Knifemaking in general,your way,lets hear it

bacustomknives

bacustomknives

FULL THROTTLE / FULLTIME KNIFE MAKER
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
13,078
Knifemaking your way?
Lets start off by saying i myself am a fulltime knifemaker, usually everyday im in my shop no matter what,i spend the majority of my time in there sometimes 10-14 hrs a day, i was just wondering what everyones process was? When i start on something i have to finnish it,this is my theroy of it it cant wait till the next day,the day after ect,,i only use to types of steels,one is 1095 and the other is damascus 1095/15n20, both are pretty much done the same way,so heres my process,being a one man team i try to stay way ahead of myself by doing it this way,trying to save time and money, in my head instead of doing a single knife i do this

Note: Buyers if you see something and want a custom order,it will be close but never exactly b/c of my methods of stock removal,there really all one of's

#1- i stock remove and profile atleast 12-16 blades at one time,

#2- i then normalize my steel usually 3- 4 times in the forge b/c of it being "1095"

#3- then i surface grind the scale off all the steel

#4- i then grind all the blades mostly flat,since its most simple to do,i grind up to atleast 400 grit,if clay coating for a hamon it go on up to around 1500 grit ,then i apply the clay and make my design while waiting for the next step ,damascus i do some swedges ect,time pending,and it being alot more exspensive.

#5- im ready for quench now, i heat up my oil and fire the forge up again ,and start quenching all the blades ,aswell as watching my oil temp so it doesnt get to hot,best to do around 3 and wait 10 - 15 mins then do another 3 an so on ,ect.

#6- well i clean up all the blades now and remove any scale and all the oil, and regrind them, i find it easier to do it now than after h/t,

#7- now i h/t atleast half of my batch say 8 of the 16 blades i have ready,i go 2 cycles at 390 degrees for 1 hour each session, once the first batch has soaked for an hour i pull them out stick the next batch in,while the 1st cools and reaches room temp theyll be ready for there 2nd soak when the 2 batch comes out

#8 -i buff all the blades ,or give them a wheel finnish ,do any touch up's needed , when doing damascus i etch my damascus and wipe it with wd-40 till im ready to use it,then when ready i hand sand it under water with 1500 grit and wipe it again with wd-40 to get the pattern to pop!

#9- its time to pick up one of my blades and go to work putting on the handles,i choose my wood, sand my front radius and glue up,drill my holes threw and repeat the process on the other side,time to shape on the belt sander from 80 grit to 320, then i hand sand up to 1500,then i buff to a glossy finnish,outta all these steps i think this step is the most easiest of all ,i can have this last step completed within 45 mins, i have done it so much though the years,if i do a jag of filework,i can still have it finnished within an hour tops,

well this is my process,just curious of your alls,this is why you see me post 1-2 knives a day for a week or so then disappear for 3-4 days, i produce alot of knives and have had great success with this process.

i would like to thank each and every buyer of my knives,and each and every maker that takes the time to comment , it makes me strive foward in the knifemaking world,aswell thank the makers who help me when i hava question,all of u have been straight foward about giving insight on any question i have had, that makes this forum rock! Now back to the shop,have a great day and
"keep the sparks flying" bill @ backwoodscustomknives
 
Last edited:
Bill, I just wanted to say a "thank you" to yourself for all you have done on the forum for us & sharing your knowledge & experience with us. I myself never knew there was so much involved in knife making until I read & followed your pictorial last November on your first bushcraft knife. After seeing that, I now can justify the cost in some of these knives. It had to be a pain in the butt trying to make that knife & at the same time remember to photograph each step thru it's entire process. So many steps and so many chances for some small error to make a several hundred dollar mistake. All of your knives I have seen on here are just absolutely amazing pieces of craftsmanship. And I need to start paying more attention when you post them because I am always seeing them after someone else has purchased them . . . :(
Thanks again for the time and effort to educate us on your craft, best of luck to you in the coming year.
Be safe.
 
Thanks for sharing Bill

I think a lot of us spend time wondering how we could be more efficient. We use different terms for a few processes, but I think I understand your processes.

Mine is similar, with a couple notable exceptions. I like to do filework on soft steel before 'quench'. Also I like to take 1095 from quench, almost immediately to tempering - as soon as it's down to hand holding warm.

It does make lots of sense to work on multiples. Of course, it saves set-up time, but I believe it also aids in developing muscle memory.

Rob!
 
Thanks just1mor you are one of the many that follow,and a hometown guy at that! Thats what make knifemaking great!
 
Thanks rob, we all have opinions and ways,thats why i wanted to share and here from other makers an individuals! Hava good one friend
bill
 
I'm not a full time maker, I do knife work because I enjoy it (you could call it a hobby) and I use it as filler work because there is no hard set due dates.

I work in batches also.



None of these steps really takes particularly long:

I usually buy precision ground, but if not I'll precision grind it or face mill it and then grind it.

I'll saw up the stock into square blanks.

I'll usually put my pin holes and certain other features into the blanks.

I'll fixture the blade by the pin holes and profile mill the cutting side of the blade, leaving the rest of the stock square. This makes milling the bevels easier and makes grinding narrow tips work out nicer.

I'll sit the blank edge up on a mill and set my edge thickness and establish the bevels on the mill. This gets things straight and even.

I'll grind the main bevels

I put it back on the mill and finish the profile. I'll cut my mark into the blade.

Then heat treat. I most frequently use D2. I plate quench through the foil, then directly into dry ice to get to Mf (or about as close as you're going to get). Temper, hardness test, temper.

I'll frequently tumble the blades.

If it is a folder blade I'll hard mill the pivot and surface grind the thickness and then grind the lock face. I've only done a few of these.

While doing all this I'm also making scales. I'll epoxy the wood down to a sacrificial board and run it through a band saw, or perhaps jig it up and slit it up with a big slitting saw. I do all this well in advance so it can stress relieve.

I'll cut the slabs into blanks on a radial arm saw

The wood blanks go on the mill and get stepped pin holes in them

I jig them up by the pin holes and cut the scales to 99%.

I'll also turn the two piece pins. Both sides have shoulders, one side gets a hole, the other side gets a barbed post. These telescope (press fit) together during final assembly with epoxy.

The tang of the blade gets ground, the liner on the scale gets gouged, everything gets cleaned with acetone and I epoxy the mess together with Acraglas, holding it together with spring pins. I keep the steel forward of the scales clean of epoxy.

After a day, I grind the epoxy flush to the steel on the tang (and the scales, which area few thou oversize). I grind the pins flush to the wood and polish the wood. It gets washed with soap and water and sanded again once dry. Then, depending on the wood I start the linseed oil.

Once totally finished I sharpen it on a wet grinder, then stones.

This sounds slow and needless complex, but the fact is each step may only take an hour to do a batch of ten knives. There are several automated or semi automated machines running at the same time. I can make about ten fixed blades this way in about 40 hours. No real good by machine shop standards but I enjoy it and it fills in the lulls.
 
I work in batches also, usually 3-5 at a time, and use precision ground stock mostly.

I scribe the outline and usually drill the holes in the bar before cutting out the blanks on the bandsaw, then clean them up on the grinder.

Scribe center lines, rough grind the bevels and taper the tangs if applicable, then lap the plunge cuts and flatten the bevels on my hand sanding jiggy thingy, grind around the edge with 220 lengthwise to get rid of scribe lines and coarse grinder marks.

Normalize and/or HT as applicable.

I usually rough in the scales at this point. If I am using Micarta or G10 (usually), I use spray adhesive to temporarily mount the scale material one side at a time for drilling, drill the holes and scribe the outline of the tang. Then pop the scales back off and bandsaw the outline as close as I can. This minimizes the amount of dust I produce from these materials on the grinder. I usually use a rasp and do most of the contouring before assembly also, using temporary pins to hold the scales on the blade so it can be clamped in the knife vise.

Finish grind and more sanding on the jiggy thingy, then etch my mark, then glue up the scales.

After this point I will usually finish them out individually.

Finish up the scales, finish around the edges of the grip and spine, bead blast if applicable, sharpen, make sheath.

Repeat.

I have just started doing some runs with waterjet cut blanks and am planning to send these out for HT, which increases the size of my batches somewhat and removes a couple of steps, but otherwise should go in similar fashion.
 
Last edited:
I also do my knives in batches of 4 to 8. All my blades are hand forged, no matter what the size. My primary steel is 1084fg with some 1095 on occasion.
While at the forge, I set the profile, distal taper and the primary bevels.
After forging, the blades are soaked in vinegar to remove the scale. I use a combination of belt grinder, draw filling and hand sanding to take the blades to 280gr finish for clay coating and heat treat.
For normalizing and heat treat, I use a muffle pipe in my forge to reduce scaling and decarb. My quench oil is electrically heated to 130f, +/- 5f. If the oil get too hot during multiple quenches, cool oil is added. After quenching, the blades are checked and straightened, if required, while still hot and placed in the toaster oven for tempering.
The blades are then finished to 400gr on the belt grinder. Hand sanding is 280, 400, 800. Etching is done with FC and then rubbed back with Simichrome polish. The blade is wrapped with painters tape and the handles are attached and finished. Make the sheath and I have learned the hard way to sharpen last.
This is the way that I "skin the cat".
Mike Broach
 
The thread over in the custom section outlines it far better than I could try to do here. And it has pictures. I like pictures. ;) :D
 
I occasionally realize that I have some free time and can sneak into the shop. Making a blade around here ususally goes something like this:


  • I'll fire up the forge and spend most of my time making Damascus.
  • Every once in a while, I'll forge a blade to shape.
  • Then the blade sits for 6-24 months. I call this "seasoning" them :)
  • I'll trip over/accidentally poke myself with/somehow run across an unfinished blade or three.
  • They go into the kiln for stress reliving and a subcritical anneal.
  • Then I let them "rest" for an additional 3-12 months. It's like cooking a good steak, you can't just go all haywire and cut into it while it's fresh off the grill. :)
  • When I later see a small collection of blades gathering like a street gang and threatening to take over, I carry them all back into the shop.
  • Sometimes I'll take one of those "bad egg" blades and grind it while the others watch. It's a sort of "scared straight" program for steel.
  • The ground blank goes back to hang out with his friends so they can fully appreciate what has happened to him. They need to really see the results and think about it for some number of months.
  • After a few of these blades have gone through "the program" they tend to hang out together and shun the rest of their old, unground buddies. They take a trip to the kiln together, get a swim in Parks #50, and come out talking about how soft all the old neighborhood blades are. You've got to be careful at this point and temper that newfound "hard" attitude or the stress just breaks them. Back into the kiln now.
  • After hanging around for another 3-18 months, sometimes a hardened blade decides to make something of itself and get polished up. The waiting period after this step is referred to as "college"
  • Now that a blade has graduated into a finished state, he just needs to be married with a handle to complete his voyage. These guys like to go hang out in the toolbox with all the handle material. They flirt around with all of the pretty, girly, blocks of wood and try to find the "right one for them". This tends to take a good while.
  • Once the two have chosen each other, I (very rarely) will preside over the ceremonies to bring them together. It rarely goes well the first time. I find that a lot of my handles end up divorced from the blades because of some "issue" one or the other of them has. It's sad that the divorce rate is so high in my shop. On average, each blade has to try 2 handles before finding it's "life partner". What ever happened to COMMITMENT guys?
  • After that day when a blade finds it's final handle and they are both polished to a fine finish, I like to let them enjoy their time together for a while and so they sit on a shelf in a nice, padded case waiting to find the right owner. This can take years.

    That's about it. My production isn't very high, but I like to think that each blade gets a more full life this way.... :D

    -d
 
Thanks guys i like responses, Hey, Nick ill go check it out,I know your a pic guy i seen alot of your posts everyone have been informative
Thanks Bill
 
I'm still experimenting with my process as a beginning maker
So I try to stick to these 3 rules.

1. Do the best I can with what I have.
2. Make each knife better than the last.
3. Take Guinness breaks often.
 
My process is a bit different from others...

1) Purchase supplies
2) Stare at the supplies for a while and admire their qualities
3) Get a hair-brained idea for a blade
4) Stare at the supplies to decide which to use
5) Purchase more supplies
6) Purchase more tools
7) Post a thread on BladeForums announcing my hair-brained idea (committing to a sort of social contract to complete it)
8) Sketch out the profile
9) Stare at supplies again to decide which to use
10) Purchase more supplies
11) Purchase more tools
12) Transfer sketch to a billet
13) Cut out the blank
14) Take pictures of the blank and start the WIP thread on BladeForums
15) Purchase more tools
16) Begin grinding the blade to achieve the desired profile
17) Take more pictures and post on the WIP thread
18) Discover a flaw in the design and make adjustments (pretend it was always part of the plan)
19) Finish primary grinding (may take weeks or months)
20) Take more photos and post in WIP thread
21) Stare at the blade for a while to get handle ideas
22) Purchase more supplies
23) Sketch out ideas for the handle (optional step)
24) Cut and drill out the "bolster" piece (usually antler)
25) Spend many hours working with needle files to get the fit right
26) Discard antler bolter because I worked it too hard and made a hole
27) Find a BETTER piece for the bolster and start over with it
28) Spend many hours working with needle files to get the fit right
29) Stare at my supply of wood looking for the best matches
30) Cut out the handle blank from the chosen piece
31) Drill holes for the pins
32) Send the blade out for heat treatment
33) Attempt to get the marriage between handle and bolster right
34) Sand off too much wood trying to get the angles to work
35) Look for something to act as a "spacer" to fill the growing gap
36) Sand too much of the "spacer" trying to get the fit right
37) Get another kind of spacer for the spacer
38) Pin and glue the whole mess together and pray
39) Show my wife what it looks like and get the usual indifferent shrug
40) Sand the handle materials until all the joins are perfect and smooth
41) Take more photos and post in the WIP thread
42) Stare at the completed knife and contemplate the sheath
43) Purchase more supplies
44) Cut out the pieces that will become the "inner sheath" and glue together
45) Cut out the pieces that will form the outer sheath
46) Stain the pieces of the outer sheath and polish them
47) Glue the inner sheath to the back of the outer sheath
48) Stitch the belt loop from the back of the outer sheath (or attach the belt clip)
49) Stitch the top part of the outer sheath to the back part
50) Trim the edges of the sheath and apply Edge Coat
51) Post final pictures on WIP thread
52) Put knife in display case, never to be seen again
 
tryppyr said:
My process is a bit different from others...

1) Purchase supplies
2) Stare at the supplies for a while and admire their qualities
3) Get a hair-brained idea for a blade
4) Stare at the supplies to decide which to use
5) Purchase more supplies
6) Purchase more tools
7) Post a thread on BladeForums announcing my hair-brained idea (committing to a sort of social contract to complete it)
8) Sketch out the profile
9) Stare at supplies again to decide which to use
10) Purchase more supplies
11) Purchase more tools
12) Transfer sketch to a billet
13) Cut out the blank
14) Take pictures of the blank and start the WIP thread on BladeForums
15) Purchase more tools
16) Begin grinding the blade to achieve the desired profile
17) Take more pictures and post on the WIP thread
18) Discover a flaw in the design and make adjustments (pretend it was always part of the plan)
19) Finish primary grinding (may take weeks or months)
20) Take more photos and post in WIP thread
21) Stare at the blade for a while to get handle ideas
22) Purchase more supplies
23) Sketch out ideas for the handle (optional step)
24) Cut and drill out the "bolster" piece (usually antler)
25) Spend many hours working with needle files to get the fit right
26) Discard antler bolter because I worked it too hard and made a hole
27) Find a BETTER piece for the bolster and start over with it
28) Spend many hours working with needle files to get the fit right
29) Stare at my supply of wood looking for the best matches
30) Cut out the handle blank from the chosen piece
31) Drill holes for the pins
32) Send the blade out for heat treatment
33) Attempt to get the marriage between handle and bolster right
34) Sand off too much wood trying to get the angles to work
35) Look for something to act as a "spacer" to fill the growing gap
36) Sand too much of the "spacer" trying to get the fit right
37) Get another kind of spacer for the spacer
38) Pin and glue the whole mess together and pray
39) Show my wife what it looks like and get the usual indifferent shrug
40) Sand the handle materials until all the joins are perfect and smooth
41) Take more photos and post in the WIP thread
42) Stare at the completed knife and contemplate the sheath
43) Purchase more supplies
44) Cut out the pieces that will become the "inner sheath" and glue together
45) Cut out the pieces that will form the outer sheath
46) Stain the pieces of the outer sheath and polish them
47) Glue the inner sheath to the back of the outer sheath
48) Stitch the belt loop from the back of the outer sheath (or attach the belt clip)
49) Stitch the top part of the outer sheath to the back part
50) Trim the edges of the sheath and apply Edge Coat
51) Post final pictures on WIP thread
52) Put knife in display case, never to be seen again
Click to expand...



I ,Am lovin this!!
 
Bill, thanks for sharing.

Like many others, I am so very grateful for the knowledge that has been passed on to me on this forum. It's one of the greatest communities I know of:thumbup:

As far as my methods, I'm still very new to knife making and I am still getting my whole process dialed in, but I've begun to figure out which steps are crucial and which are just spinning wheels:D

Basically.....

Design, paper and pencil
Copy the design and cut out a stencil
Trace onto steel
Angle grinder or band saw to cut out the basic shape
Profile outline on the KMG
Sand profile to 400, mostly by hand
Surface grind to about 220
Grind in bevels starting with 60 grit Blaze or Norzon up to 400 grit structured
abrasive
Heat treat
Once back from heat treat, re-do swedges first, then flats, then bevels to desired finish
Etch logo
Cut out and glue up desired handle materials
Rough out handles on grinder
Finish handles by hand,usually to 400 or 600 grit, sometimes buffed with
green chrome
Final polishing

I want to experiment with more finishes like stonewashed and bead blasted but this is basically how I make a knife right now. I have lots of learning to do and want to push my limits in the future. That shouldn't be a problem considering how great the makers are here at BF, always ready to give advice and recommendations.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top