I'm A Cold Piece of Steel Starting Out....

[waredbear]

Hello...my name is Reid...and I've been bitten by the knife making bug...

I started collecting knives back in the 60's when my dad shipped me a box of knives from the Philippines. He told me he was sending me a bunch of Bolo's. I didn't know what that was so I looked it up...okay...he's sending me a box full of strings with rocks tied to their ends...oh goodie. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found hand made Filipino knives ranging in size from 8 inches to 3 feet. I was hooked. I've collected knives ever since. (NOTE: None of my knives are like the beautiful creations that I see everyday here...mine are not what you would consider "collectable" quality. Most of mine are outdoor type that have been used and in some cases abused.)

My wife and I celebrated our 28th anniversary last weekend in Leavenworth, WA. We traveled over the Cascade Mountains for a picnic. On the way up the mountain I spotted a wooden building with the sign "Custom Knives" hanging outside. I told my wife that we had to stop there on our way down. The place..Rayrock Springs Custom Knives...and Elliot Wakefield is the maker of the custom knives. He had a few of his own creations for sale and a few name brand production knives. One wall was covered in pictures of men proudly holding a knife in front of them. At first I thought these were happy customers but I found out that they were happy students. Come to find out he has a small shop on the side of the store where he teaches on-on-one classes. I grabbed the information on the classes and headed back to our B&B. I was totally surprised when my wife made the comment..."you should check into taking a class".......silence.......sure thing.

So I have spent the last week on the Internet looking at knife maker websites and drooling over the beautifully awesome works of art you guys (and girls) create. I have also read post after post here at Blade Forums...and as with most forums, I have gleamed a head full of information. A friend here at work (who also collects knives) stopped by and I told him what I wanted to do. His reply..."I can see you doing this".

So my plan to get started in making knives is this...
1. I already have the shop. I have a 25'x50' cement block, 4 bay shop with 12' ceilings. Stop your drooling....
2. I'm going to purchase a small belt sander from Harbor Freight. I already have benches, grinders, vise, table top saw, and a bunch of electric and manual hand tools.
3. I'm going to work on my old bolo knives that my dad gave me. As stated above, all of them are in need of some TLC...no...they are in need of help. They are rusted :grumpy: :barf: (I know), chipped and dull. I figure I might as well start with what I have to learn some of the basics. If I can get these back into prime condition then maybe I will have a chance. I will post before and after shots when I get started.
4. I'm thinking of working backwards, taking baby steps, to reach my goal. I know I'm going to make some of your skin crawl but I'm going to buy steel that is already in knife form. I’m going to buy the handle material and mounting hardware. I will then create the handles the way I want them and get that process nailed down. I figure I will keep some of these knives and give some away to friends. This way I can get my name and business out there.
5. Once I have the money saved and can buy a drill press and band saw I will graduate up to stock removal. I will already have the handle making part down so this way I only have to learn one step at a time.
6. Again...once I have the money and I'm still at it, I will graduate up again to making a forge and start getting down and dirty into making knives.

So...how does that sound? Anybody else start off this way? I would like to hear your story of how you got started.

Reid Allen
Bear Kat Custom Knives

 

[butcher_block]

sounds about right
have fun and dont worry if not ever "knife" looks right or works
mess ups happen
good luck and keep us updated
butch

 

[David Schott]

Try some kits! I started making from kits from knifekits.com. That way you dont need to jump right into HT and materials collecting, and instead can start off focusing on basic fit and finish. To me, it was a natural progression to sole authorship from there and I acquired tools in a natural order.

 

[oldrifleman]

Waredbear, I saw that place last time we went over to Leavenworth. My wife is not quite as undestanding as yours ( may have to do with my already having to many "Hobbies"). Not sure if you are on the green side or the brown side of the state, but Lyle Bronkhurst (sp?) in Bothell teaches a class on knife making (or at least he did). Steven

 

[waredbear]

Thanks for the replies and confirmation for my thinking.

I am all the way over on the eastern brown edge....Spokane.

Reid Allen
BearKat Custom Knives

 

[Mike Hull]

Just two things, if you really know you want to make knives, then don't buy a cheap Harbor Freight belt grinder. Get a 2"X72" belt grinder like a Hardcore, or Burr King,
http://www.trugrit.com/knife-making-machines-supplies.htm

a KMG1 from Beaumont Metal Works, AKA Rob Frink here. http://www.beaumontmetalworks.com/

A Bader BIII.
http://stephenbader.com/

Buy quality and cry only once. You buy the cheap belt grinders never made for knife work and you'll get dissillusioned quickly and ruin lots of metal.
The worst part is that you'll then realize that the money spent on crap could have been saved towards good knifemaking machinery.

The second thing is, don't practice on those old knives that someone worked hard on. Chances are, at this point, you'll ruin them.

Good steel of blade quality is not that expensive, get a few feet and start drawing patterns and cutting them out. Grind away.
Better to ruin those that were never anything to begin with than knives with a legacy. Save that for when you have lots of experience and know what you're doing.

Have you purchased any books on the subject, like "How To Make Knives" by Richard Barney and Robert Loveless? If not I would suggest it. You can get it for a good price at www.amazon.com .

Incidentally, the only tools I would recommend that would fall under the cheap category would be the Harbor Freight vertical/horizontal metal cutting bandsaw. You'll have to buy a good lennox or = bi metal blade to replace the junker that comes with it, but after that, and it's adjusted properly, you'll get many years of service out of it. Mine's been going for over 20 years.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=37151


Good luck to you.

 

[Ilovetoolsteel]

Hello...my name is Reid...and I've been bitten by the knife making bug...So my plan to get started in making knives is this...
1. I already have the shop. I have a 25'x50' cement block, 4 bay shop with 12' ceilings. Stop your drooling....

Stop drooling? That's bigger than my house!

2. I'm going to purchase a small belt sander from Harbor Freight. I already have benches, grinders, vise, table top saw, and a bunch of electric and manual hand tools.

That's how I got started a 1x30 belt sander from HF

4. I'm thinking of working backwards, taking baby steps, to reach my goal. I know I'm going to make some of your skin crawl but I'm going to buy steel that is already in knife form. I’m going to buy the handle material and mounting hardware. I will then create the handles the way I want them and get that process nailed down. I figure I will keep some of these knives and give some away to friends. This way I can get my name and business out there.

Believe it or not an awuful lot of custom makers got bitten by knifemaking bug that very way. I bought my first blade from Atlanta Cutlery back when I was about 18.

5. Once I have the money saved and can buy a drill press and band saw I will graduate up to stock removal. I will already have the handle making part down so this way I only have to learn one step at a time.
6. Again...once I have the money and I'm still at it, I will graduate up again to making a forge and start getting down and dirty into making knives.
So...how does that sound? Anybody else start off this way? I would like to hear your story of how you got started.

Reid Allen
Bear Kat Custom Knives

Sounds like you have the most important thing locked up, enthusiasim. mechanical skills you can learn.

 

[son_of_bluegrass]

6. Again...once I have the money and I'm still at it, I will graduate up again to making a forge and start getting down and dirty into making knives.

So...how does that sound? Anybody else start off this way? I would like to hear your story of how you got started.

Reid Allen
Bear Kat Custom Knives

I started by making a forge and buying an anvil and some tongs. I do my "grinding" with files. If you have a suitable hard, heavy and fire proof object to use as an anvil, forging can be a cheaper way to start. If you want to see what I can do that way look here
http://www.geocities.com/son_of_bluegrass/smithing1.html

I have a water cooled wheel and a drill press now but my early work was done with a hand drill as my only power tool. I still do my initial "grinding" with files before the heat treat because it is faster and gives better results than grinder. I use the water cooled wheel after heat treat as that works better on hard steel. I Maybe one day I'll get a 2x72 belt sander.

ron

 

[Will52100]

Your pretty much on the rite track, but like was said, I'd save those bolos till you have more experiance.

You can get 1080 or 1095 or O-1 pretty cheap to practice grinding on and heat treat. I'd stay away from the 1095 for first trys, till you do a few blades, the time from heat to quench is something like under a second or you miss getting it fully hard. The others give you anouther second or so. Any will make an excellent blade, are cheap, fairly easy to heat treat and grind, and if it's a fairly small knife you can harden with a torch and temper in a toaster oven.

I'd go with a Coote grinder before waisting money on a Harbor Frieght wood grinder. I've been running my Coote for about 5 years now and with the addition of a glass platten linner, and step pullies it is a very good machine. Of course I'd love to get a KMG, and plan too, but other tools keep coming first.

A good place to start is Wayne Godard's books, "the wonder of knifemaking" and "the 50$ knifeshop" Lots of good info and how to's.

Welcome to the addiction!