/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Hey, I want to make my father a knife for Christmas. However I am really new to this. You guys have any good tips of where to start or easy to follow tutorials I could use.

Thanks in advance

>>1516527
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EXCxCDF6_8

>>1516520
Nice work.

That drill tho

>>1516520
Kek

>>1516527
Nope but youtube mosaic pins. Badass and easy to make

>>1516531
Saw one of those at an antique store near me.

>>1516520
Aren't hard drive covers aluminium or mild steel at best?

>>1516520
>annealing a tin hand spear

>tfw just snapping a knife blank in half after hardening it seconds before putting it into the tempering oven

Dis feel. I didn't ask for it.

>>1516527
I'm doing the same for my father too, I'm using an old worn file to make a nice Bush knife. Angle grinders are a must for people with less money to afford forges, generally you can use scrap steel(leaf springs, etc) but always research what's the type if its mild or high or low carbon. As for annealing or tempering if you have a blowtorch and an oven you're good. The handle is your choice on what to do with it.

Here's all my projects at the moment. Still new, not a fan of handles as you can tell. Farthest right is my 3rd knife I finished.

If the good ol' boy from a however many months back sees this, I'm the thick stock guy.

>>1516527
There's a podcast called "knife makers mastery" that's ongoing, I've gotten a lot of good info from it. If I had to start over, I'd get the 1x30" sander from harbor freight before anything else I've gotten. Granted, I just got an angle grinder and haven't used it yet so maybe that'll change but I doubt it.

>>1516527
Not really tutorials but there is a guy I watch on YouTube called green turtle and he explains pretty much everything he does I've learned alot from his channel I've made this knife with just his info alone. I know it's an unhardenavle knife but it's my second one and I think it looks alright.

>>1517020
Green beetle sorry idk why my phone put turtle

>>1516705
Well, I salvaged as much of the blade as I could. Instead of a blade 5-inch with full tang and wood scales, I am tempering a blade about an inch long for wood carving that will be push fitted.

Here's the knife I broke, back when I first made it (2013). I used it with that cord wrapped handle for 5 years. I'll be carving the new handle now while waiting for the tempering to finish. I loved that knife. I used it almost every single day.

>>1517020
>I think it looks alright.

It is gorgeous compared to my first attempt. lol

Here's a couple more images of early knives I made. This is the same saw blade stock I've been using the past couple of weeks and spamming up /kmg/ with the results.

>>1517366
Here's a garden tool I use for weeding and some harvesting. I did this way back, but today I added some extra pins to help keep the wood together. It started splitting after someone left it in the garden for a week.

>>1517064
Green Beetle does some good stuff, for anyone interested in the forging process all done by hand by a man in his shed, worth looking at
My recommendations-
>Simple Little Life: fairly irregular in his content but worth checking out for stock removal and tooling
>Gough Custom: as above, no real focus but some very good advice for starters in stock removal, very much the modern knife maker
>Walter Sorrels: masses of info, bit dry at times but huge resource for all types of knife construction, metal etc all the way through to CNC and production runs
>Niels Provos: focus mostly on some of the more historical forging and pattern welding, makes some beautiful stuff

The other minefield to avoid when looking for content is the really super-popular stuff like Alec Steele, he does some pretty entertaining content but for starting knife and blade makers there's not much there for you apart from the oh wow factor using expensive tools you probably don't have. There's also like a dozen other channels with dudes just making some cool shiny stuff, but they'll rarely talk and the amount of info there is fairly minimal unless you're really good at picking up visual cues on technique- being a starter, you don't have those yet!
Basically- find channels that tell you info and steps with simple construction methods. There's vast amounts of info on the internet but you do need to personally filter it pretty hard or you won't get as much time out of it, if it comes down to watching a bloke hitting steel or running an angle grinder, its time to get off your arse and just go do it yourself, you'll learn more.

>>1517366
>>1517368
Very nice, the scythe/sickle is great

>>1517361
Well, fuck. It broke again just as I slide the tang into the handle. It was an easy slide and it snapped. I tried bending the tang by hand after that and it is tempered correctly, but the place it snapped had some type of crack where it looks like it was rusted for a long time before this. I even checked another photo I have and I can see the faint start of an old crack.

Oh well. The handle will go to the next knife I guess.

>>1516520
Having hell and cant get a kiln until the end of may. Got everything but the forge done and maxhinist bro weld a hardface on a soft as baby shit anvil.

So can we make knives and just shelf them at the kiln stage until may?

>>1517487
>So can we make knives and just shelf them at the kiln stage until may?

Of course. Just keep them oiled until then.

>>1516520
First time making a knife, I got a belt sander and was fooling around with a file that I normalized, what kind of handle should I use? I was thinking use a cow femur and a brass guard. Also, how the hell do I heat treat this shit? It's an old file so I'm nervous about cracking

>>1517539
Not bad.

>Also, how the hell do I heat treat this shit?
Anneal, shape, harden, temper, finish. Once you harden it, don't clang it on anything or clamp it in any tool. Just temper it then you can work with it normally. As to how, well, get it red hot then quench it immediately and don't let it hit anything even the quench bucket/sink walls. Then put it in an oven at 425F until it is straw yellow color which should take a couple hours for best results. Then quench it.

There are tons of videos on how to do all this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r0WL26PaFs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s1geK8QEPA

Also, age of the metal won't matter to much unless there's structural damage.

Well, the only success today seems to be this fruit knife handle replacement and a boat load of file handles carved out. The wood is cherry and I used a brass pin peened out, like a rivet, to tighten it. The cherry is nice, but hard to work when it is well seasoned as this.

Hey everyone I finally finished my third knife, this one actually has a handle on it, I know the pin placement is a bit wonky and I've learned alot about what not to do lol so next time itll be alot cleaner. What do yall think of it?

>>1517764
The profile looks a bit odd, but it looks pretty functional. Not bad for a first.

I have access to plasma and mill cnc routers. For a halloween project I made a wooden cleaver prop and made me wonder if I could make real knives this way and get into knife making. Would there be any issues from plasma cutting the basic shape that would affect later on?

I also have access to multiple different materials. I'm assuming stainless steel would be the obvious route, but not sure if there are other options out there that would work.

>>1517806
You just need to heat treat the metal correctly. You'll need to know the specific type of metal you are using and how to heat treat it. Stainless steels and other alloys all have specific methods for heat treatment. If you are buying metal stock from a supplier, they should have a chart and some paperwork on how to heat treat that metal. Otherwise, the knife won't be heat treated correctly and it may be too brittle or won't hold an edge. This is why many people just use carbon steel or stock removal while keeping the metal cool.

Keep in mind that for some alloys of stainless steel, heating them incorrectly can forever ruin them. Meaning cutting them with a plasma torch may ruin the metal near the edge if it gets too hot.

>>1517804
Yeah I've been trying to work on my hammering, lol my friend told me it looks like a big butter knife

>>1517832
It is like a drop point and spear point had a baby.

Made a knife last year and never posted pictures of it. Material is hotrolled O2 Steel. Heattreatment was done in a small brickoven with a round hole drilled through and a propaneburner. Sadly I forgot too take pics of that.

>>1517841
Pics of finished Knife. Handle is glued on with polyurethaneglue and pinned with brass pins.

Reporting in. I missed the last thread,

>>1517849
...been getting heaps of orders. It's pretty exciting that I can quit my job to make pointy metal things.I'm down to one day a week as a chef! WOOOOOOOOO

>>1517841
>file jig

Thank you for reminding me that I need to make one.

>>1517842
Looks good.

>>1517849
>>1517855
Nice. How long have you been making knives?

>>1517867
Thanks. Done it as a hobby for maybe 4 years now.

>>1517869
Quality work, anon.

>>1517877
Cheers! Keep going guys... every little bit counts towards getting a better end result, Including all the fails.

>>1517891
Your knives always loom amazing I am looking forward to getting that good someday

>>1517808
I'll probably use the cnc milling router then. Much slower but better overall results.

>>1517891
Cast resin in the middle? How do you get the nice and separated swirls? Color mixing or actual pieces of pre casted resin?

>>1517981

it's acrylic block and there is some kind of wrinkled folyo inside

>>1517981
>>1518122
The customer gave it to me to put in the handle, I don't remember exactly what it was but that anon sounds about right.

I recieved enough to make two handles, so another random customer got the same stuff, which was pretty cool...

>>1518321
How do you get your bevels so perfect on your handles? What type of sander do you use?

>>1518418
I do it on my 2x72" grinder - made by Fire Pants - that has a really big flat platen which makes it easy.
The bevels are far from perfect, I do them by hand/eye without measuring anything, so the errors there for sure. It's just hard to pick up on them I guess.

The only person I know that bothers to machine them accurately is James from Knives and Stones, but he used to be a freaking engineer...

>>1517842
Fuckin clean and nice

>>1518425
Australian?

>>1518442
Yep, Melbourne. You too?

>>1518457
Sydney

>>1517869
That's a beauty

>>1518418
Here's a behind-the-scenes image of my handle making in process. I'm waiting on the 24 hour epoxy to cure then I'll grind it to shape.
Granted, this one has less going on than the others I posted (this customer doesn't like stabilised woods or spacers) but the idea is the same nonetheless.

I will post back here when it's complete


>>1518558
Thank you!

>>1518466
Shame, I've had a few randoms from reddit over to my workshop to try their hand at forging a knife. All I asked for was a few beers and they got to take home a crappy knife they made in a few hours.

>>1517842
Thing with this one, it looks simple but your lines are really spot on and its super clean. How you finding the O2? I've never worked with it as its not very common here.

>>1518457
>Melbourne
>>1518466
>Sydney

>fuggin aussies
I live out in NSW near the beach after living/working in Sydney for 20 years

>>1518629

For the next /kmg/ thread use this picture and not some floppy disk "knife" lol.

>>1518759
>tfw finding that knife at random in some tool drawer and having a good laugh at all the old threads the pics were posted in

>>1518629
Damn that's real fuckin sick of ya
>>1518751
It appears making guns hard to get has resulted in aussies becoming autistic knifemakers
Seems like /diy/ has higher aus representation

>>1518629
Do you forge any of your knives or are they all stock removal?

>>1519085
all forged monosteel

>>1516520
I made this one at a weekend course this year.

Kind of cheating cos i got talked through the forging but i’m really proud of it. Not only did mine standout as visibly a knife but i did very little machine shaping. It managed to get the shape almost entirely by hammer.

Still haven’t made a sheath for it but will do over Christmas.

>>1519195
What's up with your nails? Are you a trap?

>>1519195
>Kind of cheating cos i got talked through the forging but i’m really proud of it.

That is essentially what apprenticeship is and there's nothing wrong with that. That is the proper way to learn. It helps prevent bad habits. Also, it looks pretty good.

>>1519196
>he doesn't recognize artisan's hands
>he doesn't know that the finger nail is the first line of defence in keeping your finger tips

Why are you on /diy/?

>>1519204
I cover my fingers in plastidip when on the grinder. Join the 20th Century, serkku.

>>1519207
Sounds like a waste of resources.

>>1519209
>Sounds like a waste of resources.
Why should I care? Why should I save resources for the millennials? Fuck them, it's not like those vittu can even use a screwdriver.

>>1519222
Stop being bitter and have children already.

>>1519226
No. I'd rather burn down as much of the world as I can for the spoiled brats of the future. Scorch this Gay Earth.

>>1519243
I bet you yourself are a millenial.

>>1519250
Cynical Gen X.

What would be the best design of box/holder for my growing wood carving knife collection?

>>1519258
I've been looking at this sort of thing.

>>1518418
>>1518629
The epoxy has cured, here's the next few steps:

>grind handle square with the spine of the knife as reference
>add slight taper to the handle

>>1519438
>once everything looks square, grind in the bevels

>>1519438
>once everything looks good and square, add the bevels

>>1519443
>ease all sharp edges with micro-bevels
>do finishing shit to make it look pretty.

fin

>>1519445
>start on the next orders
The cycle of life...

>>1519181
Nice good shit.

>>1519258
>2 days later
>still sanding tool marks out of knife handles

I finally got down to 1500 grit and everything feels like glass now. These are done and waxed.

>>1519438
>>1519443
>>1519445
>>1519453
Very nice!

How the hell to I make a 1mm wide slot in brass to make a bolster? The knife blade is 1mm thick.

>>1520201
Dremel cut-off disks, about the only use for the little shits apart from randomly splintering and showering the room with themselves
Scroll-saw or jewellers saw are about the only other alternatives.

>>1520201
Osmo has a technique I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtTbe2ppcz4
>>1520236
>about the only use for the little shits apart from randomly splintering and showering the room with themselves
I wear a full face shield when working with those bastards. 50-50 chance of one surviving until it's too small to use.

>>1520236
Emery cutoff discs, I have a few packs of those. I didn't realize they were so thin. They are just a hair under the size I need. Thanks for the reminder. The reinforced discs I've been using for everything else is like 2mm+ thick.

>random explosions

Yeah, which can suck when you realize they are like 15-25 cents each.

>>1520239
Wear a full face shield for all the discs. That's goggles + face shield. Good video.

>>1516531
cool hand drill - my grandfather used to have one of those

>>1520295
I have something like 6 of them. They are really good to use for all manner of wood working for complete control. Everyone thinks they are quaint and pay them no mind so they are dirt cheap at thrift shops and antique stores. The best ones have a gear at the top and bottom of the larger gear and won't wobble or bind up.

>>1517362
Your forge overheated it, ive done that plenty of times, even had the whole blade shaped out and just wanted to heat treat and the bottom of the forge was unreal hot!! Less then thirty secs and the steel was burnt up, but what you git is salvagable, cut the nastyness cut and give it another go

>>1520958
Nah, that was a ball peen hammer.

>>1517869

Goodness, what do you make these knives out of? These are beautiful. You have a website, perchance?

Hey everyone, is there a way to make a damascus bullet without tack welding everything together? I want to try and make a Damascus razor for my brother but I dont own a welder what would yall reccomend?

>>1521431
Yeah the old school way is to get 12G wire and put some loops around the billet, twist them up good and tight. I don't actually recommend it but it'll work
The other way is to just pin the bugger together with a couple of good sized bolts at each end and then just cut the whole ends off once she's all stuck good and proper. That tends to work ok if you 'have to' find some way of holding them together.

Big thing is the surface is clean enough to eat off, literally get it spotless, sand it flat and clean it off, use some metho or acetone if you have too but make sure it's fucking surgical, scrupulously clean and it'll stick 1st go

>>1521431
Fill a pipe with the metals and metal powder. Vibrate it ans you pour te powder in so there's as little ait as possible. Cap it. Heat it smash it to forge weld the contents. Grind off the outside pipe leaving the good stuff inside. Work it as normal.

>>1521454
>Vibrate it as you pour the powder in so there's as little air as possible.

fixed, keyboard is shit

Cool thanks I'll try that soon then

>>1521436
>Yeah the old school way is to get 12G wire and put some loops around the billet,
Reminded me of the damascus double-barrel shotgun my uncle had.
You could see the wire wrap in the steel - pretty cool.
No one was brave enough to shoot it with modern ammunition.

What should a beginner look for to start off, what size/type of forge etc

>>1521586
You need to start with the type of knife you'll be making.

>>1521586
Depends on what you can afford. $10 nut coal from Tractor Supply, a hole in the ground and some sort of air supply will work, albeit with less efficiency than that of a $400 prebuilt triple burner propane forge.

How are you going to shape the handle/scales? 1 x 30, 4 x 36? If you can get the 2 x 72, awesome.

Can you get your hands on an anvil or a good ALO? Would stock removal be cheaper for you to attempt as opposed to forging your own blades?

>>1521586
I got a two burner forge off of ebay for $180 dollars and it's been awesome thus far

>>1521755
Is that the kind with the batten of rock wool insulation?

>oh shit all the blacksmithing stuff that just popped up in the "other people also viewed" section

lol

Went out looking for handle material and happened upon a recently fallen tree with cancer, should provide some neat wood

>>1521648
I'd like to do a few kitchen knives first, maybe play around with making Damascus patterns.
>>1521657
Price isn't much of a concern, but space is. I'd be setting up the forge and anvil to be mobile and grinder on the bench in a crowded woodshop.

>>1521758
It's the devil forge one and it comes with stuff to put over the kalowool so it doesn't fly off when forging I've made a couple of knifes already and I k le use two burners when I have to heat treat.

>>1522062
I hope it looks good. Thank you, for reminding me that I have some burls squirreled away somewhere I need to find. One is cherry....

>tfw the pin stock you have is 15/128" thick and all you have are 7/64" and 1/8" bits.

It is a high carbon steel rod pin that I want to use as a hinge pin for a pocket knife. I drilled a 1/8" hole in some wood to test the pin in and it fits somewhat snug, but there is detectable play when wiggled side to side. A new drill bit it is then.

>>1519258
I would use a hole saw and set them in holes with a board a couple inches below. Rest them tip down so you can see wtf u want and grab the handle without getting cut

So I have an old stainless steel sink that I'm throwing out, could it be used with some high carbon steel to forge weld together?

>>1521545
They're usually fire safely if you run some hand loaded blackpowder through them, about the only problems I've ever seen with blackpowder fags at the range was the springs on the hammers being a bit wonky and not having the thump to detonate modern primers. Usually they re-temper alright though, or just make new ones

>>1522062
Cool, I can't seem to get burl for love or money in my area. Been thinking about running around the bush with a chainsaw as well to see what I can find

>>1522487
yeah, you 'can'
But its one of those things which leads down a rabbithole of endless tears, delams and more than a few failures along the way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgf8el2duIw

>>1522378
>tfw can't find the $500 cherry burl and someone may have tossed it out because, "it looked ugly."

I'm about to tear the entire property up looking for it.

>>1522493
>someone posts another green beetle video
>have to watch the entire thing from beginning to ending

Damn it, I have things to do.

>>1516520
so i made these three karambit... what does /diy/ think?

>>1522506
Lol I always feel the same way, he does explain everything pretty well tho

>>1522525
Neat, but not the most aesthetic. As long as they're hardened I'd imagine they'll be fine for function though

>>1516520
fuck i am so happy /kmg/ is still up and being used. fuck i am proud.
also going to get me a drillpress next year(cheapest one) and got a new book bout making folders :) merry christmas

>>1516705
i feel you happened to me too....

>>1516917
nice collection, i also tend to have them lying around espacialy those who i still need to flatten or to clean from that little bit deep scale where the hammer slipped

>>1517454
yeah need to glow the tang soft before hardening and then annihilate it after hardening with the rest to make it as soft as possible

>>1522905
It was doomed from the start since it was cracked already and I didn't see it until after I'd started heat treating. It was just old well-used metal saw blade from an antique store. My fault was not cleaning it up to shiny then examining it closely for defects. It was originally stock removal without heat treatment so the defects wouldn't have been a problem until rust could get to them decades later perhaps. But, those defects are killers once heat treating begins.

I had another knife snap for the same reason, using the same exact stock source, but it was the very tail end of the tang so it didn't matter. I just need to be more careful about cleaning then inspecting. I have the equipment to easily photograph at over 7x magnification (pic related, but resized for posting) so that won't be much of a problem.

>>1522923
well maybe change source of material if this happens often

>>1521436
So any wire would work? I did some electrical work on my house and gave some left over wire from that, would that work or would it taint the billet somehow since its copper wire?

>>1523162
No copper, it wont hold up under forge welding temperatures and there's a risk molten bits get in to the weld surfaces.
Un-galvanised, steel wire. 10-12G fencing wire is the go (zinc + forges = bad)

>>1523235
Ah ok thanks

I want to get exceptionally good at sharpening and willing to put some money behind it.

I'm already used to tool and basic knife sharpening but its mostly on scrapers and chisels and mostly to destruction.

There's too many memes online. Where do I start.

>>1523704
Make a custom fit jig for each knife you want to sharpen so the angle(s) are maintained. That's about it. Everything else is just grit sizes and patience. Remember to hone before sharpening as it may suffice and won't be removing lots of the blade. Normally, you don't need to sharpen until you've honed many times and the angle is becoming poor.

>>1523710
Any good guides for jigs?

Got a dremel for chrissy, besides engraving would the cut off wheel be any sort of subsitute for a grinder? I'm guessing no but it cant hurt to ask
(1080 steel)
Additionally anything else you think it'd be useful for?

>>1523741
It depends on hot thick the material is. I use a Dremel on 1mm and 2mm thick stock, but nothing more for the cutting process. There's a lack of control you get for some of the work when using a Dremel, if you want a really good finished product. You'd need a belt sander to get good spine curves and overall blade angles without problems. With the thin stock you can just finish off using files if you don't have a sander. Then again you can do everything with a file it you had to.

Once big tip though, variable speed switches in Dremels tend to overheat and burn up if you don't give them lots of rest. Their duty cycles are rather low. The single speed Dremels are much better for long duty cycles. Their tips and front shaft will heat up and tell you when to stop and cool it off long before anything near the switch end has a problem. I find the variable speed ones are better for the really light duty things like engraving or some wood working, just not very good at stock removal. One trick it to place them in the freezer for a while as it cools off.

A Dremel is good for material removal on the underside of handle scales so that the middle is concave yet the edges are left alone. Then you can easily flatten the scale on flat sandpaper and get a perfect match to the full tang. The hollowed out place will better hold epoxy too.

Ok so before you guys call me a retard just hear me out.
Can you make a knife out of mild steel then case harden it before the quenching and tempering process?

This is my first knife, O1 steel that I think I gave a shitty temper, I need too glue in the pins, finish shaping and polishing the handle, and sharpen it

>>1523789
I can't comment on your hardening/tempering, but for a first attempt, it looks better than my first one did, so good job. That's more of a keepsake than a knife because it's your first one. A bunch of knives down the road, you'll look back on this one fondly with a touch of *Wince* but it's great beginnings.

>>1523780
I doubt it.

>>1523780
Nope, its basically the equivalent of something like nitriding or carburizing where theres a surface layer a couple of microns deep into the metal which have some chemical sorcery done to them and makes it harder to give it some better wear and scratch resistance. The core of your knife shaped object though is still going to be mild steel, so if you stick it in a vice and crank on it, it'll bend and stay bent.

What you want to look at is carbon-migration into mild steels. That will go a couple of mm deep into the surface of steel and make it a carbon steel with all the properties you'd expect. Course its not a 'good' carbon steel and will tend to require some bespoke heat treating depending on what your results where during the process of migrating carbon into that particular piece of steel.

Do you guys make sheaths or do you outsource them or just buy ready made ones?

I do leatherwork and sheaths would be easy for me and I was thinking maybe I could sub contract to knife makers.

>>1524215
I make quality knives and my brother makes quality leather goods. It's difficult to explain to him the material properties I'm after in a sheath, plus the creative differences get in the way too. We've been talking about it for ages but never actually done anything yet.

>>1521259
Thanks. I make the blades out of high carbon steel (non-stainless) and sometimes add a hamon. The handles are made from various woods, composites and metals - some very stable, others not so much. For example this handle is very cheap: plain old aluminium and black PVC spacers and about $2 worth of wood. If I put it together properly it should look and do just fine, but the customer needs to understand how to maintain this kind of thing.
I don't have a website because I'm not into advertising to the general public. I get enough orders from knife fanatics to keep me going, and as I mentioned above, these people know know to use and look after their shit. It takes a lot of the hassle out of dealing with customers.

>>1524222
Have you tried making a damascus steel knife?

>>1524275
I've made one from a pre-laminated bar. There's an issue with the shape of my knives where it doesn't carry a defined pattern well at all. I won't get into the details here.

Otherwise, forging my own damascus? I don't have the heavier machines, and fuck doing it by hand. The knives I make are large enough where it's just not reasonable to forge-weld a large billet without either a power hammer or a hydraulic press.

>>1524289
What a lot of people don't realise is that the closer you go to high level pattern welded steel (I'm talking the highest level here) the closer it gets to stock removal as less forging is done.

For example, this knife by master-smith Bob Kramer - If he had forged the blade into shape *after* setting the welds, the shape of the rhino would end up distorted. And so after setting the welds in place, he would've basically been forced to stock remove the rest. This doesn't apply to random pattern, obviously...

>>1516531
wow, bad ass mask anon

>>1524215

I make knives and sheaths. I also have a few friends doing their own sheaths. Our sheaths might be considered pretty good , but then i have a friend that only works with leatherand damn , his sheaths and other things are out of this world.

So yeah , if the leather is your thing , go for it.

This is probably a stupid question...but how do you fit the handle to a Mora style blank? The ones like pic related.
Do you just drill a hole down the middle of a block of wood and then epoxy it together?

>>1524521
I trace it on the block/handle, line up the angle in a vise in my drill press and drill two holes as deep as I can and follow up with a 5" bit running down the pilot holes. After, file/cut the wood between the holes. Put the knife blade in a bench vise and get the tip of the tang glowing hot and press the handle onto it. Repeat several times to get the tang all the way in. Clean out the debris with some files, then epoxy in place.

So how many of you lads are self-taught and how many smith as part of your jobs?

>>1524648
Self taught. My production is slow right now since it's winter and it gets cold in the shop even with a heater and long underwear. I have 4 orders for dog collars so that's keeping me busy in the basement (where it's warm) while I shitpost and watch Netflix as I make them.

Although, I do stock removal blade making, so I guess I'm not actually a Smith.

>>1524654
>Although, I do stock removal blade making, so I guess I'm not actually a Smith.

Knifesmith aka, "cutler."

>>1524648
I'm self taught over 10 or so years of working with knives, 4 of them learning to smith. I earn enough to make a living off it, but still work in a kitchen a couple of times a week to keep my sanity. Working by myself with no deadlines and not seeing or speaking to anyone for weeks at a time was driving me crazy.

>>1524654
Smithing is overrated in terms of a finished product, but I gotta admit it adds a lot of fun to the process. You should try it sometime.

>>1524722
>You should try it sometime.
I will, eventually. The stars just aren't in alignment for that at the moment. I can keep my heat treat forge covertly in my garage but my neighbors and city ordinance team would go apeshit if they saw me operating a Smithy operation (bullshit fire codes here).

How do you sell this stuff online without Uncle Sam raping you? I'd like to make a few bucks but the prospect of dealing with the IRS and paperwork seems a little over the top for side money.

What do i need for the basics for sharpening knives?

strop
strop paste?

whetstone/diamond stone?
what grit? should i get 2 different grits?

>>1524820
400/1000 stone
3000/8000 stone
Strop
Green honing paste(wax bar)
Ceramic honing rod for when there's a rolled edge.
Fine bastard file for removing bad damage/dents.

Colors for wax bars are normally white(coarse), green(medium), red(fine). Keep in mind that these differ from buffing wheel compounds where there's 7-8 additional colors and each is normally used for a specific metal type.

The grit you use will be determined by how much wear there has been on the edge. If you've honed it so much that the angle has been reduced a great deal, you'll need to sharpen it back to the original angle. Remember to use a black marker (not a dry erase marker) to color the edge to ensure you are at the right angle when you start sharpening. Reapply the marker as needed every little bit until you are good at it. Use acetone/fingernail polish remover to remove the marker.

>>1524794
Research it. There's a dollar limit for taxes on hobbies and such. If you stay below that mark it is fine.

>>1524828
It's weird, what I read is if you work for McDonald's and make less than 10k you don't even have to file but if you sell trinkets online you need to file if it's over 400.

>>1524829
You just need to add it to your current filing for the over 400 thing. If you are at Micky D's and making $9,500 and make $400 from the hobby then you don't need to file. But, if you are making 11k and 450 from the hobby then you just add the 450 to the 11k in the filing. Or if you are making 9999 but get 402 from the hobby then you'd need to file since it pushes you over the 10k.

Keep in mind that's just from memory like 30 years ago, so look it up to make sure or contact a tax advisor and ask if you really do need to learn properly.

>>1524834
From what I'm reading, you don't have to report until 200 sales or 20k in a year. Legally you should but online sellers are not required to turn in the 1099k form to the IRS so they don't know about it.

>>1524836
You'll also need to check local laws. One of the towns here charges an extra sales tax. People try to get around it be having perpetual, "yard sales." Which works with limited success. Thus, if you sell locally, you need to know the local ordinances, even if it is on county level. They can be quite retarded and pedantic and are normally lobbied for and used by the local big fish to legally muscle competition out of the pond. If you don't step on any toes by selling the same products as the big fish then you are normally good to go.

>200 sales...a year

That'd be pretty cool. That's like 1 knife made/sold every 1.825 days. I think you'd easily be under that limit. lol

>>1524844
It's both for them to report it, shit gets real confusing though. A 600 dollar limit for 1099 misc, so do you have to report that income if you made 15k? The IRS also has vague definitions of garage sale income. Honestly it's so fuvked up I doubt they even police the sub 20k sales at all.

>>1524853
This is why you need to ask a local tax advisor. You just tell them what you are doing or want to do and they lay out everything that must be done and give you tips on skirting around and making things cheaper or not needed.

>police the sub 20k sales at all.

They only police things that are reported to them.

This is getting too >>>/biz/ for /kmg/

>>1524820
In my case, just some MDF wheels, heavy cut wax, loose grit and a cheap bench grinder with them set up on it.
>waxed grit wheel does the cutting
>waxed wheel does the polish and deburr

Usually I keep a couple of cheap diamond plates on hand as well just for some edge refinement, coarse, fine, very fine and ultra-fine, they're handy just to make sure everything is nice and straight and helps cut through the really 'robust' tool steels full of carbides, tungsten and vanadium that take no shit from water stones.
Stropping and final deburr is just some packing cardboard clamped to a wooden plank and a bit of wax. Its fucking cheap, puts a good, hair popping service edge on knives for sale and if the customer wants to go further with their water stones, angle-meme sharpening systems and spend their time on it- that's their prerogative and time as I don't have all day just for one knife. Well I would if someone wants to pay hourly rates and fork out the cash for 100's of $$$ worth of stones, but they dont so it just gets done as cheap and quick as I can with my dirty gaijin devil modern appliances as I don't live in pre-industrial civilisation.

If you're after the basics and easily frightened by spinning things, just get some diamond plates, or so fucking broke you're on noodles and black coffee- sheet of glass and some wetted sandpaper grits will give a fairly vicious scalpel sharp edge on damn near anything. but it can take some time.

>>1525093
>easily frightened by spinning things

>tfw my bench grinder takes a full 5 minutes to spin down after powering off

I'm glad I'm a safety nut. The wire wheel sucked a piece of metal out of my hands spun it around the inside of the guard and shot it through the wall. I always stand off to the side of the wheels.

>>1525101
Yeah, turn the bench grinder around so that it flings metal AWAY from the operator!
New walls are cheap compared to a sucking chest wound

>>1525104
There are so many images of people wearing big ass leather gloves and standing right in front of the wheels on google image search. They may as well have long hair hanging down over their face and wear a long flannel shirt with the cuffs unbuttoned.

>>1525114
My shop mostly runs on the 'don't be a stupid cunt' as the safety warning
I mean, I make knives in it, that means basically anything is potentially surface of the sun hot, sharp as fuck or potentially poisonous. So just don't let people walk/run or hang around in there.

>>1516520
why is old thread not archived? or is the number broken?

>>1525121
this

>>1525929
It was archived here: >>/diy/post/1497142

If you use 4chan-X plugin then it will bring up a non-standard archive if it isn't in the standard one.

>>1525933
weird i only get this as 404
>>1497142

>>1525938
Are you using 4chan-X?

>>1525945
no, not that i know about it

>>1525945
yeah i was OP of that thread that's my beltgrinder and knife there

Happy New Year bitches!
I finished this one today. It has a neat smokey-looking hamon.

>>1526861
Close-up of the handle. I have no idea what the wood is, all I know is it's stabilised. I'm terrible with woods.

>>1526861
Nice, how do you make your hamon?

I have some Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) trees on my property I cut down recently. One had dead wood and much of the heart into the branches looks like this. I just waxed dipped the ends of some of it. I'll be using these for knife handles and a few other things when they are finally seasoned enough. I need to finish cutting the stump off then dip it too.

I also have a few Boxelder maple (Acer negundo) trees that I need to remove. I'm hoping they have some of that good rose color in the trunks. According to the wood database site, American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), Boxelder, and Mimosa all have the nearly same hardness. The Boxelder is just 50lbs less than the other two on the Janka hardness scale. I've been using lots of the sycamore for handles (digital pattern looking one in >>1520186 ) for quite some time now and I like it.

>>1526861
>>1526863
Very nice, anon! Very inspirational too.

>>1527001
Thanks!
>>1526980
Edge quench - leaving the spine out of the water so it doesn't cool fast enough to harden.

>>1527001
Thanks!
>>1526980
Edge quench - leaving the spine out of the water so it doesn't cool fast enough to harden. Bobbing the knife up and down as it cools stops the hamon from forming in a boring straight line, but it's difficult to get any kind of control.

>>1526980
>>1527026
You can also use clay.
https://imgur.com/gallery/aZJjw

Has anyone here made their own folding knife of any kind? I'm gathering supplies to make a 4", 2-blade, folding, pocket knife and researching various methods. I plan on using slipjoint locking with a single spring and making it canoe style. It will be a utility knife and woodcarving knife. The blade types will be Sloyd and Sheep's Foot using carbon steel. Hinge pins will be stainless steel while scale pins will be brass.

I'm waffling on having an easily sharpened saw as a 3rd blade.

I won't be doing this project for some time, due to time spent on more important projects taking precedent. For me this looks like a somewhat complicated project, due to tolerances, and any tips would be appreciated.

>>1525114
>wearing gloves and letting hair down around a high speed grinder
Wonderful.

>>1528213
Wish I had customers I could sell a knife to for 800 bucks that was just a thick old farriers rasp ground to shape, has the geometry of an axe, no bolsters and just slap some wood scales on that motherfucker.

>not that a farriers rasp steel is bad
>but its not $800 worth of good either

Been squeezing in some work around the festy season of events that annoy me.
Couple of really simple, quite handy little veg and herb choppers, in D6 tool steel, around 60-61HRC after 3 x 2hr temper cycles. Handles are a 316SS liner with Mulga (straight grain- long handle) and Gidgee (ringed grain, short handle) handles in gunstock oil finish. Little bit of turquoise along the back of the spine for shiny. Thought I'd save myself some misery and not do any bolsters for these as they're fairly sturdy and wanted to keep a bit of the weight off and the 316 was a real pain in the arse to work with, I'd forgotten just how much of a miserable, tough and ridiculous material it is.
These are relatively small, only a 12-13cm blade, its about 5cm deep which gives some good knuckle clearance

Also got a couple of 7" and a 9.5" kitchen knifes in the works as well. They're going to be a bit "artsy" and have all kinds of uncommon shapes happening there, which will be functionally and you don't see on a kitchen knife very often. But wont be done for a while yet.

>>1528272
looks nice
would cook with...

>>1528617
I was going to make some Ulu's which have a similar use, but couldn't really decide on a design and they're just weird enough to be kind of a hard-sell to western trained cooks. The mini-cleaver seems to be a bit easier overall to move as its a fairly conventional shape and use, so its not likely to bother anyone. Really good for surface cutting and chopping as opposed to a paring knife, (at least it is for me) so I might bang out one in O1 for my own kitchen.

I cannot figure out, nor can I find any YT or forum info on, how to make small fullers like in Pic related.

No CNC or End Mill access. The basic grinders, sanders and Dremel tools found in every shop though.

/k/ doesnt have a knife thread up right now, so i will ask you guys.
cross draw sheath or horizontal scout carry: which do you guys prefer?

>>1530279
Clamp it, make a jig you can slide a Dremel across it with a cutting disc at the depth you want. Make more than one pass if it needs to be larger and use a stone to smooth it.

>>1530378
Down the thigh, with a high sheath only exposing a small portion of the knife handle and a button clasp. With a long knife, a leather thong is used to tie it to the thigh to prevent flapping around. An embedded magnet, that doesn't touch the blade, also helps. When you are a serious worker, hunter, trapper, etc. you need the knife to be as safe as possible. If you are a knife fighter then cross draw. If you are a scout and movement is paramount then horizontal. If you ride a horse then scout or on-horse sheath will be needed, depending on length of the blade. The blade length will determine what you'll need more than just what you want to do. A giant Bowie knife will need a thigh tie, but a camp knife can get by with just about anything. The point is that the knife needs to be secure from falling out of the sheath, the sheath needs to be out of your way for full movement, and you need to be able to access the knife easily.

>>1528244

well work on your marketing skills then

>>1530279

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r2LaH1eQPc

>>1528244
People willingly buy Apple products. What do you expect?

So this piece of shit broke after 2 minutes of use since i bought it, and I'm wondering what you guys use to glue on handles on your knifes.
Its probably too thin to drill holes for pins so it has to be pretty strong on its own.

>>1530695
Wrap electrical tape around the base and you can still sort use it.

As for epoxy, I like Devcon 2.5 ton for hidden tangs and West System Marin epoxy for full tangs and exposed joints (Devcon is much cheaper, so I use it in applications where the connection isn't exposed to the elements).

>>1530698
I'm planning on using it alot, so electrical tape would suck.
I made it round on the end and drilled a smaller hole in the handle then hammered it down. It seems to work for now, but I will try the epoxy if it comes off again.
Thanks

>>1530439
>you need to be able to access the knife easily.
thanks, my guy; lots of good info there. looks like im going crossdraw then. 6" blade going full autismo with it daily carry. i want a fuck off huge bowie, but now one makes one thats exactly what im looking for. id suppose i need to start on smaller (easier?) knives before i make a bowie, correct?

>>1530695
>it has to be pretty strong on its own
Dude do you realize the tang has snapped off?
If you're planning on extending the handle out to its old length with pins you're a fool. The other anon gave you one of your better options, or just buy a new one because that pos must've been dirt cheap anyway. The best thing about what what we do here, metal tool-making, is that we can toughen a steel tang if we know its too brittle by tempering it.

>>1528213
The hair is a bad idea but I see a lot of people do the gloves thing. Is it wise? I truly don't know for sure., I personally don't. But while I've heard of people losing stuff to moving spindles on drill presses, mills, lathes, etc. I've honestly not heard of it happening to someone on a belt sander (why is it conventional to call this a belt grinder anyway? It is clearly a sander. Bothers my autisms). Can it happen? Dunno for sure but it makes me uncomfortable personally.

>>1530764
Unless you get one-on-one help, your first knife is gonna suck balls. The longer the knife the more that goes wrong.

>>1530824
>(why is it conventional to call this a belt grinder anyway? It is clearly a sander. Bothers my autisms)
It's a sander when it's working wood, it's a belt grinder when working metal.

>>1530764
Start off small. Do a bushcraft style to get a feel for bevel grinding and basic shaping. Full or hidden tang depending on your tastes, but use oak or another cheap wood and some cheap steel. Consider it prototyping.

>>1530726
>then hammered it down

When I seat files and tool heads I tap the handle down on something and the tool head drives itself down into the hole tightly. For files, I don't use any glue/epoxy since the square metal and round hole seat in pretty tight with some tapping.

>>1530825
>>1530831
roger that. thanks, fellers.

>>1530852
Just to be clear, I'm not saying you're gonna suck the first time, just that it's not worth the resources to attempt your... 'dream' knife if you've never made one before. You're not going to jump on a bicycle and be a Tour de France winner if you've never ridden before.

>>1530859
no i understand. i feel like its similar with every start to a new hobby: you dont squat 3pl8 on the first day, you dont shoot tight groups at range the first day, no 50' waves on the first day, and no sub 10sec quarter mile times on the first day. i getcha.
this board is pretty great

>>1530863
KMG threads are typically nice. There's one asshat that likes to shit on everyone's works, but most of the dudes here (I doubt there's a female knife maker on 4chan but would like to be proven wrong) are helpful in many ways and it's not a stuck-up circle jerk like that one forum where fucks take your pic, circle 47 things and say, "You can't make knives".

>>1530879
>on 4chan

fyi, this isn't 4chan

>>1530879
>it's not a stuck-up circle jerk like that one forum where fucks take your pic, circle 47 things and say, "You can't make knives".

See, now I have to find this place and troll the shit out of it with stuff like the OP.

>>1530886
Something something old dog, something something new 4chan.

>>1525104
>New walls are cheap compared to a sucking chest wound
peak american healthcare

>>1531217
I think that is just peak common sense, unless you like dying from excess bleeding lol.

>>1531219
The topic was reduced to a financial aspect and not about health concerns.
also
>piece of metal hits the wall
>wall needs to be replaced
peak american shop construction

>>1531222
No American and it was one of these types of walls. Evidently, they are not very good against flying bars of metal.

>>1527578
>Has anyone here made their own folding knife of any kind?
I just found them too inordinately complicated, sort of to the point I could probably make 2-3 chefs knives or half a dozen paring knives in the time it takes to just get one folder working mostly ok. If you had a lot of machinist equipment no doubt it could be a decent production for someone to do, or go really low-tech and make a friction type folder.

>>1530764
Bowies kind of get easily dismissed. But there's quite a bit of complicated edge geometry particularly around the tip where you're essentially having a double-edged dagger coming in across two arcs. Where the top edge is concave and the leading cutting edge is convex with some amount of depth and then you've got to make sure that those two angles will meet exactly on the tip, otherwise it'll be considerably weaker.
The other thing to remember that they're a fighting knife primarily
You can do some fairly brutal butchering of game and very light camp duties with them (so they have some utility) they don't do skinning, splitting logs and other random acts of tool abuse fuckery like pretending to be a machete or an axe very well at all. As a fighting knife you want a severe distal taper in there to take weight out of the blade so its light, nimble and quick to move, angle and relatively easy to ready in your hand- literally from 4-5mm at the hilt/across the rear of the spine all the way down to 0 at the tip.

>>1531217
Mate, its just a bit of absurd/gallows humour, don't be getting all geopolitical
Simple fact is people get severely injured and die a fair bit from having a piece of metal thrown at them by a machine. Not necessarily a knife, but in our case it'll be a knife shaped and sharp object being thrown by 1-2hp in your general direction. Oh and you will be losing money even with public health care, because you're sure a fuck not going to be working for a while

>>1531281
Hi, I'm Beppo and this is my favorite brick on the citadel

>>1531658
I think that if you can nail making a good folding knife, it will be very rewarding. I have hand tools + Dremel so the going would be slow enough that if the design is right then the only problem would come down to proper tempering of the spring, which in itself won't be difficult. I've made complicated stuff before, just not a folding knife.

>>1531658
>they don't do skinning, splitting logs and other random acts of tool abuse fuckery
the idea was primarily a fighting knife. no delusions here. at least as far as use is concerned lol. but yeah, it doesnt seem easy. at least compared to a drop point

>>1517869
>>1517891
That looks amazing, very nice work anon

>>1532728
Cheers!

>oil-stabilized scales

The answer is to stabilize the scales after epoxying them to the knife, right? Otherwise, the epoxy won't ever stick properly. Just checking in case I'm missing something less obvious.

The plan is to put the knife in a jar of mineral oil and use a vacuum attachment to pull vacuum until the wood stops letting out air.

>>1533526
Problem with the mineral oils is they don't dry, so it'll always have kind of a mushy feeling
Use a boiled linseed, tung, danish or gunstock oil and it will eventually dry out after a few days and give it a nice hardened, plasticised structure.

>>1533526
If you have a vacuum chamber just use stabilizing resin. Nothing competes with it. Sad but true.

If you absolutely refuse, use 1/1/1 mix of BLO/Poly/Mineral Spirits. I've done this, it takes about a week to cure, but it works and cures all the way through. Mineral oil never hardens, it will leech out oil all over your hands for eternity. At least use BLO, it might harden someday. Mineral oil is about the worst possible choice.

You can make epoxy stick to oily wood by stripping the glue surface with acetone just before glueing. May not work with mineral oil saturation though, because it will leach back into the prepped area too fast.

>>1533591
>>1533598
I actually meant BLO, not mineral oil. I still had mineral oil on the brain since I just did this piece in that manner today; which needs to be food safe.

I have BLO and tung oil. If I were making a lot of stuff that I wanted to stabilize with resin then I'd get some cactus juice, but unless I can find my stash of burls I won't.

>>1530824
It's not a good idea. It seems like a good one, but the first time you brush the wheel with full hand pressure and it takes a huge chunk out of the gloves because you didn't feel the contact an pull back, then you understand how valuable pain is as a safety tool.

An exception is when I'm cloth-wheel polishing something that has enough of an edge on it to be dangerous. In that case, I'm more worried about it being caught on the wheel and kicking into my fingers then I am about the wheel itself.

Double truth when working hot steel. By the time you notice your glove is burning, news flash, your glove is burning. Then the time it takes to get it off is time for your fingers to burn. Small blister > entire finger.

>>1533599
BLO will work with a few catches. One, it takes forever to cure, and may never cure internally. It requires oxygen, so once the outside layer is cured, the inside is sealed off. Still does the job though, liquid or solid no water will get in. But it won't harden without some additional steps. Two, it takes a LONG time to cure when it's put on thick. Like a week or 6, depending on thickness of the wood. This is because of how much oil the oxygen has to travel through to reach the inner layers.

If you want it to be food safe, I suggest shellac. You can get cheap stuff by the pint/gallon at Homeless Dipshit and it's so food safe it's literally food (same stuff they use for gelcaps on pills. literally it's food). It also cures by evaporation (solvent is alcohol) so no worries about it not curing all the way through - although it may take a long time ofc. Downside is you can't use it for beer mugs, because alcohol solvent. Also it has a shelf life; after 2-3 years on the shelf it won't cure anymore.

>>1533603
I've touched wheels with my barehands on several occasions. The knuckles and fingernails the the only places that really take injury. The nails because they are hard and the knuckles because there's not much tissue there to kind of brush away from the contact. Wire wheels do not give a shit about that and will eat anything they come in contact with, but stone isn't much of a problem.

The problem with gloves and spinning things is that they can get caught and suck your hand into the machine. Same with hair and long sleeves. I'd rather lose a small patch of skin on my hand than a few fingers or my life.

>hot steel

For pouring molten metal I am completely covered. No places for metal to pour into either, unlike that one anon on /diy/ who poured some down his boot top. I have had one explosive splatter when pouring that hit my face shield and back of my gloved hands. I have a trough of water handy for dipping.

>>1533612
For food safe, the food-safe rated mineral oil seems fine. I've used it for years and haven't had problems with it oozing, mushy, or being oily to the touch. I've used BLO for years too so I know how long it takes to dry. Tung takes even longer. I mostly use mineral oil for food safe stuff and BLO then finishing wax for everything else.

This reminds me, I have a slingshot frame somewhere, I need to find, that should be cured by now. lol

>>1533599
The other thing you can look at is something like a mix of boiled linseed oil, little bit of turpentine and either bee or carnauba wax. Mix it together until its all combined and dissolved over some mild heat.
The thinning and wicking effect of the turps makes sure it gets good penetration into the timber, dries quicker and the wax will also help polymerise and give it quite a hard finish as well which polishes nicely. I'd use an artists turps over the stuff you get in a hardware store as its actually an organic plant spirit rather than weird shmoo of petrochemical and plant based nastiness.

>>1533624
I've read similar recipes. Noted, thanks.

>>1533624
I've got a bucket full of pine sap from my yard I want to reduce down to resin to try for a recipe very similar to this. Havn't gotten around to do it though.

>>1516520
Gonna reply here since the MUTHERFUCKING TROLLS descided to invade here. Seriously. I made a comment begging them politely to please fuckoff and got banned for 3 days last week. How fucking faggot are you piece of shit mods? DO YOUR MUTHERFUCKING JOB AND FIX THIS SHIT OR I SWEAR TO FUCK ONE DAY I WILL BUY THIS SHITHOLE SPECIFICALLY TO PERMABAN ALL OF THE FAGGOTS, FIX /B AND BEST OF ALL DOX EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU PRICKS!!!!

That beings said... >>1533713
All i know is dark stained walnut gives me a boner. And inanimate objects shouldn't do that...

Kek

Since its a discussion about knife handles would bulldozing my 3.5 acres and starting a paulownia tomentosa farm be worthwhile? They can grow from zones 5-8 in america and i am in the perfect 5/6 line split. They look beautiful in the fall and i have no idea if they are an invasive species in my state but i will find out.

>>1533764

Welp, lost the pick and clicked 68 fucking captchas. Dont wanna waste it.

Ceder on a railroad spile knife would be a hilarious trigger

>>1533764
Stop rising to bait and stop drama posting.

>paulownia tomentosa

It is really soft wood. Good for carving, but bad for knife scales and handles without stabilizing to give it some hardness. I don't really see much that stands out with the wood unless it was figured in some way due to disease/growing conditions, like most woods. As for growing it for selling, I don't see much of a problem that seems like a Homegrowmen thing: >>>/out/1425487

This should help though,
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/for/for39/for39.htm

>>1533776
I see. I wondered. Everyone keeps calling it a hardwood but half of them say it's soft. I think it just looks like pine but if the sumbitches can grow near 50 feet in 3 years vring it on. I have a spring fed pond and been wanting to get into aquaponics anyway. I'll drain it and fill it full of talapia unless they need temperature control

>>1533964
>Janka Hardness: 300 lbf (1,330 N)
https://www.wood-database.com/paulownia/

Seems soft enough to pick apart with your fingernail. It is softer than most pines. Homegrowmen also do fish stuff.

>>1533635
>>1533667
Yep its been used as a furniture and gunstock polish for a very long time, there's probably quite a few recipes out there for it if you need to make up a lot of it. They sort of fell out of favour due to modern plastics and other polymerised oil concoctions which tend to be cheaper by the gallon so to speak, but when it comes to natural materials its in some ways a better fit and non-toxic.
Price tends to dissuade people who just opt in for a urethane or something in a spray can- which have their pro's as well but not so much on hard wearing items such as tool and knife handles.

>>1533964
Don't get confused with hardwood and 'hard wood', hardwoods are most of the flowering trees and softwoods are things like pines and other cone bearing trees, whereas, a 'soft wood' is just a soft wood

>>1533968
Probably good for tables and stands, if the climate is similar it can become invasive

>>1533964
>Everyone keeps calling it a hardwood
Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale)
Common Name(s): Balsa
Balsa is technically classified as a hardwood, rather than a softwood, since it has broad leaves and is not a conifer.

Scientific Name: Ochroma pyramidale

Just an FYI guys, HF has their Portaband on sale for $95 right now and it's great for bar stock if you hillbilly a SWAG table for it like I did.

>>1516527
I would strongly recommend picking out a precut knife blank and going from there. USAKnifemaker for one sells them, also many other companies like BudK and brigadier general sell them.

>>1522905
annihilate it. lol thanks autocorrect.

>>1531665
I think its probably one of those designs which would take 2-3 goes to get 'right' and then you're going down that rabbithole of 'rest of life to master'
You'll probably be back here next year telling us about your 2nd hand bridgeport mill, mini-lathe and carbide tips

>>1531904
Yeah, there's a few 'modern' designs out there which are a straight-back instead of a concave clip point and they're a much easier design, however in saying that once you sharpen up that false edge along the back its not going to perform the way the old timey design did. Mostly its a relic of people who grew up swinging sabres and cutlasses at each other, then figured on their fighting knife that they'd do the same thing, grind in a "cats claw", sharpen that fucker up good and proper, then if you swing and miss. You can then reverse the cut like a backhand swing of a tennis racquet and it literally grabs + rips the absolute living shit out of things.
Seriously fucking scary damage and I was just lopping into some cardboard boxes and yep... fuck that


Well thank fuck the Christmas rush is done, actually started these about 2 weeks before xmas and then things got stupid.
Probably be awhile before I use copper again, it goes from room temp to surface of the sun after about 5sec of grinding and its not much fun being burnt more than normal. But it does look really neat, I meant to get more photos but was in a rush to ship them out and get rid of them from cluttering up the place.

my 8th knife or sommit

made by hand/angle grinder/bench grinder

buck 110 was inspiration

kinda not the best but im proud of my progress

>>1537289

>>1527578

ive made about 5

biggest thing is patience

and you need to be able to fully assemble and fully disassemble your knife with nothing but your bare hands, easily, at all stages of the build. failing that, youre beating a dead horse

>>1537289

the hardest part, for me, is the design. i cant draw for shit so i do everything by just wingin it. the blade design for a lockback folder is super tricky. the pivot hole location especially. too high and your ricasso hits the lever too early when closed. too low and the top part of your knife sticks way out. same goes for the other direction.

the actual making of the pieces is fairly natural to me as ive been a welder/heavy duty mech since ive been old enough to hold a wrench

>>1537290
That pretty good though.

New on knife making. Watched a couple of videos. What's the borax when they're forging?

>>1537350
It's used as an aid in the very specific job of welding two or more pieces of steel together. It's not used for anything else.

>>1537350
>What's the borax when they're forging?
welding flux

What do you think the profit margins are for this thing they're selling?

>>1537717
$22.84 after shipping and CO2 laser etching. Pure fucking Chinesium garbage. Looks like some shit my nephew wanted me to make him from "Nurato" or whatever the fuck it's called (his parents said 'No' to that build).

>>1537717
440-A (which it probably is) runs about $7-900 a tonne for plate stock so its mostly just a case of someone running a laser cutter over a few 1000 of the damn things and the rest is really just a one-man job to move it from one cheap arse milling facility to whatever the fuck passes for heat treating. Heck there's a few facilities in China out in the bumblefuck regions of the place which could probably do the whole damn show for you at 3-5cents a piece and you're not even spending diesel to move it around.

In most western countries it was fairly much the same back when they had a local industrial base in the 1980s, even in most large country towns you used to be able to find machine and fab shops that would just throw a few smalls into their next batch of whatever is being cooked, welded or chopped up and it'd only cost a couple of beers for their trouble. Now anyone left in that sector considers themselves a special snowflake because they actually survived the post-industrial movement, can't be fucked doing small-items and usually some kind of specialist doing high end work you can't trust Comrade Chang not to fuck up.

>>1517366
I like that blade shape. Looks very easy to run along a desired item to cut and dig in well.

>>1537717
far too much if you ask me

Commission, santoku style chef's knife. 1095 steel, Honduran rosewood handle, starburst mosaic pin from Jantz I think.

>>1539749
forgot this one

Chisel and hand plane blade blade sharpening post.

I want to upgrade from Arkansas and oil stones for sharpening. The time it takes and oil required is just so tiring. Are water whetstones a decent step up? Or do DMT stones blow them both out of the water?

I got a lot of chisels and a lot of planes.

>>1539775
If you are establishing an edge from nothing I would highly recommend a bench grinder with a sharpening wheel to save yourself hours and then either stones or something like a fixed angle sharpening system like a wicked edge or even a Lansky. If you are doing touch ups yeah stones all the way. There was also a post here a few threads ago about a diy fixed angle thing just for chisels using flat countertop, sandpaper and a wooden fixture to keep the angle consistent, but I didn't save it.

>>1539784
Should have mentioned I have a bench grinder with jigs for hollow grinds and a honing guide for flat stones. Strop on hand with black jewelers rouge or Metal finishing compound. Aiming for 25° bevel, a few degrees higher for micro bevel.

Its likely I have all the equipment needed minus the right stone that cuts the fastest - 400 to 1000 grit .

>>1516520
this is a knife

>>1539821
No it's not.
t. Finnish Knifey-spoony Nation Champion 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016.

>>1539844
so it;s safe to say that you've played it before

Beginner here, I'm really interesting in getting started with this sort of thing and the only experience I have with metalworking is welding in high school. Wanted to try making a starter forge like in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk7Lw_uV5s

How much trouble would this be to make a trench/brick combo outside in freezing conditions? It's around 10 degrees right now and wind can get pretty serious. Is there another way to go about this in my garage without setting it on fire?

>>1539784
I'd go with a Tormek for that. It won't be as absurdly sharp as the Wicked Edge, but it beats Lansky hands down, and you can use it for the whole process. It works quickly and without doing too much science on the metallurgy of the blade.

>>1539749
Is it just me or is the edge really thick on your knife.

>>1541282
I think on Santoku knives the edge is around 12 to 15 degrees, but they are for chop chop chop due to the sheep's hoof style and not used for slicing all that much unlike a Chef's knife which is nearly all slicing action.

>>1519259
No bandaid drawer? Fucking amateurs.

>>1541491
There's a limited number of holds and positions you use with wood carving and whittling tools. All of them are for control & safety and when using them you should not cut yourself even if you slip.

>>1541495
>a wild challenger appears!

>>1541530
That's pantywaist shit.
I've got a chainsaw blade for mine.

>>1541576
But that's at least 30 bucks for some legit maiming, $2 man and you're almost guaranteed to at least remove some fingers in a split second of inattention.
I was looking at the chainsaw attachments the other day, mostly by default while hunting for other grinder bits and was wondering if they're like a proper 2-stroke version with kickback protection or is it just all raw dog unprotected, all the time?

Also been working on some filleting knives, super happy they survived the air-quench and oven as they got 'pretty thin' before I stuck them in and post-heat treat grinding they're now 'wafer thin'. Distal taper is just crazy, soon as I get some handles on them I'll post pics

>>1541653
From what I've seen, the chainsaw attachments are pretty much just assured death machines. Like something you buy when you are suicidal and don't want life insurance to be invalid because you blew your brains out. That way your family still gets the money.

>>1541653
>I was looking at the chainsaw attachments the other day
It's not an attachment.
It's just enough saw chain to make a 4" circle and two disks to hold it on the grinder.
>>1541653
>kickback protection
Ha, ha, ha. pull the trigger and hold it tight.

>>1541656
>It's not an attachment.

These.

>>1541654
>>1541656
>>1541658
Yeah those where the cutter-bar and chain 'attachment'... which is probably the most ironic name ever for something considering what its going to do.
Presumably no one hopefully ever uses them on timber because even the most suicidal motherfucker has to think, "its not going to be a good death" and I figured they probably exist solely for meth lab owners to disposer of annoying debtors

>>1541658
I haven't seen those. I've had the circular blades for about 20 years.
I bought two because I was sure they wouldn't hold up at all.
I did all I wanted to do with the first one and didn't dull it at all.
I have a 55cc two stroke saw and a 10" 20v chainsaw so no need for attachments.
I've been looking at the belt grinder attachments recently though.

>>1541666
I honestly find a heck of a lot of uses for my 1/2" belt power file and while its kind of shitty, the little bastard just keeps on chugging through stuff that needs a bit of a delicate touch or fine work. It'll also happily maul its way through hardened steel if you're angry enough, but for what it is and how much it cost (fuck all) its been worth it for not firing up a big grinder.

The angle grinder ones are definitely kind of sketchy though and wouldn't bet on them lasting real long, they are very cheap though

>>1520186
I want to rub these on my face

>>1541669
Well, I just ordered one for my angle grinder based on this post. I'll let you know how it works out. If I like it, I'm going to go get another $10 HF Angle Grinder to dedicate it to the power file.

>>1539775

I use oil stones and Arkansas for the majority of my sharpening but prefer a set of diamond stones for chisels and planes since they're something that needs sharpened often and are tedious, plus diamond stones don't need flattening or much maintenance.
I use three stones: a medium, fine, and extra fine EZE-lap. DMTs are good for this too so long as they're the solid stone and not the holey kind.

>>1541282
no its about 14 degrees or so.

same knife as previous, just finished a bit more. my #8.

lockback fold buck 110 similar

need a 2x72 belt grinder somethin fierce

This isnt directly related to knife making but I figured I could ask here instead of making a whole new thread for it. I'm on my first steps on working with steel and I'm having an issue where I've hammered steel into the desired shape, but annealing hasn't let it get soft enough for me to start filing it down and cleaning it up. Is it important to not heat the metal up too much?

>>1533768
>clicked 68 fucking captchas
Someone needs to kill gookmoot

>>1543106
I hope I'll reach that level of quality within a year. Good job.

>>1543106
Its a classic look

>>1543117
Generally to anneal, you want to close to the metals austenising temp (usually somewhere between 750-850C for most steels) and then hold it at those temps for a while- then let it cool very slowly in something like vermiculite or dry sand, or kept in a kiln if you've got one. Kind of hard to give you specifics unless you tell us the type of steel

>>1543338
>Generally to anneal, you want to close to the metals austenising temp (usually somewhere between 750-850C for most steels) and then hold it at those temps for a while- then let it cool very slowly in something like vermiculite or dry sand
This is called the laminar anneal. It creates coarse pearlite which is bad for knife steels with higher carbon than the eutectoid amount (which is many knives). For these, a spheroidal anneal would be preferred. As you say, kinda hard to give specifics without the type of steel, or what state it is in before annealing.

Found two chunks of heavy steel plate in the woods. Plan to go up with a hacksaw to secure them since they're bolted to a collapsed ruin. Anything I should be wary of before I start cutting and filing to make one of them into a machete?

>>1544865
Depending on the steel, it may need to be sharpened a lot.

>>1544910
You haven't seen my machete.

never going to buy these scales again

>>1516527
Should just be thankful that you still talk to you father. There is no way I would give my father a knife after what he did to me.

I was flattening my honing stone for my razor with a flattening stone for the first time, and I saw that it's leaving small scratches in the hone.
Is this a problem? I cant get a good picture, it's what it sounds like pretty much. The stone is flat besides the numerous scratches that follow the path made by the stone, I've tried many different ways of doing this. Is it not a big deal?

>>1546338
If I understand you correctly, it shouldn't make a difference at all.

>>1546338
it wont make any difference.
just make sure to thoroughly clean the stone from the debris of honing stone before using it

First real attempt at freehand flatgrind

>>1547328

I have access to a 200ton press and a 1200C electric furnace.
What else do i need for forging knifes?

Are there any good youtube videos out there that goes over the minimal equipment i would need? and the minimal process to follow?

>>1547952
Belt grinder, wood cutting saw (band or hand held), some files (metal, wood, mini and rasps), an Anvil-Like-Object or an Anvil, some different hammers and a good set of whetstones.

I know I could make a knife with that list, I'd also however suggest a decent drill press and drill bits, a buffing wheel and an angle grinder.

And clamps, for the love a fuck as many clamps in all different sizes that you can afford.

>>1547965
I guess im only missing a belt grinder really.

>>1547975
>>1547965
A file jig makes things nice when you want to do some hand work.

>>1547982
True.
>>1547975
I shit you not, when I started out, that little 1 x 30 belt grinder from Harbor Freight was a great workhorse for $50. Their 40 grit belts will last a knife or two each and you can order belts up to 1400 grit on Amazon for cheap ($7.88 for a 20 piece variety pack but slow boat from China).

Just watch some YT vids on how to true the wheels and make sure the tentioner goes all the way back with the belt installed.

I still have mine 4 years later and it still runs perfect. Useful for shaping handles, too.

This was the first thing I shaped on it years ago.

>>1548002

i really really reaaaally need a belt grinder

i think ill buy a 1x30 to get me by for now

lot of people say theyre a waste of time but man those things look handy as shit

having difficulty starting my next knife

cant decide on design

i feel like every knife ive made has moslty looked the same

how do i broaden my design capabilities

>>1548083
Now that they make a few 1x30 belts in ceramic, that sort of offsets a lot of the disadvantages of the smaller belts by getting too hot and wearing out quickly.
Getting them to move enough rpms/metres a second to make the most of a ceramic cutter is another matter, in which case you can settle for zirconium or similar which is about 2/3rds as good, last about half the time for half the price. As a hobbyist its a much-a-much on how you're going to spend to get a result you're happy with and lets face it, if you're ok with it, then that's just fine.

You can also never have enough grinders

>>1548102
I just sit down and start drawing out ideas and while there's an element of functionality in there I also like to throw my own spin on things just because no one else does it, or does those things very often.
Then its a case of putting the practical in there to match material dimensions, my own skills and whatever I think I can get away with in terms of material properties and strengths. Some people just go fuck it, got a good idea and run with it working on whatevers in their mind. But I do like to have some kind of template reference to work off-of an if someone really likes it, then I can just whip it out and make another because I'm fucked if I can remember exactly what I made 5-6 months ago.

Basically whenever you get stuck in an artistic bum-groove its time to kick over the cart and just try something out of the ordinary like make a pommel, a sub-hilt, specialist knife blade type or other random bit of artisan cutler bling that a mass-manufacturer wouldn't touch with a 10ft pole

>>1548120

i love making locking folders.

i was thinking of maybe a butterfly or something next, kind of meme but it would be cool to make

>>1548083
I don't know what your budget is like, but their 4 x 36 with the 5" wheel is on sale for $55. It takes extensive modding (again, YT vids are handy and I stripped mine down to the frame and rebuilt it, the wheel bearings need to be seated properly, they never come OEM seated correctly) and is very handy for flattening knife scales and rounding over concave finger grips.

I also would suggest this: https://smile.amazon.com/WEN-2305-Rotary-Tool-Shaft/dp/B0784JHFKD

It's retardedly cheap and as long as you pay attention to the duty cycle, it will last. (You will want to lube the flex shaft with white lithium right out of the box). I mostly use the sanding drums for minute detail work, but the mini cut-of discs are useful as well.

You certainly don't need either of these items to start off, but they are useful and time saving if you can justify the additional $100 I'm telling you to spend.

>>1547328
Could use a few more speed holes

Rough shaped these two rhombic puukko blades today (not meant to be twins). First time trying rhombic blades.

>>1548323

said fuck it and built a belt grinder for free

i had 2 old 1/2 hp 1750 rpm electric psc motors, i combined the parts into one fully working unit with drive pulley. i hammered the armature off the unused shaft, ground the fins off, and key-wayed it to the end of the shaft of the new fully operational motor, as the drive pulley.

then i took 2 pieces of flatbar, and essentially made a pair of scissors with one idler pulley being on the same shaft as the pivot.

i mounted the third and final pulley, on the end of the top flat bar.

i drilled and tapped the bottom flat bar through and to the case of the motor

i put a stronk spring over some ready rod and used the "handles end" of the flat bar/pulley scissor contraption to make the tensioner adjustment

i made an adjustable platen for it as well

the 2 idler pulleys i got out of a 95 gmc 2500 parts truck i got out back, metal pulleys with bearings and spacer bushings

oh and i stretched a dirt bike innertube over all the pulleys so they got some rubber on em

things a fucking beaut when i fix my camera/get a new phone ill take pics, pic related for now

pic related, took me like 3 hours in browser paint.exe on an iphone lol, theres a platen in there too but i didnt feel like drawing it

white - 3/8x2 flatbar
red - motor
green - pulleys
yellow - belt
pink - bolt
light blue - spring

i got a fuckload of 3x24 belts so ill rip em in half and burn em on this thing

>>1548776
Well, impressive. I'd suggest a 2 x 72 homemade grinder next.

Newfag here
I want to make a glaive blade, somewhere between 30-40cm long and slightly curved. What should I make it out of? I want something that is somewhat easy to get but have no problems slicing through ballistic gel or similar stuff.
I have some concrete reinforcing bars, would those do?
Also, what tools do I need for the entire process?

>>1549567
>I have some concrete reinforcing bars
Those are probably mild steel. Get a bar of 1095.

>>1549567
A big ol lump of 80CRV2 stock in about 3mm-1/8" thick, 5160 will also make a fine impact/fuckhueg blade as well. if you're going to do retarded shit like try and cut a car in half or chop trees down with it, bump up the thickness to 5-6mm. But heavier doesn't necessarily make for a 'better weapon' as it gets too unbalanced and difficult to swing quickly for any practical purposes of causing a homicide.
Neither are inordinately difficult to harden and temper, but there's a few tricks worth researching to get the most out of the metal in terms of getting grain size down and a good mix of strength-toughness.

>concrete reinforcing bars
Probably not unless they're at least an 0.5% carbon content

>tools
Not a lot, but there's a plethora of stuff you can research on that.

Took the blades to their heat treating grit of 400 yesterday, didn't have a chance to get them in the forge and oil today.

Oi! You got loisenses for all those knoives?

>>1547982
I see you too are a man of culture

Sharpening stones - specifically for sharpening chisels. I'm an amateur wood worker. I'd like to get my chisels sharper then the belt sander gets them. If I could also do kitchen knives and plane knives that's a bonus.

Looking at sharpening stones all I find are chinesium ones for 5 bux or seemingly good quality for 50 bux and up. I say "seemingly" because I'm not convinced they aren't exactly the same thing.

What say you anons? Would a couple of 5 bux stones be good enough for an amateur or I will I instantly regret it?

Whetstones - specifically for sharpening chisels. I'm an amateur wood worker. I'd like to get my chisels sharper then the belt sander gets them. If I could also do kitchen knives and plane knives that's a bonus.

Looking at sharpening stones all I find are chinesium ones for 5 bux or seemingly good quality for 50 bux and up. I say "seemingly" because I'm not convinced they aren't exactly the same thing.

What say you anons? Would a couple of 5 bux stones be good enough for an amateur or I will I instantly regret it?

chef knife from a couple months ago

>>1526861 super nice work bud

got a pic of my belt grinder. a little more refined than before

if i could get a 2 horse + vfd for a good price i would build a proper 2x72 for sure

definitely on the horizon

>>1551198
Very nice knife!

>>1551209
lol Holy shit. I have a ton of motors that size. I'll probably so something similar one day.

Where do you guys get your known types of steel? (I mean, knowing it's W2, 1095, whatever.)

Alpha Knife supply seems the cheapest, Texas Knife Supply seems to charge twice as much.

Is there a better seller?

>>1516520
Is chinesium worth a dollar a pound? (55)
Quality anvils are out of my price and physical range.

>>1552518
At that price, I don't think it would hurt to try, especially if it passes the bearing test.

>>1516520
lol general is still up bump this shiiiiet


ok i am on my dagger project
planned it for a whilme and it comes better than i thought

>>1553361
>bump this shiiiiet

Can't, it is over 310 posts.

>>1553370
ohso i will make a new one

>>1553387
new threat
>>1553387
new threat
>>1553387
new threat