Introduction thread, and request for information. HELLO!! :)

S

Shifti

Joined
Mar 2, 2018
Messages
27
It is a pleasure to meet you all. You can call me Shifti. I am a 41 year old married father of three, and also have custody of my niece and nephew.I am from Northern Ontario Canada.
I have been looking for a hobby, as I am currently on disability and have been for 12 years due to the following.I contracted Ulcerative colitis when I was 17. Had my whole large intestine removed at 21. I contracted Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis at 29. This is an autoimmune disease that attacks the bile ducts, causing them to become inflamed and scarred. Once they get scarred enough bile sludge gets caught in the little pockets the inflammation and scarring creates forcing bile back into the liver causing damage, and eventual liver death.
Fast Forward to May of 2017. I had my first liver transplant. My body began to reject it. With hours left to live my doctors found another liver, and I was transplanted again 4 days after the first transplant. During the second transplant, I caught a bacteria resistant infection throught my abdomen which took two months to heal. I am currently doing fair to midland :D.
For the last couple weeks, I have become obsessed with wanting to try my hand at knifemaking/bladesmithing. Because I am on disability all I have been able to do so far is just absorb as much info as I could through youtube. I am so glad I found this forum now as well.

My question is, what are the bare minimum tools I will need to start practicing forming blades. Which type of steel would be best to begin working with. I will not have a forge for a little bit, and i may have to Mcgyver alot of stuff, as we live very close to paycheck to paycheck, until one day I can hopefully go back to my nursing profession. Right now, I dont have any real tools to help in forming blades. I will be building a work bench on the 20th when our cheque comes in, my father in law gave me a rotating bench vise for it, and I have a drill, and some drill bits. I am assuming the first tools, would be files, drill bits, Sanding paper.

Any other tools, that you more experienced makers can suggest. Tools that I absolutely need, or will be done before I even get started. As well as websites where I can devour information, I like going into something prepared with at the very least as much knowledge as I can.

Thank you all, I look forward to communicating with you all, as I start to dip my toes into this new adventure.


Cheers,
Shifti

P.s I hope this introduction thread is in the right forum, I looked around to see where I could possibly put it. If it isnt please feel free to move it and accept my apologies.
 
Walter Sorrels has a couple videos on YouTube where he makes a knife using only files, sand paper, and a drill
 
GermanyChris said:
Walter Sorrels has a couple videos on YouTube where he makes a knife using only files, sand paper, and a drill
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Thanks GermanyChris, ya I have been devouring Walter Sorrels videos. I also found the "Simple Little Life" youtube channel great for information on starting out, and to a lesser extent for starting out Alec Steele. I just love Alec Steeles enthusiasm, it is infectious, and I think what has got me so interested in trying this activity out.
 
Welcome and Hello
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Yes, welcome. Also, it would be awesome to see you document your process, even if it ends in failure and horribly bad knives. :)
 
Boon - Thanks.

Spysmasher, I was thinking of doing that, I dont have any experience whatsoever making youtube videos. But was thinking of turning the camera on, and just start from the day I build my basement workbench. Have my wife film it on the cellphone until I can get better cameras and just see where it goes from there.
 
What you want to build is the style of filing jig that Aarons Gough built.

That alloy is pretty much open, but I would suggest 52100 for carbon/tool steels, or AEB-L for stainless.

And while a bit pricey, I would send them out for heat treat. The best price per piece are often found around 20 knives.

If you take your time, and do them right, you should be able to knock out a few decent knives from your first bar of stock. Sell these to cover your initial set up cost, if they look to be worth it. Not to be crude, but your story is both inspiring and a good sales pitch. Many folks would love to support you in your new found passion.

If you do plan to sell any, AEB-L would be the wiser choice. Not everyone knows how to care for a carbon steel.
 
In your neck of the woods, you should be able to find old lumber mill band-saw blades for pretty cheap. Those might be a good source for experimentation stock, especially if you want to try heat treating and other such things on your own. Keep an eye out for used tools, you may be able to pick up an old grinder or belt sander for pretty cheap when someone is clearing out a garage.

As far as other youtube videos goes, if you have not watched michaelcthulhu he does a lot with improvised equipment in his early videos, and shows how he's built a lot of his shop. He's pretty entertaining too, and well, you'll see some good health and safety dont's.:)

As far as filming and such goes, even if you just start with short little clips, you'll get a chance to find your way of presenting. If you are a nurse, then you probably have the communication skills to explain a complex topic with the level of detail that your audience needs at that time. So as you start learning, you can do short clips explaining each step, and then go into more and more detail as you get more comfortable with it. I've seen a lot of guys try to go the other way, explain it all on the first go, and they generally struggle unless they wrote a good script first. Each video, no matter how short is practice for the next one. Both for you and your wife, it might give you something to work on together, which will help keep it going.

Good luck with the illness, its not easy to deal with chronic stuff like that, and it sounds like you've kept on going though some hard stuff. I think you've given yourself a great goal, and a good motivator to keep yourself moving.
 
NJBillK - Thanks for the suggestion. I looked up the jig you suggested and it looks great, it actually looks like a more refined nicer looking version of one I was looking at that the "Simple Little Life" channel and "Michal Kadlec". I was looking at those but I like the one you suggested it just looks cleaner. I have not heard of the alloys you mentioned but I am definitely going to research them. The steels I seem to hear the most are "01 Tool Steel" and "6170 steel". How do these compare to the ones you mentioned? I always like to tell people about myself as I have a big problem with social anxiety so I value online friendships alot, especially friendships founded in a topic that interests me. In this case, I am getting some super information to start me out, which is a tremendous help, and something that once, I get some practice under my belt can pay forward. knowledge can be free, but can make someone far richer than material items can. Thanks again for the info it is greatly appreciated. :D

Gadgetgeek- I never even thought about that as a source for steel. You are right their are a large number of commercial and small private lumber mills in the area. I actually used to work in one in White River. I think most if not all use large circular saws as opposed to band saws, but I imagine a big saw blade could yield some useful raw material for making knives no? I wonder what kind of steel those large saw blades are. Checking for sales is something I have been doing as well. Check Kijiji for my area every day. And the town I live in was a HUGE Uranium mining town (We had something like 12-15 uranium mines in the area, until uranium prices tanked and all the mines shut down), the municipal government began touting the town as a retirement community and started advertising it to the people down south. So we had a huge influx of elderly people move here, so their are estate sales, god I want to say almost weekly, or in the case where both parents have died, Their kids just come up, and throw most everything out because they have no time to sort through it, I will have to keep a closer eye out for that. As well thanks for the kind words. And ya the youtube thing will be interesting, I am a bit camera shy, but if I do it like you suggested, in little bites that may be easier for me to swallow, and keep it interesting to viewers. Cheers

Eisman - Thanks for the suggestions mate. I am gonna check around right now and see if I can pick these up. "The 50$ Knife Shop" sounds right up my alley lol.
 
I am all for helping out those looking to get into knifemaking. Just realize that there is a rather large number of people getting into the hobby, so you will find a lot of misinformation out there, due to lack of knowledge, or just trying to be helpful, when they aren't that educated themselves.

As far as alloys go, I like 1084, but that is because that is what I started with. After reading the thread below, I may start branching out sooner rather than later.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/time-to-recommend-a-new-beginner-steel.1557290/
 
Shifti said:
Eisman - Thanks for the suggestions mate. I am gonna check around right now and see if I can pick these up. "The 50$ Knife Shop" sounds right up my alley lol.
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I think I have two copies of this book, if I do, I will send it to you free of charge.

I know I have two copies of two separate books. I can't recall exactly which books they are. But I will dig them up tonight, and get them shipped over the weekend.
 
NJBillk - Thank you for the book offer, that would be great if you have an extra copy kicking around, I hope to one day either return the favor, or pay it forward. I agree with you about being guarded about info you get from people on the internet. I know people are trying to be helpful, I truly appreciate that part, but have learned to fact check any information offered, or research it so I can make sure the information I get is not steering me in the wrong direction. I learned my lesson on that when I was into making plastic model cars back in the day.

Anthonycastorena2014- Thanks for the encouragement. I actually spoke to my wife about the idea, and starting the adventure with the building of my basement workbench, and first knives. I think the best way might be to chop them into little segments. I dont want people to get bored by long videos. I think the first few videos I will do are 1. Making the work bench. 2. Going over all the tools I will be starting this journey with. And then 3 to whatever making different aspects of the knife, i.e cutting out the initial blank, Honing the blank, grinding work, and so on and so forth. It is making me somewhat excited. As well the workbench I am making can be doubled to use for my plastic models as I was considering getting back into that.

Cheers all,
Shifti
 
Michael Morris who makes custom friction folders uses old files for blade material. He has videos on his website showing and explaining the entire manufacturing process.
 
I've heard that the bandsaw blades are L6, another high-carbon steel. I'd suspect that the blades on the other style of saw are a high carbon/carbide tooth on a re-usable blade "wheel" (all those terms have fallen out of my head) But either way, practice material is practice material. Again, Good luck!
 
Mschott- Thanks I will look him and his website up, not sure I could stomach making a knife from a file yet, considering I still need files for actual tools LOL, but at some point I probably will. Maybe I will raid my father in laws toolbox, he has dozens of files, I bet he wouldnt even miss one hah.

Gadgetgeek. Ya the saw blades have to hold an edge, be flexible, and withstand a lot of heat/ high impact for the job they do. So I imagine they would, in theory, make good knife making material, if at least only to practice on.
EDIT- I found this little blurb on a knife sharpening webpage that talks about various steels: "L-6 is the band or circular saw blade steel used in most lumber mills and downright hard to find in any other form. Hardens in oil to about RC 57 and takes a fine edge for most cutting, particularly where the edge might be steeled back into shape. Outstanding where flexibility is needed but rusts easily, like virtually all of the simple carbon steels. L-7 is the same stuff with a little more carbon."
so maybe the saw blades are L6 as well.
 
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I think I have two copies of this book, if I do, I will send it to you free of charge.

I know I have two copies of two separate books. I can't recall exactly which books they are. But I will dig them up tonight, and get them shipped over the weekend.
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NJBillk - thank you for offering to look for that book. I was able to find an ebook version that I downloaded from Scribd. get a 1 month free trial so it was a free download. Their are also some other knife making ebooks on the site so Im gonna snatch up any that I can. But once again thank you I very much appreciate it.

There is one called Bob Engnath Knife PAtterns, which I think I will snatch up. it will help me get used to the different shapes of various blades, and what they are called.
 
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NJBillK said:
I think I have two copies of this book, if I do, I will send it to you free of charge.

I know I have two copies of two separate books. I can't recall exactly which books they are. But I will dig them up tonight, and get them shipped over the weekend.
Click to expand...

^This is precisely why I am proud to be a part of this community. :thumbsup:
 
Chariotz4- I agree it was a great gesture, especially for me at the stage I am at, I am about to set up my workstation in my basement, so am trying to consume as much knowledge on things as I can
 
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