Total noob here. Trying to learn, learning, hoping for more help.

[Gendry]

Hey guys.. I've been lurking for a while here, and reading, and reading. Yet, I have, and will have many and more questions.. So I figure a single thread I can bump and hopefully get response in will serve better then a dozen threads, and dozens of minutes searching.
Anyways, I guess I'll introduce myself. You can call me by my username for now. I have been interested in working metal for just over a year now, after watching game of thrones (weird, I know.) I had never done anything remotely like this before, but something about it caught me.. Creating a usable tool/weapon from pure craftsmanship was probably a big part of it.. (And building fooking HOT fires, and beating glowing steel with heavy hammers, of course, I am a man..)
I built my first forge with a T pipe in the bottom of my fire pit (Made from galvanized pipe, though, ground clean on the outside... Yikes, might have already killed myself..)... Pounded out some rebar, you could damage cardboard with if you swung hard enough, chopped up enough pallets for firewood to build a village from, noob, ect..
Learned a little from experience, made what I learned was called a "break drum forge" of sorts, using charcoal briquettes, and small wood scraps. Managed to forge out several "knife shaped objects", out of "better" steel.. Spring steel, lawnmower blades, files, ect... Though, the best of them could tear paper at the right angle..
I have a "proper" forge now:

By no means is it the best, but it is more than effective when using the hardwood lump charcoal from home depot (though, gets expensive... Working on rendering my own charcoal, messing up more batches then anything right now though..)

The steel I am using at the moment.. Well, it is still 3/4 inch spring steel, forged to shape, or flattened and stock removed from there.. Let me save you a post (Aldo's 1084 or die noob.) I know.. I know.. I have actually placed an order recently, from another site, for 96 inches of 1084, 2 inch wide, 1/8th inch thick, the order is taking a long time to process though. I have also been using old files still.. And, some "1040 sheet metal" we had lying around work. 1040 sounds to me like it's at least carbon steel, if not with a high amount, it does harden quite well, and I have enough crap sheeting to build a bunker..

Honestly, I have only been hardening and heat treating 1 out of 4 blades, because frankly, to me the hardest part of this is going to be the hands on, crafting materials. That is what I need to practice most, never done anything like it before, and I don't seem to be a natural at it. The science behind heat treating, choosing steel's, and all the other things, that type of learning comes easy to me, and I am confident it will be the easier part of all this, when it comes time to make a "real" knife.

So far, I am not sure, but I would say I have made, 13-17 "knives" since I started.. I understood full well before starting that, "Your first 100 knives are practice.", and have accepted and embraced that fully, and appreciate it now that I am a few in. Granted, none of my "knives" have been totally finished yet.. I do not make handles yet, or sheathes. I do not have them properly heat treated yet, nor do I spend the time to get a mirror polish. All things I should be practicing, but like I said, I want to focus on the hardest part first, the creation..

Blah blah blah, sorry for going on. Here is a picture of a few of the "knives" I have made in the last couple months. This isn't all of them, not even the most recent, and none of them are great, but I have learned a lot, and hope to learn more.

(second to last, failed completely, let the forge get away from me and it turned half my bar into slag, hence no handle, or further effort to finish.)

(All of these have an edge that will slice paper every bit as cleanly as a fresh razor blade at least, if not pretty, they will still do the job..)
And... If you recognize the design, well.. I cannot draw, so I made templates from designs by company's such as "spyderco", ect (If you steal a company's design.. Is it considered... FORGERY??" sorry..). I am very good with photoshop, but yet have grasped how to design a blade I like.. Another skill to learn.


Here was my second, "break drum" forge, served me well, for a time..

The "Anvil" I was using... (I realize how dangerous the clamps and straps were..)

Here is what I am forging with now:

This used to be the bin we dumped used oil in at work, and it would go into a tank, we have a new system now so this was garbage. I however seen a perfect forge..

I burned and sanded off most of the paint/oil, cut a hole in the downpipe to insert a tin can, duct taped it there, and capped the bottom off. Again, I am using a $17 walmart hairdryer.. Works excellent, in fact it produces too much air pressure even on the lowest, so I had to make a hole in the downpipe to relieve some of the pressure.
I also found I had to quickly put a little "table" above the blower, with a wet rag on it, to stop the radiant heat from the steel from melting the hair dryer.

This is my new anvil... Much better, yet, I suppose you can't call it an anvil either..

I will post pictures of the sorry set of tools I have access to at work. I cannot afford my own shop, or tools at the moment, so I have to make do. I think it will serve for now, but i'll let you professionals make the call once I post pictures.

No, specific, questions at the moment, but believe me, they are coming. In the mean time, feel free to laugh, and tell me how wrong I am, I know, most of you are qualified to say such things, in fact it would be constructive, and helpful.

Most of all, thanks for taking the time to read the start of my knife making blog..

(Sorry if this is a repost! Been trying to get it through for minutes, but it keeps failing apparently. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, mods could you please delete duplicates?)

 

[12345678910]

Let's see sketches first


Yes, software is all well and good, but pencil on graph paper with a good eraser and some circle and oval tools like empty plastic food containers helps you refine ideas by drawing and redrawing over and over again.

 

[12345678910]

Let's see sketches first


Yes, software is all well and good, but pencil on graph paper with a good eraser and some circle and oval tools like empty plastic food containers helps you refine ideas by drawing and redrawing over and over again.

 

[Gendry]

Fair enough. Next time I'm at the dollar store, ill grab some graph paper and geometry tools, and give it a shot. Though, I have never been good at that type of thing, I may be better trying to design them in photoshop which I have much experience with.

 

[Gendry]

Ok, so as promised, here are some pictures of my (company's) shop, and what kind of things I have to work with to make knives...

Here is the "metal area", with all the relevant metal working tools we need for our particular job. Welders, grinders, plasma torch, ventilation, ect, not ideal, but could do worse..

For stock removal, I have 3 of these things...

This one I believe is a 1 inch wheel, the other is a half inch, and the other is a quarter inch. All very course wheels. Though, the quarter inch one also has a second wheel, very, very, VERY fine. It will buff steel to a mirror polish, and put razor edges on your bevels.

Got a drill press:

Made a knife (2) blank tonight, and had my camera, so I took pictures along the way..

Started with a piece of this "1040" scrap sheet we have lying around.

Cleaned it up a little, the put my cardboard template on to trace the lines:

Took my sheet of steel with the outline, and used an angle grinder with a cutoff wheel (Dangerous, I know, but I only make straight cuts with it, and I am very careful..) to remove as much stock as I could, to save grinding time.

Here is the finished "blank", not totally finished yet though, a little fine detail work yet.

Here is another one I cut out tonight:

Sooo.. Amateur level 1000 right guys? What other equipment should I consider looking into (other then a belt sander, I have feelers out for one right now).


Gonna shift my focus from working the metal, to working wood for handles pretty quick I think.

 

[Hawk45]

Unless you are going to be doing full on forging all the way and finishing with sandpaper and blocks, a good belt sander and quality fresh belts are the key.
If you are going to be using sheet metal and not bar stock, look at getting a portable bandsaw and a SWAG Off-Road table to install it on. Looks like you have a nice press, just get some quality bits, I like Screw Machine Bits since they are shorter and less flex, check out Enco.
A dremel tool and sanding drums and cutoff wheels.
LOTS of quality sand paper in 180 and 340 grits, some in 500, 800 grits
A good vice and lots of blue 2" tape.
If you like to do your own heat treat, that is cool, but if a knife has a junk HT, it's a junk knife no matter how nice it looks. I pay a professional to do my HT as that is the heart of the knife.
Other than that.. it's about taking your time and doing quality work, not quantity.
I find myself going back to some of my first knives and applying new skills and tricks to them and bring them up to a higher standard. There is no rule that when a knife is done, it's really done. Once you get some skills, come back to those original ones and try to work out all the flaws. And as you get better, you definitely see the flaws in your previous work.
I have a super cheap little shop (well not even a shop, it's 2 saw horses and a piece of wood) and good knives can be made with simple tools (Craftsman grinder, Drill Press, Sandpaper and blocks, Dremel). While I can pump blanks our fast with the belt sander.. The knife really ends up being a knife with elbow grease and sandpaper in the vice. It's all about the details.

Best of luck, it's a truly wonderful hobby.

 

[Gendry]

Unless you are going to be doing full on forging all the way and finishing with sandpaper and blocks, a good belt sander and quality fresh belts are the key.
If you are going to be using sheet metal and not bar stock, look at getting a portable bandsaw and a SWAG Off-Road table to install it on. Looks like you have a nice press, just get some quality bits, I like Screw Machine Bits since they are shorter and less flex, check out Enco.
A dremel tool and sanding drums and cutoff wheels.
LOTS of quality sand paper in 180 and 340 grits, some in 500, 800 grits
A good vice and lots of blue 2" tape.
If you like to do your own heat treat, that is cool, but if a knife has a junk HT, it's a junk knife no matter how nice it looks. I pay a professional to do my HT as that is the heart of the knife.
Other than that.. it's about taking your time and doing quality work, not quantity.
I find myself going back to some of my first knives and applying new skills and tricks to them and bring them up to a higher standard. There is no rule that when a knife is done, it's really done. Once you get some skills, come back to those original ones and try to work out all the flaws. And as you get better, you definitely see the flaws in your previous work.
I have a super cheap little shop (well not even a shop, it's 2 saw horses and a piece of wood) and good knives can be made with simple tools (Craftsman grinder, Drill Press, Sandpaper and blocks, Dremel). While I can pump blanks our fast with the belt sander.. The knife really ends up being a knife with elbow grease and sandpaper in the vice. It's all about the details.

Best of luck, it's a truly wonderful hobby.

I certainly plan to get a belt sander, soon. First of all, I have my eye on a rather cheap home depot 4 inch by like 30 something inch bench sander, just to take my handles down to size faster. From there, I have some friends looking about for some type of pulley 2X72 sander for putting proper edges on my blades.. (The bench grind stones work, well enough I suppose.. Yet, they see too much other use, and the one I use for the bevels ALWAYS has one corner worn down to round, making it hard to line up my plunges on each side..)
I have access to a lot of compressed air tools, such as dremels, cutoff wheels, other relevant tools for this.
I will soon be purchasing a lot of sandpaper, in different grits, for everything from finishing my handles, to mirror polishing my blades. (Though, my one buffer wheel does achieve a rather impressive polish on it's own..)
As for heat treating, for the time being, I will continue to do my armature, internet learned techniques, while not giving me the best results, it will serve for now. Once I have 60-70 blades behind me, I might feel confident enough in my own work to send it way for professional heat treat. (Question.. Will they (say, "Peters heat treat" take the raw steel, quench it and harden it from there, and then temper it, or do they simply do the final temper ("softening up" as I understand it.)?
Now that my blades are actually starting to look like knives, I will certainly be taking more and more time, to iron out all the final, minor details. As of now, I just practice my shaping and grinding, but soon as I think I am confident there, I will spend much time and more on simple, tedious attention to detail.
Thank you for the thought out reply.. I put a lot of work into this thread, and I am glad at least one person has some good advice and tips for me. A little disappointed otherwise how this thread turned out...