Time Spent Making a Blade

David Stifle

David Stifle

Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
10,188
hi Guys,

As I've gotten more experience, I find I can forge, Ht, and final grind a 10" bowie blade in a day and a half (if all goes right). My question, how long does it take you guys? I'm just curious, am I fast, or still the ole slow poke?Of course, the fit and finish thing is another whole ball of wax. That's where the majority of my time is spent.

Thx,
Dave
 
If all goes well, is something we all hope for:) and we all know how often it happens.

You make some fairly intricate blades and the time you spend on them is obvious.

I say, however much time you are spending; it is time well spent.


I have a big feather pattern bowie that I am getting ready to handle; I have lost track of the amount of time spent to make it.

Fred
 
I think as you stated most of the time is spend for non patternwelded knife is the hand sanding after HT, both for stock removal and forging. After than that I spend considerable time for finishing touches on handle and making sheath or boxes/cases...
 
If the time you stated is just for the blade and not for finishing the handle, then you could shorten that time with more practice. I am not the best knifemaker out there, but I do consider myself good, and at the knives I make I am fast. I personally would not be happy with less than 4 blades of the size you stated finished in that time. But I am only a single maker and don't push yourself too hard, and never sacrifice quality.
Thanks,
Del
 
I'm SLOOOOOOWWWWW I work about 20-30 hours per knife depending but it'll take me a week or 2 becuase I only work on it after my day job for an hour or 2 at night and almost all of it is done by hand, in a similar fashion to Tai Goo, & Tim Lively.

Jason
 
What do you call a day and a half ? Non stop for X amount of hrs.? I've seen some grind a rough bevel in 1 1/2 minutes .
I don't count the time , what it takes is what it takes and it takes me a long time . My wife say's I'm a Zen grinder , whatever the hell that is .
 
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Similar to what I've heard Ed Caffrey state, it takes me about 20 years to make a knife. I have 20 years of learning into this hobby, and I count each minute of that experience as being put into the next knife.

Now, the actual time from going into the forge and being finish ground and ready for handsanding can be anywhere from 5 to 13+ hours. It depends on what shape steel I'm starting with and what the final design I'm aiming for is.

If I start with flat bar similar in size to the finished knife, I'll have limited forging to do and if the final design is simple, I'll have four hours in the temper oven and only 1 hour total for forging and grinding and the hardening.

However, if I'm starting with a round ball bearing, I might have 5 to 7 hours just getting it to knife shape if it's a large knife. Followed by an hour of grinding. Followed by half hour to harden. Then 4 hours in the temper oven. Followed by a half hour of finish grinding. This is 13 hours in a complicated design of a large knife.
 
I can make one in 2 working days.. Something like 7 hours a day in the shop, 14-15 total, for a simple full tang knife. Another couple hours for a kydex sheath or a day for leather (I've got to get better at leather sheaths >_> ) I've found if I make a batch of knives it saves me time.

On the flip side, I still haven't finished my first hidden tang.. who knows how many hours I've whiled away working on the tang and handle.
 
It seems like sometimes it takes me forever but I enjoy it. Knifemaking for me is a part time deal or moreless a therapy. Most of my time is taken up by writing notes on what I did, how I did it, and what results I got from doing something a certain way. Now if I have made a certain knife before I can make it quicker the second time but I enjoy taking my time and relaxing and studying the knife. Sometimes I will write 4 pages on how I decided to file the false edge in, etc... and that takes up alot of my time. If I ever feel pressed to work and get stressed then it turns into a job, and I already have one of them,LOL I just really enjoy turning on some good music and lighting up the forge and taking my time:).
 
ONeill said:
What do you call a day and a half ? Non stop for X amount of hrs.? I've seen some grind a rough bevel in 1 1/2 minutes .
I don't count the time , what it takes is what it takes and it takes me a long time . My wife say's I'm a Zen grinder , whatever the hell that is .
Click to expand...

Zen grinder? My wife calls me a #%^&%@**, don't mow the grass, don't paint the house .... grinder.
 
Wow, some great input! Delbert, your'e awesome! When I start a knife I often work around 10 hours a day, or until my poor ole back and legs are quiverivering puppies.

By the way, Guys, guess I just sold my first bowie on this forum. Anyway, a guy said he'd take it, and wants me to make a sheath as well (I did point out that for the price I was charging he could get a sheath from a real sheathmaker). We'll see how this transaction goes. I'm used to selling my knifes with a guy standing right in front of me looking the knife over while we discuss things. Never sold on the internet before, and don't know why I'm so nervious about it.

Back to knifemaking. I hope to pick up some speed as I gain more experience. I need to refine my guard, handle techniques. If I upgraded my equipment, ha, but isn't that the universal cry of knifemakers? More and Better Equipment!!!!!

Dave
 
Days and days and days and . . .

Actually I think it's more like weeks and weeks and weeks and . . .


;)
 
Is that start to finish time, or hands-on time..? What steel..?

Those things make a difference. If you spherodize (part of HT) thats
8-12 hours...plus austenitization, and two 2hour tempers plus actual
hands-on time

So......depending on your process, a day and a half could be pretty fast
or about right. It's probably not too slow......
 
Hey, see the first post and note that he asked about "forge, Ht, and final grind a 10" bowie blade".
Nothing about MAKING the knife.
For me, fully forged to shape from large stock - about 1 hour after lighting the forge. This includes thermal cycling and normalizing.
Grind, 220 sand and shoulder work and harden - about 1 1/2 hours.
Finish grind and finish sand for assembly - 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
4 hours or so.
That's why Delbert said, "I personally would not be happy with less than 4 blades of the size you stated finished in that time."
 
Karl....I wasn't refering to making a completed knife.......
 
Russ Andrews said:
Karl....I wasn't refering to making a completed knife.......
Click to expand...

Heck, Russ, I didn't even see your post!
I don't include spherodizing or annealing in my work time either.
I usually do that while I'm watching Oprah......


(That's also why I said "harden" and not HT.)
 
Oprah..? Heck you're a bladesmith....you're s'posed to be listenin' to
Hank or Tex Ritter or Doc Watson..............
 
Gawd, you guys are fast!!! (Read awestruck). Here's how I'll doing it. I have a big ole charcoal grill I've converted into a forge. My air supply is a pipe with holes grilled in rows, hooked up to an old (and I mean old- circa 1900) hand crank air blower. I get the charcoal going, fuss with it now and then, and go to town! I've thought about getting a propane forge, but heck, I like doing it this way. Of course, the major disadvantage is I can't forge in winter as it's all being done outside.And, I was just asking about blade time-making a completed knife-that's a whole different subject. But one thing is clear-I still have a vast amount of room for improvement in the entire forging, HT and grinding arena, not just speed, but speed while still keeping quality high.Thanks for all the insight, guys.

Dave
 
Guys,
Just to let you know when I quote times I don't include any time I'm not working. If the stuff is going to be annealed, that happens when I'm sleeping. I don't wait around for the entire 16 hr cycle. As for heta treating, I usually start a day blade making with firing up the HT oven and start grinding blades until its ready. I then harden those blades and set my other oven for tempering. I might start on a second batch and work until the first batch is tempered, then HT those. Then I'll start on finishing the first batch.
I don't like to have any "down time" so I plan so that I have very little of it.
If I was forging blades then I would hold off starting the oven until the blades were cool from forging and normalizing. Planning your work in this way allows you to get more work down in a shorter period of time. I don't really spend much time in the planning stage either, usually I have the day planned before I finish breakfast.
Thanks,
Del
 
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