Loosely considering screwing with knife making?

S

SBaker34

Joined
Jun 16, 2010
Messages
793
Have a workshop already, lots of scrap steel, saw blades, lawnmower blades, hacksaw blades etc. Old oil, I'm honestly considering making/buying a small forge and belt sander. I know I won't make money, especially from scrap steel knives, but they would be fun to make and make good gifts to send out to forum members and friends. Am I underestimating the cost and difficulty?
 
Don't let anyone discourage you.

Get that forge and belt grinder and beat out some blades from those mower blades.

It is about the journey .
 
It can certainly be done; many of us started out making knives out of old files and mower blades and whatnot. If you have a workshop and you're accustomed to working with your hands, you probably already have the basic skills you will need. Check out the sticky threads, and have fun! :)

Brock's heroin analogy is not too far off the mark... knifemaking can be sort of addictive. Don't say we didn't warn you!
 
My main concern is no belt sander, I see people don't recommend the 1x30 HF one due to the motor, although i don't know if that's because it takes a while or if it legitimately won't do the job. Also can an oxyacetylene torch/oxy/propane torch, be used to weld and soften steel for hammering, or is there potential to permanently damage the metal?
 
I started making knives buying old files at Garage sales etc. I would beep the best, anneal the worn files and then file out knives and sell them until I had enough for a grinder! You will learn a lot. I now use know steels of modern stainless varieties. But this is almost two decades later. And that is another thread.

Have fun & Stay safe, :)
 
Take every penny out of your savings, checking, and retirement accounts. Mortgage your house for its full value, sell anything else you can live without. Take all of the money, put it in a barrel, pour gasoline over it and light it on fire.

Walk Away.

It will be cheaper that way.

J-
 
As Laurence mentioned, starting with files might be the easiest and fastest way for a hobbyist to dip their toes in the water and get a few knives under their belt. That's how I started too, and I don't regret it one bit. :)

You don't even have to build a HT forge/furnace, necessarily. You can just temper back good files in your kitchen oven at 350-400F for an hour to bring them back around 58Rc for toughness, grind 'em down to a cutting edge, and frankly have a pretty decent knife. You're gonna need solid carbide drills if you want to make holes in the tang to accept pins or bolts, to hold handle scales onto it. Or you could just cord-wrap the tang and still have a good, handy, comfortable knife.

I recommend staying away form the HF stuff and spending $150 or so on a Craftsman 2x42 and putting a tempered-glass or hardened-steel platen face on it. It's a decent little machine, and there are a wide variety of high-quality belts available in that size. If you find you're using it a lot, you can easily convert it to run 2x72 belts. (for even more variety and efficiency)

Some people earn a decent living making nothing but file knives.

Is a file knife gonna be the bestest knife ever? No. But does it have the potential to be a dang good knife that performs better than the factory-made stuff on the shelf at Walmart? Heck yeah!

And you don't have to re-finance your house to make it happen. :)
 
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