Knife making, do you have any tips?

[Caleb M.]

I made a knife out of an old sawzall blade and it ugly. It is sturdy and sharp though, which is all I really need. I used a hand sander, a file, and a Dremel with a cutting bit. I was wondering if anybody had some tips or examples of knives made from old saw blades.

 

[Hesparus]

1) Start with a known steel. There were good reasons in the past to use scrap steel, but new steel is so cheap and plentiful now that there's no reason anymore. Get a 4' bar of 1084 from njsteelbaron.com for $10 — it's a great steel and it's engineered specifically to be easy to heat treat.
2) Work on your profile. Your knife looks like the piece of steel it came from. Another benefit of buying new steel is that you can buy it any size you want. Draw a pattern that you like without concern for the dimensions of the bar you're going to make it out of.
3) Use sand paper like it's free. Nick Wheeler has a couple of good videos on hand sanding (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-x4wj8WC8U) and others do, too.
4) Do a youtube search for "tsukamaki tutorial" and you will learn how to do a much nicer cord wrap.
5) Repeat and enjoy.

- Chris

 

[james terrio]

What Chris said :thumbup:

KISS. (keep it simple, son)

Start small. 3-4" drop point blades are useful for lots and lots of things. Some guys spend their whole careers perfecting small handy knives like that, and never make a big honkin' chopper. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

This stuff is a lot harder than it looks. Anyone can knock an edge on a chunk of steel. It takes some planning, patience and practice to make a knife that really cuts well.

Thin is in and light is right.

Have fun!