knife making kit for deployment

N

night man

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Aug 27, 2010
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I have been wanting to start making my own knives for a while as a hobby. Plus I am a big knife nut. I will be deploying to Afghanistan again, and as some of you know there is sometimes when you are out of your mind bored. So i would like to start preparing now and put together a knife making kit that will get me from a rough peice of steel and a rough handle to a full knife. I will only focus on fixed blades. I will probably bring a 4" inch angle grinder with me but i still need some experienced knife makers opinions on a handtool list for my kit.

I know that heat treating is very important and I will not have access to an oven or anything like that. What I will be able to do is build a small fire and use hot coals (hopefully). If anybody has any advice for heat treating with minimal equipment please fill me in. Also if there is some type of small furnace on the market that I would be able to buy and bring with me or maybe have my wife mail me that would be great.

I am new to knife making so anything that you guys think i should now or might need let me know. I would also like some recomendations for a few good knife making books. How is "the $50 knife shop"? I know i will also need a power drill and i can probably bring a small one with me. Anybody recomend a good set of drill bits for knife making?

So please build me a kit.
 
Files, vise(s), lots of abrasive paper. I would probably get a draw file from Brownells also. Maybe some rasps for shaping grips, and a hacksaw. A flat piece of aluminum, micarta, or something for backing the abrasive paper. A small hammer, a dial caliper, and a ruler.

1080 or 1084 steel will probably be your best bet for the kind of heat treating you will likely be doing. Heat treating is probably going to be the toughest part, you might need some forced air through the coals to get enough heat. I would probably order some Tempilstix temp. indicators of the appropriate temps. for normalizing, hardening and tempering.

Theres lots more I'm sure but this is what came to mind immediately.
 
bring some basic stuff (others can advise you far better than I), and then see what you can get your hands on over there. it can be allot of fun to make a knife from whatever you have
 
Not sure where your going, but if your going to be some place that has a "motor pool"(vehicle maintenance) get to know those folks real well. On one of my deployments I spent a lot of my off duty time at the motor pool because they had just about all the tools I needed, including a good size block of steel and a torch set that I used to forge out several knives. I had my wife ship me over grinding discs and sandpaper as needed. During that deployment I made over a dozen small EDC knives, that I gave away, mostly to to boys in the Motor Pool. At the end of that deployment, one of the knives I had made from a portion of Hummer torsion bar was presented to our Colonel, along with a picture board of me making it.
 
You'll have access to an APO, you could always send your knives back stateside to get heat treated. I think it costs about $10 a knife, and that way you know it's getting done right.
 
Emphasiski said:
You'll have access to an APO, you could always send your knives back stateside to get heat treated. I think it costs about $10 a knife, and that way you know it's getting done right.
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This might be my best option for heat treating.
 
It sounded like you wanted to do your own HT, in which case more power to you, but if you are looking to out-source the HT you can use a wider variety of steels and there are at least 2 guys who would volunteer to HT a few blades for you for free (me being the 2nd).
If you go this route I would suggest an air-hardening steel, the HT is done in tool wrap so there is minimal decarb to remove afterwards, you can get very close to final tolerances before HT and have less metal to remove afterwards. The precision ground A2 I am using now would be great for hand working, it is dead soft and drills and files like mild steel.
 
i help any service members (even army and airforce :) )
i dont often say yes to the 50$ knife shop but in your case its a good plan (sept for HT and usin g scrap steel)

if you get blades where you want them and can draw the pin holes on them i will drill and HT your blades for you and send them back to you for just the cost of shipping
then you can use the angle grinder and files to shape the blade and finishe up with sandpaper
let me know and thank you for your service and stay safe
 
butcher_block said:
i help any service members (even army and airforce :) )
i dont often say yes to the 50$ knife shop but in your case its a good plan (sept for ht and usin g scrap steel)

if you get blades where you want them and can draw the pin holes on them i will drill and ht your blades for you and send them back to you for just the cost of shipping
then you can use the angle grinder and files to shape the blade and finishe up with sandpaper
let me know and thank you for your service and stay safe
Click to expand...

great guy!!!! Cant ask for a better deal than this!
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. Thanks so much for helping me out with the heat treating. I would like to do it myself but at the same time I realize how important that is and I will probably get in contact with some of you and just leave that to the proffesionals for now.

Once again i am new at this. I would like to use some form of stainless steel for its corrosion ressistence but if you guys have a suggestion of steel my ears are wide open.

Also any certain file sets that you guys recommend or drill bits. Also is there a good place i can order packs of sandpaper from 120 all the way to about 2000?

And where do you guys get your steel and handle materials?

What would be the best blade for the angle grinder to rough out the blade?
 
night man said:
Thanks for all the replies guys. Thanks so much for helping me out with the heat treating. I would like to do it myself but at the same time I realize how important that is and I will probably get in contact with some of you and just leave that to the proffesionals for now.

Once again i am new at this. I would like to use some form of stainless steel for its corrosion ressistence but if you guys have a suggestion of steel my ears are wide open.

Also any certain file sets that you guys recommend or drill bits. Also is there a good place i can order packs of sandpaper from 120 all the way to about 2000?

And where do you guys get your steel and handle materials?

What would be the best blade for the angle grinder to rough out the blade?
Click to expand...

You can get sandpaper from 40 grit, all the way up to 2000 at Walmart.

I get all my steel from Kelly Cupples - octihunter@charter.net, and so far ALL my handle material from our very own Burl Source (here at the forums).
 
Your choice of steel may depend on a number of factors. I prefer durability over rust resistance and this has led me away from stainless, although to be fair, I have not worked with the CPM stainless steels so I may be missing something here. I am gaining a fondness for air-hardening steels for the reasons I mentioned in my last post.
I buy most of my supplies from USA Knifemaker Supply but Alpha Knife Supply is a good place to buy small quantities of blade steel, you can get small pieces big enough for 1 or 2 knives instead of buying a whole bar, which is good if you don't have any particular pet steels yet.
I usually buy abrasive paper at hardware stores, and auto parts stores for the finer grits. I would get 1/8" cutting wheels and 1/4" grindning wheels for the angle grinder. For files, a flat 10" or 12" Nicholson double cut, the same size single cut, an 8" half round, a flat 6" or 8" fine cut, and maybe a couple sizes of round chainsaw files.
 
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How's the kit coming along? Any further questions?

I've got a couple chunks of steel I'll send you, can't PM you so please e-mail me.

Tait
 
Sounds like you have it covered....and here is a "hat off" to you! Thanks for your service!

Another option that might interest you is to pick up Tim Lively's video from Amazon called "Knife Making Unplugged." You can see some clips from it by the same heading on Youtube. I found it to be a very enjoyable and helpful video with some very simple and easy to follow techniques. Minimal tools too. You could make a full tang knife with a paracord handle and be good to go! I still use some of those ideas eventhough I use electricity!

Ed's advice on the motor pool is perfect!

Good luck.....

Brad

Hey, I just thought of something else. On the cover of the last BLADE Magazine is a photo of Les George holding a knife I'm pretty sure he made while he was gettin his boots dusty on that side of the Planet! He is a good friend of a friend of mine.
 
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I would get the Loveless book of knifemaking. in the back is a step by step knife made by Barney with hand tools and tips from other knifemakers.
 
If you have drawn up your knife plan, I will cut the profile in CPM154, drill any holes marked, and send it to you before you deploy. That way, once in the sand box, you can spend your time filing and sanding,.... and filing and sanding....and sanding,... and sanding.

You want are good grade files, Nicholson or Black Diamond are two good ones. About 8-10" length is best. A good set of four flat files would be Mill Bastard, double cut, single cut ,and finishing. A double cut half round is useful, too.
You need about ten sheets of wet-or-dry paper in each grit of 100, 220, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000.
You will want a 1X2X6" piece of micarta or aluminum to back the paper when sanding.
A board about 18"X3"X1" is a good work arm to sand on. Take two 6" C-clamps to clamp the arm to a table or something solid, and two 3" C-clamps to clamp the knife to the board while sanding/filing.
A cheap micrometer is useful for checking the progress in filing.
A good extra for the bag would be a two piece set of DMT Duo-Sharp stones. They come with both sides having different grit diamond on them. The8" kit is great for lots of things when shaping the knife...especially after HT. http://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/DMT-Duosharp-Plus-Diamond-Kit-P248C3.aspx
A roll of the blue painters 1" masking tape is very useful for wrapping the blade while working on the handle.
Paper towels/rags and some acetone/solvent ( for cleaning up the epoxy when doing the handles) would be easy to source whereever you are.

While the HT can be done at the motor pool or any place with a welding torch, the best option, and the only one for stainless steel, is to send it back stateside. I would gladly do the HT and ship it back for free. If you send the handle material with the blade, I will drill the scales with seats for Corby bolts and send the bolts back with the hardened knife. That will make your handle assembly much easier. Two screwdrivers and a pack of two part 30 minute epoxy are all you will need to assemble the handle. Files and sandpaper are all you will need to finish it from there..
 
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