How to make a knife out of nothing ?

K

Knifesharpener

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Aug 10, 2006
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I am wondering on my next trip out to the woods, I would like to make a knife out of nothing with what is provided in the woods.

I know this sounds like a dumb question but .... I have seen rocks turned into a knife in the movies, I know, the movies but as a survival skill I would really enjoy learning how to make a knife out of nothing in the woods please ?

I think this would help anothers that are new and interested in wilderness survival too as well. Thank you.
 
First find out what kind of rocks are in your area and figure out which would work best for becoming a blade.

Using other objects (rocks?) to shape it.

I can't advise on the types since I don't know where you live or about the area.

-Todd
 
A book or a website would help alots. I tried looking online but they all seem to have metal or steel ready for making a knife etc. That was not what I was looking for so that is why I am asking here.
 
That's a good question Knifesharpener. You could do some theoretical research on the rocks you might be likely to find, but in an emergency you'd just have to make do with whatever was in the vicinity.

My first thought would be to find some glass. Perhaps you might find a discarded can lid which could be sharpened by grinding on a rock.

Any hard rock is worth trying. You won't be able to make a nice 'flaked' knife out of many rocks, but if you can break any hard rock to expose a point or a corner, you might find that you have a tool that you can use for a bit of chopping or cutting fiber, or maybe even skinning an animal.

Paleoplanet has a knapping forum, and some good folk hang out there:
http://b16.ezboard.com/bpaleoplanet69529

Gotta be careful when breaking rocks...take care that nothing gets into your eye. Safety goggles would be a good idea in practice circumstances. And often a rock might be broken with a relatively gentle thump from a heavy round boulder...rather than by a high-speed whack with a hammer or stone which can cause bits to fly everywhere.

I've played around at rock knapping, and although I've had some passable (but crude) results, I appreciate my steel knives a whole lot more now.

Best wishes with the quest. If you have any success, please tell us about it.
 
On the internet knapping forums you will see a lot of very clever work. However you don't need a beautifully flaked object of art to do a few cutting or chopping jobs. Here is what I believe to be a crude hand axe made from quartzite. It was found at a beach where whales seem to get stranded relatively frequently. I imagine the early people simply broke up the local quartzite cobbles to make tools to cut up these 'gifts of the sea' when they got stranded.
HandAxe2.jpg
 
Look into discoidal knives. All you need is a round rock and another round rock about twice as large. Bag the large one onto the smaller one and you should break off a disc with a sharp edge. This is one of the oldest types of blades.
 
Wow !!!!! This is exactly what I was looking for ..... flintknapping. :D

Many thanks to all the guys. ToddW, Studio, Coote, Scottman, Billym :thumbup:
 
Also, certain types of bone make adequate knives. Certain bones also make good handles for knapped blades (not all are of flint).
 
"Shame Eric doesn't post more"

whoa, whoa, whoa, the woodsdrummer posts here?????????

I love his site. :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

-Scottman
 
Just a thought-
Nicely knapped modern blades can be had on ebay for 10 or 20 bucks. For that low of a cost, it might be worth getting a well made one just to see what you can do with one, before investing all the time, practice, and effort into making your own. I say this because my limited experience with them sounds like coote's-

coote said:
I've played around at rock knapping, and although I've had some passable (but crude) results, I appreciate my steel knives a whole lot more now.
Click to expand...

I've knapped some glass, since it's much easier than flint, but I was completely unimpressed by what I could easily accomplish with such a blade when I was done. I'd sure as hell rather have a blade made from any metal over any of the stone ones I've used. Before spending the time with a piece of stone, I'd much sooner make a blade from a rusty piece of sheet metal, or an aluminum soda can, or steel aerosol can (even deep in the woods they can usually be found in flood plains, where they wash up when creeks come out of their banks), or a piece of copper wire, or a rusty nail, or an empty cartrige casing, one of my keys,... basically anything metal I could pound flat & rub a sharp edge onto with a rock. Heck if I needed a sharp edge that bad for moderate term use, I'd rather pound my gold wedding ring into a small blade than mess with stone.

Kinda like the guys who've said, once you've made fire by friction methods, you'll never forget to bring your lighter again!
 
You can make blades from discarded man-made objects as well - glass has been mentioned. A thin piece of metal can also be hammered into a servicable edge. Use a rock to hammer the edge of the metal into a scalloped edge - it will slice quite well. (Used to do this in Jr Hi metal shop, to the irritation of the shop teacher! He didn't like the blood in his shop!)
 
I came to check this thread and many thanks for the replies.

Something caught my eye a quote made by The Possum ....

Kinda like the guys who've said, once you've made fire by friction methods, you'll never forget to bring your lighter again!

I would like to say that it is good to know both methods and train with them at least 2 or 3 x a week.

What I do is I have a small firepit in my backyard with a bucket of water and I just go right to work making a small fire with bow drills and another fire making methods then once I got a good fire going, I can BBQ my steak or turkey hamburger ( more healthy ) or roast some kebabs

BUT .... When it comes to a survival situation in real life, I will use my Zippo or my Bic lighter and if it is not snowing by that I mean not so cold but you do need some good fire going then I will start a fire by hand, so as long as the cold weather is not going to affect my hands. You have to use alittle bit of wisdom and know when to start a fire by Zippo or by hand. These common-sense tips should serve you very well. In the event that you lose your lighter and you are out in the cold snow then yes you may have to make a fire with your frozen hands, best to light a fire during the daytime, never at night time and always before 3:00 p.m. in the wintertime ( as well as in all 4 seasons too.)

As for making a knife out of nothing, I could become very good in the same way I am with making fire by hand, until I find a way to make something very, very sharp then it goes in my improvised survival kit. The Ka-bar knife will always be my modern day knife, just like the Zippo and the Bic is my modern day fire-starter.
 
Nice stuff thanks Wolf. It looks very 'authentic' too. Have you ever tried fixing a stone head like those to an arrow?
 
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