Newbie with lots of questions

dadarrow

dadarrow

Joined
Sep 10, 2007
Messages
28
Hello to all...I am intrigued with ALL the creativity and expertise. I have spent a lot of time looking over archives, viewing photos, conducting initial research, etc. and yet I still have many questions. Let me put this disclaimer out first:
I am the father of 9 wonderful children, six of whom are boys. My boys (self included) are huge proponents of firearms and blades. I laughed in reading one of the posts concerning "what knife are you carrying right now?" because for my oldest son, the question would best be stated as "what knife are you NOT carrying right now?"
Anyway, as a project I have decided to embark on a family knife-making endeavor. This is more to help my family continue doing things together than anything else. But there is so much to consider that I find myself with a lot of questions. (Sorry for the rambling...) So here are some of my questions:

1). Realizing there are more opinions than people giving opinions, I wanted to ask what would be a good steel to use for a first set of knives? We will be working a set of fixed blades with a full tang (I say set because each of us will be working on a similar blade). perhaps a blade of 4" to 6" (I suppose we could start smaller too...just thoughts). At any rate, first go around we need to try a metal but there are so many options so I just want some advise.

2). I have noticed there are equally as many handle styles as knives. Some of the composite handles are attractive but I also like some of the burl or horn handles. Are there places to look for options on handles? Also relating to handles, as far as the pins for the handles, is it best to purchase the pin material from steel shop in straight rods (i.e. brass rods, or are there suppliers for short pins?)?

3). I have a "family brand" that I would like to stamp or etch into each of our blades. How does one accomplish something like that? I know there are steel stamps but I didn't know if that works on HT steel (remember, I am an absolute newbie that I know some of you will think I need to slow down...!).

My first five boys (currently 19, 17, 15, 13 and 10) will be helping on this adventure (not venture!). We are researching some things right now and I have ordered some books and DVDs to help us move in the right direction. I have a nice shop and we will be slowly putting together the tooling to do things right...but time will tell! Bottom line, we are committed to moving into this endeavor as a family. I look forward to getting some advice and encouragement from those that I consider experts (that's you guys!). Thanks for taking the time to read. I can assure you I will have countless questions over time.

dadarrow

Oh...I am also interested in some small Scottish dirks so we are also looking at building a small forge and working metal...but that's another day!
 
That sounds like an awesome project to start. This is def. the place to start and it sounds like you didn't jump in blindly! This might be moved to knife maker's forum just to warn you... i have no doubt though you will be able to find all the info you need here (wish i could offer some). Good luck, take lots of pics and feel free to share them!
 
Nine Children ... Did you say 9 ? Nine with an N ? right ... (LOL)

God bless you. We had 4 (all grown and gone now) YEAH !!! Do the happy dance ... (Chuckle)

BUT 9 ?! Wow ... good for you.
 
dadarrow said:
Hello to all...I am intrigued with ALL the creativity and expertise. I have spent a lot of time looking over archives, viewing photos, conducting initial research, etc. and yet I still have many questions. Let me put this disclaimer out first:
I am the father of 9 wonderful children, six of whom are boys. My boys (self included) are huge proponents of firearms and blades. I laughed in reading one of the posts concerning "what knife are you carrying right now?" because for my oldest son, the question would best be stated as "what knife are you NOT carrying right now?"
Anyway, as a project I have decided to embark on a family knife-making endeavor. This is more to help my family continue doing things together than anything else. But there is so much to consider that I find myself with a lot of questions. (Sorry for the rambling...) So here are some of my questions:

1). Realizing there are more opinions than people giving opinions, I wanted to ask what would be a good steel to use for a first set of knives? We will be working a set of fixed blades with a full tang (I say set because each of us will be working on a similar blade). perhaps a blade of 4" to 6" (I suppose we could start smaller too...just thoughts). At any rate, first go around we need to try a metal but there are so many options so I just want some advise.

2). I have noticed there are equally as many handle styles as knives. Some of the composite handles are attractive but I also like some of the burl or horn handles. Are there places to look for options on handles? Also relating to handles, as far as the pins for the handles, is it best to purchase the pin material from steel shop in straight rods (i.e. brass rods, or are there suppliers for short pins?)?

3). I have a "family brand" that I would like to stamp or etch into each of our blades. How does one accomplish something like that? I know there are steel stamps but I didn't know if that works on HT steel (remember, I am an absolute newbie that I know some of you will think I need to slow down...!).

My first five boys (currently 19, 17, 15, 13 and 10) will be helping on this adventure (not venture!). We are researching some things right now and I have ordered some books and DVDs to help us move in the right direction. I have a nice shop and we will be slowly putting together the tooling to do things right...but time will tell! Bottom line, we are committed to moving into this endeavor as a family. I look forward to getting some advice and encouragement from those that I consider experts (that's you guys!). Thanks for taking the time to read. I can assure you I will have countless questions over time.

dadarrow

Oh...I am also interested in some small Scottish dirks so we are also looking at building a small forge and working metal...but that's another day!
Click to expand...

1. Well, a lot of it depends on what type of steel you're going to want to work with and whether you're doing the heat treatment yourself. General recommendation for a new maker that wants to do heat treatment themselves is the 1080/1084 grade of carbon steels. 1095 and higher concentrations ( I believe anything with .8% or higher carbon ) becomes a little trickier, but there are also lots of good services to send blades in for heat treatment so a lot of it really depends on what kind of steel you want to use. Personally I would look more into the carbon or stainless route; heat treating stainless at home will not be as easy ( especially with all the modern alloys ) as will a simpler carbon steel like 1070/1080/1084

2. There's an abundance of knife supply companies to order hardware for handles, as well as a lot of people to order things like stabilized woods for handles. You can find a list of these suppliers in the General Knifemaker's Discussion area... As well as way more information on the first question, but I thought I'd give you a little something to read here.

3. There are a number of different types of stamps available these days. A lot are made with hardended steel themselves, so I wouldn't say it would be impossible to stamp them after heat treat. My guess is that most would do it before heat treat while the metal is still soft and easier to work, but this might cause distortion in the mark. There's also chemical etching kits available for rather economic prices that seem to work quite well too. Again, you can learn a lot more about that in the General Knifemakers area.

What tools do you already have in the shop? I hope to equip mine with the following someday

Drill/Mill
Belt Grinder
Furnace
Surface Grinder
Bandsaw

For now though I'm planning using a simple vise and hand tools, and will probably ship them off to be heat treated since I don't think my neighbors would appreciate me playing with fire-bricks and a blow-torch--though if I wanted to do that at home I still could.


Anyway, I would just go over to the General Knifemaker's area, there's a ton of information to look at there.
 
Welcome to the madness.
sterb094.gif
 
I'd start with O1 tool steel and check out Jantz supply house.

Ask a bunch of questions in the knifemaker section.
 
Great idea for a project! For steel, O-1, 1084 or maybe 1095. If you can not heat treat them yourself, Brad Stallworth at Peter's Heat treating in Pennsylvania could do a nice job on all of them for you. Someone already mentioned Jantz. You could also check out Texas Kinfemakers and USAknifesupply for pins, hardware and handle material. As far as your brand goes, it could either be stamped into the annealed steel prior to hardening or you could have a stencil made of the brand and electo-etch it on the blades after finishing them. Would be kinda neat for you all to have identical blades but each one of you selecting your own handle material so each knife is custom for each family member.

Good luck.
 
Member since 2007 and 4 posts? That's serious lurking. :thumbup:

Cool sounding project.
 
KennyB said:
1. Well, a lot of it depends on what type of steel you're going to want to work with and whether you're doing the heat treatment yourself. General recommendation for a new maker that wants to do heat treatment themselves is the 1080/1084 grade of carbon steels. 1095 and higher concentrations ( I believe anything with .8% or higher carbon ) becomes a little trickier, but there are also lots of good services to send blades in for heat treatment so a lot of it really depends on what kind of steel you want to use. Personally I would look more into the carbon or stainless route; heat treating stainless at home will not be as easy ( especially with all the modern alloys ) as will a simpler carbon steel like 1070/1080/1084

2. There's an abundance of knife supply companies to order hardware for handles, as well as a lot of people to order things like stabilized woods for handles. You can find a list of these suppliers in the General Knifemaker's Discussion area... As well as way more information on the first question, but I thought I'd give you a little something to read here.

3. There are a number of different types of stamps available these days. A lot are made with hardended steel themselves, so I wouldn't say it would be impossible to stamp them after heat treat. My guess is that most would do it before heat treat while the metal is still soft and easier to work, but this might cause distortion in the mark. There's also chemical etching kits available for rather economic prices that seem to work quite well too. Again, you can learn a lot more about that in the General Knifemakers area.

What tools do you already have in the shop? I hope to equip mine with the following someday

Drill/Mill
Belt Grinder
Furnace
Surface Grinder
Bandsaw

For now though I'm planning using a simple vise and hand tools, and will probably ship them off to be heat treated since I don't think my neighbors would appreciate me playing with fire-bricks and a blow-torch--though if I wanted to do that at home I still could.


Anyway, I would just go over to the General Knifemaker's area, there's a ton of information to look at there.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your encouragement and information. You asked about tools that I currently have. Here is a list:
Grinder
Bandsaw
Belt Sander
Surface Sander
Vice

Wish List:
Drill Press
Furnace
Additional Belt Sander
 
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