Making Your Own Knife from Scrap and off cuts [Archive]

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Corin

24th February 2013, 02:03 PM

I started forging my own blades back in 2007 but I have been making hidden tang handles for the blades of others for about ten years. Knifemaking is a great thing to have a go at I highly recommend! This is a description of how I made this knife, their are lots of ways to go about it, feel free to have a go and use whatever methods you like.

I tried to make this knife using as much found material and timber off cuts as possible.

OK so to kick this one off, I started with a bearing from an electric motor. I really recommend this steel for beginners, for a few reasons.

1) it is free in any qty you want. Electric motor re-conditioners throw these away in huge quantities, super high quality bearings from Germany, USA, Japan... I have never been asked to pay, just a please and thank-you and an explanation of why I want them is all it takes.

2) The steel is excellent normally 52100, or of similar quality. really great stuff for hardening and edge holding.

3) and lastly the extra hammering to flatten it out gives excellent opportunity to work on your technique/muscles

First up slit the outer case with the angle grinder.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300313.jpg

Then open it up and knock out the ball race and inner case.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300318.jpg

Heat it up in the forge (be careful not to over heat 52100 when forging... )

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300321.jpg

Hook it over the horn of the anvil, and open it up.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300323.jpg

Next you will want to start hammering out the grooves where the balls ran...

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300324-1.jpg

And shape the tip, drawing it out as you go to give a nice distal taper if desired....

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300327-1.jpg

After a few heats you should have something that looks more or less like this, at this stage the bevel can be roughly hammered in,

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300329-1.jpg

Next I heat the other end and draw out the tang... I forgot to take pictures while I did this, it takes a long time, and a lot of hammering over the horn and with the cross pien, but eventually you will have something that looks like this,

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC310348-1.jpg

OK now back to the forge. Get it hot and pack up all the openings with ceramic wool or similar, and leave to cool. When cooled the steel will not be truly annealed, but normalized and not too hard on the grinder.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC300334-1.jpg

When it is cool to the touch, it is time to start the grind. First profiling,

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC310349-1.jpg

Then facing, here you can see the grind has been roughly hammered in.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC310352-1.jpg

I then grind my flat scandi grind to a thickness of about 0.5mm ready for heat treat,

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/Frank Knife/PC310353-1.jpg

Before I heat treat though it is important to make sure that the handle design will work with the blade. More on this in the next installment...

NCArcher

24th February 2013, 03:00 PM

Great work Corin :2tsup:
Keep it coming.

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:08 PM

I start the handle design process by tracing the blade a number of times and trying out different handle shapes, and materials on the tracings.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/14.jpg

I have settled on a design that is a bit different from the traditional Scandinavian style knife, mainly as both the bolster and butt will be concave rather than convex in profile. I was not sure how this was going to look, and feel in the hand, nor the optimum length. so to solve this I cut a piece of roofing baton, and in about 20 minutes on the radius master I had fashioned a handle, that answered these questions for me. At this point it is also clear that the tang will need to be bent down to conform with the design.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/15.jpg

Next I scanned it into the computer and coloured it in, and played with the proportions until I was satisfied

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/16.jpg

ending up with a design I was happy with.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/17.jpg

So now its time to select materials... like most knifemakers I have a little box of treasures to choose from.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/18.jpg

I also have a collection of small undersized blocks and off cuts, the piece of Mallee root ball top right of the following pic was thrown in with a wood order, it has a bad inclusion and is too short for a knife handle on its own, but is perfect for this project,

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/19.jpg

Once cleaned up the figure proves to be very acceptable.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/21.jpg

Also picked out some Buffalo horn.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/20.jpg

Then out to my brass bin to find some suitable bits, in case you were wondering brass and bare feet is a bad idea...

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/22.jpg

So then I cut out a section from a piece of old thin walled tube. it has too tight a radius but we can easy fix that.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/23.jpg

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:09 PM

I do not have a bit the correct thickness, but I have a number of big bits like this and I can easy thin them down.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/24.jpg

So chuck it up in the lathe and bore to size, again the radius is too small, but we will get too that...

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/25.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/26.jpg

Just like steel copper based alloys can be annealed. Well sort of like steel... all you do is heat to red, and cool. air cool is fine, or quench, it does not really matter.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/27.jpg

Once annealed you can cold form around a suitable anvil, in this case an old lathe chuck.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/28.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/30.jpg

Once shaped finish on the linisher.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/31.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/32.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/33.jpg

Then trim to size.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/35.jpg

Now the blade can be scribed and the tang ground to its final shape.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/36.jpg

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:11 PM

Next comes the heat treat. You will see a black wire exiting the right hand side of the forge. This is the thermocouple I use for temp sensing. I control oxidization by making the flame rich in the forge, and I can control temperature very very satisfactorily for a soak time of about 10 minutes before oil quench. I heat treated this bearing at 800c I learnt later that 830 C would have been better (I measured hardness with rockwell files after tempering as being between 55 and 60, closer to 60 . I can live with that)

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/37.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/38.jpg

Then comes final bevel and polish. I work throught the belts on the radius master to #6 trizact and then finish with the polishing belt.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/39.jpg

next cut out a bit of horn at appropriate thickness on the bandsaw and clean up on the radius master.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/40.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/41.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/42.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/43.jpg

Thats not a normal aluminium oxide belt, but a really great block pattern that is awesome for wood and does not block up.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/44.jpg

Anyhow, that is enough for now... more soon

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:43 PM

OK, now to drill the handle. I start by using the center drill to put three holes, just under the width of the tang. at the front of the handle, and one centre drilling where the tang exits at the rear.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/46.jpg

I use the lathe for the next step, because it has heaps of travel, and accurate. I set up as follows, with the drill in the chuck, and a center in the tailstock.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/47.jpg

The wood then goes in between will the centre on the midle hole at the front and the drill at the back I drill about 1/3 of the way through.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/48.jpg

I then put a thiner drill in the chuck, turn the wood around and drill first the middle hole and then the side holes until they meet with the hole coming from the back.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/49.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/50.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/51.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/52.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/53.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/54.jpg

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:45 PM

Then I chisel out the bridges between the holes

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/55.jpg

and then using gravers, I carve it out from both sides to take the tang.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/56.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/57.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/58.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/59.jpg

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:46 PM

OK so next the Bolster piece is measured up and taken over to the mill, where I mill the slot to near final size. I used to do these by drilling a rowe of holes and filing them into a slot, but well, milling is just so much easier!!!

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/61.jpg

Once the slot is milled only a few strokes of the file are required to get a perfect fit onto the blade

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/62.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/63.jpg

Next the horn and brass is sandwiched together with a piece of carbon paper between. Whilst the fit looks good in fact the blue marks on the horn show that it was only touching in two places. using a sander on the dremel, I sand off these spots and repeat, until the whole piece is marked with blue.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/64.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/65.jpg

nearly there!

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/66.jpg

Once fitted perfectly the slot for the tang is milled and filed.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/67.jpg

all pieces are prepared in this manner.

Next the blade and bolster are carefully masked up.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/68.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/69.jpg

The blade is held in the soft wood jaws of my vice, my clamp is held with a g clamp to the top of the vice. The bolster is carefully positioned and the each layer goes on, all held together by 24hr super strength epoxy. a spacer goes on the back. The clamp is tightened which pulls all the material down onto the bolster, and the bolster hard onto the blade.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/70.jpg

Next the tang is is carefully riveted to the Butt piece.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/71.jpg

Corin

24th February 2013, 03:48 PM

Avery

24th February 2013, 04:09 PM

Great tutorial Corin!

A wonderful set of skills used in makingthat.

Scott

24th February 2013, 04:52 PM

Wow, what an amazing tutorial. Thank you for sharing.

Skew ChiDAMN!!

24th February 2013, 05:07 PM

Corin

24th February 2013, 05:46 PM

:whs: Very nicely done... both the knife and the WIP. :2tsup: I notice that you shape the handle 'as one piece' so I gather that you don't have any major problems with the brass filings contaminating the horn and/or wood during sanding? Any tips or hints? 'Cos that's one of my main problem. (I've always found it best to pre-shape any metal, then shape the "organics" to suit... but that can be a right PITA if you don't get the profiles right in the first place. :rolleyes:)

That can really suck, but some materials are better than others. Anything porous, soft or both will give you grief.
Porous, soft and knife handle rarely go together, so stabilized material is better. This Mallee root burl was dense and solid so created no big issues, just being careful to sand the segments without crossing between more than necessary, that is a key point, rub along them, and sand the wood without crossing past the fiber into the brass or whatever else you are using. If you sand them all together the wood sands faster than the brass and you get ridges. It is fiddly, but that's knife making.

The buffalo horn is very resistant to brass and metal also. A good sharp belt on the grinder works wonders also, cutting rather than rubbing.
Compressed air is you friend (with dust protection) to regularly clear away the dust. Sometimes there is nothing for it but to dry assemble, shape all the parts, then dismantle, finish all the parts and reassemble and glue, but it is easier if you can avoid it. And I am all for easy ;)

I have never attempted shaping the pieces individually.

colbra

25th February 2013, 10:13 AM

The handle is squared off on the radius master.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/72.jpg

Then the corners are rounded off and the handle is worked through the grits of wet and dry.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/73.jpg

It is then oiled with a mix of turps and boiled linseed.

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/76.jpg

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv17/corinkayaker/tuorial/78.jpg

I hope somebody out there finds this tutorial useful to get into knife making, they don't have to be this complicated, but the designs are limited only buy your imagination. Making knives involves working with so many different materials and skill sets and is very rewarding.

If there is something there you want more info on, ask away. if you know a better way, please feel free to share it too!

Corin

Great post on knife making Corin I have really enjoyed your journey with it thanks for sharing it with us.:2tsup::2tsup:
I have made some fishing and oyster knifes over the years but had never thought of putting them up on the forum.
My process is very simple and straight forward and is certainly not at the skill level as your knife making.
They all made from old bread and butter knifes which is Sheffield Steel I believe.
Any way here is picture of the oyster knife that I had in the boat I am at Soldiers Point Port Stephens at the moment weather is no good so I find my self here with all you good people.
Colbra:)

issatree

25th February 2013, 10:46 AM

Hi Corin,
Hey, that is a great job.
2 things, it seems it wood be better to have the use of an Anvil.
I see you signed the finished Blade. How did you do that.
Do you sell your Knives ?. PM me if you like.
Keep up the good work.

Corin

25th February 2013, 11:31 AM

Great post on knife making Corin I have really enjoyed your journey with it thanks for sharing it with us.:2tsup::2tsup:
I have made some fishing and oyster knifes over the years but had never thought of putting them up on the forum.
My process is very simple and straight forward and is certainly not at the skill level as your knife making.
They all made from old bread and butter knifes which is Sheffield Steel I believe.
Any way here is picture of the oyster knife that I had in the boat I am at Soldiers Point Port Stephens at the moment weather is no good so I find my self here with all you good people.
Colbra:)

Those old bread and butter knives are pretty good steel. Fine for an Oyster knife, Good work on that one, looks like a great user and use of an old kitchen knife, hopefully the weather is better soon and you can get out there using it!

Hi Corin,
Hey, that is a great job.
2 things, it seems it wood be better to have the use of an Anvil.
I see you signed the finished Blade. How did you do that.
Do you sell your Knives ?. PM me if you like.
Keep up the good work.

I was lucky to get my anvils, but they are not my favourite for knife making. I recently made a post anvil from a piece of 90mm steel billet embedded in sand in a piece of pipe. It is really nice to use though it is limited a bit in application. Great for knife making though.

Regarding the etching I came up with my own variation on a few processes I will post another thread in this with a video link of the process. You can etch anything you can print on paper, on just about anything made of steel with my process, with items you can find around your house (just need access to a photo copier or laser printer.)

Here is my logo... Niroc is my name backwards, Korin Cutlery got in before me lol :U

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/400625_2970818836421_576546415_n.jpg

crowie

25th February 2013, 11:45 AM

Most excellent tutorial on knife making, so many processes with beaut photos & notes.....WELL DONE!!!
Thank you Corin, cheers crowie

Corin

25th February 2013, 11:49 AM

Thanks for the positive comments guys, I just posted the etching video as promised....

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f44/personalize-your-tools-custom-personalized-etching-166860/#post1615489 (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f44/personalize-your-tools-custom-personalized-etching-166860/#post1615489)

I hope some of you get inspired to try knifemaking, I have seen so much beautiful work on this forum I know the skills are there!

Robson Valley

25th February 2013, 04:44 PM

issatree

25th February 2013, 05:16 PM

Hi Corin,
I watched that Video right through, & I thought that was great.
Thank you for that, & I only hope a lot of Forumites get to watch it as well. A real Eyeopener.
I think I still may have a bit of trouble doing it all the same.

Corin

25th February 2013, 07:33 PM

I'd like to try that except for $30K machinery and space. I've bought the basic blades, built the needed handles and got on with the really bizarre process of sharpening crooked (Haida) blades at 12 degrees. I can do it all.
That is where we could use a real showcase of skills.
Can I recommend a book, Wayne Goddard's $50 Knife Shop

I have made a few crooked/hook knives and had most success sharpening with wet and dry wrapped around dowel.

Hi Corin,
I watched that Video right through, & I thought that was great.
Thank you for that, & I only hope a lot of Forumites get to watch it as well. A real Eyeopener.
I think I still may have a bit of trouble doing it all the same.
Glad you liked it, lots of ways to do it, and my way does take practice, but it does work. Anyhow even if just you finds it useful, it was worth the time it took to make which was no time at all really.

Anyhow, thanks for the comment.

epineh

5th March 2013, 12:04 AM

Hi Corin, nice work and great documentation !

I have been making some larger knives using old cross cut saw blade pieces, and casting aluminium handles directly onto the steel, not as nice looking as yours but practical for bushwalking where you don't want to cut trees down, more just get through wait-a-while and stinging tree unscathed (or as close as possible, lol).

Great idea of using old bearing casings, I don't have a forge as such or an anvil but this will definately be on my "to do" list, the list is faily long but I am getting through it slowly.

Cheers.

Russell.

Robson Valley

5th March 2013, 09:39 AM

Oh, no you don't Corin! I am not a wanna-be bladesmith. I'm quite content to buy blades and make the handles.

The joke is that Lee Valley describes the Haida-style blades as being "extremely sharp." Maybe for carving soap. OTOH, the actual bladesmith says that the edges are a rough grind on 120 grit and that: "you make the edge what you need." Fair enough.

I'm using 3/4" aluminum tubing with 800 & 1500 grit wrappings. Cereal box cardboard + chrome green for honing. All works well for the crooked blades.
After Mom died, I figured that she wouldn't have much further use for her old lawn chair so I cut off as much useful tubing and tossed the rest in the recyc.

Bushmiller

5th March 2013, 08:20 PM

Corin

You have produced a wonderful end product, made completely by you from odds and sods. I take my hat off to you :cool: .

A very well produced thread too.

Regards
Paul