what are the necessary items to start making knives? i apologize in advanced

Q

quick kill

Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
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I know this has probably been brought up more then most of you care to remember, but I could not find anything from a getting started standpoint. So here we go. I'm tiered of this economy, and would a little more control over my financial situation in the future. Plus making knives is awesome. All I have right now is a vise and an angle grinder. so what I do is use the angle grinder to rough out the blade then put the angle grinder in the vise to do everything else. As you could imagine it doesn't work very well. so my question is what do I need to make a descent knife.(I know equipment doesn't make the knife but in sure it makes it easier) I'm not looking for top of the line stuff just some useable stuff to make it a bit easier. I'm going to be doing stock removal, and for the time being only fixed blade's. I just want to setup a basic shop nothing fancy. And I wouldn't mind buying used but other then here I don't know where to look. So if y'all could give me a basic rundown of what I need and some of the cheaper models of that item. Of course pix would be grate but definitely not required I would grateley appreciate it. I don't really have a price range as I don't know how much any of this stuff costs.
 
A known steel from Aldo Bruno, files, hacksaw, sandpaper 220 to 2000, any form of G10 or micarta whatever you can get your hands on for handle material, brass or stainless pin stock (Brass can be had at home depot for not that much), a way to drill fairly straight holes in steel and handle material. It is okay to ask somebody to heat treat the steel when the time comes for a small price, or trade, beer, or maybe they would do it for free.

that is the bare minimum without purchasing a lot of machinery. Having a benchtop drill press is nice, and getting a 1x30 or 1x42 belt sander is nice too. Not needed but nice.

the angle grinder will alleviate much of the need for the hacksaw, but having the hack is still nice from time to time. Get thin cut off discs for it. Some use their angle grinder to grind bevels with a depressed center grinding disc also.
 
Thanks gixxer. I don't mind buying the grinder and whatever other machinery, I just can't afford the high end stuff. But the suggestion of hand tools is a good idea thanks.
 
Have you seen this ?

The Standard Reply to Newbies v6

The answer to a 13 year old student is different than to a 40 year old engineer, and you may have a helpful neighbour.
We can often recommend a local supplier, but that depends on where you are.
Fill out your profile with your location (Country and State at least), age, education, employment.

Look at the stickies at the top, many are expired, but not all.

The basic process in the simplest terms
http://www.hossom.com/jonesy/

This is a very detailed set of instructions by Stacy Apelt.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=694673


Books

A list of books and videos on the KnifeDogs Forum
http://www.knifedogs.com/showthread.php?t=5285

BladeForums - E-books or book previews Google books
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=603203

I like:
David Boye-Step by Step Knifemaking
Tim McCreight-Custom Knifemaking: 10 Projects from a Master Craftsman
These are clear, well organized, widely available and inexpensive too.

Knife Design:
On the Google books thread, you can find
LLoyd Harding drawings
and
the Loveless book with large variety of proven classic styles.

Forging Books:
Lorelei Sims-The Backyard Blacksmith
A good modern book with great photos for forging in general - no knifemaking.

Jim Hrisoulas- has 3 books on forging knives, Check for the cheaper paperback editions.
The Complete Bladesmith: Forging Your Way To Perfection
The Pattern-Welded Blade: Artistry In Iron
The Master Bladesmith: Advanced Studies In Steel


The $50 knife shop
It is popular, but it confused me for a long time.
Forging is NOT necessary, you can just file and grind everything away to create a knife (stock removal)

The goop quench is total Bull, commercially made quench oils are cheap and easily available, even grocery store canola oil works much better.

Junkyard steels require the skills of an experienced smith to identify the steel and heat treat it properly.
You can buy proper steel like 1084 very cheaply.
(Mentioned in the new edition)

I like cable damascus, but that is an advanced project for an experienced smith and has no place in a beginners book.

The home built grinders are the best thing about the book, but there is now a huge amount of info on home built 2x72 belt grinders on the web.
The revised edition of this book should have included this.


Videos

Heat Treating Basics Video-downloadable
http://www.archive.org/download/gov.ntis.ava08799vnb1/ava08799vnb1_512kb.mp4

Many specific how to knifemaking videos are available.
Some are better than others, but all better than nothing.

The best overall Knifemaking video I have seen is
“Steve Johnson-Making a Sub-Hilt Fighter”

The best video on leather sheath making I have seen is
“Custom Knife Sheaths -Chuck Burrows - Wild Rose”

You can see a list of some older videos and their reviews at this rental company.
They are not the quickest on getting new titles, but some videos are worth buying, some are worth renting…
Rental wait times are measured in months, buying is MUCH faster, but more costly.
http://smartflix.com/store/category/9/Knifemaking

Green Pete's Free Video
Making a Mora bushcraft knife, -stock removal, hand tools, and neo tribal / unplugged heat treat.
"Green Pete" posted it free for those who can use torrent files.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4995247/Greenpete_s__Knifemaking_Basics_-_Make_a_Mora_Bushcraft_Knife
You can also find it on YouTube broken into 4 parts.


Steel
The “welding steel” at Home Depot/Lowes… is useless for knives.
If you want to ship out for heat treating, you can use ATS34 or 440C, plus many others.

If you want to heat treat yourself, find some 1070, 1080, 1084,
1084 FG sold by Aldo Bruno is formulated just for knifemaking.

You can find lists of suppliers here
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=699736

Aldo’s website inventory is unreliable, call instead.
http://njsteelbaron.com/


Heat Treating
You do not have to buy a lot of equipment to start with.
You can send out for heat treating, 10 or 15 $ per blade

This is a PDF brochure which gives good general info
http://www.buckknives.com/resources/pdf/Paul_Bos_Brochure.pdf

http://www.petersheattreat.com/
http://www.texasknife.com/vcom/about_us.php
http://www.knifemaker.ca/ (Canadian)
and others


Grinder / Tools

Hand Tools
You can do it all by hand with files and abrasive paper.
The Green Pete video does it this way.

Photo of a nice bevel filing jig .
http://www.flemingknives.com/imagesPrime/FileStation/KPicB007.jpg

Entry Level Grinders
Many makers start with the Sears Craftsman 2x42 belt grinder.


DIY 2 x 72” Belt Grinders

KMG Clone
Free Plans
http://www.dfoggknives.com/PDF/GrinderPlans.pdf

NWG No Weld Grinder
http://www.usaknifemaker.com/plans-for-the-no-weld-grinder-sander-nearly-50-pages-p-723.html

EERF Grinder (EERF =“Free” backwards)
Free plans
http://wilmontgrinders.com/EERFGrinder.aspx
http://blindhogg.com/blueprints.html

Buy the kit
http://polarbearforge.com/grinder_kit.html
 
The above post is good advise for all .

For those who wish to make money, I would recommend any other line of business than knife making. It takes years of hard work and good bit of skill to make back the investment, much less a profit. If you can make a $200 knife for $50 materials ( ignoring the shop overhead and equipment), then you only need to sell 200 knives a year to make $30,000.....that is a roughly a completed knife every day in the shop, with every weekend spent selling knives ( and one week off a year for R&R, if you are lucky). From that you get to keep about $20,000 for yourself after taxes, less if you have to travel and do shows. The next year you need to do the same, etc., etc. Over five years you need to have 1000 customers........you get the idea.
If you were a grill cook at McD's, and made $10/hr, you would make more money and have weekends off to make knives.

The only other way to break into knifemaking is to have a spouse who has a good income and great benefits.

Cleston Synard said it best - "If I won the lottery and had a million dollars I would still keep on making knives........until it was all gone."
 
bladsmth said:
The above post is good advise for all .

For those who wish to make money, I would recommend any other line of business than knife making. It takes years of hard work and good bit of skill to make back the investment, much less a profit.
Click to expand...

From almost 30 years of doing this - dido!!


Todd


.
 
And Todd's successful! His last knife sold in 2 minutes! I know, cause I waited 1 minute to think before posting and missed it.

There are only a few people that successful.
 
Thanks to all for the replies, okay to answer a few questions. I'm 23 yo I live in Lawton Oklahoma I'm a high school graduate, I'm not trying to make a living making knives, I just enjoy doing it and if I can supplement my income along the way grate if not then at least I'm still making knives. 12345678910- thanks for all the links.
 
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