Green River knife kits

I think about a kit every now and again, but never pull the trigger because like you I want some sort of a camp knife. I'm not sure the blank is thick enough it's less than 1/8" thick. It'd make a good slicer ....
 
I have messed around with them for years. They are high carbon blades. Thin and lightweight and slice well. Easy to sharpen and take a nice patina. My favorite is the sheep skinner that I handled with some split antler and flamed with a torch years ago. Cheap price. For me, it was the Mora of the day.
 
I've never tried to put a knife together and thought this would be a good way to become familiar with fitting up/shaping scales, riveting, finish sanding and final sharpening without spending a ton of $. Maybe even put a set of colored spacers under the scales to dress it up some. It's a thin blade, for sure, but for food prep and feather sticks it would probably work pretty well. It would make for a nice gift knife too.
 
I've put a number of the kits together, and I found it to be pretty satisfying.

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It ends up being time consuming if you are putting them together with a minimum of power tools. The process goes a lot smoother with a little 1x30 belt sander, an inexpensive drill press, and a vise.
 
I skipped the kits and went right to making my own from bar stock. A kit can be a good way to get into a fun and rewarding new hobby.. but if you want a nice user, the kits end up costing more than getting some bar stock and making your own from scratch. A few simple tools, time and being a little handy gets you a 100% knife from scratch. Either way.. get into the hobby.. it's a lot of fun. Check out the knifemaking/bladesmith forum on here.. lot's of great guys to help get you started. I have a thread over there (search by my username) that follows my first build progress from scratch. I haven't updated in a bit though. Enjoy!
 
Thanks for the responses! I guess you get to the point where you want to try your hand at building your own knives so they're totally unique, one of a kind blades. I like the production knives I have but would like to take my love of knives to the next level. I'd like to set up a small knife building work area in my garage someday.

I'll check out your thread, Hawk45!

A tip of the hat to Loosearrow, Bo T and markpmc, as well!
 
"I guess you get to the point where you want to try your hand at building your own knives so they're totally unique, one of a kind blades."

True. The minimum tools many suggest are a vise, high tension hack saw, drill, and assorted files. Add to that so wet/dry sand paper, a hammer, and some good drill bits and you are set. Probably, less than $200. You will probably need to send your blade out for heat treat so research that part and pick the appropriate steel. A lot of the knifemakers who did their first blade by hand suggest starting with thinner stock (1/8" or less).

good luck.
 
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