Going to Make a Folding Knife - Questions

I should explain why i want to buy knives and pimp them, custom knife makers build knives pretty much for the fun of it. It's cool creating a piece of art just the way you want it from steel. I unfortunately lack the skills and tools for that so i'm buying these essentially as kits that i'll refinish in cool ways just to get a taste of the custom knife maker life. Also i think it will be valuable to learn how the various locks pivots and geometries all work. Especially considering i've only ever had one folding knife, it's not a liner lock or frame lock.

Here's what i bought.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IIVFBRY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D4DW0NZBLRX4
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YYBAWHC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1RXLS3B3EJQ0W
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IXO4IFS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TUXZIC8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NG988PG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A19YEMYBY770ZW

I'm going to do things like regrind them into different shapes, make completely new handles, possibly dabble with anodizing and different blade finishing methods, and try to slick up the deployments and the edges. I'll post my results here! I hope none of the knives i bought are to crappy we'll see.
 
Plenty of guys get started into knife making by building kits or pimping. At the end of the day, it's not a terribly far stretch from one to the other.

Now, personally, I'd have probably taken your $40 to $50 and bought ONE knife to take apart and play with, as you'd be a little more likely to get a more reasonable example of a decent liner lock or frame lock. The knives you've listed will certainly give you a basic idea of construction, but they are going to be made of inferior materials, the liners will likely be stamped, and quite thin, pivots and pins undersized, and the tolerances may be so so. There should still be enough there to play with though.

Good luck, and looking forward to seeing your progress.
 
So what you are starting with is junk and you can't change it too much so it will still be junk. Seems like you certainly aren't interested in advise unless it's what you want to hear that won't take you anywhere.Even your ideas about custom makers is completely off.
Frank
 
magicpanther said:
I should explain why i want to buy knives and pimp them, custom knife makers build knives pretty much for the fun of it. It's cool creating a piece of art just the way you want it from steel. I unfortunately lack the skills and tools for that so i'm buying these essentially as kits that i'll refinish in cool ways just to get a taste of the custom knife maker life. Also i think it will be valuable to learn how the various locks pivots and geometries all work. Especially considering i've only ever had one folding knife, it's not a liner lock or frame lock.

Here's what i bought.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IIVFBRY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2D4DW0NZBLRX4
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YYBAWHC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1RXLS3B3EJQ0W
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IXO4IFS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TUXZIC8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NG988PG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A19YEMYBY770ZW

I'm going to do things like regrind them into different shapes, make completely new handles, possibly dabble with anodizing and different blade finishing methods, and try to slick up the deployments and the edges. I'll post my results here! I hope none of the knives i bought are to crappy we'll see.
Click to expand...

If you take a $10.00 knife and put $1000.00 worth of work in to it, it will be worth ~$8.00 when you're done.

Hoss
 
Frank Niro said:
So what you are starting with is junk and you can't change it too much so it will still be junk. Seems like you certainly aren't interested in advise unless it's what you want to hear that won't take you anywhere.Even your ideas about custom makers is completely off.
Frank
Click to expand...

I'd be interested in hearing what advise you are referring to. Just because you guys want me to finish my knife doesn't mean i can. As i said its a quarter inch of non annealed metal. People said i need to start slow before i make a folder and that's what i'm doing. If it took everyone advise seemingly i'd be doing 10 things right now that all contradict each other.
 
Your trying to run before you can crawl. You don't have the experience nor the equipment to properly do a folding knife. You have to understand your talking to craftsman that take their work seriously.
 
Ok I think it's time to talk about the elephant in the room, everyone else seams to be dancing around it. Keep in mind I'm not trying to be mean or put you down at all I'm trying to give good honest advice. With that said I think your crazy to jump to folders. Even moding folders takes tools you don't have if your scared away from a chunk semi hardened leaf Spring.

When I say tools I mean actual tools and skill level, you can do a lot with very little if you have the skill set to back you up. A folder blade will be harder then a chunk of leaf Spring so if you can't work over your first knife then I don't expect you to be able to mod pocket knife blades. When I said we need to talk about the elephant in the room I am talking about the fact that you have not made a single complete blade. I'm not trying to be mean but help you go in a realistic direction. All the knife makers that posted befor me all have your best interest at heart and are trying to help. Thy do this free of charge and many of them including me pay money every year to be part of this forum so show some respect for the time thy took and honestly consider what we are telling you.

I'm not saying you need to finish your first blade, I am saying you need to finish a blade. If that hardened steel is giving you problems then aneal it. There are many ways you can soften steel including but not limited to just tossing the damn thing into a wood fire. You never told us where the steel came from but I'm guessing leaf spring. Thy are not that hard to begin with and should soften up easily. There is nothing wrong with using steel that's 1/4" thick, in fact it might be an advantage to you when you start hand filing the edge bevels. Just run the edge bevel up all the way to the spine. But if it's still to much work then just order some 1084 from New Jersey steel baron or any other knife supply house. This steel is ready to go and will be easy for you to work with.

You don't need a shop full of tools to make a knife, it helps but is not required. You would be surprised at what you can do with a hand drill, file, hack saw and sand paper. All it takes is determination to learn as you go and not quit. It won't be easy but nothing worth doing is easy at first. Enjoy the learning process and aquire tools as you go. Look at yard sales and pawnshops as well as eBay and ksl.

You need to toughen up and relize making knives is hard work and takes a long time. You need to be committed to spending the 10-30 hrs it could take you to finish your first knife. You will learn by doing and asking questions along the way. But quitting on a fixed blade and going to folders is not the answer and will be more then overwhelming. One thing you will quickly discover as you learn is the more you learn the more you don't know. But keep your chin up and forge ahead with the desire to learn and grow and you will be surprised at what you can accomplish.
 
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Okay fine i will make a knife. I'm not going to buy steel because i cant afford paying 60 dollars for one bar of 1084. Especially after buying all those folders. And i'm not going to finish the knife i already started because it only has a 3 inch handle. Off to the scrap pile.
 
Get on alpha knife supply. Call chuck he's a good dude. Spend 25 bucks on some steel. Grind a few blades. Post your progress. Send off to trugrit.com for heat treating for only 10 bucks a blade. Your done. It's really not that difficult. There are guys on here that have been doing this probably longer than you've been alive. Show some respect. You posted on here, you asked for advice take it or leave it. But getting argumentative with experts on your first post is seriously a horrible way to start off.
 
magicpanther said:
And I'm not going to finish the knife I already started because it only has a 3 inch handle. Off to the scrap pile.
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3" is perfectly fine for a handle length, so long as the blade length is proportional to the handle. If you look at the Fixed Blade for sale sub-forum, you will find many knives that have around 3" handles. They are perfect for Neck knives and pocket knives. 8" hunting knives aren't the only knives out there. As JT said, Annealing the steel is as simple as heating it up and cooling it down slowly. Toss it in a charcoal grill next time you cook dinner on the grill. There is no sense in throwing away a project because you hit a small road block that could be solved by eating dinner.

Also, USAKnifemaker sells steel at some fairly inexpensive rates. For about $11 (shipped), you can get a 12" piece of 1080; 1.5" wide and 1/8" thick. 1080 has a very simple heat treat recipe, meaning you could do it using fairly simple tools and get good results. Try here: http://usaknifemaker.com/1080-steel-125-thickness-see-lenth-note.html
Tanner
 
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amazon has a really nice return policy so you can return those folders and use the money for steel.
 
"get a taste of the custom knifemaker life" no problem. Just take all your money, flush it down the toilet, stick your hands in a meat grinder, then grab a hit iron skillet barehanded. Now get a woman to yell at you for spending all your late nights in the shop. And most of all, love doing it anyway. I just saved you $100.
 
kdogmcg said:
"get a taste of the custom knifemaker life" no problem. Just take all your money, flush it down the toilet, stick your hands in a meat grinder, then grab a hit iron skillet barehanded. Now get a woman to yell at you for spending all your late nights in the shop. And most of all, love doing it anyway. I just saved you $100.
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This :D:thumbup:
 
I don't have a wife, but I do have some nice tools and a workshop that don't gripe about being dirty and dirty tools just left wherever....and all my knives get along just fine without conversation:D

Anybody see where all my money went???
 
I'm lucky, my wife cleans my shops for me and has been on my case for the last few weeks to get my steel order into AKS.
 
kdogmcg said:
"get a taste of the custom knifemaker life" no problem. Just take all your money, flush it down the toilet, stick your hands in a meat grinder, then grab a hit iron skillet barehanded. Now get a woman to yell at you for spending all your late nights in the shop. And most of all, love doing it anyway. I just saved you $100.
Click to expand...

LOL! It's like you know my exact situation! OP, Please read this and take heed.
 
JTknives said:
I'm lucky, my wife cleans my shops for me and has been on my case for the last few weeks to get my steel order into AKS.
Click to expand...

I've been divorced 20 years and when I was married my wife hired someone to clean house and her idea of a home cooked meal was to call and ask if they delivered... She was a HAWWWWWTTTTIE though... she ran off with a trucker and every time I hear one of those air horns I think he is bringing her back....:eek:

You are a lucky man to have a partner that shares your dreams and goals....:thumbup:
 
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