How do you design your knives?

B

blackviper91

Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
334
Hey everyone, I have just started learning to make knives and I was curious what process you all went through to design your knives. CAD? Sketching? Whatever.

I myself have been working on a few designs that I may be trying. The process I use is this: I start off by sketching roughly wjhat I want on paper and working out some of the kinks. Then I make a cleaner, nicer looking diagram on the computer (I use a program called Dia). I then add some simple textures in Fireworks so I can get a feel for what the knife will look like.

How about you?
 
I put a piece of steel in the fire. When it is hot I take it to the anvil and beat it untill I think I looks sufficiently knife-like. I do some grinding and filing to clean up and refine the shape

ron
 
Sketch on printer paper or sketch book (I keep a lot of ideas there), then transfer to steel, profile, grind and finish.
 
Paper, pencil, and lots of erasers. LOTS of erasers.

I tried a CAD program, but couldn't figure out how to draw even a straight line with it.
 
Schaller, I forgot to mention the erasers. My wife hates it when I sit around sketching ideas. There are eraser droppings left all over the place when I'm done.
 
Most of the time, I just have an idea and try to forge the blade to resemble it.:D Most of the stuff that I do is fairly basic and derivative, so I don't have to do a whole lot of sketching, etc.
 
Sketch, then make full size, photocopy full size sketch, transfer onto cardboard cutout, make small changes to other cutouts, transfer onto steel, spend next 2 years cutting it out and profiling it (along with 30 others).
 
Sometimes do it completely from scratch in CAD, or sometimes:

1. Once I have an idea of what shape I want I search the net for similar knives, and select a nice example and save the pic.
2. Import the image into CAD as a raster image and save it on a locked layer
3. I then draw a profile using mainly polylines around the knife picture and showing locations of handle/ holes etc.
4. Then hide picture by hiding the layer with the pic in it.
5. Tweak the lines and make adjustments until it is the exact design that I had in mind and that I like.
6. Scale it to the scale I want and based on the steel blank I have.
7. Either trace the pattern onto the steel or glue the pattern onto the steel.

Nine times out of ten when i get to cutting the profile I make changes just based on what I feel at the time and it usually varies drastically from the original design anyway. So forego steps 1 - 9 above!
 
First I'll make a pencildrawing. When satiesfied with it, I'll make a few photocopies, cut one out, glue it to the steel. Saw, grind, heattreat and finish
:D
 
tracing paper / pencil / frozen pizza box pattern for an easy feel.

now only paper and pencil
 
I start with a rough sketch..,but find i ulter the design so much along the way i'm probably better off to just wing it from the start :). i'd really like to get some computer design skill's one 'a these days.
 
Paper & pencil here too(a set of french curve templates too):) I doze off in the lazyboy almost every night with a pad on my lap and a pencil in my hand :yawn: ;) The more you practice the better your sketching abilities will get.

I wish I was proficient in CAD. If you have a good handle on it I think it can be a great aid. I have a seat of BobCad that sits idle on my PC right now....... my excuse for not learning to use it ?? No time :(

FWIW, when I have a blade blank finished and I'm not sure exactly which direction I want to go with a handle ? I use clay to build up a handle on the blank to get a good idea of what I want.
 
I haven't completed many knives, but I do my drawings in PSP X. Using vector paths, it's easy to reshape, resize, and transfer elements in and out of the drawing. It's also easy to trace scans of pencil/paper drawings and photographs of existing knives and manipulate them on screen similar to the way langchop described. Then from paper printouts to cardboard templates, and from cardboard templates to the steel.

I don't doubt CAD is better for this with its refined measurements and such, but it can be done with fairly humble software as well.
 
Generally I make fire heat up a piece of steel beat on it until it doesn't move, heat it again, repeat, see where it wants to go. Now that I'm making Damascus, I take 5 pieces of steel, heat them, beat them together, try not to get burned by the red hot borax flying out the sides, beat on them some more, fold repeat, fold repeat, fold repeat fold repeat, fold repeat, fold repeat, fold repeat, get tired of folding and repeating, forge it into a knife-shaped object, ask it what it want's to be when it grows up, and help it to achieve that. I used to draw knife blade profiles on bars of O-1, and do the stock removal thing, but that didn't really feel like I was making knives, so I learned to forge.
If I'm doing one for somone who's custom ordering that's different, then the sketch thing happens, and I try to forge to match the sketch, but it's a lot more fun to push myself by seeing what I can make the metal do today rather than starting out with a plan. I can make metal do things that I don't allow myself to draw.

-Page
 
Paper and pencil first. I've started adding a few into cad.
 
I usually set down with some french curbs and a piece of paper and play around til I get what I'm trying to achieved. Sometimes it can take a long time to get the pattern that I want. Once I have that I can cuts it out and transfer it to steel or wood. during the process I may make changes in the
design. Now I have a pattern to use for a knife. I preferred the steel patterns over the wood. But steel is money in somes eyes.

Back a few years ago I was fortunate enough to set down with a CAD program and I must say it was a great program to use. Than one day when I was at work, one of the gentlemen in the office wanted me to design a floor plan for one of the line in the factory. So, not having a CAD program at home, I set down at my computer and opened up WordPerfect and used the draw program that was with it. When I was done I took it to work and presented it to that gentlemen. And he replied: I did not know you had a Cad program at home. Now that made me feel good. A $100.00 compared to a $1500 program. But I have to be truthful it did take a while to design. The newer CAD's are more scientifical and require some training and a lot of practice.

Creating patterns for knives is something one need do. It will make you appreciate your work better. Then you can truly say I made it from start to finish and its a one-of-a-kind. I better stop here at this! Its starting to look like a book. Hope this was of help and may God bless you in the New Year. --------:)
 
I use a sketch book and some french curves. Then I take a peice of plexiglass and put it over the drawing and trace it out with a sharpie and make a template using a bandsaw and my grinder.
-John
 
i draw a few lines here and there and start grinding unless i'm making one for a customer,
then i'll use a drawing. i hardly ever make the same knife twice but i do make a pattern after the knife is profiled out in case something happens and i want to make another one.
 
I draw it on paper and erase and redraw until Im satisfied. I do use a ruler, dividers and french curves etc to make things correct. I dont use CAD but I do use standard thicknesses and radious' so it can be machined and ground on conventional size wheels and mills. I like to draw the knife and enlarge or reduce on a copier until it fits the hand and looks the right size.

I would use CAD if I had the time to learn how. The good thing about a program is that somebody could use it to make the parts for me but since I dont generally do more than one I havent bought the program. I do however have some brass templates for best selling models.
 
I draw full size on paper with french curves and ruler. Erase a lot. Then I cut out the paper and tack glue it to the (Dykem'd) steel and trace scribe around it to the steel. Sometimes I make a cardboard pattern. I at least try to save the cut out for possible reuse.

Then I change it as I grind the profile. I sometimes start new knives by just tracing
from a previous one onto the new piece of steel.

So far, making exact duplicates hasn't exactly been a priority of mine...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top