Im interested in making a knife for my buddy wedding, where to begin?

S

syvmn

Joined
Apr 5, 2009
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Hi everyone. A friend of mine is getting married in about a year and I would love to make a knife for him. He is big into hunting so I thought this would be the perfect gift for him. I a big DIY'er so hopefully I'll be able to create something nice by the time his wedding rolls around.

I'm wondering where to begin. From what I've read I think I would like to make the final piece out of RWL-34. To begin with I think some basic steal should work so I can make mistakes and figure out what the heck I'm doing.

If you guys can point me in the direction of a book, or web tutorial, etc to get me started I would be very appreciative.

Also, where can I get basic steel for my first attempts?

Thanks!
 
Thanks. I read a bit of that and wondered if that was the way to go. Where do most people procure their steel though? I live in Minnesota around the twin cities, should I just look for some steel shops or something? 1095 seems to be a common choice.
 
Great thread Lorien!!
I know I wouldn't do it the way you did! Kudos my friend:thumbup:
 
I'm thinking of picking up some steel from admiralsteel.com. The two types I'm looking at are HR 1095 and HR 1075/1080. I think that the 1/4" x 3" x 36" should be able to produce at least 2 knifes right?

I'm looking at doing something similar to this:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=633075
but without the subhilt. I like how the tang goes through the entire handle.

Any advice?
 
I'd recommend coming over to "shoptalk" and hanging out with the knifemakers. The Les George knife pictured would be a very ambitious project for a new maker, heck it's an ambitious project for experience makers. There's a lot of stickies and good beginner threads in the shoptalk area. Come join us.
 
I will admit I am trying to do something similar to you.

I just annealed my first file and spent 2+ hours with a nice 12" File doing some major removal. So far I Think I pretty close to the shape and thickness I want..

I looked at what it took to make a fighter for the wedding gift I want to produce and then started work on this simple knife.

I think its going to take 20+ knives to build any sort of muscle memory off of the file work. Once I get my grinder.. same story. To produce anything of quality its going to take lots of practice. When I started looking into this hobby I thought "this can't be that hard.. I understand the steel, can machine things.. good to go right?" After doing the work on my first knife... There's a lot to learn.

Good luck :D
 
I know a lot of machinists that can't make a knife, I know a lot of knifemakers that can't run machines (mills/lathes.)

I've often repeated this but I started making knives because I couldn't afford the customs I wanted. I could have bought a couple of nice MS pieces for what I spent making awful junk while learning.

We shouldn't be called "makers" we should be called "finishers" because many a person has started one, few ever finish their first, fewer finish their second.
 
Will Leavitt said:
We shouldn't be called "makers" we should be called "finishers" because many a person has started one, few ever finish their first, fewer finish their second.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::cool:
 
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