What made you decide to make your own knife?

D

Derzelas

Joined
Nov 23, 2015
Messages
241
I am an user like all of us, but for me the design of the knife should serve a purpose before any other subjective opinions. The "subjective opinions" are the ones that pushed me to try to change a thing or two in a design of a blade I found attractive or to design one by myself and send it to be done by a knifemaker I know. I am not thinking to make a living from this art - making one handle from a scrap wood, using manual tools and with time too scarce have shown me it is not easy, but it will be a hobby for me. What drives you?

PS My "subjective opinions" are form (esthetic) and ergonomics related.
 
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I like the challenge of turing a piece of steel stock in to as functional and dynamic tool as I am able. Everytime I finish a knife I can always see a dozen things to improve on in the next one which drives me to make another and then another in the interminable (and futile) climb to perfection.
 
I couldn't afford an antler handled knife so I made one... poorly and have been trying to improve it ever since
 
Knives are the original tool. Or near it. I'm a toolmaker. It just made sense.
 
I made my first knife when I was 11 I think. I watched my dad sharpen a scraper with this belt sander and I was hooked. The next day I snuck out to the shop when he was at work and started grinding on some steel with the sander. After that I researched all I could find at the library. This was long befor the internet so we used real books back then.
 
First knife was a throwing type made out of some steel I found lying in the road. I have no idea what it was, but I could shape with a file. The tip broke eventually, but it was fun while it lasted.
 
Always used them and eventually bought a few less expensive custom knives and finally started designing my own. Thought I could eventually make something as good as what I've bought previously. I was wrong, for like 5 years. Still am in some cases.
 
Did you ever refinish a piece of furniture and were gratified how it turned out? Did you ever throw a piece of pottery on a wheel, fire it, glaze it, and fire it again and were proud to use it and show your work? Have you ever built a radio controlled plane and made it fly well. Well, I get the same satisfaction from taking a bar of steel and a block of wood and making something nicer than I could reasonably afford. It's never been about saving money for me...only making something superior to what you could buy in the sporting goods stores and having the pride in making something beautiful from ugly stock. Designing and making " one of a kind" knives and doing it well makes me feel good. Larry
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I always wanted a custom knife, but didn't want to spend the money, so I started making them. As a result, I have less money, and still don't own a nice custom 😀
 
I was 11, and wanted a big boy knife .... so I made one. I still have it.
Next, I built a forge and started making knives, spears, and swords.
 
Interesting thread. Had to think on it a bit. I think the reasons change over time yet some undercurrent remains the same. The undercurrent is just the desire to prove that I can do it myself. Fifty years ago I had a coal forge, an anvil, a hammer, and a worn out file. I had no idea there was such a thing as a "custom knife." A knife just seemed like a reasonable thing to try to forge. I quenched in water and the result was a blade as hard and brittle as glass. Many years passed and much knowledge was gained. Then I read about the American Bladesmith testing and suddenly the quest was on to make a blade of that quality. It wasn't about money or trying to beat somebody else at something. It was the simple desire to see if I could actually do it myself. Now that hurdle is passed it is on to the new challenge of folding instead of fixed blade. I have almost no machinist experience so the whole business of precision holes is a big challenge.

So why build my own knife? Personal challenge. Pretty dumb really. I could buy better knives any day of the week.
 
I pretty much always had to rework most store bought stuff in my life to customize it to where I was happy with it. So I ended up making my own laminated fiberglass recurve bows, arrows, strings, taxidermy etc. I've always been the type to make my own stuff even if it wasn't "factory" quality but come to find out it's usually equal or better. If it wasn't better I researched why ( with books before Al Gore's internet became available). I've built my own super insulated house completely with the exception of excavation, block laying and dry wall finishing. One day I saw a book on making your own knife. I was intrigued and hooked. Took several years before I had the time or money with life things being what they are but I eventually took on one more hobby! I've never regretted it!
 
For me it was " I want to try it and if I like it I will continue type of interest", Long story short I made my first knife out of an old file with only hand tools. I still have that knife hanging in my shop, I fell in love with knife making and can say that I have come a long way and still have a long way to go.
 
I had wanted, still do, a Murray Carter neck knife and couldn't afford it. Decided to give knife making a try after watching pretty much every Carter video on YouTube. Been doing it little by little ever since. I find it HUGELY rewarding.

Blessings,
Joshua
 
Always loved knives as a kid. I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand why... Maybe it was the "you can't have one until your older" appeal, or watching movies like Rambo and Crocodile Dundee. I can remember cold hammering a 16 penny nail flat on the concrete floor on my Grandfather's garage to "forge" a sword for one of my G.I. Joe action figures. I even sharpened it. :D I couldn't have been more than 9 or 10 at the time.
A few years later, I was in my dad's shop trying to find some flat stock to make a knife out of. The only steel I could find was a piece of 1/8" wall square tube, so I used an angle grinder to try and cut one of the sides off, until it curled up like a pretzel. I burned through an entire grinding wheel (NOT a cut-off wheel, haha) and didn't get anything for my trouble. I think I was more worried that my dad would find his grinding disk all used up, and forgot all about making knives for a while.

Fast forward a few years later, after I'd graduated college and gotten married, I happened upon a thread on Bladeforums.com about something called a NWGS, and then I started reading about how guys were making knives out of their garages, and even in some cases their apartments, and I couldn't believe it. I thought you had to be either a) an old timey blacksmith, or b) a million dollar machine shop to turn out a "real" knife. I started reading around Shoptalk and found guys making works of art with little more than a few homemade tools, files and sandpaper. From that point on, I knew I wouldn't be satisfied until I made one. Used a Shopsmith and a couple low quality tools to make a NWGS, then a heat treat oven, and then I grabbed the bare minimum for making a couple of kydex sheaths and got to work on some VERY crude neck knives. Been hooked ever since! Oh, and I even found a few posts and videos by some guy named "JT". Helped me learn a thing or two as well. ;)

Now, the ability to just think of something I want to make, and then turn it into reality is the main driving factor. Something about making an idea real, just does it for me. If I can make a few bucks here and there, or buy/build another tool or two, that's icing on the cake.
 
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When I went working in the high country (at 15) I was given a farm knife to do the killing for the house and the dogs. The knife was a horrible desigh so I bought a straight backed knife and re-ground it to suit my needs. Then I lost my first (bought - semi expensive) knife so I decided that I couldn't afford to do that again so some bandsaw blade from the sawmill and an angle grinder got me started. That was in 1967 and I have been making them for myself ever since. It was a progression of design for the different uses I was putting them to and as the angle grinder gave way to a 2x36 and recently a 2x72.
I have developed some very definite design ideas for knives that will be used and often used hard so ergonomics of both the handle and blade shape have been refined over the years.
Being retired now I can (and do) devote a bit more time to playing in the shed on making knives and rifle stocks. These two essentials of life complement each other and give me a great sense of pleasure in the making.
 
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