First knife WIP - any recommendations or help from any of you would be great!

jonj480

jonj480

Joined
Jan 5, 2011
Messages
400
Let me start by saying that this is probably not what I should have tried to conquer as my first knife :rolleyes:. I was trying to talk my wife into letting the funds go so I could buy a Busse Battle Mistress, and she turns to me and says, you are artistic, buy some tools and make one!:eek:

I happened to be at Lowes and I bought a few pieces of the welding steel that they sell there (I figured it would be ok to practice on) and went from there. I got a 3/16"X4X36" piece and went to work. I don't have a bandsaw, so I had to cut my design out and shape it with an angle grinder, which took forever with this thick stock. Sorry for not taking pictures of the design phase and the cutting process earlier. I started the knife on Sunday and here is where I am at after 2 nights of grinding.

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I know that the design is not my necessarily my own, it is inspired by Busse. I really wanted to see if I could do it. I am really happy with how it is turning out so far, but I obviously have a long way to go.

Do any of you know what kind of steel it is that they sell at Lowes? Will it be any good if I get a good heat treat on it? I am pretty happy with how this is going so far, and I am not sure I want to make the effort to finish it if it will be kinda junky steel. What do you guys think?
 
No it will not harden,not enough carbon.Good practice but thats all.
If you want to make a good knife get some steel from Aldo and go again.Your work is pretty good for first attempt.
Stan
 
If you would like send me that profile blade and ill use it as a template and make you a new blade out of 1095 or something so you will have a good knife steel.
 
+1 what Stan said. Decent knife steel isn't much more expensive than Lowes' steel... and I'd rather practice on something that has the potential to turn into a functional knife. If you plan to try heat treating yourself, you may want to try some of Aldo's 1084. However, if you plan to send out for HT, there are several nice stainless steels out there... though they do tend to be a bit more expensive. Check out Aldo's website HERE.
Good luck.
Erin
 
Bad news is the steel is junk. I would not continue on it for any purpose other than practice.

Good news is that the practice will help you on #2. Aldo's site is a good place to find some steel that will be worthy of the time you are putting into that.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I didn't really want to put more time into grinding the bevels and cleaning it up before I knew whether or not it would be worth it.

I will try and get a hold of Aldo today.
 
Your wife TOLD you to buy some tools?!?!?!?!? WELL ALL RIGHT!!!

I did exactly what you did, practiced with mild steel, except I make four knives complete with handles before moving up to REAL steel. I knew they would not hold an edge but at the time I wanted to make knives in the worst way possible, and using mild steel is probably the worst way possible. I didn't know which steel I should start out with nor did I have any idea where to get it from.

Anyway, it looks like you had a pretty good start at beveling the blade. Did you grind it with your angle grinder? Thanks for sharing photos with us.

- Paul Meske
 
Thanks Lonepine, that's what I thought too. I did the start to the bevels on a belt sander. They are obviously not finished yet, just what I did in about an hour last night. I am going to look into getting some better steel and belts as well and maybe use the blank as a pattern on some better steel. It looks like I can get 1095 pretty cheap and that may be a good place to start.
 
It looks good to me. Keep going, put handles on it.

Good practice and when you bring it out and say this is the first knife i made, people will go ooooh and aaahhh!

Frank
 
Get some good steel from Aldo and quit wasting your time and resources on the Lowes crap. The amount of time and abrasives you will chew up on that unhardenable mystery metal will make that the most expensive waste of time of your knifemaking career. It costs you less to screw up good steel because you can always make something smaller and still harden it and make it cut.

-Page
 
I ordered some better steel from Aldo tonight and some better belts to grind with. I really appreciate all the feedback. I will start a new thread when the good stuff comes. I was pretty floored at his prices. I will be visiting my father about 3 miles away from him next week, maybe I will call him and try and learn something.
 
Aldo is good people. Maybe picking up some stuff while you are there and save some shipping also...Then you will have plenty for future projects.
 
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