Whats your process on making knives?

panch0

panch0

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Jun 16, 2008
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A little different take on this question. Do you grab the steel of your choice and go to town and keep at it until you finish step one then go directly into step two etc.... Or do you think about the next step for a while then when you are inspired to start, finish that next step then wait until inspired to do the next? Does that make any sense?

Me, I think about the next step, it may take a day or two to start it. I will work on something else, and I will just have a light bulb goes off in my head, and I will do the next step on that particular knife. So I can sometimes have three or four knives on the bench at the same time. I feel like if I push it I will goof, so I wait until I get "inspired" then continue with the process. This sometimes causes me to take a long time to get knives done. I quit taking orders because of this. It feels too much like work sometimes. My nine to five is stressful enough as it is. I want the knives I make to be the best that they can be, and that means, I have to take my time on each step. I have seen guys like Don Robinson that jump from one step to the other like a machine. I was very impressed by that and the fact that his knives were superb. I just need to take my time, or I may forget a step and have to re do stuff, and it ticks me off when that happens. I used to want to crank out knives as fast as I could but noticed that I had to redo steps, messed up blades and handle material. Once I waited until I felt ready those mistakes drastically dropped.
So how do you guys work on'em?
 
I think I understand what you are asking; so my reply is that I plan everything before. Profile, height of grind, handle/pin material all get written down and that's the way it gets done. I usually work on four at a time (that's what my oven will hold) start to finish.
 
I can't say I plan but walk into the shop and work on whatever pleases me and only for as long as it pleases me. I do finish everything (all liner locking folders) but usually have about a dozen all different going at one time. Frank
 
I am driven more by inspiration than by plan. I don't really know in advance what I'll end up with.

I stare at a piece of steel until I see in it the blade that wants to come out.

I stare at a piece of wood or ivory and see in it a handle, or bolster, or whatever.

The times I have planned things in advance have never ended up the way I planned... something changes along the way. Usually the change comes because my plans are impractical or because the materials would not have looked right if I'd followed the plan.
 
I make a lot of small, 2.5" - 3" blade, utility knives. When I try a new design, I usually profile 3 or 4 identical blades then flat grind one, hollow grind another and vary the pin / thong holes until I find the combination I like. All of my blades are carefully drawn in corel draw before I start, but the finished version of small knives rarely looks like that drawing. With the larger ones, I seem to stick much closer to the plan. Regardless, there are always several on the bench waiting for the muse to strike.

Dick
 
I just pick up a bar of steel and look at it. Then I start moving it around with a hammer until it looks like a knife. Then I grind away all the bits and pieces of steel that are in the way of it being the knife the steel was born to be.
The rest is just dressing it up to go out into the world. That is the way my buddy Tai taught me ;)

Seriously, I have a plan before I start, and I consider the next few steps as I work on the knife.
At the end of a session, I look it over, and think through the rest of the build....did I miss anything up to this point? Is there something more I should do now, that I might forget later? What am I going to do first when I come back to this?

OK, The sun is shining, and it is a really nice day.....off to the shop to HT a batch and forge out some kitchen blades. This is the first free weekend in a long time.
 
I work pretty much like you do Frank, except sometimes the gaps are days/weeks/months as opposed to a day or two (and they tend to be even longer on a knife that's been ordered as opposed to one I'm making 'just because'.)
 
Usually each knife is planned out on paper or in my head, down to the last detail. But sometimes I just feel like trying a certain profile or grind style, and may not finish the knife for months. I seldom work on one piece from start-to-finish; usually I spend a couple hours making holes, get bored (ho ho) with that, profile a couple, oh yeah I gotta finish hand-sanding that one I almost forgot about, etc. I generally grind at least two blades at a time just to let one cool while I heat up the other.

So the answer is... it just depends! (my process, or lack of one, drives my office manager bonkers :D)
 
Paul and James we must be related somehow. Hehehe. I know exactly what you guys are saying.

I get the knives finished, it may take longer than some, but they get done and don't leave unless I am happy with the outcome.
 
I'm very part-time so I share the same feeling as some of you. I usually have a few going and work on the process that I am feeling at the moment. There are times I want to throw sparks, times I enjoy the precision of measuring and designing, and times I just want to throw on some tunes and hand sand for a while. I find that if I work on the processes that most interest me at the time, things come out better. Thats probably the biggest advantage to having a job that pays the bills...this hobby can truly be a hobby and a passion without it feeling like work. The minute knifemaking feels like a chore, I shut out the lights and head upstairs.

I don't fret with design too long other than on folders. For the average knife, I start with a rough design and refine as I go. I find that turning something over in your hands for hours and hours always results in a better product because you really impart the hand-made qualities that differentiate a custom knife from one a machine spits out. I enjoy making a batch of 4-5 small knives that all started from the same design but end with slight variations on blade profile, handle shape and "feel."
 
James that getting "bored" was a good one, almost snorted my coffee all over the puter. This is a good thread guys very interesting. I'm more of a see what's inside kind of a guy but I often wonder if that's a lack of grinding skill?
 
i never know what i'm going to make until i get the blade ground. i have started out with a particular blade shape in mind and end up with something totally different. one thing about making knives that i like. you can change your mind at any time and end up with something totally different than what you planned on.

i start with a strip of steel that has been plasma cut close to the size of the knife i have in mind to make. then i draw out the basic shape i want and cut it out with the right angle grinder. once i have the rough profile cut out i'll finish profiling out the blade on my disk sander and start grinding. one knife i made this past year started off as a clip point and ended up looking like a schrade sharpfinger when i was done.
 
Horsewright said:
James that getting "bored" was a good one, almost snorted my coffee all over the puter.
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed that. When I was a kid and complained of being bored, my Dad would ask, "Would you rather be bored or punched? " :D

Basically it all just boils down to the fact that I have a short attention spa-- um... wait, what was I talking about? :p
 
Dang ya did it to me again. Your father was a wise man.
 
For me being a new maker with limited tools, I never get enough time in the shop even come close to finishing one step at a time. So I take days/weeks/months to finish. When I'm making a mini, it usually goes much quicker (and I can bring it inside to work on) so I just go from step to step. If it is a scale mini, I make a detailed build sheet with dimensions, critical design parts, think through construction for possible difficulties and collect my tools I will need.


-Xander
 
The only thing I plan going in is the profile of the blade and the grind style. After that I decide the rest (final grind line, plunge location, choil/no choil, scales, pin location) as I go...
 
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