Thread: Making Your Own Knife from Scrap and off cuts

Great work Corin
Keep it coming.

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.





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.





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





ending up with a design I was happy with.





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





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,





Once cleaned up the figure proves to be very acceptable.





Also picked out some Buffalo horn.





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





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.

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.





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








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.





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








Once shaped finish on the linisher.











Then trim to size.





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

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)








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.





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














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





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

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.







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.





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.





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.

Then I chisel out the bridges between the holes









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

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!!!





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








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.








nearly there!





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





all pieces are prepared in this manner.


Next the blade and bolster are carefully masked up.








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.





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

The handle is squared off on the radius master.





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





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








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 tutorial Corin!


A wonderful set of skills used in makingthat.

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

Very nicely done... both the knife and the WIP.

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. )

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Very nicely done... both the knife and the WIP. 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. )

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.

Originally Posted by Corin

The handle is squared off on the radius master.





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





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








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.
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

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.