Has anyone ever made their own knives

I've always been intrigued in making my own knife .

Used to work for a guy who had a neighbor who just got bored and went into his yardbarn and came out with some of the most beautiful creations you've ever seen .What impressed me more was he wanted a stinking fortune for them as well ..No one likes selling themselves cheap.

i think I had some interest before but since seeing his work I've been more than intrugued with the idea .up to this point it's something I've put off until prison ... How about you ?

Always wanted to, but not having a forge sort of kept me from doing it. I have purchased knife blanks many times and finished them with handles and file work, but never forged a blade.

" ...up to this point it's something I've put off until prison ... "

Boaz , you amuse me .

perfectly fine knife. I kinda got carried away with the belt sander working towards an edge and customized point. I customized it alright. :open_mouth:

I found that one pretty amusing as well. :smiley:

As for making my own, I've been keeping an eye out for old carbon steel circular saw blades and large old files. Easiest way to make a blade is using an old file (or a new one). Google it and you will find tons of information on it. All you need is an inexpensive "hibachi" furnace to anneal & heat temper it. I'm getting closer to actually doing it but I've been saying that for years now. One day for sure!

I never tried but I knew this local guy named Ross Aki of Aki Blades that made some pretty nice machetes right here in Hilo. He was a member of my ping pong club for a while but stopped playing after a few months. I wanted to buy one of his machetes but they were just too expensive for me.

I made my first knife when I was 19 and got a piece of steel that was left over when the father of a friend made a new lawn mower-blade. I knew next to nothing about heat treatment then and just heated up the roughly ground blade in a coal grill with the help of a hair dryer before quenching it in sun flower oil. The edge holds very well but is brittle. In the past I thought about optimizing it and putting on a real handle, but in the end I decided to keep it like it was from the beginning to remind me from where I started.

Since then I have occasionally made a knife for friends and family (my brother, who is a passionate hunter uses four knives "made by Huny") averaging to approx 1/year. Up to now it was stock removal only but lately I got an anvil and am in the process of building a hearth (one of the reasons I reduced my flashlight-related activities in the recent past, but I still read BLF!)

Next is a "camp knife" which has seen its share of abuse. The blade was professionally heat treated by the german knife maker Stefan Trittler from Esslingen and has one of the most durable edges I own.

And here is the latest knife I made. It's actually made from a prefabricated blade (lots of them on ebay, if you think about making your own, this is a good way to start), so rather an easy job. Some would say "semi-custom", some would say "cheat", but believe me: bringing on the satin finish on the hardened steel was a real PITA. The handle is waxed Bubinga.

I haven’t done it but have looked at all the YouTube videos on the subject. I’d certainly like to do it.

BOAZ, I don’t think I’d wait until prison to perfect this skill. Once you get to prison I’d think you’d like to hit the ground running :slight_smile:

A very great interest of mine - knives

And a long time ago 20+ years ago , I ground down hax saw blades at work into small knives , nothing flash , but those hax saw blades were something special , really hard and held an edge really well . Made a lot of commercial knives look really bad [ 440 stainless ] ..

Really would like to get into knife making , just need a belt grinder [ or belt linisher ] so I can do the stock removal method .

Go find some industrial hax saw blades [ from dumpsters ] , and turn them into knives .

Smith where I worked 20 years ago made blades like in the link.Should have saved some.

Lennart

The heat treat aspect is the thing that stops many for doing this I think. Otherwise it’s just grinding and gluing/sanding for the handle isn’t it?

Bryan,

I read a thread on a knife DIY site where the maker used a modified gas grill for heat treating. He used firebrick and made some sort of opening in the side.

well, Talk about old memmories…when I was a teenager I took a broken hacksaw blade, ground off the teeth and put an edge on it. For a handle I took a ball of PC7, a two part epoxy that had the consistancy of paste. A bit larger than a golfball I stuck it on the end of the blade where the hole was for mounting it on a hacksaw. I used a short peice of a nail through the hole to keep it locked in to the handle. I then gave the gob of goo a squeeze and presto, a custom handle sized just right for my hand…my right hand. similar in size and function of the Mora style knives. not at all flashy but man did it hold an edge. Now I’ll have to keep my eyes open to see if it is still kickin around in the basement after 30 some years.

Boyd

1 x 30 HF belt sander

Going to pick up one of these today or tomorrow. Me and my son are making handle on the premade knife blanks. He is in the process of doing his first handle from start to finish. Hope it works out good we decided to use wood dowels in the handle as thats all we had in the garage that was the right size. The wood was donated from a buddy that he had used for some wood working and we just ripped it on a table saw to make the sides not as thick. If the dowels dont work I guess we can just cut off the old wood and start over. I know its not a total custom but its a fun project for father and son. Neither of us have ever worked with wood but thats going to be fun staining and polishing stuff like that.

Also have question I saw a damascus blank that has states it is a dull blank (never had a cutting edge put on) does anyone know if that would be hard to do or is it basically just another step in the process……

I also watched a video where someone was using this same belt sander to sharpen his knifes what does yall think of this. Would it work on that damascus blank that has never had an edge put on it?
Link to video

Thanks

I love my HF 1x30, got it at christmas with the need of sharpening. But I started making a knife in school a few weeks ago, and it’s really importantnow. Used a dremel to cut out the rough shape of the knife, then heat treated it at school. Ended up flat grinding on the HF 1x30 with their store brand 100 grit belts(the red ones). Word of advice, get the blue zirconia ones, they last wayyyyy longer. I didn’t have a bandsaw, so I just used the belt sander to thin the wood down from an inch thick to about 1/3 inch.

Yeah, and it’s easy to put an edge on a knife. Just make sure not to linger on the tip for long, and to take your time. I’m assuming the knife blank is heat treated already also. When you grind the edge in, don’t use gloves. This allows you to detect any kind of heat, which is bad for the steel. You should be able to take the knife off the belt when grinding, and immediately pinch the edge with your fingers and it shouldn’t be more than just warm.

Don posted some photos of his hand made knife creation a couple years ago. I think it was made from an old leaf spring. Maybe he’ll post it again for us.

When I first started collecting knives, I noticed that high quality unfinished blanks were available… some of them selling for a lot of money. I almost bought one but then decided that I didnt have the time or patience to complete such a project.

I attended an estate sale that had a very impressive collection of hand made knives, but the asking prices were far above what people would consider paying. A chunk of your life can easily go into building the finer examples and the learning curve can span a decade or more.

Thanks for the tips sintro

Post some pics of your work!

Here is the link to the Damascus What do the experts think about it?

Yes I have been making knives on and off for the past almost 20 years
I haven’t done much in the past 6 years after getting a full time shift work job - all rotating night shifts
All the night work though has gotten me into collecting torches though
:slight_smile:

With the knives generally a knife maker is a forger or a grinder
I am a grinder, starting most of the time with a bar of stainless/tool steel and grinding away what doesn’t look like a knife
Forgers heat up the steel, wack it into shape then clean
Knives can be made fairly easily with hand tools if you patient enough and carbon steel is fairly easy to heat treat.
I send out all my stuff for heat treatment.
The deer bone handled knife maybe I should say isn’t totally mine, there is a local guy who makes stuff and someone gave me a blank that I had to grind down.

As someone that loves metal but does not have your skills this is orsm work. The flashlights will no doubt cost more money. If you have more knife pictures please post them up.