From sheet to blade, help me understand the process

S

SwitchBlade

Joined
Mar 5, 2003
Messages
4
I need help in understanding the process of blade making in general terms.

I will start with what I've heard.

First you start with sheet material from the material supplier. It has to be relatively thin so it may have been cold rolled and later annealed to a starting condition and hardness level.

Then the sheet is heated up (temperatures vary by material) and open die forged or hot forged (?? more info on this step would be greatly appreciated). The open die forging gets the blade into a rough shape.

After this point some machining takes place.

Once the blade is in form, it is heat treated.

Then it undergoes final sharpening.

Is this general understanding correct? Can someone help fill in some details? THe more the better

Thanks in advance
 
Welcome to BFC! What you are describing sounds like factory knifemaking, and bears little resemblance to handmade fabrication. I would recommend the book, "How To Make Knives, by Richard W. Barney, and Robert W. Loveless. That book covers both forging, and stock removal making, as practiced by most knifemakers today. It even has sections on sheathmaking. You can get the book at http://www.amazon.com , or any knifemaker supply house.
 
Maybe he wants to know about factory knifemaking. If that's the case, go ask Sal Glesser or something.
 
Custom or handmade knives are done one peice at a time by either forging, or grinding.
The guys that forge start out with just about any shape of steel, and forge it to rough shape, then rough out the bevels with a grinder, heat treat and temper and then finish grinding.(in short, there is a lot more involved)

Stock removal, you start out with a peice of bar stock and cut and grind it to the profile of the blade, then the bevels are ground to about 80%. Heat treat and tempering is next, and then it is ground the rest of the way, and finished. (once again, just a quick run down)

Buck has a sort of factory tour on their website here: http://www.buckknives.com/cms/index.php?Category=6 That goes through the process for mass producing a knife. Its more like what you described. All the same stages are followed but overall the process is surprisingly different, its hard to beleive how much of it machines do.
 
My last post sounded a little rude. It wasn't supposed to. But very few in the Shop Talk forum are involved in mass production blade making, you may not get the answers you want here.
 
Thanks for all the answers.

Stu, who is this gentlemen you mention? I'd like to learn more about him.

The process will be done at a factory, but it is most likely going to be a low volume operation. I am new to this forum and the knife making industry in general. I will be asked to work as a process engineer and evaluate the results and also the resulting metallurgy and heat treat process that will be done in house.

I am looking for the best references for everything involved. Manufacturing,material properties, heat treating, quality. I need to learn it all to be effective.

Thanks for your help and any other suggestions are much appreciated.
 
You have a big job ahead of you.

Small volume manufacturing starts by purchasing sheet or strip raw material in a thickness based on finished requirements, the blade is usually blanked out cold on a punch press ensuring consistancy. After blanking holes are punched if required, blank is surface ground, bevels are ground on automated machinery then the blade is heat treated. Handle materials are usually outsourced and supplied cut to finished size and drilled as required.
Assembly is inhouse followed by cosmetic touchup and packed.

Consider using commercial heat treaters, this is the tricky part as well as being a huge capital cost. They will then be responsible for quality control of the heat treating and will supply charts and test results with each batch if required.
 
The commercial heat treater may be an option but at least initially all the development of the process will be done in house. This is especially tricky with respect to the cryotempering process.

Depending on the volume, in-house heat treatment may be the way it goes. Much remains to be defined.

I will look into the basic books on knife-making. I will also focus on the manufacturing process and metallurgy involved to get a good understanding of those.
 
Thanks MattShade, that Buck knife plant tour is exactly the basic overview I was looking for.

Whether the process in house will be ramped up to that scale remains to be seen.
 
Sal Glesser is the owner of Spyderco and a great guy. He'd probably be willing to share knowledge of the biz with a new guy (don't hold me to that) is why I mentioned him. Over on the Makers/Mfgs section of the forums, many of the moderators would proably know quite a bit about mass production knife making.
 
Glad to help
I thought it was an interesting read even if I am lucky if I finish a knife every two weeks or so :)
 
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