Knife Making

S

ShadowBlade

Joined
Nov 24, 2006
Messages
25
I was just wondering how many of you survival guys have tried making your own blades. In the movie the Hunted, he made a knife out of a old tuck leaf spring. I have read several of Tom Brown's books and in most of his books he refers to carrying one of his home made knives. I have my Dad's old Sears belt grinder and I'm going to get a MAPP gas torch and some simple O1 tool steel and give it a try. What do you think and can you share any advise.
 
I have started one and I'm having a good time with it.:thumbup: It isn't complete yet. I highly recommend Green Pete's Video, it is great info!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysKd1cswlo Watch all 4, it will help you a lot.


sammyismaboi004.jpg

Here is mine
 
I've made some knives out of saw blades but nothing great,though I made a paring knife for my Grandmother and it's the first one she goes to.What ever that hacksaw blade was made off holds a pretty good edge on fruits and vege's.LOL
 
Draw it up on paper and make the pin hole placement on the paper.

I find it easiest to get the pinholes placed right by drilling them as soon as I've traced my knife onto the steel. THEN I grind the profile to shape and can ensure the pins are in the middle of the blank.

An angle grinder will save you belts on this step. Hog off the majority of the steel with the angle grinder, and finish the profile/smooth things up with the belt grinder.

With 01, use peanut oil to quench rather than transmission fuel. It doesn't stink when it burns.

Get a decent little piece of wood for the handle. Old (non oak) furniture will work fine. Most cutting boards are made of maple, thats good too. Garage sale time. (Oak has large poores that serve as a good breeding ground for bacteria.)

I use 1/4" black pipe for my lanyard tubes, and welding rod stock for my pins usually. Lately I've been going all steel with my pins, but they have brass too. But Ace hardware carries all that stuff.

Devcon 2 ton epoxy is 2 bucks at Walmart. Get you some.
 
Ive made a few knives out of old circular saw blades , leaf springs and all hard high speed steel power hacksaw blades .

I tried forging the blades with some success , I usualy work with just a 4 inch grinder tho , I dont have a belt sander , well , I did for a while , a cheapie chinese job , but it died after only a few days solid work ... what you get for $50 I guess :)

my usual camping knives are a mix of home made ones and bought ones .
I believe a man should be able to do the basics by himself , pretty much , that includes shelter making , fire making , and kife making , I REALY like the neo tribal idea of doing things and have had some serious efforts at this , with reasonable success I reckon .
 
I've attempted it a couple of times now. I need a lot of refinement on technique, but that'll come with time. In my opinion it takes a real knut to start making knives themselves. :D
 
Like FB said, try to plan everything on paper, if you don't like the design once it's finished you man make minor modifications off paper. Here are some blades i've made (some i've sold) in no particular order.

osage010.jpg

]
nessi003.jpg

turkeylegbonenecker.jpg

nesi024.jpg

pocketstag.jpg

knife015.jpg

madrone.jpg

ash056.jpg

troutnbird2.jpg

newknife004.jpg
 
I am a big fan of MM's work, and was lucky enough to win a raffle, so now I own one (6th one down I think). Man has skills. His grinds are PERFECT!
 
ShadowBlade said:
In the movie the Hunted, he made a knife out of a old tuck leaf spring.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about that also.
He walked up with nothing and came away with a knife.

How would you go about making a knife if all you had was a scrap pile
or an abandoned farmstead to pick from?

If you have tools and such that's one thing but what if you had nothing but what you could find?

What metal would you pick, how would you shape it, heat treat it and such?
Seems the least you would need is hammer and file.

Is there a book that would take you step by step though the process?
 
1whitefoot said:
Is there a book that would take you step by step though the process?
Click to expand...

I learned my meager skillset here on BF. Just ask questions.

File steel (from good files), saw blade steel, leaf springs off of OLD cars, all good steel.
 
Check out Wayne Goddard's book, the $50 knife shop, or something like that. Very interesting.
 
I make a lot of my pins from old 1/8 inch drill bits :)

Wayne Goddard's book is pretty good, the greenpete videos aren't half bad.

don't expect your first knife to be the end all be all, but go for it :)
 
Is there any trick you guy use to make sure the grind for the edge is in the middle or is it on feel when you start making the knife??? How do you make the edge so stright so it looks good. Im still lerning and reading as much as i can about knife making.
Muskrat Man i like the shape of the #8 knife.

Sasha
 
sasha said:
Is there any trick you guy use to make sure the grind for the edge is in the middle or is it on feel when you start making the knife??? How do you make the edge so stright so it looks good. Im still lerning and reading as much as i can about knife making.
Muskrat Man i like the shape of the #8 knife.

Sasha
Click to expand...

Some guys dye the steel with that blue stuff, then scribe the center. I just go by feel.
 
What Fiddleback has said is good advice. the angle grinder for the "rough stuff" works well.

01 is fine steel to use, I am partial to the high carbon "spring" steels, like 5160, 1075 and 1095.

I've been using solid brass rod from the hobby store, it's softer than steel and peens easily (mushrooms to hold scales on tight). With that said, many also use epoxy, clamp then peen their rods, so everything is tight and solid.
For epoxying, drill a few extar holes so the epoxy can ooze between the sides. This can also help balance the blade, to give it some forward feel.

Look up heat treating, and look in the knife makers section for tips and hints, heat treating is a science in itself, but, don't fear it., a small torch can get you a half-way decent heat treat with certain metals, a toaster oven at about 400° for 30 to 60 mins gets you a tempered blade.

knifeDesign4b.jpg


EEknife4.jpg


BigBully1.jpg


And here is the "dreaded" unfinished NezzTac knife, "in the raw"
NezzTac.jpg
 
1whitefoot said:
I was wondering about that also.
He walked up with nothing and came away with a knife.
Click to expand...

That's Hollywood and the movies for you. :)

Files and leaf springs work well for forging. For stock removal, files are great but they have to be annealled first. Heat them to cherry red and cool slowly. That softens them so they can be ground into a knife. I have a half a dozen files I annealled but never got back to them. Anybody wants one to play with let me know.
Scott
 
Skunk,
Nice to see you around, drop me a line I have some non forum questions and I trust your opinion.

Thanks, Chris
 
OK show n tell time

I got a couple of the old carbon steel circular saw blades , they were small enough I figured the whole thing would have been hardened and tempered to a good hardness for a knife blade , so I carefully cut the beggars into bits in my high tech work shop , as seen here :
knivesinproduction.jpg


After messing with some bits of wood that was once destined for the fire , and some of the urathane glue that normaly hold windscreens into cars , a sander disk on my grinder , and some ordinary hand held sand paper , this is the result

knivesproductionII.jpg


I also messed around a LOT with various bigger blades out of leaf springs , these I usualy heat , belt flat then grind off the bits that dont look like knife .

again , the handle is from my firewood pile .

leafsprings.jpg


and here is one I made from a chunk of all hard high speed steel power hacksaw blade

knifehomemade.jpg


Its not hard to make them really , it is just a matter of time and patience .
 
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