New to knifemaking. Need some resources for finished blades?

J

jcrim007

Joined
Sep 4, 2003
Messages
64
hello all,

i am trying to get into the handmade knifemaking business, but i do not have a lot of money nor a shop to work in with metal stock to make my own blades.

i was looking at a few sites that have already finished blades for sale that i would just cut and shape hanle material for add guards, file work, engravings, etc. to.

any tips on great web sites that sell these types of blades? i have been concentrating on www.texasknife.com for example

thanks,
 
What you need is some steel to grind or file on. Most of us started right where you are, a shoe string and a few hand tools. You will get some real satisfaction and the feel for what you will have to do to make a knife, too. Send me your address and I will send you some good tool steel cutout blanks, probably 01. You still interested and really want to make knives, my email address is oldhickory45@yahoo.com
 
jcrim007,

i am trying to get into the handmade knifemaking business
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You're now warned: Those kit blades are great for practice, but not all of them are acceptable to be sold as handmade knives.

Those $7 440C blades just aren't much for cutting or looks (ask me how I know).

One of my WEB friends bought a stainless damascus blade blank. It came soft with an edge thickness of .040. When he called the answer was, "We didn't know anybody actually wanted one of these for cutting."

That's not so say all blanks are bad. Just remember, you don't get more than what you pay for.

Steve

PS Take John up on his offer. He's the nicest guy on the web and you'll have loads of fun.
 
I started with 2 kinds of kits of sorts: the first was a paring knife blade from Jantz Supply which I put a handl eon: design is good, Heat Treat I'm sure sucks!

The other kit was a blade blank cut out with holes drilled, bolster material, pin material, and some dymondwood handle material. Luckily it also came with instructions! That kit took a lot longer to make, but I had WAY more fun doing it.

All you "need" for a shop is a few files, tons of sandpaper, a 2x4, some clamps, and some kind of drill (get an 8" bench top drillpress on sale somewhere!) Oh, a hacksaw is important too, for cutting out blade stock. You need a large coarse file with a rounded side for doing curves, a smoother one for smoothing curves out, a large coarse file for quick shaping, and a finer file to smooth out the shaping. 4 files! You clamp the knife blank to the board and clamp the board to a tabletop somewhere. File away! For $100 Canadian I can get all of the stuff mentioned. Do get good files (Nicholsen, or some other good brand), not 10 files for $1.99 made in Kerjunkistania. There is a world of difference between cheap files and good files!
 
What happens when you get asked to make a specific type of custom knife? Not to be too harsh but that is knife assembly not Knifemaking.
 
If John is making the offer, take it! What a nice gesture!
 
thanks to everyone so far.

john i have sent you an email. thanks a lot for the offer. i look forward to hearing from you.

these blades that i was asking about were just for practice. mostly to get a grip on cutting/shaping/forming handles with the tools i have. but i got some cheap oak planks to practice on now.

the blades i was looking at were also AUS8 and D2. i would never buy the 440 stuff. i figure AUS8 can't be bad because spyderco uses it so much.

thanks again!
 
Hey, if jcrimm007 doesn't want some "starter steel," I'd be more than happy to take some O1 scrap off your hands... :) I've been lurking here for a few weeks thinking, wouldn't it be cool to make my own knife? Then, naturally, it went from "knife" into "knives," and it seems like it's all downhill from there.

Problem is, the only scrap spring steel that I've been able to find has already been hardened -- the hacksaw blade just bounces off. Where does one get small amounts of good tool steel in the annealed state? Everywhere I've called wants to know how many dozen feet I need!

Thanks,
MK9
 
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Best place to buy O1 is Tool and Die.

I'm with the others, don't put a lot of yourself into a kit blade. Much better to suffer through the agony of forming your own even if with files and sandpaper. You might consider starting with 1/8" stock.

Do a lot of searching here, there are ideas that will save you a lot of heartache. Heat treating is not hard but there is an art to it that rewards a lot of practice and testing. You can get a workable blade pretty easily; the super blades take some development.

Once you've completed a couple of blades you'll either run from this vocation screaming or you will be hooked for the long haul. Either way, you'll be proud of any knife you make yourself, and rightfully so.

Good luck and don't be shy about asking questions here, there is a whole lot of great experience waiting to help you through. Without this place I'd be nowhere.
 
I'm feeling tremendous jealousy pain...new guy gets to start off with one of John's blanks!
 
jcrim007 said:
i am trying to get into the handmade knifemaking business
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Yuppers, like others have said here before - kit knives aren't considered custom knives. Do yourself a favor and never try to sell one as such, or even put your name on it! your credibility will be shot right from the start. Now having said that, kit knives and blade blanks area great way to learn knifemaking SKILLS... but just starting with a chunk of steel and a file is probably the best way. Take John up on his offer. You'll never find a better one!
 
My personal rule is: take whatever you can get your hands on....:D

except when I'm at the grocery store....:rolleyes: :footinmou
 
MK9,

check out a local place that makes (not just sells) automotive springs... they buy annealed (softened) barstock in roughly 22' lengths and grind it down to size, heat treat it, etc for the particular vehicle. I ended up getting some 3/16" x 1.5" 5160 at a little over $2/lb which IMO is an awesome price and because they were local I didn't have to pay shipping charges. If you call make sure it's annealed.

cheers
 
What do you guys think of Admiral Steel's service of cutting out blade blanks of your own design? You provide them with a sketch and dimensions or with a CAD drawing and they cut it out of the steel that you want at an additional cost. You may have not cut the blade design yourself, but you still have to grind it and attach a handle. Just curious.
 
powells85 said:
What do you guys think of Admiral Steel's service of cutting out blade blanks of your own design?
Click to expand...

I was actually thinking of doing this. I have a my own little generic fixed-blade design that would lend itself to that process quite well. I do know that some makers also do this. I think I have a Johnny Stout hollow-grinding video in which he mentions buying his blades pre-cut like that.

Does Admiral list the cost to do this procedure?
 
nah...you gotta pry it outta Terry...

Basically it's like $100+ to set it up, ~$10 per knife to cut it out (price decreases as quantity increases), plus you buy their steel. (and there are probably other costs I can't remember right now)

To do anything less than 20 at a time isn't worth it. Even on little knives.

But....after 20, the price goes down and really starts to look good. ~$15/blade total cost - which beats the pants off profiling them yourself.

Still gotta grind 'em, though.


(These figures, of course, vary depending on the complexity of the blade, thickness of steel, steel type, etc.)



(note to Terry - hope these figures aren't grossly inaccurate)
 
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