How can you make a knife without forging?

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johnnyKnives

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Is it possible to make a knife without forging or heating the metal? Can you take a file, for example, and use a grinder to make the knife? Thank you.
 
Nope! You just can't do it. Impossible. Never been done.

Wait maybe I am wrong. I should read some of the stickies at the topto find out. ;)

Patrice
 
Yep...it's called "stock removal".

Basically, you start with a piece of known steel, in it's annealed state, and remove everything that is not a knife. Heat treat it, finish your blade and handle. So simple...not!
 
You can get the steel pretty hot while grinding. Maybe you can dump it in oil after it turns red-orange and get a hardened blade that way. Dunno, I never tried.
 
Patrice Lemée;7329984 said:
Nope! You just can't do it. Impossible. Never been done.

Wait maybe I am wrong. I should read some of the stickies at the topto find out. ;)

Patrice
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I only found the 60 minute knife. It was probably the closest to what I asked.
 
Oh I see what you mean now. Yes, you can take a lawn mower blade and grind that into the shape of a knife.
 
defaultuser said:
Yep...it's called "stock removal".

Basically, you start with a piece of known steel, in it's annealed state, and remove everything that is not a knife. Heat treat it, finish your blade and handle. So simple...not!
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Does this require a forge?
 
You could also buy a knife and cut it into two pieces, thereby, creating a new knife.
 
non heat treated steel is at about Rockwell c 20-30 heat treated: about 60 Rc its a totally different material- no really its got different crystalline grains
 
They's all funnin' you Johnny. It is the most common way knives are made.

Select a hardenable steel like O1, 440C, 1056 and such. Grind or cut out a knife shape, grind bevels on it so the edge is not so thick, drill all the holes you will need to pin the handle on then send the blade out to a local heat treating facility. When it comes back clean it up some, glue and pin the handle in place. When the glue or epoxy dries sand the handle to shape and you have a knife. Making a pretty knife will take a lot more experience and effort.

George
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but don't a lot of people take Nicholson or other name brand files, grind out a blade while it is still fully hardened and then temper in a kitchen or toaster oven to draw the hardness from 64 to 60RC? Aren't name brand, american files made from either 1095 or W2?

If I'm correct, the problem is not ruining the heat treatment of the files by overheating while grinding. You would need to dunk them in water when they become hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold.

Wayne Goddard, in one of nis books, describes using D2 planer blades to make stock removal knives. D2 is a premium steel and planer blades might be cheaper for thinner blades than buying new barstock. I assumed he ground them hardened and then tempered back, but maybe he annealed them and then rehardened.

To sum it up, I believe you can grind out a vey good knife out of a nicholson or black diamond file with a grinder, then temper it to a softer hardness more suitable for a knife. it would be hidden tang of course. The challenges are not letting it overheat whild grinding and grinding very hard steel. If you don't have a belt grinder with zirconia or ceramic belts, I don't know if it is really feasible.

Maybe someone with experience in this can chime in. Good luck.

Gerry Hamrick
 
george tichbourne said:
They's all funnin' you Johnny. It is the most common way knives are made.

Select a hardenable steel like O1, 440C, 1056 and such. Grind or cut out a knife shape, grind bevels on it so the edge is not so thick, drill all the holes you will need to pin the handle on then send the blade out to a local heat treating facility. When it comes back clean it up some, glue and pin the handle in place. When the glue or epoxy dries sand the handle to shape and you have a knife. Making a pretty knife will take a lot more experience and effort.

George
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Thanks. I figured they were. It must be so common knowledge on here that those questions don't get asked much. I had been reading nothing but how to forge knives so I figured that's they way everyone did it.
 
I can't resist repeating this because it's my favorite knifemaking quote.

"Stock removal is easy, just take a bar of steel and grind away everything that doesn't look like a knife." :D
 
I can make a knife without a forge or a grinder or any tools at all. I just click a few times on this here clicky thing, and POOF! A few days later a new knife magically appears at my door!
 
As far as file knives go, you're better off to take the file and temper it first, then grind it. You have to cool the blade often while grinding, and if you let it change color, you're out of luck. The other way is to build yourself a charcoal forge, get some 1080, do some stock removal, and heat treat it yourself. Like this: http://www.greenbuggraphics.com/jasonfry/?p=212
 
defaultuser said:
Yep...it's called "stock removal".

Basically, you start with a piece of known steel, in it's annealed state, and remove everything that is not a knife. Heat treat it, finish your blade and handle. So simple...not!

johnnyKnives said:
Does this require a forge?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

No. As Georges Tichbourne said, get a piece of steel like O1 (good steel to start with - my first knife was in O1), annealed ("soft"). Using a file and sandpaper, basically carve your knife. Send it to a heat treater to get it hard and voilà! No forge required!

Might I suggest you get a book, maybe? I found Goddard's $50 knife shop inspiring...
 
johnnyKnives said:
Is it possible to make a knife without forging or heating the metal? Can you take a file, for example, and use a grinder to make the knife? Thank you.
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Johnny, yes you can. You can do it two ways, grind it so that it stays cool or keep cooling it while grinding to preserve the heat treatment, or you can anneal (heat it up to 1550F and let it cool slowly in ashes or vermiculite or sand) and grind it. If you anneal it, you have to reharden and temper it, grinding it slowly to keep it cool, all you have to do is temper it (heat it to 400F and you are done).
 
johnnyKnives said:
Thanks. I figured they were. It must be so common knowledge on here that those questions don't get asked much. I had been reading nothing but how to forge knives so I figured that's they way everyone did it.
Click to expand...

I was the exact opposite, had no idea people hammered out knives until I joined this site.
 
Even if you're doing it stock removal don't you still need some kind of forge to harden the steel? Assuming you aren't going to send it out to be done.
 
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