Thanks for all the input guys. Much appreciated.
iSaur thanks for the inspiration .... those do-it-yourself plastic sheaths have helped confirm what I've been thinking about. Sure, Kydex is ideal....but it is just plastic after all. And we are surrounded with various types of plastic we could experiment with. Nice hatchet too I must say. That white sheath design wasn't my original idea... I saw a description of it on:http://www.primitiveways.com/
To get into serious knife making can be expensive if you want the machinery that makes the job easier and more efficient. But you can still make some very functional steel knives with very little in the way of tools.... particularly if you are prepared to learn a bit about making and using a forge. But you don't need a forge...If you can get hold of old saw blades you can make knives from these without having to harden and temper the finished product if you don't overheat the steel during the grinding stage. Small disk grinders can be bought fairly cheaply... as can some fairly decent bench grinders. But you probably realize all this. Yep...the machinery is good for nice symmetrical grinds and relatively quick production.
I hope I don't get banned from this site for making this statement, but sometimes I think too much emphasis is placed on having the ultimate in steel quality. Hell... you can cut yourself on a tin can lid. Of course it is best to have a steel with decent carbon content.... and naturally it is good to have state of the art metallurgy in your blade. But it is likely that more animals have been butchered, more folks have been stabbed, and more whittling has been done with rather primitive steels as compared to the whizzy stuff that is around today. I am not stating this to slander the modern knife industry - there are some wonderful blades out there - but I just want to encourage folks who may be lurking around the site who think they'd like to make a knife but they think they can only do it with state-of-the-art tools and materials.
I have made knives from high-speed steel. This stuff is fairly good for holding an edge (even though it is comparitively brittle). But I don't really favour it above plain old saw blades or old files when it comes to daily use.
I guess if I were a professional knife user of some sort and used a knife in critical situations for long periods, then I'd be looking for improvements in the specific qualities that I needed. If I were a fish filleter for example, I would want a tad of blade flexibility, maybe, along with the ability to hold an edge for a long time. A decent fish filleter blade is something that would be hard for me to produce in my shed at home.
I hunt, trap, fish and generally play about in the bush. I find that my rather untidy, hastily made knives do virtually everything sensible that I require. But I still drool over the pictures and big names. A while back I NEARLY ordered a Cold Steel Trailmaster.........
iSaur thanks for the inspiration .... those do-it-yourself plastic sheaths have helped confirm what I've been thinking about. Sure, Kydex is ideal....but it is just plastic after all. And we are surrounded with various types of plastic we could experiment with. Nice hatchet too I must say. That white sheath design wasn't my original idea... I saw a description of it on:http://www.primitiveways.com/
To get into serious knife making can be expensive if you want the machinery that makes the job easier and more efficient. But you can still make some very functional steel knives with very little in the way of tools.... particularly if you are prepared to learn a bit about making and using a forge. But you don't need a forge...If you can get hold of old saw blades you can make knives from these without having to harden and temper the finished product if you don't overheat the steel during the grinding stage. Small disk grinders can be bought fairly cheaply... as can some fairly decent bench grinders. But you probably realize all this. Yep...the machinery is good for nice symmetrical grinds and relatively quick production.
I hope I don't get banned from this site for making this statement, but sometimes I think too much emphasis is placed on having the ultimate in steel quality. Hell... you can cut yourself on a tin can lid. Of course it is best to have a steel with decent carbon content.... and naturally it is good to have state of the art metallurgy in your blade. But it is likely that more animals have been butchered, more folks have been stabbed, and more whittling has been done with rather primitive steels as compared to the whizzy stuff that is around today. I am not stating this to slander the modern knife industry - there are some wonderful blades out there - but I just want to encourage folks who may be lurking around the site who think they'd like to make a knife but they think they can only do it with state-of-the-art tools and materials.
I have made knives from high-speed steel. This stuff is fairly good for holding an edge (even though it is comparitively brittle). But I don't really favour it above plain old saw blades or old files when it comes to daily use.
I guess if I were a professional knife user of some sort and used a knife in critical situations for long periods, then I'd be looking for improvements in the specific qualities that I needed. If I were a fish filleter for example, I would want a tad of blade flexibility, maybe, along with the ability to hold an edge for a long time. A decent fish filleter blade is something that would be hard for me to produce in my shed at home.
I hunt, trap, fish and generally play about in the bush. I find that my rather untidy, hastily made knives do virtually everything sensible that I require. But I still drool over the pictures and big names. A while back I NEARLY ordered a Cold Steel Trailmaster.........
