newbie here, would like to say hello

fast14riot

fast14riot

Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
8,721
Hey all, the name's Xander, I just joined the forum and would like to introduce myself. I have always had a healthy interest in knives as long as I can remember. I am a big fan of CRKT knives and now that I think about it I actually have three from them on me every day! I carry a P.E.C.K on my keys, a M16-13 (pre auto lawks), and a 7" First Strike on my belt. Now I love these knives for EDC, but somehow they seem to be lacking in a certain character. This is why I wish to learn to make knives. I am a very hands on person, and am now pretty well settled into my first house with the wife and new baby (13m.o. now, jeez!). I work in construction currently and love to create. I would love to be able to go out to the hardware store and just order every power tool I could use to make my own knife, but that won't happen. So I have to settle for a set of hand-me-down files, a work bench, a bench vise, and some sandpaper. My dad has a drill press I could use when I need, but he hates that I never replace the broken bits I "Always find." So to sate my thirst for a "custom" knife I have just ordered a blade blank off of eBay and am going to try to "build" my first knife. I figure that this would eliminate a big step for me right now, but I still would not be able to tell anyone I "made" this knife. I really hope to someday soon build one from scratch, I even keep a drawing pad which I fill with my own ideas and designs for when I can.

The blank I purchased is a drop point skinner, 440C. The seller made a very big deal about it being true 440C, 56-57Rc and not junk steel, so I sure hope it is. I ended up paying less than 15 bucks including shipping, which was way below their "buy it now" price. I still need to source some material for pins/scales. The cheaper the better. What would be some good (read cheap or free/scavenged) material for the scales?

Anywho, sorry for the long winded intro, but hopefully you will be seeing a "My first knife!" thread from me real soon.


Cheers-
Xander
 
Awesome. Welcome aboard. The train leaves now and it never comes back to the station. :D

There's tons of great info on here and some really top notch makers. I've learned a good bit of what I know about making knives from this very site. Let us know if we can be of any help. The stickies have great information in them, and you can search the site for specific questions. Learn what you can, put on your biggest set of ears (or eyes in this case), and have a great time!

--nathan
 
Have you seen this ?

The Standard Reply to Newbies v8

The answer to a 13 year old student is different than to a 40 year old engineer, and you may have a helpful neighbour.
We can often recommend a local supplier, but that depends on where you are.
Fill out your profile with your location (Country and State at least), age, education, employment.

Look at the stickies at the top, many are expired, but not all.

The basic process in the simplest terms

Absolute Cheapskate Way to Start Making Knives-Printable PDF
Absolute Cheapskate Way to Start Making Knives-Website

This is a very detailed set of instructions by Stacy E.Apelt.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=694673


Books

A list of books and videos on the KnifeDogs Forum
http://www.knifedogs.com/showthread.php?t=5285

BladeForums - E-books or book previews Google books
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603203

I like:
David Boye-Step by Step Knifemaking
Tim McCreight-Custom Knifemaking: 10 Projects from a Master Craftsman
These are clear, well organized, widely available and inexpensive too.

Knife Design:
On the Google books thread, you can find
Lloyd Harding drawings
and
the Loveless book with large variety of proven classic styles.

Forging Books:
Lorelei Sims-The Backyard Blacksmith
A modern book with great photos for forging in general - no knifemaking.

Jim Hrisoulas- has 3 books on forging knives. Check for the cheaper paperback editions.
The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way To Perfection
The Pattern-Welded Blade: Artistry in Iron
The Master Bladesmith: Advanced Studies in Steel


The $50 knife shop
It is popular, but it confused me for a long time.
Forging is NOT necessary, you can just file and grind everything away to create a knife (stock removal)

The goop quench is total Bull, commercially made quench oils are cheap and easily available, even grocery store canola oil works much better.

Junkyard steels require the skills of an experienced smith to identify the steel and heat treat it properly.
You can buy proper steel like 1084 very cheaply.
(Mentioned in the new edition)

I like cable damascus, but that is an advanced project for an experienced smith and has no place in a beginners book.

The home built grinders are the best thing about the book, but there is now a huge amount of info on home built 2x72 belt grinders on the web.
The revised edition of this book should have included this.


Videos

Heat Treating Basics Video-downloadable
http://www.archive.org/download/gov.ntis.ava08799vnb1/ava08799vnb1_512kb.mp4

Many specific how to knifemaking videos are available.
Some are better than others, but all better than nothing.

The best overall Knifemaking video I have seen is
“Steve Johnson-Making a Sub-Hilt Fighter”

The best video on leather sheath making I have seen is
“Custom Knife Sheaths -Chuck Burrows - Wild Rose”

You can see a list of some older videos and their reviews at this rental company.
They are not the quickest on getting new titles, but some videos are worth buying, some are worth renting…
Rental wait times are measured in months, buying is MUCH faster, but more costly.
http://smartflix.com/store/category/9/Knifemaking

Green Pete's Free Video
Making a Mora bushcraft knife, -stock removal, hand tools, and neo tribal / unplugged heat treat.
"Green Pete" posted it free for those who can use torrent files.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4995247/Greenpete_s__Knifemaking_Basics_-_Make_a_Mora_Bushcraft_Knife
You can also find it on YouTube broken into 4 parts.


Steel
The “welding steel” at Home Depot/Lowes… is useless for knives.
If you want to ship out for heat treating, you can use ATS34, 440C, plus many others.

If you want to heat treat yourself, find some 1070, 1080, 1084,
1084 FG sold by Aldo Bruno is formulated just for knifemaking.

You can find lists of suppliers here
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699736

Aldo’s website inventory is unreliable, call instead.
http://njsteelbaron.com/


Heat Treating
You do not have to buy a lot of equipment to start with.
You can send out for heat treating, 10 or 15 $ per blade

This is a PDF brochure which gives good general info
http://www.buckknives.com/resources/pdf/Paul_Bos_Brochure.pdf

http://www.petersheattreat.com/
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/about_us.php
http://www.knifemaker.ca/ (Canadian)
and others


Grinder / Tools

Hand Tools
You can do it all by hand with files and abrasive paper.
The Green Pete video does it this way.

Photo of a nice bevel filing jig .
http://www.flemingknives.com/imagesPrime/FileStation/KPicB007.jpg

Entry Level Grinders
Many makers start with the Sears Craftsman 2x42 belt grinder.


Commercial Production 2 x 72” Belt Grinders
http://www.prometheanknives.com/shop-techniques-3/grinders

Mapp arm
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=466024


DIY 2 x 72” Belt Grinders

KMG Clone
Free Plans
http://www.dfoggknives.com/PDF/GrinderPlans.pdf

NWG No Weld Grinder
http://www.usaknifemaker.com/plans-for-the-no-weld-grinder-sander-nearly-50-pages-p-723.html

EERF Grinder (EERF =“Free” backwards)
Free plans
http://wilmontgrinders.com/EERFGrinder.aspx
http://blindhogg.com/blueprints.html

Buy the kit
http://polarbearforge.com/grinder_kit.html
 
Get out before its too late!!!!! (just kidding, of course) :D

Yep, Stickies help a lot. Also, check out the for sale-tools section this forum. You'll find some decent materials for scales/handles, etc. Good luck and I look forward to seeing your first knife.
 
Welcome to the Blade Forums.

Starting out with a pre-made blade is a good way to get your feet wet.
Pins can be made from brazing rod,or brass bolts.
Wood is everywhere if you look around enough.
If there is a cabinet shop you know of, go and ask for some cut off pieces of wood.
A kitchen counter shop will have cut off pieces of Corian, which makes great handles.
Old furniture can be given a new purpose,too.

There is a good sticky on "How to Make a Knife". It uses files and sandpaper to do the work. If you are using a pre-made blade, just start with the handle work part. Once you get bitten by the knife making bug,I'm willing to bet you are going to get a piece of steel soon , and do one from scratch. On that subject, the steel should not be a scrounges item. Spending a few dollars on a piece of knife steel is money well spent.
 
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I have read and keep reading the stickies, the how-to was incredibly detailed and I have printed it out to put into my shop library. Stacy, I do plan on buying some steel soon, but would like to get some of the finishing concepts under my belt first. There is a welding trade school next door to my shop so I thought about asking them if they have any scraps of O-1 or other suitable knife steels. I have some carbon laminated with kevlar about .070 thick lying around and may double it up for scales on this project. Good tip on the counter top material, maybe one of my sub contractors who does our cabinet work would have some. The blade blank will be here hopefully tomorrow so I can get going on it this weekend. I will photo document everything I do so if I get stuck and can't find it in a sticky or search I will post it up here.

once again, thanks for the encouragement and im really excited about trying this out.


-Xander
 
A welding instruction shop is very unlikely to have knife quality steel. Mostly they'll be keeping odd scraps of mild steel with the occasional piece of odd alloy wide flange for students to practice on.

IF, there is a machinist instruction shop attached, then they would likely have O1, A2, or D2 in the shop (the one I went to did) but the amount of sweet talking you'd have to do to get it, would probably be more work than just ordering a bar of steel from our local buddies Aldo Bruno or Kelly Cupples. :)
 
While the welding shop may not have knife steel, they will have a local steel supplier that may have the steel you need. A 3' 1/8 x 1.5" bar of O1 will usually go for around $40 and 10xx will be less than that. As for handle material, you can use just about anything, especially for you first couple as you can just say it was practice if it doesn't turn out. :-) No matter what, have fun. If you aren't having fun, you are just going to make (more) mistakes and get angry, which is never good around tools hehe.
 
Don't be intimidated by the recent discussions. Feel free to ask any questions, even if they are covered in the stickies. Most people would be glad to help, more so since you've already hit the stickies.
 
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