Kit Knife Recommendation

S

Soilarch

Joined
Oct 15, 2007
Messages
297
I'm leaning at doin' a kit or two now instead of just jumping in the deep end.

I'm concerned about the quality of steel the kit knives are made from.

Are there kits out there with the high quality (I consider bucks 420HC "mid-high") steel? Or am I stuck back with the usual production grades of steel?

And recommended companies or companies to avoid?

*An old hickory died in my grandma's backyard last summer, grandparents raise my dad and his four brothers there since they moved to Illinois. I think it would be cool to use some of that wood. How much of a pain is it to take raw wood and get it suitable for handle material?
 
Jantz Supply and Texas Knifemakers Supply, have some kits listed with blades made from 440C, and some with high carbon steel, would assume one of 10xx steels. have not seen any with Cpm 154 or other high grade steels, but 440C is a good blade steel, in my opinion. Hope this helps.
 
The knife kits I have seen from the major suppliers (Jantz,TKS,K&G,and Knifekits) are generally good steel. They ,however, are made to be acceptable to the bulk of kit makers, who are looking for economy.

If you want a high end steel blade for a kit, you will have to make it yourself.

With that statement in mind, consider purchasing a folder kit and customizing it ,say, with a damacus blade and bolsters and MOP scales.You can do this with a minimum of equipment, and get a $1000 knife out of the work. Material cost could be as low as $150.
The parts that come with the kit will provide the templates to make the custom parts from..........................Just a thought for consideration.
Stacy
 
bladsmth said:
The knife kits I have seen from the major suppliers (Jantz,TKS,K&G,and Knifekits) are generally good steel. They ,however, are made to be acceptable to the bulk of kit makers, who are looking for economy.

If you want a high end steel blade for a kit, you will have to make it yourself.

With that statement in mind, consider purchasing a folder kit and customizing it ,say, with a damacus blade and bolsters and MOP scales.You can do this with a minimum of equipment, and get a $1000 knife out of the work. Material cost could be as low as $150.
The parts that come with the kit will provide the templates to make the custom parts from..........................Just a thought for consideration.
Stacy
Click to expand...
I agree with Stacy....can't get chicken soup out of chicken sh!t!
- Mitch
 
Jantz has a couple w/vg10 and titanium. The pics in the catalog look good but I have not heard any feedback from people who have built them. The Darrel Ralph designs over at knifekits.com have aus 8 blade steel and get great reviews from tons of folks. Nothing wrong w/aus 8, it aint cpm but its quite a bit better than what you'll get in most kits. Those are the two places I would go if i wanted to build a kit.

Rick
 
I have made a few Jantz kit knives and I think they are great for the price. All of the ones that I have ordered have been 440C and had perfect finishes with no flaws. Just about the only thing you need to do to the blade is possibly sharpen it a little better but they do come pretty sharp as it is. They make great gifts when you run out of time to make your own blades.
 
i have been thinking about making some blades that people could buy for a kit knife.
 
If you are looking for a fixed knife blade,try Ragweedforge.com. He has a wide variety of Scandinavian blades in both carbon and stainless.Start with the basics and work your way up to more expensive materials.Photo of a $10 scandi blade and a couple dollars of curly birch.

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Soilarch said:
I'm leaning at doin' a kit or two now instead of just jumping in the deep end.

I'm concerned about the quality of steel the kit knives are made from.

Are there kits out there with the high quality (I consider bucks 420HC "mid-high") steel? Or am I stuck back with the usual production grades of steel?

And recommended companies or companies to avoid?

*An old hickory died in my grandma's backyard last summer, grandparents raise my dad and his four brothers there since they moved to Illinois. I think it would be cool to use some of that wood. How much of a pain is it to take raw wood and get it suitable for handle material?
Click to expand...

Hit the garage sales and flea markets, Buy older knives with worn out or ugly handles. Remove the handle and replace with your own. that's what I do. I replaced the delrin on an old carbon steel Schrade #152 sharp finger that I found at a garage sale for $4. I've replaced the worn out leather handles handles on old Kabar and Camillus hunters.
I've put stag tapers on old M4 & M7 bayonets. There are pleanty of those old Solingen bowies that were sold as kits in the back of Field & Stream and Sports Afield magazine in the 1960's and 1970"s and Those are good carbon steel blades. Most of the people who bought them never used them they just looked at them so they were maybe sharpened once.

Then there are all the rubber handled knives that Cold steel makes, all of them can be re-handled. Ontario makes a line of knives called spec-plus with rubber handles. the handles come off easy.

Hit the gun and knife shows and look for the vendor with lots of used knives, Many bargains can be found.
 
I have built about 4 of the Jantz kits so far and I have several more to finish up. I'm giving most of these knives away and I feel that they are excellent blades for everyday use. I've found that the blades offer plenty of "meat" to allow for customization. They are not designed to be show knives, but they do sharpen easily and hold a keen edge well.
I just want to add that I'm doing the same thing by building kits. You'll definitely get a feel for whether or not you want to pursue knifemaking. Me? I love it.
 
bladsmth said:
The knife kits I have seen from the major suppliers (Jantz,TKS,K&G,and Knifekits) are generally good steel. They ,however, are made to be acceptable to the bulk of kit makers, who are looking for economy.

If you want a high end steel blade for a kit, you will have to make it yourself.

With that statement in mind, consider purchasing a folder kit and customizing it ,say, with a damacus blade and bolsters and MOP scales.You can do this with a minimum of equipment, and get a $1000 knife out of the work. Material cost could be as low as $150.
The parts that come with the kit will provide the templates to make the custom parts from..........................Just a thought for consideration.
Stacy
Click to expand...

If you want an extremely high quality blade kit try the VG10 kits from Jantz Supply - these kits are made in Japan (the only source of the VG10 steel) by leading manufacturers! They are on sale $20.00 off! See Blade Magazine January and February Issue for Specials! Link to these folder kits! http://jantzsupply.com/cartease/item-detail.cfm?ID=vg101
 
Gene Martin offers some blade blanks that are of quality steel. They are only rough shaped and heat treated, so need some finishing, but the results can be great!

Check them out at www.customknife.com.

Richard
 
I have been considering a Knifekits folder. What I think I want is a GX6 folder with carbon fiber scales. Is this knife worth the cost?
 
I've primarily been a wood-worker so the first knife I "built", was essentially a "scale-less" folder... All I had to do was design, and build the scales (I didn't really "build" much of anything). I did enjoy the process and feel "the need" to move on to an actual "kit". I am fortunately, or unfortunately, the kind of person that goes "whole hog", so I see myself someday, digging up my own Iron ore, so that I can say "I built THIS knife from 'scratch'". I do get carried away...

What do you think of these as a next step in a "kit" folder??;

http://www.knifekits.com/store/s-pages/kk_store_1mainframe.htm?kk_prereserve_ddr3bl-main.htm~smain

Or this?;

http://www.knifekits.com/store/s-pages/kk_store_1mainframe.htm?kk_prereserve_ddr3bl-main.htm~smain

Or this?;

http://jantzsupply.com/cartease/item-detail.cfm?ID=VG103

The last one, the Jantz, for some reason, says it's designed for a scale on only one side... not sure why, but I'm guessing it would still work with a matched set. Anyone had experience/any knowledge with these kits?

Recommendations??

Thanks... what a wonderful "place" this is!!
 
It's a frame-lock, I believe, so you don't want to cover that part of the mechanism. You can do scales on both sides, but not MATCHING scales, as the lock-side one will have to have part cut out so you'll be able to access the lock.

Then again, I may be wrong... let's see what the community has to say.
 
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