My Very First Knife

[lepepwerna]

Hello Forum.

First a little story. I came across this site, and subsequently this forum while looking to buy a new pocket knife. I got tired of having cheap knives that broke or easily dulled, so I decided to research a quality knife. When I found this forum, and started looking at what it would cost to make my own knife, I decided it was a project worth undertaking. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow most of the tools I'd need from my father, who is a carpenter and jack-of-all-trades.

So I have to say thank you to this forum for inspiring me to try something new. :thumbup:

Onto the project. Now, I know the general consensus is that a first knife should be a basic fixed blade, but I happen to live in New York City, where I cannot carry fixed blade. I cannot even have a folder clipped where it is visible. So I made the choice to make a folder. It's far from perfect, but I am mostly satisfied with the results for a first try. So let me know what you think. Thanks for looking.

Some quick specs:
Blade is CPM-s30v
Liners are titanium
Scales/Spacer are G10

 

[AVigil]

You jumped right off into the deep end my friend

You did well for your first knife not to mention folder

 

[hoxhunbe]

That is an AMAZING first effort. :thumbup:

Did you design it first or just kinda start building? Oh, please post a video of the action.

 

[lepepwerna]

You jumped right off into the deep end my friend

You did well for your first knife not to mention folder

Thank you very much!

That is an AMAZING first effort. :thumbup:

Did you design it first or just kinda start building? Oh, please post a video of the action.

Thank you so much!

I did design it, I'm a bit of a cad fanatic, so I had drawn it up and modified it for a week before I decided I wanted to definitely do it.

Also, I wish I was patient enough to have taken a video of the process. Once I got my materials I just started working.

Here's the cad drawing:

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

Nice work!

 

[Will52100]

Well, it might be a little crude on the fit and finish, but it's got everything a folder is supposed to have, and you should have seen my first attempt at a folder! Keep the drawing, if you try another one you can tweak and improve the present design from what you learned on the first one. Though really I don't think there's much to improve on design wise.

I'll add that it's a heck of a nice design overall, pretty unique, which is hard to come by with a liner lock, especially on a first attempt. The only real flaw I see is the screws holding the handles on and I assume the handle together, they really need a round headed screw or counter sink as it's likely to tear your hand up doing hard work. That and maybe more screws and an alignment pin or two. Of course that requires more tools that most times aren't found in most non knife shops. The rest, the blade bevels, finish, ect. will come with time and practice. One thing about your design I really really like is the lack of a choil or exposed notch on the bottom of the blade for a stop pin. I detest any place near the edge that can hang up on something and your folder looks like it will slid into the work without a problem. All in all that's one to be proud of.

 

[hoxhunbe]

I'll add that it's a heck of a nice design overall, pretty unique, which is hard to come by with a liner lock, especially on a first attempt.

Agreed. Winning, unique design for sure. I dig the CAD drawings, too.

 

[lepepwerna]

Well, it might be a little crude on the fit and finish, but it's got everything a folder is supposed to have, and you should have seen my first attempt at a folder! Keep the drawing, if you try another one you can tweak and improve the present design from what you learned on the first one. Though really I don't think there's much to improve on design wise.

I'll add that it's a heck of a nice design overall, pretty unique, which is hard to come by with a liner lock, especially on a first attempt. The only real flaw I see is the screws holding the handles on and I assume the handle together, they really need a round headed screw or counter sink as it's likely to tear your hand up doing hard work. That and maybe more screws and an alignment pin or two. Of course that requires more tools that most times aren't found in most non knife shops. The rest, the blade bevels, finish, ect. will come with time and practice. One thing about your design I really really like is the lack of a choil or exposed notch on the bottom of the blade for a stop pin. I detest any place near the edge that can hang up on something and your folder looks like it will slid into the work without a problem. All in all that's one to be proud of.

Agreed. Winning, unique design for sure. I dig the CAD drawings, too.

Nice work!

Thank you guys, I appreciate it.

I think a part of the design being unique is that I didn't, and still don't have much of a clue as to what I'm doing.

As far as the screws go, they were going to be counter-sunk, but I don't have the right drill bit (7/64). As soon as I do that will happen though.

And I will definitely be doing another, probably not the same design just yet, but I have enough material left that I should be able to make two more knives. They will probably go to my father and my brother, but I haven't decided on designs yet. I made two more, but one I'll have to save until I'm better at this, and the other just doesn't seem right for either of them. So I'll probably draw up a few more designs before I decide what I want to do.

 

[payus]

Wow, very nice for a first try! Are u here to stay?

 

[unky_gumbi]

I agree with Will52100 that the fit and finish needs a bit of work, but for a first knife it is outstanding. I like the general shape of it and it looks like the design would be a nice user. I have yet to attempt a folder, but it is coming sooner or later because I have people asking me if and when I will make one. I just don't have the confidence to jump in with both feet yet

 

[tryppyr]

Like everyone else, I like the design. If it was my knife I would have ground the bevels much higher into the blade. I would also have sanded the blade to a much higher level. I like to go to 2000 grit.

 

[Patrice Lemée]

The Force is strong in this one.
Welcome to our madness, I am looking forward to the next one.

 

[panch0]

Whoa man a folder for your first knife! Try a small fixed blade, I bet you will knock it out of the park. Looking forward to it.

 

[stevomiller]

Very nice for a first time go at it. ;-)
A few suggestions which require no further investments in tools when making the next.
1. If you don't have the proper flat botttom bit to counter bore for the handle screws, then use button heads (and more of them as previously stated).
2. Bring your primary grind MUCH higher up the blade, and you will find that your cutting performance will increase by an order of magnitude.

 

[lepepwerna]

Thank you guys. I really appreciate the ego stroke

But seriously, I love the feedback. I can definitely agree about the bevels and the finish. I plan on continuing working on the scales. I want to rough up the G10 some more, and then I think I'm going to cover it in some clear coat that I have left over from my car. So we'll see how that works out. As far as polishing the blade goes, I may disassemble and do that, but I was excited to have it together and be a functioning knife, so I skipped over that. I have a stone that would probably put a nice shine on it, and I also have buffing wheels + compound for my dremel which would finish it off nicely.

There's also something I've been meaning to ask, but keep getting distracted. To sharpen my blade, I first used a waterstone/grinder that I found in my Dad's shed. It's a great little thing, a Craftsman, it runs at about 200 RPM and did a great job of putting a rough edge on. Then I went to a tri-stone, that I know on my other knives gives a super sharp edge. My problem is that it has been very hard to sharpen the back portion of the blade, because of the slight curve I gave it. It's sharp, but not as sharp as the rest of the blade, which took a pretty good edge, and I'm sure I can get sharper if I spent the time on it. I was thinking that one of those sharpener tools, where you put the blade into it and draw it through might work better for this particular knife. I was hoping you guys could give me some advice on that front, I don't own one and have never even used one. The picture below has the area I'm talking about circled if I didn't make it clear before. Thanks again guys!

 

[stevomiller]

On recurve blades a rod shaped hone (diamond or ceramic) is your friend ;-)

BTW, who performed the heat treating process on the blade for you?

 

[lepepwerna]

On recurve blades a rod shaped hone (diamond or ceramic) is your friend ;-)

BTW, who performed the heat treating process on the blade for you?

For the heat treat I sent the blade to Peter's Heat Treat in PA. I have to say, I'm pleased with how they work. It came back to me sooner than I expected, and they marked down that it was in the 59-61 RC range. Besides that it was reasonably priced. So Really no complaints.

I actually researched building a heat treat kiln, but the controller for the thermocouples is so expensive. I found some open source software for an Arduino controller, but I have yet to figure out a circuit that it could control without having the power run through the circuit board. Arduinos would not be able to handle the power needed for the thermocouple. So that is a project for when I'm more serious about this and have more time and money.

Any suggestions on a sharpener I should look at? Either a stand alone rod, like a butchers steel, or one of those draw through jobbers?

 

[Brian.Evans]

Rod like a ceramic rod. Not a butchers steel, and please for the love of your particular god don't use a pull through sharpener!

 

[lepepwerna]

Rod like a ceramic rod. Not a butchers steel, and please for the love of your particular god don't use a pull through sharpener!

Hahaha. I always considered those pull through sharpeners to be junk, and no replacement for a decent stone, but I was wondering if perhaps there was something I was missing. I'll have to look into getting a rod though. Anything in particular I should look out for? Or just something in my price range?

By the way, I wasn't actually considering a butchers steel, just the general shape and application.

 

[scubasteve4sq]

For the heat treat I sent the blade to Peter's Heat Treat in PA. I have to say, I'm pleased with how they work. It came back to me sooner than I expected, and they marked down that it was in the 59-61 RC range. Besides that it was reasonably priced. So Really no complaints.

I actually researched building a heat treat kiln, but the controller for the thermocouples is so expensive. I found some open source software for an Arduino controller, but I have yet to figure out a circuit that it could control without having the power run through the circuit board. Arduinos would not be able to handle the power needed for the thermocouple. So that is a project for when I'm more serious about this and have more time and money.

Any suggestions on a sharpener I should look at? Either a stand alone rod, like a butchers steel, or one of those draw through jobbers?

You could use the arduino to send control voltage to a contactor, and have thethermocouple power run through the contactor. The arduino would just activate/deactivate your major circuit. Where I work we have 24 volt dc control power operating 700 hp electric motors using 4160 volt 3 phase power. Think of it as an electric computer controlled light switch.