath. I went with Kydex, which turned out to be really cool to work with. I used the oven at 325 to heat the whole pieces, then cut with scissors. For spot heating to adjust it, I used a heat gun with 750 and 1100 settings. I did a few of these and found the best way was to heat the sheets and cut out the two halves. When those cooled I drilled and riveted, then re-heated the whole thing and stuck the knife in. I pressed between two layers top and bottom of army surplus sleeping bad, but a board on top, and stood on it for five minutes or so.

I went with a small Tek-Lok for attachment. So far, I like it.

I set the rivets to take the Tek-Lok on either side and spaced the middle ones to also be able to attach MOLLE clips. I haven't used them yet, but it seems like a nice system.

I did a lot of spot heating on the mouth to get the fit just right. I wanted a very positive click that wasn't rubbing the blade anywhere. I found that holding a wet paper towel adjacent to the heating area did a good job of keeping the heat localized. Without that, I kept having the middle sink a bit and rub the blade too hard.

Last step was a drain hole. I heated the very bottom, pushed a screwdriver in, then flattened the hole a little as it cooled.

Here it is in the sheath. I'm very happy with the fit. I'm actually about as happy with the sheath as I am the knife itself.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for looking and I hope these can help the next guy. And more, thank you to everyone on this forum. I would never have come close to finishing this if it weren't for you guys. There were many, many times when this came close to becoming another unfinished project in the bin.

 

[oilburner]

This is a very cool thread. I've been lurking around the sight for a little while, and your thread just made my first post neccesary. Great job on both the knife and sheath. I'm doing my first knife at the moment and hope it comes out just as good. Nice series of pictures along the way too. I like it! Mark.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Dude, that's awesome

Except for the butt part, which sticks out more than I think looks good, it looks great!

Thank you (I think). I wanted a bit of room on the butt for hammering and the like. I wound up liking the look as well. I think the steel there is a nice balance with the blade.

 

[S.Knowles]

Nicely Done! You did your homework and although you had a few mishaps, you learned a bit more that way. The blade is a solid useful design, and I'm sure it will serve you well.



Shawn

 

[DirtyBrad]

This is a very cool thread. I've been lurking around the sight for a little while, and your thread just made my first post neccesary. Great job on both the knife and sheath. I'm doing my first knife at the moment and hope it comes out just as good. Nice series of pictures along the way too. I like it! Mark.

Thanks, Mark. I've gotten a ton out of other people's similar threads. I also think the first-timer's experience gives a good perspective to go along with the more professional ones.

I kind of burned out a little in the middle and didn't take as many pictures as I should have on some things. But I do have more and all better than web quality. Give a shout if seeing anything else would help.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Nicely Done! You did your homework and although you had a few mishaps, you learned a bit more that way. The blade is a solid useful design, and I'm sure it will serve you well.



Shawn

Thank you, Shawn. I definitely got a lot out of the mishaps. The next one will benefit a ton from that.

On the one hand, I don't account for that stuff because I feel like I can just follow directions and get things right the first time. On the other hand, it's nice to work on something that requires a lot of actual experience. It'll be cool to look back at the progression a few knives from now.

 

[barrabas74]

Thanks for all the pictures. It really is a learning experience doing all that stuff on your own. The homemade micarta sounds cool as I have yet to play with anything like that. I tend to opt for wood or bone. Overall I think you did a good job. Did you file check the RC? Let us know how the knife holds up after you give it a good workover on a campout or something. 01 has been pretty forgiving imho and is a good working steel.

 

[DirtyBrad]

My plan all along has been to work the hell out of it, but I'm cracking right now. A large part of me just wants to put number one up on the wall

You mean the final hardness? One of my files skated after heat-treating and a little less so after tempering. I have no frame of reference at all. I've heard that the brass rod test isn't useful for larger blades like this.

My faith is more in just following the heat treat steps to the letter as much as I could. From what I read, the process for 0-1 was straightforward. It's one of the reasons I ditched the 1095. The 0-1 seemed way less hit-or-miss for the inexperienced.

I thought I'd get some heavy rope or something, sharpen this and the Gerber it's replacing up, and start slicing until they were dull. I've been happy with that knife and it's a known measure.

 

[oilburner]

Well, since you offered, how about a couple more pics of making the handle. I have a few diff woods, some antler, some bone. I'm doing a wood handle on my first knife, but already started a second knife today, and I'm thinking micarta would be cool to try. If you don't have pics, how about a run down on the process. Thanks again. Mark.

 

[jonnymac44]

Kudos to you for taking on this project and completing it, with very good results I might add!!:thumbup: Nice job for the first try. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

 

[Kevin Jones]

Impressive, especially considering your shop seems to be your family room floor.

Like to see what you could do in a well equipped shop. Keep with it, your determination alone will take you a long way.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Impressive, especially considering your shop seems to be your family room floor.

Like to see what you could do in a well equipped shop. Keep with it, your determination alone will take you a long way.

Thanks, Kevin. It's worse than that. Me and my girlfriend share a small one bedroom apartment. The only one happier than me that this is done is her. She's demanding a month free of knifery to recover, but I'm anxious to get going on the next one.

I was able to do the homemade micarta and heat treating over at my mom's house, but the rest was here in the living room.

Now that I've got a feel for the hand filing, I'm going to buy a cheap angle grinder to speed things up for the next one. I'll have to find a place to work with that or I'll be single again for sure.

 

[DirtyBrad]

Well, since you offered, how about a couple more pics of making the handle. I have a few diff woods, some antler, some bone. I'm doing a wood handle on my first knife, but already started a second knife today, and I'm thinking micarta would be cool to try. If you don't have pics, how about a run down on the process. Thanks again. Mark.

Unfortunately, I did a bad job with the pictures at that stage. I was burning out a little and just trying to get done.

Making the micarta gave me trouble with a few things. The first batch, I used West Marine epoxy. I think that stuff is excellent, but it's real expensive. I switched over to Bondo fiberglass resin once I realized it was going to take a few batches.

The trouble with that was that it sets up quick. I lost two batches to early set up before I was quite done. That stuff slows down when it's cold, but it was really cold out when I was doing this and I couldn't usually work until after dark, so making it outside didn't seem to be an option.

That's when I had my only really good idea. Rather than working where it was colder, I put the resin in the freezer for about half an hour until I was ready to mix it. That gave me the extra ten or fifteen minutes I needed to be able to take my time.

When assembling the stack, I also had some trouble with it slipping around. I was putting it in wax paper and then between two 1" x 4" boards and c-clamping. When applying the resin to each layer, I tried to err on the side of more resin (I applied with a brush), so the resulting stack was very slippery. What made that better was adding two balsa strips to the bottom clamp board about as wide as the final piece would be. That helped keep things in place.

I also stapled the wax paper to that board. What I did when I started was lay down the bottom board then lay out a piece of wax paper big enough to fold back up over the top of the stack once done. Stapling it to the board at the beginning helped keep things from slipping.

I remember when reading up on this seeing a guy who made his own with a comical amount of clamps and thinking he was nuts. I'm down with that now, though. The more the better and use some big ones. My understanding is that one of the things that makes the commercial stuff better to finish is that they use pretty high pressure when they make it.

One last thing is that I let the piece set for a few days before working it. I had one piece that I did some test work on the day after it came out of the clamps (24 hours). It looked fine then, but a few days later, looked a little weird.

For shaping it, I cut the slabs out, then drilled the handle holes through them. I cut some pin stock and used that to hold them in place on the tang or just to each other.

After initial shaping, you can see that it looks terrible, very gray and fuzzy. I was freaking out about that, but it just takes a lot of sanding and polishing to get it nice and smooth. I'd sand with 220, then 400, then 800, then see some small flaws, so take it back down to 400. The final grit was 1500.

I'd recommend finishing the front and rear parts before attaching because you can't get to them without also hitting the ricasso and butt otherwise.

I made a huge mistake when epoxying. I was thinking of the micarta and wrapped the handle in wax paper and a towel before lightly clamping and leaving over night. The result in the morning was hardened epoxy everywhere. Definitely clamp and then wipe off any excess. Getting that stuff off and out of the cracks after it set took forever. I actually almost wound up scrapping the whole thing at that point.

That's about as far as I can ramble about the handle for now.

 

[Josh K]

Very nice, especially for a first knife. The attention to detail is noticeable. :thumbup: