Looking to make my first knife.

Carl_First_Timer

Carl_First_Timer

Joined
Dec 6, 2010
Messages
1,154
Hello all,
First off, I'd like to say I have been looking around the for a few hours. I love the site, and attitude of the users.

A little about me, I make punching and forming tooling for a living. I have multiple manufacturing machinery at my disposal, such as lasers, milling, drilling, grinding, and EDM machines, as well as a heat treating oven.

Okay, so I am looking to make my first knife, a few actually. My Great Aunt that introduced me, and my cousins to the great outdoors has passed away. I want to make a knife for myself, and for my two cousins that grew up spending weeks at a time outdoors with her, and her Indian guide friend. I hope to be able to finish by summertime.

I was thinking to use 1095 steel to make the knife into a tanto shape (seems easier to make with my available tools) and wrap the tang with Paracord. I have to admit I almost feel ashamed at how I had planned to fabricate the knife(s) after reading some of the threads, and viewing videos around here.

I planned to:

laser cut the profile
Belt sand the edges
Heat treat the steel,
Then Wire EDM the bevel.

Any suggestions, or warnings would be greatly appreciated.

Sample Picture (Shown w/ fishing spear tips):
tanto.jpg
 
Welcome to Bladeforums. I moved this to Shop Talk where the knifemakers can help you. Check out the stickies there, too. They have a lot of information you can go back to as you learn the craft.
 
I hit most new posters with this.

Most of it won't apply to you, but have a look anyway.

Tantos may not be as useful as some shapes, and not as traditional as what you were raised with..
I believe you likely have the skills to handle whatever project you want to.

What else could you do?

and maybe make better use of the mill...





Have you seen this ?

The Standard Reply to Newbies v10

The answer to a 13 year old student is different than to a 40 year old engineer.
We may recommend a local supplier, or you may have a helpful neighbour; but that depends on where you are.
Fill out your profile with your location (Country and State at least), age, education, employment.

Look at the threads stickied at the top; many are expired, but not all.

The basic process in the simplest terms

Absolute Cheapskate Way to Start Making Knives-Printable PDF
Absolute Cheapskate Way to Start Making Knives-Website


Detailed instructions by Stacy E.Apelt.
Detailed instructions by Stacy E.Apelt

The Things I Advise New Knife Makers Against-Printable PDF

Handle Tutorial - Nick Wheeler-Website



Books

A list of books and videos on the KnifeDogs Forum
http://www.knifedogs.com/showthread.php?t=5285

BladeForums - E-books or Google books
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603203

I like:
David Boye-Step by Step Knifemaking
Tim McCreight-Custom Knifemaking: 10 Projects from a Master Craftsman
These are clear, well organized, widely available and inexpensive too.

Knife Design:
On the Google books thread, you can find
Lloyd Harding drawings
and
the Loveless book with large variety of proven classic styles.
Google books thread


Forging Books:
Lorelei Sims-The Backyard Blacksmith
An excellent modern book with colour photos for forging in general - no knifemaking.

Jim Hrisoulas- has 3 books on forging knives. Check for the cheaper paperback editions.
The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way to Perfection
The Pattern-Welded Blade: Artistry in Iron
The Master Bladesmith: Advanced Studies in Steel

Machine Shop Basics -Books:
Elementary Machine Shop Practice-Printable PDF

Machine Shop Tools-Printable PDF

The Complete Practical Machinist-Printable PDF


The $50 knife Shop
It confused me for a long time.
Forging is NOT necessary; you can just file and grind to create a knife (stock removal)

The goop quench is total Bull, commercial quench oils are available, even grocery store canola oil works much better.

Junkyard steels require skill and experience to identify the steel and heat treat it properly.
You can buy proper steel like 1084 very cheaply.

I like cable damascus, but that is an advanced project that has no place in a beginners book.

The home built grinders are the best thing about this book, but there is now a huge amount of info for 2x72” belt grinders on the web, including free plans.


Videos

Heat Treating Basics Video-downloadable
http://www.archive.org/download/gov.ntis.ava08799vnb1/ava08799vnb1_512kb.mp4

Many specific how to knifemaking videos are available, some are better than others.

The best overall Knifemaking video I have seen is
“Steve Johnson-Making a Sub-Hilt Fighter”

The best video on leather sheath making I have seen is
“Custom Knife Sheaths -Chuck Burrows - Wild Rose”
-(Paul Long has 2 new videos, his sheath work is fantastic. I hope the videos are too)

You can see a list of videos and reviews at this rental company; some are worth buying, some renting…
They are slow to get new titles and wait times are measured in months,
http://smartflix.com/store/category/9/Knifemaking

Green Pete's Free Video
Making a Mora bushcraft knife, stock removal, hand tools, neo tribal / unplugged heat treat.
"Green Pete" posted it free using torrent files.

Greenpete Knifemaking Basics-on TPB
You can also find it on YouTube broken into 4 parts.

Draw Filing Demonstration
YouTube video -Draw Filing-for a flat finish

Steel
The “welding steel” at Home Depot / Lowes… is useless for knives.
If you send out for heat treating, you can use A2, CM154, ATS34, s30v, 440C, plus many others.

If you heat treat yourself, find some 1070, 1080, 1084,
1084 FG sold by Aldo Bruno is formulated just for knifemaking.

You can find a list of suppliers here
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699736

Aldo is highly rated.
http://njsteelbaron.com/


Heat Treating
You can send blades out for heat treating at $10 or $15 per blade for perfect results, and avoid buying the equipment.

This PDF brochure gives a good overview
http://www.buckknives.com/resources/pdf/Paul_Bos_Brochure.pdf

http://www.petersheattreat.com/
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/about_us.php
http://www.knifemaker.ca/ (Canadian)


Grinder / Tools

Hand Tools
You can do it all by hand with files and abrasive cloth like the Green Pete video.

Photo of a nice bevel filing jig .
http://www.flemingknives.com/imagesPrime/FileStation/KPicB007.jpg

Entry Level Grinders
Many makers start with the Sears Craftsman 2x42 belt grinder.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921513000P?prdNo=3

Commercial Production 2 x 72” Belt Grinders
http://www.prometheanknives.com/shop-techniques-3/grinders

Mapp arm – Grinder Toolrest
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=466024


DIY 2 x 72” Belt Grinders

KMG Clone
Free Plans
http://www.dfoggknives.com/PDF/GrinderPlans.pdf

NWG No Weld Grinder
http://www.usaknifemaker.com/plans-for-the-no-weld-grinder-sander-nearly-50-pages-p-723.html

EERF Grinder (EERF =“Free” backwards)
Free plans
http://wilmontgrinders.com/EERFGrinder.aspx
http://blindhogg.com/blueprints.html

Buy the kit
http://polarbearforge.com/grinder_kit.html
 
Whoa all that equipment I am jealous. wire EDM-sooo jealous. I tried making a couple of small knives out of cemented carbide, it was a bitch to grind. my ceramic belts would barely touch it and I ruined 3 or 4, but still fun.

Anyway i am not really familiar with how EDM machining works, so I cant comment on its effectiveness. However that being said, I have never heard of anyone using it for a knife, at least a steel knife, because it can be realitivly easily machined in its annealed state. But you probably know better that I.

Ah darn it I didnt mak it in before the standard reply...;)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the Standard reply. Lot's of good info there. I'm going through it now.

@Nebulae EDM stands for electrical discharge machining. It is used in tool and die making to "Machine" materials after they are hard. Materials expand and contract, when heated and cooled, as you all discuss here. In order to have an ultra precise tool, we machine first, heat treat, then make the final cuts. I can "cut" carbide no problem. The machine holds tolerances of +/-.00005".
 
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