# Knife makers on here?



## flyfisher117 (Sep 5, 2012)

Ive been interested in making my own knives, I dont have the tools to make the blades but I have seen the little $30 kits that Woodcraft have.  Just curious if anyone can comment on their quality?  I know that they are not the nicest of things but they look like a decent price to get started with, after that I can try my hand wtih a "custom" blank.

Also, what tools are needed to make your own knives?  I have a drill press, Bandsaw that the blade travels a little bit but should get the job done, as well as a few hand sanders.  Anything else that would be needed?  I know I dont have a nice fancy buffing system or a bench sander with an inflatable drum but I dont have that much money laying around.

Lastly, What is the easiest way to get a high gloss finish?  I thought CA but Im not sure how I would polish it with micro mesh, Maybe one of those pen buffing wheels you can put on the lathe?  Or is there another secret finish Im missing?

Thanks all!


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## bluwolf (Sep 5, 2012)

I've made a few of the kits from here. I'm no expert, but I think the quality of the kits for the price is very good.

KnifeKits.com : Designer Knife Kits - Knife Making Supplies - Knife Making Tools

As far as learning about making knives, this site has forums for everything from beginners to pros and everything in between. There's even a forum for kit knife builders.

The Knife Network Forums : Knife Making Discussions - Powered by vBulletin

HTH,
Mike


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## Rich L (Sep 5, 2012)

I've made a few custom knives and when I did I did not have fancy equipment, in fact, I did not even have a sander - all finishing was done with a file and then a buffing wheel.

For machines I had nothing more than a drill/mill for drilling only and a cutoff/band saw. Oh, I had a vise, too. 

Here's a picture of what you can do with a drill, saw, and files - this is not a kit. You do have to develop technique but all you need to do is buy the tool steel blanks, finish it to final shape, get someone to heat treat it, and put your handles on it. This one has mother-of-pearl handles with titanium liners underneath with some decorative filework. Just an example and I'm sure your style will vary. There are lots of books on the subject and try to go to some knife shows where you will find a lot of helpful people.

Cheers,
Rich


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## JMCU (Sep 5, 2012)

Rich thats a nice one.  Smoky Mountain Knife Works carries some kits but i didn't see any skinners like this one.


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## Toni (Sep 5, 2012)

Get in touch with Edstreet he's the one you want to talk to.


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## triw51 (Sep 5, 2012)

Having made a few knives myself (I forge my own blades) I think a kit is a good way to get started. If you go to www.*knife*andgun.com/ you can find just blades in damascus or high carbon tool steel. That way you can use your own wood. If you want to go up a step then Rich L talked about stock removal (where you take a blank of tool steel and remove anything that does not look like a knife) make sure you get annealed steel. I would be willing to help if you have any questions.


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## frank123 (Sep 5, 2012)

Kit knives are a pretty easy to get started with, especially if you are wanting to make folding knives.

For fixed blade knife kits, all you really have to do is make and attach the handle (which is a fairly important part of knife making) since the blade itself is usually finished with only a little improving on the sharpening and such needed.

The equipment you need to take it farther depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  For a primitive knife made without even a shop, you really only need a file, a hammer, and a pit in the ground to build a hot fire in (for heat treating).  Old files make pretty good material to work with (you have to use that fire pit to anneal -soften- them) and some very fine knives have been made this way.

Going a bit farther you need a belt sander, buffing wheels (I use buffing wheels from HF on an old bench grinder and it works fine, even if not of optimal ease), and a heat treating system which can range form something very simple such as a MAPP gas torch by itself for small blades to a more sophisticated small gas forge made from a couple of fire bricks run of of that MAPP gas torch, to a propane forge you either make or buy (much, much cheaper to make and not hard to do) or an electric heat treating oven of some variety.

For a belt sander (usually called a belt grinder when used for metal), those little 1 x 30 things you get cheap at HF will suffice if you don't want to spend a bunch of money or you could buy or make a larger 2 x 72 which seems to be the preferred belt grinder for most knife makers.

Lots of free knife making video stuff on the internet and YouTube, or SmartFlix has some pretty good rental DVD's available as well (SmartFlix, the Web's Biggest How-To DVD Rental Store).

It's an interesting and highly useful hobby, have fun.


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## mredburn (Sep 5, 2012)

Add this to your sources to look through
We make knife making easy with Kits!


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## jthompson1995 (Sep 5, 2012)

I've made a few from lawn edger blades, they are already hardened high carbon steel. I cut out the shapes with a Dremel, anneal the handle for easier drilling, and grind the blade with a 1" wide belt sander. Here's some pics:


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## edstreet (Sep 5, 2012)

flyfisher117 said:


> Ive been interested in making my own knives, I dont have the tools to make the blades but I have seen the little $30 kits that Woodcraft have.  Just curious if anyone can comment on their quality?  I know that they are not the nicest of things but they look like a decent price to get started with, after that I can try my hand wtih a "custom" blank.
> 
> Also, what tools are needed to make your own knives?  I have a drill press, Bandsaw that the blade travels a little bit but should get the job done, as well as a few hand sanders.  Anything else that would be needed?  I know I dont have a nice fancy buffing system or a bench sander with an inflatable drum but I dont have that much money laying around.
> 
> ...



May as well give up on using micro-mesh, Don't use a CA finish it wont hold up at all. If you want a high gloss finish them get stabilized wood and polish it up.

As for tools goes it is a toss up. that really depends on what angle you are going to approach it with.

Quality wise just go over to Jantz and order from them, they have some really good stuff there.

Ed


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## OOPS (Sep 5, 2012)

I took a class at Woodcraft where we made a fixed blade knife, from one of their kits.  I was told their kits are good quality, but the ones that seem to go on sale more frequently have blades that are not of the same quality as their others.  I spoke with another person who took the class, who happens to be an avid hunter.  He said that his Woodcraft knife performed well in the field, with the exception of the fact that he felt he needed to sharpen it more often than his other knives.  I mentioned this to the class instructor.  He said that there is a tradeoff in blade quality.  Higher quality steel will keep its edge longer, but require more expensive equipment when it needs to be resharpened.  "Lesser" quality steel needs more frequent sharpening, but can easily be sharpened by stones you probably already own.  This sharpening information is above my level of expertise, and I am stating it only to tell you what I learned.  A kit knife is an easy way to learn what its all about.  

As for tools, in the class we used a combination belt/disk sander and an oscillating spindle sander.  I used the belt sander quite a bit in the construction of my knife.  However, all of the finish sanding was done by hand.  Finally, I used Teak Oil to finish my knife, which doesn't provide a high gloss shine, but slightly above a matte finish.  However, my knife could fall into glacial stream without doing damage to the wood, and refinishing with teak oil is easy in comparison to other finishes.  

I hope this helps.  I will never be a skilled knife maker, but I have made a couple and will make a few more in the future.  They are a lot of fun to make.  I doubt I will ever get a forge--I will leave that stuff to the experts.


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## edstreet (Sep 5, 2012)

Here is my setup 






As for the teak oil comment I beg to differ.  THIS IS TEAK OIL











Long story short, if your teak oil is not high gloss then you are not applying it correctly.

As for metal comp, that is not true about sharpening, what should have been said is heat treating, not sharpening.  You sharpen with the same tools regardless of material it's made from.

Ed


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## flyfisher117 (Sep 5, 2012)

Do I need to heat treat everything I make?  I know of a guy not far from me that forges his own knives so Could I just buy blanks from him and attach the wood?  I like working with wood but working with metal like heat treating it is WAY out of my league and sounds like a hassle more than anything.

Thanks for the links all!  Too many to look at them all tonight but there should be enough info in them to keep my busy for a while!  

I think at first I want to just make basic fixed blade knives, get a feel for it and see if I like it.  If I have fun or it interests me ill make more.  

Are most knife scales pre-stabilized?


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## edstreet (Sep 5, 2012)

flyfisher117 said:


> Do I need to heat treat everything I make?  I know of a guy not far from me that forges his own knives so Could I just buy blanks from him and attach the wood?  I like working with wood but working with metal like heat treating it is WAY out of my league and sounds like a hassle more than anything.
> 
> Thanks for the links all!  Too many to look at them all tonight but there should be enough info in them to keep my busy for a while!
> 
> ...




Only need to heat treat if the metal is not hardened already hardened.  You can buy premade or have one made up.  If you go that route you will just need basic stuff you already have, epoxy, vise, cut scale to fit and glue on and put pins/bolts in place then shape and polish.

denim micarta lynx lockback

This is a lynx kit from Jantz supply. I made the denim micarta.  Start at the bottom of the page and work up.


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## Tom_W (Sep 6, 2012)

Yes, I make knives.

I would abandon the high mirror idea finish unless you have a lot of time. 

You can use a file to take the blade down or an cheap bench grinder. Other tools are a bench drill and rasps to shape the handle. If you stick to tool steel like O1 etc, you and usually heat treat yourself if you have access to a propane torch (glowing orange all over before an oil quench) and use the kitchen oven to temper - however it might be simpler to  find the local forge and ask them.












try looking at BritishBlades - Home


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## plantman (Sep 7, 2012)

Some of my knife blades are old files, some I buy, and some I use surgical steel. If you want to use the last one, figure on a lot of time grinding. I form the wood by drilling it and mounting it to the blade, then using an oscilating sander to shape the scales to the blade. I shape the scales with a dremmel tool or wood rasps and sand. My finish of choise is a high gloss water based poly (Hydrocoat) finished with 0000 steel wool and Murphy's Oil Soap, then buffed to a high sheen. After grinding my blade I use a series of Japanese water stones starting with 300 grit and finishing with 8000 grit. Next is aluminum oxide and a leather barber strop.  The strop takes off the little curl you get when you sharpen an edged tool. If you look at the blade and you can see lite reflecting on the edge, it's not sharp yet. Anway, that my method. Good luck  Jim S


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## edstreet (Sep 8, 2012)

Sorry but 'surgical steel' is somewhat of a misdemeanor.  3xx and 4xx stainless is classically listed as 'surgical' yet they contain the #1 metal alloy that most people have sensitivity to.  Most all surgeries today that use metal will use Ti 6AL-4V, which is grade 5 titanium, or similar, which contains no sensitivity materials, i.e. nickel.

Even in the jewelry world today there is a HUGE amount of nickel which is a big no-no.



> I would abandon the high mirror idea finish unless you have a lot of time.


  High mirror is a major pain in the ass and it's easy damaged.  If you are doing a show knife then by all means do it but don't expect someone to use it with a heavy mirror finish, at least not on all of it.  Some parts are ok.






  Here we have a kitchen knife that I did that is semi-mirror.  This one is stabilized black cherry burl and it is 440C stainless. 

If you want a very functional durable finish on a blade look to your bead blasting cabinet or Togi.

This one I used a very fine media and bead blasted the blade.  Scratches are non-existant and it's easy to clean, has that zone 5 color to the metal and it's sealed with wax which makes it very hard to remove which is very good in the kitchen.  I always pass on good usage pointers to those who buy knives on usage and cleaning.  This is  stabilized sugar maple from Canada.






This one is a Togi finish.  Togi is the Japanese art of sword polishing. I used nothing but stones on the finish of this blade.  This is also stabilized sugar Maple from Canada.




This method is not for the faint of heart as the stones are very expensive and the process is not short nor easy.  Essentially what you are doing is creating a layer of oxidized steel with the stone impurities combined with the marks from the stone.

As for stabilizing I recommend sending batches off to WSSI and have them done by the pro's and not some home made back yard project that is not even half assed and grossly sub par.  Be very careful when you buy pre-stabilized wood and know who/where stabilized it.

Ed


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