How To Getting Into Knife-Making

I am 2 years down the rabbit hole and love it. My suggestion would be to use your free evenings to watch YouTube (Simple little life, Kyle Royer, Nick Wheeler and Don Nguyen are some of my favorites but there are many more), you can pick up tons of practical tips and see different approaches to knife building. Visit local makers if possible. Make sure to learn from every knife and try integrating different techniques or styles. When you get frustrated, leave the shop and cool down over night. Be critical to your own work. Now I am just blabbering :) good luck and make sure to post your work!
 
FredyCro said:
I am 2 years down the rabbit hole and love it. My suggestion would be to use your free evenings to watch YouTube (Simple little life, Kyle Royer, Nick Wheeler and Don Nguyen are some of my favorites but there are many more), you can pick up tons of practical tips and see different approaches to knife building. Visit local makers if possible. Make sure to learn from every knife and try integrating different techniques or styles. When you get frustrated, leave the shop and cool down over night. Be critical to your own work. Now I am just blabbering :) good luck and make sure to post your work!
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I've been watching Simple Little Life and Trollskyy recently on YouTube.
I love Trollskyy's videos, especially his new one on his revenant knife.


I'll definitely try to post my work on here as well as Bushcraft USA.
Seems like there are some pretty good folks on here as well!
Thank you for the suggestions! :)
God bless,
- Wyatt
 
Wyatt Flora said:
I've been watching Simple Little Life and Trollskyy recently on YouTube.
I love Trollskyy's videos, especially his new one on his revenant knife.


I'll definitely try to post my work on here as well as Bushcraft USA.
Seems like there are some pretty good folks on here as well!
Thank you for the suggestions! :)
God bless,
- Wyatt
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He for sure worked on his production a lot. :)
Try to also focus on the vids where the makers explain how and why they do certain things the way they do.
 
FredyCro said:
He for sure worked on his production a lot. :)
Try to also focus on the vids where the makers explain how and why they do certain things the way they do.
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Yeah, that's something I wish a few more people did.
But, I can see where an experienced knife-maker would not want to watch a whole video on how to make a knife.
God bless,
- Wyatt
 
DeadboxHero said:
If the design, quality and fit and finish geometry and heat treatment is good enough no one will look down upon using 1084.
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That is just not my experience. BF is full of posts from knife buyers complaining how much a knife cost that are made of steels like 1084 or 1095 and even A2.

I would not care but these people actually spend money on knives

Labeling a steel "Beginners Steel" is something we on Shop Talk should stop saying and instead actually tell the truth and say they are something you can heat treat at home easily.
 
AVigil said:
That is just not my experience. BF is full of posts from knife buyers complaining how much a knife cost that are made of steels like 1084 or 1095 and even A2.

I would not care but these people actually spend money on knives

Labeling a steel "Beginners Steel" is something we on Shop Talk should stop saying...
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Good point, but I think this is kinda like me trying to convince blacksmiths (those who don't make knives) to stop saying they are "quenching" their work in the slack tub when all they are doing is cooling down their mild steel.
 
1095, O1, A2 are not beginners steels.



AVigil said:
That is just not my experience. BF is full of posts from knife buyers complaining how much a knife cost that are made of steels like 1084 or 1095 and even A2.

I would not care but these people actually spend money on knives

Labeling a steel "Beginners Steel" is something we on Shop Talk should stop saying and instead actually tell the truth and say they are something you can heat treat at home easily.
Click to expand...
 
DeadboxHero said:
You would have enjoyed 8670.
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I have used plenty of 8670. Here is one of several I made

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There is a great new vid from Kyle Royer on making an EDC with hand tools, no voice over but some very detailed shots of what's happening.
 
8670 is a better steel than 1084. The reason 1084 is recommended as a beginner steel is that it is one that is easier to do a simple heat treatment with a homemade forge. For that I always did better with 15n20. Is that what you are planning to do? If you are going to do a stock removal knife you can pretty much use whatever steel you like other than the cost there in no reason not to. Just so you know if you are going to use a complex steel like Cru-Wear or Tough you can't forge them anyway. The 8670 from https://popsknife.supplies/collections/steel/products/pops-8670-in-house-steel is one of the best deals out there right now and would be a great place to start.

What tools do you have to grind with? I wish I had started with a file guide years ago. You have a lot of options.
 
Aside from what others have mentioned I would add. Don't try to go crazy creating the "ultimate" knife. Pick a fairly simple design like a drop point hunter for example, and just make the damn thing even if it comes out ugly. If you go further down the rabbit hole you'll have plenty of time to get creative. As far as making a forge for heat treating/forging it's not necessary in the beginning or ever really, unless you want to forge. You can send it out to be heat treated professionally, imo the last thing you want to do after putting the work into going from a bar of steel to a functional knife is have it screwed up in the HT. Make some knives then you can work on making a forge or getting a HT oven later on. Every knife you make will be a learning experience, even making the same design twice will be one because you should theoretically know how to make it better than the previous.
 
Storm W said:
8670 is a better steel than 1084. The reason 1084 is recommended as a beginner steel is that it is one that is easier to do a simple heat treatment with a homemade forge. For that I always did better with 15n20. Is that what you are planning to do? If you are going to do a stock removal knife you can pretty much use whatever steel you like other than the cost there in no reason not to. Just so you know if you are going to use a complex steel like Cru-Wear or Tough you can't forge them anyway. The 8670 from https://popsknife.supplies/collections/steel/products/pops-8670-in-house-steel is one of the best deals out there right now and would be a great place to start.

What tools do you have to grind with? I wish I had started with a file guide years ago. You have a lot of options.
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I wasn't going to forge a knife at all.
I guess I should have been more clear, my fault.
I thought that to do heat treat you should heat the blade up in the forge, then heat treat them in oil.
Maybe that's incorrect.

I would like to use Cru-Wear eventually, but that would be after I get the hang of things. (Wouldn't want to start with such expensive steel.)

As for cutting tools, I've got an angle grinder, which is what I read, not ideal, but a lot of people start out like that.

God bless,
- Wyatt
 
Fletch Helical said:
Aside from what others have mentioned I would add. Don't try to go crazy creating the "ultimate" knife. Pick a fairly simple design like a drop point hunter for example, and just make the damn thing even if it comes out ugly. If you go further down the rabbit hole you'll have plenty of time to get creative. As far as making a forge for heat treating/forging it's not necessary in the beginning or ever really, unless you want to forge. You can send it out to be heat treated professionally, imo the last thing you want to do after putting the work into going from a bar of steel to a functional knife is have it screwed up in the HT. Make some knives then you can work on making a forge or getting a HT oven later on. Every knife you make will be a learning experience, even making the same design twice will be one because you should theoretically know how to make it better than the previous.
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I'm not going to get caught up in the "Ultimate Knife" at all. (Not saying that you thought that.)
I was going for what I thought is a reasonably simple design, something like the Bark River Ultra-Lite Bushcrafter.
Pretty much a simple drop-point. (Not hunter, but a drop-point nonetheless.)
God bless,
- Wyatt
 
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