New to Knife making

T

thomknitter

Joined
Jan 18, 2014
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2
I know that I am a SUPER BEGINNER! But I really want to get into Knife making as a hobby. I have taken a blacksmithing Class, and really enjoyed that, but it takes some serious coin to get rolling in that line of work. So I am focusing my attention to stock removal knife making. That being said, I don't want to throw a bunch of money away on stock that will end up at scrap metal. Does anyone know where to scavage decent steel to practice a few techniquest that I have read about or watched videos of? Grinding bevels and what not. Like I said I have a ton of reading to do. But without practicing some of it. I will lose interest...

Thanks For any advise!!

Looking forward to a new adventure with all of you!
 
You should introduce yourself in the knifemakers section. There are some very helpful makers that post there.

Everything I have read though, suggests that you use known steel when starting out in knife making. Your can then get predictable results. Start with some 1084, it's the simplest steel to work with for a beginner. There are lots of threads on the site that explain how to heat treat it etc.
 
Heres what I started out with and use to this day quite frequently, Old Sawblades and Files. Sawblades are almost all good for a beginning knife maker like yourself. They are thin and thick as are files. Files are just harder to work with than sawblades which can be remedied by a cheap brakedrum charcoal forge for annealing. You should either buy yourself a good set of files or a Harbor Freight 1x30 grinder if youre on a budget. Just avoid the newer sawblades and the carbide toothed ones. You can find old files and sawblades at flee markets and antique shows. Hope my 0.02 cents helps :)
 
Read the stickies. The amount of time and money you spend looking for 'good' scrap steel will probably exceed the amount of money you spend on some 1084. You could go to the hardware store and get some mill steel, but, the price is about the cost of some 1084.
 
Yes, regular mild steel that can be bought at most all hardware stores is a good metal to start with for grinding practice. Did you read the "stickies" above this forum? They are super for all sorts of information. Unfortunately, the getting involved with stock removal can be pretty expensive too but you can start on the low side and work up. Some starters do get underway in a super manner that makes me think they have been doing it for months or longer. On the other hand most don't. It usually is a very slow learning process . There is all the help here you will ever need if you are willing to use it. Frank
 
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Actually, since forging at its most basic level is literally one step above stone age technology, you technically don't have to spend any money on a forging setup. You really can spend as little or as much as you like to forge.

Tim Lively's forging setup when I visited him a few years ago when he still lived in Texas:










Slight digression, I know. Why am I not in bed yet?!?!?!?
 
Thank you all for the input< I will introduce myself in the Knifemakers section. I know that you guys probably get this all the time. So thank you for your patience on the 1000th time that you haver ansered this question. I will search out the stickies, I'm also new to Forums. So the terminology is something that I will have to get used to. I'm not seeing the stickies just yet but I will search them out and look them over. I did reac about them in another post of course just after I wrote this one... Sorry about that. But anyhow. Thank you all for taking the time to educate me! I really appreciate it!
 
Stickies are at the very top of every sub-forum. For us, the stickies happen to include pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about getting started. The Count is our local PR rep, and his standard reply which is linked above contains even more stuff that will serve you well.

I play the other fiddle, I started with forging too... The learning curve is way steeper, but you tend to learn the metallurgy as you go. I served as a blacksmith's apprentice 20 years ago, so for me that seemed like the obvious starting point for knifemaking. But, I found this forum (despite being a gen x'er I am an internet noob....) last year and would have started with stock reduction if I had it to do over again.... But, to each his own...

Check out the American Bladesmiths Society if you haven't already. Same friendly atmosphere, but are a little more oriented to the heat and beat crowd...

And welcome.

-Eric
 
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