First I saw this video on youtube of a guy making a knife, so I wanted to try it out. I was looking for a good woods knife and in general wanted to see what I could make, here are the results. It's a rough copy of the Ray Mears bushcraft knife.
12" Pitsburg file, homemade forge, and hole for blower to get things really hot.
Heat file to 800 degrees, and let it cool naturally. Test hardness by filing a bit, if material comes off fairly easy it is ready.
I used a cut-off wheel to cut the big peices off.
Use the cut-off wheel to shape the knife slowly with the flexible wheel to make shape of metal to fit hand. The thin flexible cut-off wheel worked great.
Use another file to smooth knife edges a bit, they were sharp!
Rough shape of knife
Before and after so far.
Start working on the blade edge with the file.
Looking down the center. The hardest part is getting everything centered, take your time and use just a file to remove material slowly.
400 grit sandpaper, followed by 600 and 1000, most of scratches are out, but not perfect. I sharped the blade to cut paper.
Drilling hole for lanyard loop. Selected stainless tube for insert.
Drilling holes for handle brass pins. I used 2 pins.
Holes drilled while metal is still workable and minor edge put on knife.
Heating forge back up to temper blade, back to 800 degrees and ready for a quick cool down in oil.
Ready to be dipped in used motor oil. Water can cause knife to snap or so I have heard.
Note the big fire, yes the oil caught fire in a plastic bucket... DOH!!!!!!!
Dip knife straight down.
Yes, I dropped the knife at the bottom of the bucket.
Sanding oil off to get back to the metal color.
Temper back of blade to dark brown or straw color just on the spine.
Pins inserted and oak selected for handle.
Slowly shaping handle with hand sander, its all I had and it took forever.
Another angle.
Boiled linseed oil applied and final sanding done, lanyard stainless pin inserted.
Another angle.
All in all this was a good experience, total time was about 25 hours mostly done by file and a hand sander. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
12" Pitsburg file, homemade forge, and hole for blower to get things really hot.
Heat file to 800 degrees, and let it cool naturally. Test hardness by filing a bit, if material comes off fairly easy it is ready.
I used a cut-off wheel to cut the big peices off.
Use the cut-off wheel to shape the knife slowly with the flexible wheel to make shape of metal to fit hand. The thin flexible cut-off wheel worked great.
Use another file to smooth knife edges a bit, they were sharp!
Rough shape of knife
Before and after so far.
Start working on the blade edge with the file.
Looking down the center. The hardest part is getting everything centered, take your time and use just a file to remove material slowly.
400 grit sandpaper, followed by 600 and 1000, most of scratches are out, but not perfect. I sharped the blade to cut paper.
Drilling hole for lanyard loop. Selected stainless tube for insert.
Drilling holes for handle brass pins. I used 2 pins.
Holes drilled while metal is still workable and minor edge put on knife.
Heating forge back up to temper blade, back to 800 degrees and ready for a quick cool down in oil.
Ready to be dipped in used motor oil. Water can cause knife to snap or so I have heard.
Note the big fire, yes the oil caught fire in a plastic bucket... DOH!!!!!!!
Dip knife straight down.
Yes, I dropped the knife at the bottom of the bucket.
Sanding oil off to get back to the metal color.
Temper back of blade to dark brown or straw color just on the spine.
Pins inserted and oak selected for handle.
Slowly shaping handle with hand sander, its all I had and it took forever.
Another angle.
Boiled linseed oil applied and final sanding done, lanyard stainless pin inserted.
Another angle.
All in all this was a good experience, total time was about 25 hours mostly done by file and a hand sander. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
