How long does it take to make a knife?

M

me962831

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Sep 27, 2011
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Hi All,

I'm new to the forum and to knife making. I've had a few attemps in the past but recently I've become more serious about learning this craft. The reason for this question is that I have started a project making a knife out of used file and it is taking forever to grind flat.

I know this is a fairly vague question so ill try to add some parameters. For arguments sake lets say we're making a basic full tang drop point camp knife with 9" OAL out of hardened steel using the stock removal process.

Just wondering on average how long it takes for you veterans to make a knife similar to this.

Thanks
 
Well, nowadays, I could do one in a day or less. But, when I first started out, well...I didn't have the right equipment, didn't really have the experience or knowledge, so it was learn as you go. I ruined sooo much perfectly good steel! Take your time, get it right, and learn. Oh, and enjoy! It's oddly pleasing when you hold the finished product.

Dave
 
I figure 10-14 hours per knife, but never all in a row.
It takes longer if I try to use cruder equipment instead of wating until I can borrow time on more serious hardware.

As a rank amateur, starting from p-ground stock:
pattern and cut: 30min (with a metal-cutting bandsaw)
profile: 30min
file inner curves etc., sand out deep marks: 1hr
drill: 30min (more or less, depending on complexity)
grind bevels: 20min-2hr depending on machinery, size, and thickness
sand prep for heat-treat: 1-4hr depending on size and finish desired
heat-treat: figure an hour - it's mostly waiting around and you can do other stuff and just tend during the critical moments
sand to finish, post heat-treat: 2hr
prep handle slabs for glue (and glue), assuming not splitting from scratch: 1hr
shaping handles: 2-3hr+, depending
sheath: 1hr for kydex, (pattern, cut, heat, fold, cut, sand, drill)
edge: hahahaha - depends how thick you left it: 10min-2hr. :-)

The better your middle steps, the faster the finish work will go. I'm trying to improve that right now.

-Daizee
 
For me, making a "sellable" quality knife. As short as four hours, as long as two years...
 
I noticed the hardened steel part. That adds a lot of work time.
I can cut out and grind a drop point like you describe in a couple hours from annealed steel. I can hand sand it in a few more. If I was using a piece of pre hardened flatbar it would take almost twice as long. Way more time dunking in water and less pressure on the grinder. Then on the finer belts dunk and wipe dry every pass. Then twice as long to hand sand because of the hardness. But, I use mostly D2 which is extremely wear resistant and therefore hard to sand post HT. I can sand it to near finished before HT because it is air hardening. Half hour to drill the holes in soft steel. More to setup to drill hard steel in mill with carbide bits.

It takes me about a little over a hour of oven time to harden and cool air hardening. Less for oil quenched. Plus over 4 hours to temper. More time if I add dry ice bath to the D2, but, I seldom do one knife at a time when hardening and tempering and while the blades are cooking I can do other things.

Handles, add at least 2 hours for a simple guard or bolsters. Drilling and attaching scales over an hour. First positioning for drilling then tracing and cutting the profiles on the band saw then putting them together to grind and sand the leading edges. Glue up and wait. Doing a hidden tang getting the hole right takes a couple hours at least. Then clean up and rough shape the attached handle with a small wheel 30 minutes, finish shaping with rasps and coarse paper a 1/2 hour. Then the finer grits a hour or more. Lucky me my girl friend does this for me. If an oil finish lots of waiting between coats.

Thing is I like many seldo do it start to finish. I always have several knives in the process. I get bored, frustrated or stumped, I change to another. Sometimes a knife will set for a long time until I am ready to pick it up again. I try to have several ready for things like HT and glue up at a time though.

I can now make 6 or more normal sized sheathes with some leather work and hand stitching a day. Girl friend stitches too. I preffer to do sheathes in batches too.

All this depends on types of materials complexity and grade of finish. High polish more time. Hamon polish more.
 
Nathan pretty much summed it up. I have models that I lose money on if I put more than 10 hours labor into them. I also have a dagger that I have been working at on and off for over 2 years (gave myself the opportunity to re-make both the blade and the grip. Not likely to get a good return on my time with that one, and don't really want to know how many hours I have in it.
The first time you produce a design takes longer than the 10th piece of the same design. Beyond that there aren't many sure bets you can make.
 
daizee said:
grind bevels: 20min-2hr depending on machinery, size, and thickness
-Daizee
Click to expand...

WOW! I hope I get to that point soon!

I've been grinding on the same knife for over 12 hours so far!!
I'm using a Craftsman 2"x42", I'm only on my third knife, it's from 1/8" 1084 barstock, only about a 3" long blade thtat I'm going FFG on. Started with a 36 grit, then about 8 hours with 60 grit, then I'd try cleaning it up with the finer belts to see how it looked, but I still have an edge that is well over 1/16" thick and I'm trying to thin it a bit more...

This thing is driving me crazy! My first two knives were from 3/16 stock and didn't take this long. I started with all fresh belts, and I just can't figure out why it is taking sooooo long??!
 
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There was a post here,a wip that a knifemaker made a knife in(ithink) an hour.That was a year ago or longer.Maybe someone remembers it or kept it bookmarked or something.It was a really cool thread and the knife was nice.I can profile,grind,heat treat, temper, and handle a knife in about 6 hrs.Thats with speedbonder and not epoxy.
 
Thanks for all your input.

Been screwing around with this file for too long now. I got to get it done for someones birthday. I will have to proceed on this one with brute force and ignorance but I'll wise up for the next one. Time to start playing with fire, gotta build a forge!
 
Anywhere from 1 to 60 hours for the stuff I do, but most end up in the 10 to 20 hour range.



It really depends heavily on what level of detail and finish you are after. How close to perfection do you want to go? Even two knives that spec the same can be orders of magnitude apart in build time. Little things like using a jig to mark the thickness of each handle scale at different points vs. just eyeballing it really add up over the whole build. Details like that are a part of the difference between a Steve Johnson drop point hunter that sells for close to $4000 and another guy's drop point hunter that sells for $150. And of course the reputation that comes from consistently taking the time to get things just right.



I think I could probably make a really basic 9 inch blade camp knife in about two hours plus heat treat. It wouldn't be pretty but it would work just as well as anything I can make. If I was to make that same simple knife with the intention of selling it, I would probably spend about 15 hours making sure everything was as close to perfect as I could get it.
 
BryFry said:
WOW! I hope I get to that point soon!

I've been grinding on the same knife for over 12 hours so far!!
I'm using a Craftsman 2"x42", I'm only on my third knife, it's from 1/8" 1084 barstock, only about a 3" long blade thtat I'm going FFG on. Started with a 36 grit, then about 8 hours with 60 grit, then I'd try cleaning it up with the finer belts to see how it looked, but I still have an edge that is well over 1/16" thick and I'm trying to thin it a bit more...

This thing is driving me crazy! My first two knives were from 3/16 stock and didn't take this long. I started with all fresh belts, and I just can't figure out why it is taking sooooo long??!
Click to expand...

This doesn't sound right. Are you using Aluminum Oxide belts from Sears? Is the steel already hardened or something? Did you put the belts on with the rough side on the inside or outside? Is the grinder plugged in? Do you turn the grinder on when using it to grind the bevels? ;-)

- Paul Meske
 
lonepine said:
This doesn't sound right. Are you using Aluminum Oxide belts from Sears? Is the steel already hardened or something? Did you put the belts on with the rough side on the inside or outside? Is the grinder plugged in? Do you turn the grinder on when using it to grind the bevels? ;-)

- Paul Meske
Click to expand...

I agree. BryFry's belts are already toasted. I realize the craftsman is not the ultimate grinder, but it should still remove material. I suggest searching some of the past for 2 x 42 belt choices. I know that TruGrit offers quite a few.

The hardest thing that I have finally realized, reluctantly, is that most belts are only good for working on about two knives (plus/minus). After that, they are scrap. An expense or cost of goods sold.

Mike.
 
BryFry said:
WOW! I hope I get to that point soon!

I've been grinding on the same knife for over 12 hours so far!!
I'm using a Craftsman 2"x42", I'm only on my third knife, it's from 1/8" 1084 barstock, only about a 3" long blade thtat I'm going FFG on. Started with a 36 grit, then about 8 hours with 60 grit, then I'd try cleaning it up with the finer belts to see how it looked, but I still have an edge that is well over 1/16" thick and I'm trying to thin it a bit more...

This thing is driving me crazy! My first two knives were from 3/16 stock and didn't take this long. I started with all fresh belts, and I just can't figure out why it is taking sooooo long??!
Click to expand...
But have you swapped to more fresh belts?
8 hours of grinding with 60 grit belts should be at least 40 belts...
I would annihilate probably 60-80 belts if my grinder was on for 8 hours, and mine are 72" belts!

You should be able to turn a 3" piece of steel into nothing but dust in just a couple of minutes with a 36 or 60 grit.
 
lonepine said:
This doesn't sound right. Are you using Aluminum Oxide belts from Sears? Is the steel already hardened or something? Did you put the belts on with the rough side on the inside or outside? Is the grinder plugged in? Do you turn the grinder on when using it to grind the bevels? ;-)

- Paul Meske
Click to expand...

logem said:
I agree. BryFry's belts are already toasted. I realize the craftsman is not the ultimate grinder, but it should still remove material. I suggest searching some of the past for 2 x 42 belt choices. I know that TruGrit offers quite a few.

The hardest thing that I have finally realized, reluctantly, is that most belts are only good for working on about two knives (plus/minus). After that, they are scrap. An expense or cost of goods sold.

Mike.
Click to expand...

Fellhoelter said:
But have you swapped to more fresh belts?
8 hours of grinding with 60 grit belts should be at least 40 belts...
I would annihilate probably 60-80 belts if my grinder was on for 8 hours, and mine are 72" belts!

You should be able to turn a 3" piece of steel into nothing but dust in just a couple of minutes with a 36 or 60 grit.
Click to expand...

haha.... Yeah I think the thing was plugged in! :p

I'm using belts from trugrit, 36 Klingspor, 60 ceramic, and Gators.

How long do you guys use a belt before switching to a fresh one? I did most of my grinding with the 60 grit ceramic, which I used 2 of. I tryed to switch to a fresh one again there towards the end but found out that all the other 60's I had were misshapened causing them to wobble horribly, and totally messed up my plunge when I tryed to use them!!

Gators were all fresh when I started, and I thought I had read somewere that they were supposed to last longer or something?

Should I be using the 36 grit more? I only used it to get started, but it made grinds that were so rough and ugly I was afraid to stay on it for too long.

I honestly can't figure out what is going on here, but I've given up on the belts and am now hand sanding. Which isn't going any faster of course. :o


Edit: steel is 1/8" x 1.5" 1084 from Aldo Bruno
 
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Those coarse grit belts (36-50) need some extra attention to get your money's worth out of them. They can take metal off very quickly, but you can also take all the useful abrasive off the belts themselves just as quickly if you aren't careful. I roughed the bevels on 12 blades of various sizes with a single 3m 967 40 grit on Fri.
I use the lightest pressure possible with a new belt, and reverse the belt every so often once it starts losing a little bite.
Breaking the corner before you begin the bevel makes a big difference, if you don't you can see and feel the large grits being sheared off the belt by the sharp corner when you start the bevel.
I have also found that a lot of the steel I am getting these days is relatively hard, or has hard spots in it. I suspect this is due to being hot-rolled and not being annealed afterwards. More and more I find that I save myself a lot of time, drill bits and grinding belts by annealing my stock first thing.
 
Justin King said:
Breaking the corner before you begin the bevel makes a big difference, if you don't you can see and feel the large grits being sheared off the belt by the sharp corner when you start the bevel.
Click to expand...

What technique do you use to "break the corner"? I did a search but came up with nothing. I believe you are talking about starting the bevel at the edge of the blade, correct?

Do you use an old belt, or maybe a file for that? I tried doing it by making a few passes on the 36 grit with edge side of the blade facing down, (kind of like if I was sharpening the edge) but I still got a ton of grit flying in my face!

Also, I have never annealed anything before, but I will look into some cheep ways to do it.....
 
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