Help a noob make his first knife

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dmcmd

Joined
Jan 1, 2026
Messages
53
Ok guys, I finished my heat treat oven, so now it's time to make my first knife. I've never done this before, so I'm sure I'm going to have a lot of questions and I'm hoping you guys can light the way for me.

My ultimate goal for this hobby is to make kitchen knives for my family members for Christmas presents.

I bought a 48' piece of 3/16 AEB-L online. I can already see that's too thick, but I'm going to go with it for my first few knives and see what happens.

I designed a 12" OAL bunka style knife in solidworks and 3d printed a form. I laid that out on the blank and traced it with a sharpie.

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Then I rough cut it with my harbor freight bandsaw.

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Then I ground the profile on my 2x72 grinder. I bought one of the vevor ones. I know I could make the Jer Schmidt one, but honestly I'm about all done making tools after making the heat treat oven. If I need a new grinder, I'm just going to buy one... Anyway, I bought some Norton Blaze belts and I did the whole outline using the 36 grit belt.

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Here's my question: what's my next step? Do I heat treat now? Do I clean up all the edges and make them nice using finer grit belts and then heat treat? Do I clean up all the edges and then work on the bevel a little and then heat treat? I don't know what the next step is - help me out!

Thanks,
Darren
 
Wow, you done messed up big time. You're supposed to heat treat the whole bar stock first, THEN cut the profile. Now the knife is gonna taco when you quench it in the motor oil.
 
You can partially grind the bevels before heat treatment also if you wish, or leave it all until after.
 
I’d say you’re on the right track. You can start your bevels or not but if you’re not experienced with grinding bevels your better off doing it after heat treating so you have to go slower keeping it cool and lessen your chance of messing up. Be sure to use plates after pulling it out of the heat treating oven and make sure it’s wrapped in stainless foil.

You’re probably going to get some warpage no matter what but that can usually be taken care of during tempering.
 
bladegrinder said:
I’d say you’re on the right track. You can start your bevels or not but if you’re not experienced with grinding bevels your better off doing it after heat treating so you have to go slower keeping it cool and lessen your chance of messing up. Be sure to use plates after pulling it out of the heat treating oven and make sure it’s wrapped in stainless foil.

You’re probably going to get some warpage no matter what but that can usually be taken care of during tempering.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I think the plan will be drill holes tomorrow and then heat treat.
 
Stainless grinds nicer, Hard.
When it's hard it's less gummy.
Plus when it's hard, it gives you more time to think about what's happening. Takes longer to screw up.

You were right though, it's Way too thick. I wish your steel was around .070"

*Also, aside from hardware holes....I like to have my profile smooth, finer grits. Before heat treating

I run parallel to the belt
 
Crag the Brewer said:
Stainless grinds nicer, Hard.
When it's hard it's less gummy.
Plus when it's hard, it gives you more time to think about what's happening. Takes longer to screw up.

You were right though, it's Way too thick. I wish your steel was around .070"

*Also, aside from hardware holes....I like to have my profile smooth, finer grits. Before heat treating

I run parallel to the belt
Click to expand...
I bought it this thick because I was going to make 15” chef knives, but now I see that was a mistake. I’m going to buy thinner stuff next time. It’s going to be something grinding this blade down to thin enough…
 
dmcmd said:
I bought it this thick because I was going to make 15” chef knives, but now I see that was a mistake. I’m going to buy thinner stuff next time. It’s going to be something grinding this blade down to thin enough…
Click to expand...

I would use it as a learner.... We all had our First.

You will need. practice, practice, and more practice.....it takes a Long time, many knives.... Have Fun.

Idk if you like Bushcraft knives, maybe make it as a camp cleaver
 
Crag the Brewer said:
I would use it as a learner.... We all had our First.

You will need. practice, practice, and more practice.....it takes a Long time, many knives.... Have Fun.

Idk if you like Bushcraft knives, maybe make it as a camp cleaver
Click to expand...
That’s a really good idea. I’ve got a place with wild hogs on it. I can chop them up with it and pretend I made it for that on purpose!
 
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