My First Knife(s)

[C_Kyle]

I've wanted to do this for a loooong time, say about 18 years. I finally got started. I have absolutely no prior experience making knives...or really anything for that matter. I would appreciate any suggestions or comments. I meant to create a pic build along; but, as usual, I get fully involved with what I'm doing and don't take any step-by step pics. So, I'll outline what I've done so far.

1. I ordered 3/16"X1.5"X12" D2, tubing, pins, etc.

1. I sketched out several knife patterns that I was thinking about. Then I had to make them fit into the too-tiny steel that I already ordered.

2. I redrew my knife patterns, using french curves, circle templates, and a ruler.

3. I scanned the redrawn knife patterns.

4. I created vector graphics of the scanned knife patterns. I do this because it's easier for me to make adjustments.

5. I Printed, cut out, and glued the knife patterns to paint stirrer sticks.

6. I cut out the paint sticks with a scroll saw. I don't have a band saw, yet. Then, I handled the wood mock ups and made a few adjustments.

7. I cleaned the steel up with my angle grinder, and painted it with Dykem. Then, I scribed out my patterns using the wood mock ups as templates.

8. I don't have a band saw, so I used my angle grinder to cut out the blanks (I think that's what they're called at this point).

9. I do have a Harbor Freight 30" belt grinder, and that is what I used to clean up the perimeter of the knife blanks.

10. I drilled the handle pin and lanyard tube holes with the drill press.

11. I re-Dykemed the blanks again, and scribed center lines on the top and bottom of the blade.

12. I made some clamp/guide/things to help me grind better lines.

13. Here's where I did something stupid. I used the Harbor Freight belt grinder to attempt to flat-grind the blades. After butchering the blanks, I resorted to filing and hand sanding. I should have done this to begin with. It took a long time, but was much better. You can see I have a few spots that still need sanding to get some small scratches out.

Anyways, that's where I'm at right now. Tomorrow, I'll work on getting the few scratches out, cut out the handle material, mock everything up and see what it looks like.

I can't do any heat treating, so I'll be outsourcing that to either Texas Knife Supply or Paul Bos.

I'm pretty happy with my results so far. I've wanted to do this for so long; it feels great to finally get started.

I tried to take pics that showed the knives from different angles so you could see the grinds, etc. The pics suck, sorry.

 

[Fiddleback]

So far really nice work!! Keep posting pics! They look great!

 

[69_knives]

Looks good so far; keep us up to date with the progress.

 

[Hankins]

For a first time out you have done well. Next blades try not to break the spine with the grind. Trust me I remember how difficult it was when I first started.
Cheap practice by getting some Paint stir sticks and practice your grinds on them. Wood believe it or not is hard to grind correctly because it goes fast, but it is good practice.

 

[JTknives]

For a first time out you have done well. Next blades try not to break the spine with the grind. Trust me I remember how difficult it was when I first started.
Cheap practice by getting some Paint stir sticks and practice your grinds on them. Wood believe it or not is hard to grind correctly because it goes fast, but it is good practice.

thats something that i had to work on when i started using a belt grinder. now it is just naturial to grab a blade and start grinding as i know what movements cause what. looks good keep of the good work. One thing you can do is thin everything out a bit as 3/16th is a bit thick for a knife that small. i just did a knife a bit bigger then those and it was .100 thick. so if you where to take it down to say .125 that should get rid of the over cut on the spine. just an idea.

 

[Robert Mayo]

Good looking first knives. The only thing i can add is you might want to drill lots of holes in the full tangs to help lighten and ballance them.
Keep at it and have fun.

Bob

 

[J-siah]

wow those look really good. I especialy like the the first one, it has a very "bark river" look to it.

I would second what JT said and add that you should leave your self a little bit to grind off after Ht. What areyou going to do for Ht? Since its D2 I would recomend Paul Bos, plus if you use him you will get your knife back in near perfect condition. When my knives came back from paul bos all I had to do was reput the finish on and clean the yellow austinite off the surface.

 

[C_Kyle]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. It's funny, I was thinking of the same thing when I realized I had broken the spine with the grind, practicing on some thin wood. Now, I have to figure out how to blend that in so that it looks good. Also, I'll be ordering thinner stock for small stuff.

Once I have the blades looking better, I'll work on balancing the knives out, cutting out and rough sanding the scales, and getting them ready for heat treating.

Thanks for the support.

 

[J-siah]

a good way to blend it in is to put a small bevel that runs the legnth of the spine on both sides. nothing big mabby an 1/16th inch and only go to where the spine breaks. this will help cover it.

 

[amcardon]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I have a stupid newbie question: what does "breaking the spine" mean? I hope it's not too obvious and I don't feel like an idiot when I get the answer... ;-)

 

[C_Kyle]

I was unaware of the term; but, if you look at the above pics, you can see where my flat grind went all the way to the spine and was ground into the spine.

Progress update without pics: I attempted to blend the the high grind into the spine, and it didn't go well. It seemed so simple, just grind/file/sand at an angle and it's all done. Nope. I've learned the hard way, that it is much more difficult to try and correct mistakes. My blending isn't looking to good, I think. So, what I'm going to do is thin out the tangs and the spine to 1/8", as was suggested above.

I cut out the scales, made some temporary pins, and drilled the scales. Everything fits. I left about 1/8" extra material on the scales.

That's it for today; I ran out of sand paper. The next update will probably be Monday night; hopefully with good news and pics.

 

[James_Terrio]

ARRRGGGHHH I just did the same thing yesterday on a 98% complete blank. "Just one more pass or two on this bevel and it will be perfect... ohhhhhh *shucks*" Took the plunge right up into the spine; trying to use the edge of the belt to clean up the plunge. It's not horrible but if I can see it I figure everyone will.
Haven't decided yet whether to chamfer the spine, regrind the tang, or a little of both. *sigh*

The part that makes me feel dumb with a capital DUH! is that I've done this before and warned others about it... thought I learned my lesson but apparently not.

 

[Shawn fu]

Nice work-especially for your first ones.I think knife making is one big learning curve...so let the grinds be and finish-who says the spines can't be "broken"?

 

[C_Kyle]

I was thinking, after the fact, that I could have just brought the scales even with the grind, sort of like a bolster. It's too late now; I'm already in the process of "fixing" it. I still have to buy some more sand paper. There's a lot of work to do to fix the fixing attempt.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

That's a very good start. I can't wait to see the finished knives.

On a side note, you might want to build a simple light box to take pictures. Nothing fancy but better pics will help you get better feedback from the nice folks around here.

This is the one I built:

http://www.lemeeknives.com/pages/Tutorials/tutorials_lightbox_a.shtml

Patrice

 

[C_Kyle]

A little bit of progress:

Sorry for all the terrible pictures; but, between them all you can see how I "fixed" the grinds. It's not perfect, which bothers me a little bit, but for trying to repair some crappy grinds, I think I've done OK. This is knife number one, after all...I have to keep telling myself that. You can see that one of the grind lines has become curved in toward the tip of the knife. I like this; but have no idea how it happened; and the other one is straight.

You can sort of see some the deeper scratches that still have not come out. I'm not sure if I need to sand them into oblivion or not. From the beginning, I was planning on doing some sort of patina, via vinegar, garlic, and gala apples. The edge will be convex, so the scratches down at the edge will disappear when I convex it.

Anyways, I think all I have left to do before heat treating is smooth out the top and bottom of the tang.

What do you think?

 

[C_Kyle]

Oh, the other thing I'm concerned with is how the scales are going to mate up to the bolster area, since I tapered that area in to the spine. I'm using spacer material, so maybe that will hide it.

 

[C_Kyle]

OK, I answered my own question about the patina. I created a light patina with balsamic vinegar and tabasco sauce. That's all I had at the time. The patina did make the deeper scratches less visible; but, not much.

I was hoping to have both knives mailed to be heat treated by the end of the week. I think early next week is a better time frame.

Overall, I'm pleased with what I've done so far.

 

[C_Kyle]

Here's where I'm at:

D2 was easy to work with in the beginning. Finishing it is a royal PITA. I feel like I'm making no progress trying to get the deep scratches out. I've gone through 1 pack of 60 grit and 1 pack of 100 grit sand paper and this is where I'm at. The finish is 100 grit dry sanding. The top knife in the pic with both of them has an overnight apple cider vinegar soak patina. I'm just experimenting with patinas. I was hoping it would hide the deep scratches, and it didn't.

I'll be removing the patina. Here's my question: Should I finish the knives to 250 grit, and send them off for heat treating? Or, should I continue to try and get the deep scratches out?

These are my first knives, and I kind of want to get them ready for heat treat and send them out. I've learned a lot and fully expect my third knife to be much better.

Advice needed. Thanks, ck.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

you better do everything now . D-2 is tough steel , even tougher after heat treat . With out power equipment , almost impossible .