Knifemaking fact and fiction....

scottickes

scottickes

Joined
Oct 27, 2005
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Please add your own facts and fiction to this thread. It should help the newbies here.

  • Steel is steel. Any steel will make a good knife. This is fiction. Steel needs to have enough carbon to make a knife hard enough to hold an edge. Around .6% or higher carbon is required.
  • Lowes and Home Depot are good sources for knife steel. This is also fiction. Neither of those stores carries high carbon steel. Most of what they carry is 1018 steel, which is about .18% carbon.
  • Steel has a molecular structure. Fiction. Steel has a crystalline structure.
  • The most important part of knifemaking is the heat treat process. This is fact. No matter how good of a choice you make for your steel, if you heat treat it improperly, the knife will not be as good as it could be. In fact, it's possible that a poor heat treat could result in a knife that would be no better than one made with low carbon Home Depot or Lowe's steel.
  • You need fancy equipment to make knives. Fiction. You can make knives with a drill, hand files and sandpaper.
  • Great knives are made by knifemakers, not by great tools. Fact! If you learn how to do things properly, you can make great knives without great tools. Great tools only make the knifemakers job easier.
  • When a knifemaker spends over $100 on sheet sandpaper every time you restock, he/she is probably obsessed with knifemaking. Fact. This means that you're obsessed with getting out that last little scratch.
  • Knifemaking is a profitable hobby. Fiction for most of us. If you're looking to get rich at something, knifemaking is probably not the easiest way.
  • Knifemaking is rewarding. Fact. This hobby can be very, very rewarding. A knifemaker can reach the level of artist, toolmaker, designer, master. Not many hobbies or careers can achieve all of those levels of accomplishment.

Feel free to add to my list. I could go on and on and on, but think it best to leave this open and hear from others.

Newbies: Pay attention please. There will be a lot of one line at a time wisdom coming to you all from some very talented and knowledgeable knifemakers.
 
In no particular order:

Good steel and a great heat treat is worthless without proper edge geometry.

Just because steel ain't red don't mean it ain't hot.

If you're a knifemaker you're going to make knives no matter what tools you have at hand.

If you're not willing to put your name on it then you shouldn't sell it.

When in doubt, don't. (if a process or something is making you nervous, check it out.)

Never grind wearing shorts if your dog has a very cold, wet nose.

You never have enough or varied lights in your shop. Use a variety of light sources when inspecting your blade.

Keep a record when you're working on processes and only change 1 thing at a time.

The customer is always right... errrr NO

Gun shows are a great place to sell knives, NOT in my experience. 18 hours of explaining why my hunting knife is better than their grandfather's Buck 110 even though they just spent more on a range finder than they would on my knife. (I am guilty of this, the stabilizer on my target bow is about $250 LoL)

*** this spot reserved for more as I think about it
 
False: expensive steels make better knives, inexpensive steel doesn't make good knives

True: science is your friend, knife making is a great example of applied science improving art; read and understand applied metallurgy as it applies to what you're doing.

I don't know: is it better to approach knife making with minimal machinery, or with every tool in the book...

An observation: Half of being a master at something it knowing how to take the time to do something right. It isn't so much a skill as it is a mindset.
 
scottickes said:
When a knifemaker spends over $100 on sheet sandpaper every time you restock, he/she is probably obsessed with knifemaking. Fact. This means that you're obsessed with getting out that last little scratch.
Click to expand...

Did you get cc'd on my last order with Pop's? :D

When you least expect it, that's when it happens....FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS True Whether forging, grinding, buffing, handsanding or sharpening, keep your wits about you and remember what you're dealing with.

A first reaction by an experienced forger is to catch something when it falls...False If you grab a piece of steel as it flies off the anvil, you won't do it again.
 
FACT- Ask three knifemakers about HT and you will get four different answers.
FICTION- Trying many different steels is a good way to learn about steel.- The truth is that picking one good steel and making 20 knives from it will teach you far more than making one knife each from 20 steels. When you get the maximum results from a steel every time you use it, then you are ready for a new steel (or not).
Stacy
 
scottickes said:
Please add your own facts and fiction to this thread. It should help the newbies here.

  • Steel is steel. Any steel will make a good knife. This is fiction. Steel needs to have enough carbon to make a knife hard enough to hold an edge. Around .6% or higher carbon is required.
  • Lowes and Home Depot are good sources for knife steel. This is also fiction. Neither of those stores carries high carbon steel. Most of what they carry is 1018 steel, which is about .18% carbon.
  • Steel has a molecular structure. Fiction. Steel has a crystalline structure.
  • The most important part of knifemaking is the heat treat process. This is fact. No matter how good of a choice you make for your steel, if you heat treat it improperly, the knife will not be as good as it could be. In fact, it's possible that a poor heat treat could result in a knife that would be no better than one made with low carbon Home Depot or Lowe's steel.
  • You need fancy equipment to make knives. Fiction. You can make knives with a drill, hand files and sandpaper.
  • Great knives are made by knifemakers, not by great tools. Fact! If you learn how to do things properly, you can make great knives without great tools. Great tools only make the knifemakers job easier.
  • When a knifemaker spends over $100 on sheet sandpaper every time you restock, he/she is probably obsessed with knifemaking. Fact. This means that you're obsessed with getting out that last little scratch.
  • Knifemaking is a profitable hobby. Fiction for most of us. If you're looking to get rich at something, knifemaking is probably not the easiest way.
  • Knifemaking is rewarding. Fact. This hobby can be very, very rewarding. A knifemaker can reach the level of artist, toolmaker, designer, master. Not many hobbies or careers can achieve all of those levels of accomplishment.

Feel free to add to my list. I could go on and on and on, but think it best to leave this open and hear from others.

Newbies: Pay attention please. There will be a lot of one line at a time wisdom coming to you all from some very talented and knowledgeable knifemakers.
Click to expand...
LOL....HD and Lowes selling 1018? not likely. That stuff is recycled junk "A36"....you know.....the kind where you can see the outline of sqaushed sheet metal screws if you etch it?:D
As for the "last scratch", D.E. Henry may have been the only guy to ever get the last scratch out with sandpaper and look what it did to his personality...;)
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
False: expensive steels make better knives, inexpensive steel doesn't make good knives

True: science is your friend, knife making is a great example of applied science improving art; read and understand applied metallurgy as it applies to what you're doing.

I don't know: is it better to approach knife making with minimal machinery, or with every tool in the book...

An observation: Half of being a master at something it knowing how to take the time to do something right. It isn't so much a skill as it is a mindset.
Click to expand...

I think that one should start by hand to gain understanding of the process and physically grasp the mechanics of creation. If you can do it right with a file, the grinder is a natural extensin of that process, if you can successfully shape witha a saw and coldchisel, a milling machine is the natural extension of that process, ad infi . . .

When I'm teaching photography I start people out on a manual camera with black and white film and a reflective meter and grey card. When I'm teaching music I start people with scales, finger excercises and classical music. When I started working in a jewelry trade shop when I was 19 I worked my way up from polisher to chain repairs, to ring sizing etc..
If you do not have the basics all of the wonderful toys in the world will not make you a craftsman.

Here's my favorite myth

"damascus steel will outcut any regular steel"

-page
 
I love reading these to find out what people think are myths and what are facts:D, sometimes the "facts" are myths.
 
Fact: When you drop a newly made knife on the floor it always lands on the file you dropped two days ago and never picked up!:jerkit:
Mace
 
dont drop the blade right out of heat treat it may crack. and speaking of crack, knife making costs more than crack but is twice as adicting :D.

steel dust will burn and is very hot.

if you dont use eye protection you will get metal in them. dont ask :(

its not all about the type of steel used in the blade.

dont be be chicken to test your knives to destruction.

and the last one, you dont have to be a good speller to make great knives :D.
 
Fact: I bought a set of training wheels at a local thrift store. They will be mounted on the side of my forge, because I need them!
 
Mace said:
Fact: When you drop a newly made knife on the floor it always lands on the file you dropped two days ago and never picked up!:jerkit:
Mace
Click to expand...

Yeah....and it always hits the ground tip first!:D
- Mitch
 
fact: believe only half of you hear and half of what you see, test the rest for yourself..

I like this thread,, you know where it's going :D straight up :thumbup:
 
JTknives said:
and the last one, you dont have to be a good speller to make great knives :D.
Click to expand...

Dude,
You really missed a chance with this post! You should have typed it like this:

"end da las won, ewe don half ta bee eh gud speler ta mak grate nifes" :D
 
Dan Gray said:
fact: believe only half of you hear and half of what you see, test the rest for yourself..

I like this thread,, you know where it's going :D straight up :thumbup:
Click to expand...

no its "don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see"
 
hevy by Dan said:
fact: believe only half of you hear and half of what you see, test the rest for yourself..
Click to expand...


hevy ev's said:
no its "don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see"
Click to expand...
I know the saying but don't always agree :o
that's kind of like saying a mentor or a teacher is useless.. :)

if you "hear" in the right places that you can trust in, I'll go with half :D
 
Fact: that bar of damascus you spent a month and a half forging out by handwhenever you can will have one less fold than you thought it had, and when you are finish grinding the blade after ht you will find a cold shut right at the edge 3/4 inch from the tip and have to redesign the shape around it

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

-Page
 
If you are not willing to dedicate yourself to your craft,do not begin. Do you want to be a knifemaker more than you want to make knives?
 
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