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Help me with info for my first knife making attempt

V

Victory357

Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
37
So I've been lurking here a while, been thinking about attempting to make a knife for at least a few months and trying to read up on stuff here. I was thinking about selling one of my guitars to buy a band saw and a belt grinder, and lucky me I just found out that one of my good friends has both of those tools. So I am going to order some steel and make my first attempt in the next two weeks. I think I'm going to try to make one with a handle shape similar to my schrade sharp finger, but with a blade shape somewhat similar to a bark river trailmate but without the grind on the back edge. A few questions to help me get off the ground:


1. What steel should I use? Is there a steel that will be somewhat easy to work with for a first timer, yet also yield a high quality knife?

From my browsing on here, I am leaning toward CPM154 steel just based on reading people's opinions, but I have to be honest I don't have much of a clue. Would this be okay for a first timer?



2. Where should I buy the steel?



3. Can anyone link me to a video on youtube or such that they think is particularly useful for someone in my position? Obviously I have watched a hand full of videos already, and will continue searching on my own, but any recommendations would be appreciated?



4. Any other advice?
 
I would go cheap on the materials at first. Practice before you try to make something worth keeping or selling, because it's pretty likely that your first three or four won't really be something you'll want to have see the light of day.
 
I would start with something like 1095 or 0-1. I would do this for a few reasons:
-both steels are inexpensive
-both steels are easy to work with
-if you do your own heat treat, these two steels can be heat treated with basic equipment
-I would not start with CPM154 based on the cost.

You can buy from www.alphaknifesupply.com
 
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