Knife Blanks

O

osage outlaw

Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
183
I'm a beginner trying to get into knife making as a hobby. I made a few knives from old files last year and they turned out pretty good. I made a semi brake drum forge yesterday. I haven't tried it out yet. Today I had access to a large metal band saw so I took advantage of it. I already had the files annealed. I cut some out of a piece of a large saw blade. Here is what I got done today. I cleaned them up on a bench grinder. I try to get 2 blanks from each file. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a fan of drop points. Any critiques or criticism is welcome.





I want to make a hunting knife set for me and my 15 year old daughter for deer season this fall. She killed her first deer last year. I think she deserves a new knife this season. I started working on the bevels.


 
Look pretty good to me. Be careful with saw blades as some are mild steel with hardened or carbide teeth. I also love drop points!
 
You have some really nice profiles in there,all in a days work keep it up-do you know the steel those files were made of ?
 
I don't know what kind of steel the files are. They were all made in the USA. Most of them were really old. I don't know what quality that saw blade is either. I'm testing it out as my deer skinner this year. I want to see how it performs before I make any as gifts.

Here is my first attempt at knife making

SDC17623.jpg



And #2 and #3. These were a wedding gift set for my niece and her husband.

20151003_144103.jpg
 
I like your blade styles, those knifes for wedding gifts are nice looking--good on ya--good use of that band saw you had access to!!
 
Pretty good stuff! It looks like the edges are pretty thick. If it's a slicer try taking the edge to .010" before you sharpen it. Keep it up!
 
It may just be the angle, but some near the bottom, especially the ones on the left, the spine looks flat. If they are, you should try to get a slight curve in there. It'll make them look much better, IMO.
But they do look good, especially the yellow one. What material is that?
 
Thanks! And thanks for the tip on the blade thickness. I'll measure the next one and see where it's at. I'm not sure what you mean by a slicer? I'm mostly interested in making hunting knives at this point.

The spine is kind of flat on some of them. I'm limited on what I can do in the width of the file. I tried to drop the point down and some on the handles. The yellow wood is osage. That piece is highly figured. It has that tiger stripe look to it. It's pretty rare. I cut and sell around 250 osage bow staves a year. I've only seen the highly figured wood in one tree.

I've been using a 1x30 belt sander. I think its time to upgrade. I was looking at the grizzly belt sander/buffer combo. It has a lot of bad reviews so I'll probably keep looking. I guess I'll probably have to build a good knife grinder. Are there any how-to posts on here for making one?
 
osage outlaw said:
Thanks! And thanks for the tip on the blade thickness. I'll measure the next one and see where it's at. I'm not sure what you mean by a slicer? I'm mostly interested in making hunting knives at this point.

The spine is kind of flat on some of them. I'm limited on what I can do in the width of the file. I tried to drop the point down and some on the handles. The yellow wood is osage. That piece is highly figured. It has that tiger stripe look to it. It's pretty rare. I cut and sell around 250 osage bow staves a year. I've only seen the highly figured wood in one tree.

I've been using a 1x30 belt sander. I think its time to upgrade. I was looking at the grizzly belt sander/buffer combo. It has a lot of bad reviews so I'll probably keep looking. I guess I'll probably have to build a good knife grinder. Are there any how-to posts on here for making one?
Click to expand...

I'm going to build one like this. http://dcknives.blogspot.ca/p/2-x-72-belt-grinder.html

Seems pretty straight forward. Do lots of reading and searches and you will find something you want to build
 
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