How I make a knife...

LongRifle

LongRifle

Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
2,018
This certainly has been done before. I think Bradshaw took the wind out of my sails with his bowie-in-process pics, but I figured I post these anyway.

This knife started out as a 1.25x.25 bar of 1065. First step is forging. This wasn't my best forging, I'll explain later, but it is decent. There is a little more scale on this than I like, I should have turned the forge down a little. Sometimes I like to forge in the swedges, but I wasn't brave enough with this one.

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Next step is profiling. The blade goes on the belt grinder with a 36 grit belt. I profile the blade and rough out the tang and square the shoulders.

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Next step is rough grinding. I take the blade from 36 grit to 80 grit. At this point the blade is pretty close to the final dimensions. More material will be removed in a later step.

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The blade is then stamped and the shoulders have been filed in using a file guide. This phase is the quench. The blade is brought up to heat then quenched in oil. I always do this at night so I can accuratly judge the color/temperature of the steel. This is what the blade looks like right out of the quench.

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Here's a little better shot, also with the swedge outlined.
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This step is finish grinding. The blade is taken to 600 grit. Then the swedges are ground in. The plunge lines have been cleaned up. The blade is now ready for a hand rubbed finish.

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Here are a few shots of the hand rubbed blade. This is not the final finish, I've learned that even a taped blade will get scratched through the process. I will not put a final finish on the blade until everything else is done.

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Now I make the guard and ferrule. They are both SS. The steel is cut, slotted, and fit. This is just a dry fit, just checking to make sure everything looks OK.

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Everything looks really good, so I move on. I like to make profiles of handles in paper. It helps me get an idea where the knife should go, and where it shouldn't go. This cut out is just to get the ball rolling.

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Next step is making the handle. I chose desert iron wood for this knife. The wood came in scales. I put the wood on a mill and flatten the scales.

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Next step is to mark out the tang. I did this at night, excuse the photo quality.

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The handle is then slotted.

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Here are the two scales together. The away scale is on a slant, the slot lines up perfectly. I probably should have clamped the scales for the photo ;).

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Before I went on, I final shaped the guard. I find it really helps to trace the design on paper before shaping.

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I heat colored the guard, but decided the knife would look best simple. Here's a shot of the heat colored guard anyway ;).

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Here's the roughed out handle, if you look closely, you can see the wood behind the paper. When I said earlier, this wasn't my best forging, you can see I modified the choil. I did not do a good job of dropping the edge square, so I radiused the choil.

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Next step is sealing the guard. I use JB Weld to seal the guards. The fit looks pretty good. The clean guard is now visible...

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Next step is shaping the ferrule, then the handle.

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Here's the next step, the handle has been polished. The ferrule has a nice hand rubbed finish on it too.

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Here's the other side.

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Here are some pics from different angles...

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Well, that's how I make a knife. One of these days I'll post a heat by heat forging process.
 
There was no thunder stolen from you, that was an excellent pictorial feature on making a knife that you did. The knife is quite handsome, and somewhat unique in shape and finish from what I have been seeing lately.

Looks like top notch work from shaping, through grinding to finishing. You must be quite proud. Does it have a home yet?

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Steven, thanks for the compiments. Yes, this knife is spoken for. It is going to a forumite.

Matt
 
Thanks Matt for the great pics and commentary.
Much appreciated.
Randy
 
That's a great tutorial!

What is that tool you are using when JB welding the guard? Where could someone buy one?

I've never done a mortised tang knife or hidden tang knife and very much want to try both. This little clamp looks like a great tool to have.

Thanks,
Sean
 
Very impresive bowie. Thanks for the progression pics. I always enjoy seeing how things are done in other shops. I like that little tool too.
 
That is truly amazing, that is all i can think to say. Do you have any advice for someone who is interested in beginning/learning how to make knives?
 
Matt - Superb post of a very impressive project - but I have already told you that ;)

That "little" bowie your working on looks very interesting - hope you can keep us posted on that one too.

Stephen
 
It is beautiful work. I have a question and please do not take it as a criticism but should the corners of the blade where you fit the guard be squared like yours or tapered with a gradual radius?
 
Awesome thread Matt!!!

I love the knife...great lines and fantastically clean!

Not sure what you're talking about on the forging...looks great to me.

One question though...how come you don't have perma-dirt under your fingernails and in the cracks of your hands like I do...and all the cuts/burns??? :D

Thanks Matt, I really enjoyed this one!

Nick
 
I love the knife! but... I think I'd rather have your oven! Is that a Viking? like professional?? Now I'd love one of those for tempering AND pizza. How good is your seam? How does a bookmatched seam look on this knife? I'm going to try this on my ABS test knife I think. Are you a member? of the ABS I mean? Really nice knife.

regards, mitch
 
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