This is the third knife I've ever made... constructive criticism welcome.

J

Juergen

Joined
Feb 5, 2014
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6
This is a video of the process I used in making my knife. Again this is only the third knife I've ever made so any constructive criticisms are welcome.



[video=youtube;kQEDkitNdv8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQEDkitNdv8[/video]
 
Constructive criticism? That rules me out. :)

It's painful watching you use the angle grinder to do the cutting. Yes, it worked, but it is painful to behold. An inexpensive variable speed portable bandsaw would be safer and more effective.

Your filing technique looks pretty good. It might be a trick of the camera, but it seemed to me you changed the angle of attack late in the grinding process. Not sure why you did that (if you did it).

Drilling without clamps!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!! That's just asking for trouble.

Dremel without putting the piece in a vise???? What were you thinking?

Looks like you used cheap glue. Good to see you using a respirator when sanding. Were you doing so when grinding? Is it P100 rated?

Handle shaping needs work.
 
The grinder is painful!!! (and loud)... but its just the best I had/have at the moment. And I normally do use a respirator while grinding, I don't know its "rating" exactly but I know its works against chemicals as well as dust.

I may have changed my angle a bit by accident I'm not sure, doing it freehand makes it hard to always stay consistent :/ . It may also partly be the camera, it tends to give a fish eyed look at things sometimes.

yes very true! The drilling thing bit me in the butt... I was in a hurry and the brass was soooo thin I thought it would just punch through... (lesson learned)

As far as the dremel goes, the spacers were so thin I was afraid of crushing them in a vice... but again, not the best idea, I know know this by "experience" :)

The glue is actually extremely good stuff. It's an aircraft grade epoxy bonding resin. You have to go through 9 layers of hell to get something approved by the FAA... with that said I don't know for sure if an epoxy is the best thing to use or not?
 
Looks good, I like the puukko style handle. I enjoyed the video. Its interesting to see how other people fabricate. Neat idea with the torch in the charcoal.Kinda works like a blower. What kind of steel did you use?... The only thing, I would keep two hands on your grinder and clamp down your workpiece.
 
Aside from the glaring safety issues tryppyr pointed out here's what I'd suggest and take it for what it's worth I'm not a very experienced maker but I spend a lot of time on here and have some knowledge.

Your plunges: Either cut them in with a chainsaw file before you get going or use a file guide of some kind to get them nice looking and crisper and look into draw filing which will help you keep your flats flat.

Hard to see the finish on the blade but I didn't see much in the way of hand sanding so I'm guessing it probably isn't great, it'll do wonders for the finish on your blades.

Along the spine it looks like there are some nicks in it, get them out in the future. The devil is in the details with making knives, fit and finish. It's a big part of what separates a prison shank from a nice hand crafted knife.

There's a ton of good info in the stickies on here and if you see anyone posting anything about making their first knife "the count" will post a very informative post with about a half a million great reads in it to cover a ton of the basics.
 
Fletch Helical said:
Aside from the glaring safety issues tryppyr pointed out here's what I'd suggest and take it for what it's worth I'm not a very experienced maker but I spend a lot of time on here and have some knowledge.

Your plunges: Either cut them in with a chainsaw file before you get going or use a file guide of some kind to get them nice looking and crisper and look into draw filing which will help you keep your flats flat.

Hard to see the finish on the blade but I didn't see much in the way of hand sanding so I'm guessing it probably isn't great, it'll do wonders for the finish on your blades.

Along the spine it looks like there are some nicks in it, get them out in the future. The devil is in the details with making knives, fit and finish. It's a big part of what separates a prison shank from a nice hand crafted knife.

There's a ton of good info in the stickies on here and if you see anyone posting anything about making their first knife "the count" will post a very informative post with about a half a million great reads in it to cover a ton of the basics.[/QUOTE]

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-cycling-Any-thoughts?p=13164374#post13164374
Click to expand...
 
if you are going to use a grinder to shape your blade. at least put it in a vice, and stand to the side. when that disc comes apart you don't want to be over it. yea I thought it would never happen to me to. until it finally did after 10 years or so.
 
Thanks! :)

Without an actual forge I had to get creative, its not great but it gets the job done until I can build a legitimate forge.
The steel was just an old old broken, nicked up, and rusted file.
 
I did actually do a lot of hand sanding, all the way up to 2500 grit wet sand.
For better or worse, :/ I was intentionally going for a somewhat rugged look to the blade in keeping with the fact that the knife started off as an old broken nicked and rusty file.

Your certainly right about my plunges... they need work.
 
One of the hardest parts about this hobby for newbies is learning to NEVER be in a hurry. That's when you screw things up and hurt yourself. If you start feeling that caffeine edge, it's time to take a break. The shortcuts we take often end up costing us a LOT of extra effort to correct, or an even bigger price in blood. Some of the horrific pictures posted here from people in a hurry will certainly chill that rush.
 
Greg, I think he was fast-forwarding some of the time, and not actually working as fast as it looks in the video.

I'm just kidding.

:)

Op, I really like the knife. I wasn't expecting a pukko. Love the handle, grain, liners, all of it.

And dang man, you may be limited to using improvised tools, but nice shop. Reminds me of my old shop (that I never did anything in :( ). Very cool.

Keep going!
 
My boilermaker friend sent me a photo of what can happen when one of those cut-off wheels comes apart... The guy had half a cutting disc buried into his cheek, not sure how much damage it did to the inside but only imagine he lost a couple of teeth too. I'd like to post the picture but I want to respect the guy's privacy, just google "cutting disc accidents" and check the images, you'll see similar damage. It made me think of the times I've grabbed a cut off wheel and started cutting without inspecting the disc or even wearing a face shield.

I saw the damage that could be done when a drill press turns a knife blank into an open air food processor but I still had to lose half a thumbnail to realize that taking the time to use a clamp is not optional.
 
The problem with such torch is that you use a lot of oxygen to cut trough the steel.

Think you are better off with a regular hacksaw or a small bandsaw.
 
I would take this with a grain of salt as I am more of a wood worker than a knife maker... But IF I were u I would start with smaller material for your handles. It seemed like you put in a lot of effort (time) sanding down the handle to make a basically round handle from square blocks. Also since you didn,t make any finger groves for traction it might be cool to layer some cork in there for some spongyness/grip.
 
I tried a hack saw on my last knife but it wore out so fast I couldn't even finish the knife with it... I assume the problem is simply that it came with the wrong blade, but I have not yet picked up a replacement for it.
 
Please whatever you do don't put this on YouTube as a how to. There are enough potentially dangerous knifemaking how-to vids up.

Otherwise, neat looking final product. Puuko's aren't my style, but that is a nice one.

Don't use a torch for cutting out blanks. You will harden the edge of what you are cutting, and it wastes a lot of material. High tension hacksaw, or ideally a porta-band from HF with a table to mount it to. That would be much cheaper and better than any cutting torch. They are permanently on sale, and the saw, three pack of blades and something to mount it to can be had for around $100...
 
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