First Homemade Knife.

jonon9

First off I didn't know weather to post this in the Hunting forum or here But since its a knife more aimed at bush-craft and survival I thought It would be much suited here...Mods can move it to another forum if it doesn't suit.

Ok where to start, Iv always had a fascination with making things our of wood and metal after toying with the idea for a number of years I decided to start my first knife.

After looking at the countless knives and templates I decided to draw one myself and in the end it looked something form a few knives I saw but I added a few differences myself.

Picture below is a paper template and a MDF one.





Once I decided on my finish design I set to work cutting it out of 01 Carbon Steel I managed to get a piece a few years ago.





After what seems like hours the almost finished shape is born.




And I managed to get the holes drilled for the brass pins and two extra holes for the glue to slip into for extra holding power





Thats as far as I got today, the next job is to do the bevel and I'v decided to do a 20 deg scandi grind. Hopefully I have this beauty done by Christmas

The Glass Key

Looks good. Any chance of a pic with a ruler on it so we can get some idea of the size? I gave up counting the squares on the squared paper and either you have a small hand or its a large knife difficult to tell.

jonon9

Yeah the squares are 5x5mm but the knife is around 243 mm the blade is 115mm the handle section will be 115mm and I'm leaving roughly 10 mm at the end, my idea was to use it as a butting end if that makes any sense? Also its 6mm think The picture where the knife looks been was due to holding it at an angle :cool:

sheesh

what kind of metal are you using?

jonon9

Its 01 tool steel

aaakev

Is the steel already hardened or are you going to do it yourself?

jonon9

Nope its non heat treated, I was thinking about doing it myself but I might send it off for treatment and cryogenic treatment . I be ringing round tomorrow for prices.

lostboy75

thanks for this, its something I have had in my mind for ages, but never got around to attempting.
will be following this quite closely!

jonon9

lostboy75 wrote: »

thanks for this, its something I have had in my mind for ages, but never got around to attempting.
will be following this quite closely!

Thanks for following im working on the bevel today will post as soon as its done

The Glass Key

jonon9 wrote: »

Thanks for following im working on the bevel today will post as soon as its done

I suppose if you are tempering it later you can be fairly brutal on it with a grinder at this stage.

I don't think it will hurt to have a go at tempering it yourself because if you get it wrong you can still send it off to be tempered anyway.

jonon9

The Glass Key wrote: »

I suppose if you are tempering it later you can be fairly brutal on it with a grinder at this stage.

I don't think it will hurt to have a go at tempering it yourself because if you get it wrong you can still send it off to be tempered anyway.

You can be fairly liberal with the grinder but I feel when it comes to the main blade bevel a jig is needed or some sort of setup to achieve a perfect flat grind, im using a scandi on this one.

Even though I had access to a belt grinder I decided in keeping with Self sufficient I used material I had on hand.

Homemade bevel jig anyone




I have it setup to a 10deg grind, the blue market is to check that im filing evenly across the bevel





As for heat treatment I just got off the phone to a company in Kildare and the price to treat my knife was €125, I never got anything heat treated before so I don't know if that's a lot but to me it sounds like a lot so I be adding it to my to-do list

mawk

Yes that's a lot. It's your first try so if it isn't diamond hard it doesn't really matter.
Heat it to cherry red (about 870c if you have an it thermometer) and drop the blade into motor oil or vegetable oil. Wear welding gloves in case it flames up.

Try to keep the handle above the oil. You want the handle soft so it doesn't snap

That's it hardened.. Don't spend 100+ quid

jonon9

mawk wrote: »

Yes that's a lot. It's your first try so if it isn't diamond hard it doesn't really matter.
Heat it to cherry red (about 870c if you have an it thermometer) and drop the blade into motor oil or vegetable oil. Wear welding gloves in case it flames up.

Try to keep the handle above the oil. You want the handle soft so it doesn't snap

That's it hardened.. Don't spend 100+ quid

Iv a friend who is a farrier and his got a heating oven in his work truck so im set as far as equipment goes anyway. I be doing it on Sunday so I will post the process for anyone interested

TheBody

I know the engineering teacher in my old school points and tempers tools for builders for free. He does it to show the students. Might be a long shot but it's worth a try!

Great work by the way.

jonon9

Thats one very nice gentleman

Iv decided to try and do all the tasks myself just to see how well I can do it, I will even post the oops as well as tips Iv learned along the way hopefully my first of many homemade knives

aaakev

€125 is a bloody rip off imo!! I would have said try it yourself first too. Materials would be less than half the price and ya will have em again for round 2!

jonon9

A quick update, I finally finished the profiling of the blade took some elbow grease.






Just a little bit more refinement around the handle than its HT time.
What are peoples opinion on mahogany handles??

Deise Musashi

Nice job on the shaping and scandi grind lad!

That's extortionate for heat treat though! Do you have any old hard drive magnets? Screw them to a stick and heat the steel until it's non-magnetic. Actually, I'll find a tutorial on simple heat treating 01 for you...

RaisedbyBrocks on BritishBlades wrote:

In an ideal world 01 likes a nice soak at temperature like 5 minutes once at temperature. But you cant control the temperature enough in a gas forge to get the benefit from this. In a gas forge like that realistically when it is all at its most even, and critical temperature. Learn to read it by the heat colour with the main lights off, testing with the magnet to when it has just gone non-magnetic. Soak it just a tad over, move the blade through the forge to and fro to get an even heat, taking it out sometimes to let it equalize. Look how japanese smiths work in charcoal, thats the way you should work HT'ing in an open fire/gas forge, you have to keep on top of it.
The other thing is preparation, Normalizing/heat cycling should be part of your heat treatment. Bring the blade up to critical 3 times, checking for straightness and allowing the heat to run out in the air. These steps will also help you get your eye in. It also will help the blade stay straight stress free and optimal grain size.

Also from BB-

Placing the knife inside a metal tube (eg. a short piece of scaffolding but watch out for zinc fumes from any galvanising) can often help even out the heat

Also worth noting

Try scribing the centre lines on the cutting edge and grind them so that there is roughly 1mm worth of meat left on the cutting edge before HT. ensuring the bevel heights are also the same height all the way along the blade. If you find it hard use a jig to get uniform bevels. Check that the is non magnetic throughout the blade before quenching. When its non magnetic, quench it in your oil. In for 3 seconds, out for 2 and back in till its settled down. Move the blade forwards and backwards, spine to edge in the oil. Never side to side. Repeated the heat till non magnetic, and quench, 3 times.

You can also use quench plates. quench the blade as normal in oil then whilst the blade is still hot place it between two heavy aluminum flat plates. it will sap the heat out fast and help straighten any imperfections. You could also slap some weight on top of the plate to force the hot blade flat.

With your kitchen oven now heated at gas mark 4.5, wrap the blade in foil and get it in the oven. Leave it for an hour, then switch the oven off. When its cool, you have a heat treated blade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwxRqn-NAl8

You could also ask Davy Moore if he'd do it for you, or there are a few lads in UK that will also heat treat steel. Longstrider or Mick Wardell both do heat treats for other knife makers. Nice job lad, I have a flat ground bar of 01 knocking around with ages waiting on me to get the finger out!

jonon9

Super thanks for the HT info will come in very handy on the day, Yeah now that I think of it €125 is a rob.

Get working on that steel I had my piece of flat for about 3 years before I started

peter bermingham

Have made a good few knifes form 01 first sand all marks out before heat treating much easier. Use bricks to build an oven say 2 bricks high brick floor and back and sides. You get what i am saying heat the oven with propane torch and heat veg oil in large container .Hold blade with pliers and heat ,will take around 5min make sure their is no dark spots on the blade when heating and keep the torch moving to heat evenly .Then you use a magnet to test for temp. When magnet wont stick heat for another 10 seconds or so then straight square into oil not at an angle sideways or it will warp clean back to bright metal.Now temper this depends on your oven my oven 1 hour at 195 gives me 57 58 hrc. Start around 205 the lower you go the harder the blade will be. Way i got my oven temp was do a blade then of to a toolmaking company most have a rockwell hardness tester and see what you have. And always wright down temps oven times you wont remember. So say you get 59 to 60 hrc drop oven by 5 and you should be at around 57 58 hrc if that what you looking for here is a photo of the color the knife should be after tempering maybe a little lighter hope that has helped. Peter Attachment not found.

jonon9

peter bermingham wrote: »

Have made a good few knifes form 01 first sand all marks out before heat treating much easier. Use bricks to build an oven say 2 bricks high brick floor and back and sides. You get what i am saying heat the oven with propane torch and heat veg oil in large container .Hold blade with pliers and heat ,will take around 5min make sure their is no dark spots on the blade when heating and keep the torch moving to heat evenly .Then you use a magnet to test for temp. When magnet wont stick heat for another 10 seconds or so then straight square into oil not at an angle sideways or it will warp clean back to bright metal.Now temper this depends on your oven my oven 1 hour at 195 gives me 57 58 hrc. Start around 205 the lower you go the harder the blade will be. Way i got my oven temp was do a blade then of to a toolmaking company most have a rockwell hardness tester and see what you have. And always wright down temps oven times you wont remember. So say you get 59 to 60 hrc drop oven by 5 and you should be at around 57 58 hrc if that what you looking for here is a photo of the color the knife should be after tempering maybe a little lighter hope that has helped. Peter Attachment not found.

Super advice Peter, I havent done much with the knife since I be starting the sanding tomorrow and around Saturday will be heat treating looking forward to it if im honest.

After getting this far on my first knife I find myself already designing my next one I sense there is a bug in connection with knife making.

peter bermingham

O its a bug all right here is a few sites that might interest you get my 01 from here http://www.ted.ie/ This is a good forum http://ukbladesforum.co.uk/forum/index.php This place good for handles pins and the like https://www.brisa.fi/portal/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 And this one http://woodandknifesupply.com/