KNIFE MAKING GENERAL /KMG/

[Anonymous No.1449565]

show your forges rigs stuff, tools you newly acquired or made , your best knifes and stuff talk bout your skills , projects and techniques you tried or want to try
go all in talk bout it ask for help or give advice

[Anonymous No.1449567]

made it without any powertools except drill because hole is hole , , was about 11 hours work, with little to no breaks. fields good to be able to make a knife the old way

[Anonymous No.1449599]

>>1449567

THIS WAS IN THAT OTHER THREAD THAT TRIGGERED ME.

[Anonymous No.1449613]

>>1449599
i am on /diy" to have a bit less sperging and a bit more talk bout knifes and finesse of making em ,
and i made this thread as it seems appropriate to have a thread dedicated to talking over knife making.
i sitll don't get what your problem is.

[Anonymous No.1449634]

>>1449613
>>1449567
How about some constructive criticism.
Have some patience with your work, if you didnt shoehorn it into a single saturday it would look and be a whole lot nicer.

[Anonymous No.1449641]

>>1449634
it took me 11 hours, of pure work not that i made it all at once,

>>1449634
i did it in a manore like the early middleage, so there are more scratches than we wood expect with modern tooling as i aimed for a mid to low tier knife.
actualy took some weeks
(also the black skin did not came off because that would have altered the whole blades symmetry which was more important)

[Anonymous No.1449701]

I have a free, working treadmill (someone had a New Year's Resolution they quickly gave up on and let me take) that I want to build into a 2 x 72 grinder.

Problem is, I don't have access to welding equipment and ever fucking build I see is TIG or MIG. Does anyone know of a weldless 2 x 72 build? Not worried about cosmetics, I'm going to have a bloody, obvious control panel from a treadmill, so anything will do.

[Anonymous No.1449848]

>>1449701
Yeah, they're out there.
http://www.mickleyknives.com/html/no_weld_grinder.html

Basically a whole lot of hole drilling and machine bolts, which if I was hazarding a guess would require a fairly brutal drill press just to get through it all. All in all, I found having the old stick box and a mig fairly handy around the show anyway when it comes to knife making, even if its just tack welding stuff together, fixing tools and provided you're not after anything real fancy they can be cheap 2nd hand.
Hell I reckon my stick welder is older than I am (..and I'm fucking old), yes its kind of shit but it was free and works so I can't really complain

[Anonymous No.1449849]

>>1449848
i just bought the cheapest so called "professional" grinder out there,
and well it grinds for sure but the grindingtable was deformed after 2 month of use already and it can't grind straight anymore , need tofix a new one to it

[Anonymous No.1449870]

>>1449849
Platen behind the belt or the actual table you rest stuff on? Because if its the platen, they're a wear item and tend to shit the bed eventually

[Anonymous No.1450120]

>>1449565
I just got my knife grider working! KMG style 2x72 with variable DC drive.

[Anonymous No.1450122]

>>1449848
>http://www.mickleyknives.com/html/no_weld_grinder.html

What a pain in the ass, why not just weld it? If you don't have a welder, find someone, there are a million hobbyists out there who love to fuck around in the shop and would help you for cheap/free.

[Anonymous No.1450126]

great thread. I'll post some pics when i get home.

[Anonymous No.1450253]

>>1450122
I think there's an unspoken tradition amongst knife makers to either have no, limited or terrible welding skills ;)
Reckon about 1 in 10 I meet 'can' actually use some type of welder and the other 9 consider it sorcery or are so bad at it they're a menace to themselves, I probably fall into the self taught category of 'limited' myself, but after you do a bit of research and figure out which ungodly hot burning metal goes with what, prep your surfaces well with you're trying to do, its not too hard.
Heck if you weld DIY your own grinder by the end of that you'll probably be pretty fucking good at the end of the job or at least better than when you started.

[Anonymous No.1451757]

Just finished my 6th knife. It’s a pry knife my dad wanted. Just gonna cut up cardboard and open shit in the field and he only wanted a 2” blade. The micarta is home made as well, I’m really liking that aspect.

If that one guy is around, I’m the dude who posted a few months ago with he thick stock. Thank you, whoever you are. Not sure I would have finished that first one up considering it was much, much uglier than this one.

[Anonymous No.1451781]

Pic is knife I made today. I have two questions though.
One is what do you guys usually use to coat your knives to prevent rust?
And two is I have been blacksmithing for a couple weeks now and my middle finger on the hammering hand has developed this slightly swollen tender spot almost right at the base of the finger just above the knuckle. Anyone else ever get this? It makes lifting shit a pain and it seems to go away after four or five days but comes back as soon as I start hammering again.

[Anonymous No.1451873]

Is there a trick to practicing knife sharpening on a whet stone to get a feel for a good angle faster than just repition? I use knives at work a lot and they end up getting dull and while sharpening with a stone works I’m still slow at it and getting the angles on both sides of the blade equal is still a bit rough, though I am very slowly improving.

[Anonymous No.1451902]

>>1451781
You probably fractured the bone at the base of your finger. Repeated shocks (like hammering) can do that. Only fix is to splint it and take a couple weeks off.

[Anonymous No.1451903]

>>1451873
You can buy angle guides. Otherwise practice is all you can do.

[Anonymous No.1451969]

>>1451902
I think so too. I fought through the pain today and made this one this morning.
They seem to sell as quick as I make them.
I think from my reading the trouble is I am holding the hammer too tightly. I need to buy a pair of gel filled gloves to reduce shock and practice a technique of loosening my grip on strike to cause less fatigue while hammering.

[Anonymous No.1451997]

>>1451757
>If that one guy is around, I’m the dude who posted a few months ago with he thick stock. Thank you, whoever you are. Not sure I would have finished that first one up considering it was much, much uglier than this one.


Cheers, and good job . Keep on making them and every next one will be better.

[Anonymous No.1452117]

>>1451969
It took me over a year of hobbyist blacksmithing till I started holding the hammer right. Now my tongs (off-hand) needs work and hurts more often.

[Anonymous No.1452187]

>>1451781
Few things to look at-
>weight of the hammer
>shape of the handle
>technique

Lot of fellas run out and buy a fuckheug 12lb sledge, handle the size of an elephants cock and as a result have to use all fingers and thumb to get a good purchase on it and those tools do have a place, but they're generally for cold work (more on that later) or having a a dedicated striker work the metal. So a simple fix is 'get a lighter hammer', start at the 1kg/2.5lb mark and work your way up the scale to the limits your body can handle.
Speaking of handles- most guys who will swing the bastards tend to customise their handles over time so they "just fit right" to their hand size. After all a hammer handle is made to suit everyone, for a price and basically fits no one. So take a rasp and sandpaper to knock off the high spots, 0 shape to index it easily and make sure its a good fit for your hand, this is one of the places its always fine to be a special snowflake, because you are and spend some time working it out.

Lot of guys also get carpal tunnel in their wrists, that's basically because their shits too big or they just man the fuck up through the pain and keep beating away at it- causing more damage. This also means shifting the stress points to other areas (elbow, shoulder, fingers etc) and in the end, they're all fucked up everywhere. So start working on a good technique early and stick to it, if it hurts DONT KEEP DOING IT! If it hurts, adjust your technique and make sure that after you're not all fucked up.


cont

[Anonymous No.1452191]

>>1452187
For finger injuries (we make knives... this happens!) I tend to use a lighter hammer and a sword fighters grip where my Pinky and Ring finger do the gripping on the back half, 2/3rds of the handle, the Index, Middle and Thumb are the guide fingers which basically aim the head and the wrist is kept loose and comfortable. Use your shoulder to get 1/3rd of the height and the elbow to get the other 2/3rds of the height to somewhere around your head- drop using the weight and the last half of the distance to the target use your strength.
Plus its ok to mix it up with a farriers swing (very high) and choke (close to the head and rapid taps) just so you're not developing stress and strain. But the important thing is that if you're really hurting, past the point of being very uncomfortable, stop, adjust and if its still all fucky, go do something else a bit lighter... like hand sanding and other mindfucking boring jobs that need doing.

Cold working is also very hard as you're getting the full impact of the metal and rebound of the anvil, shock travels everywhere and you've got a few amplified harmonics going as well to make it even worse, so avoid if you can.

So, while you're fucked up, adjust some handles, adjust your techniques and see what works for you. Hell it may as well work for you because there's not a lot of money in knife making ;)

>>1452117
damn that's a pretty hamon

[Anonymous No.1452192]

>>1452187
>>1452191
Thanks for all the info.
When I made the knife today while hurting I did hold the hammer closer to the top and did smaller hits. I also looked up some grip information and will practice it in a week or so when I get back to it. I am going to sit out again and let this heal for a while. I was just excited today to get another knife in the shop.

[Anonymous No.1452194]

>>1452191
Thanks dude.
I'm having heaps of fun making them and haven't had to have a job since Feb because people want my knives faster than I can make them. I'm hella slow though and not making money off it.

[Anonymous No.1452196]

>>1452194
That's beautiful. I'm making money off these shitty spike knives I'm posting you should be turning a profit on that easy.

[Anonymous No.1452200]

>>1452196
Yeah I'm making money, just not enough to depend on at the rate I'm making them.

I'm kinda lazy though, maybe if I put more hours into it I would be fine.

[Anonymous No.1452203]

>>1452196
Keep it up though (after you heal up), you can only get better if you keep trying, My first knives were trash.

[Anonymous No.1452204]

>>1452194
Amazing work. It only inspires me to get better at the craft. You can probably charge a little more than you're already asking.

I feel you on being slow, I just put my first knife up for sale last Wednesday, sold it in 3 minutes, and had 8 or 9 requests for more right after.

Shaped this ricasso puukko today (my first ricasso grind) and I'll be starting the sheath tomorrow (just black leather with a traditional Finnish scabbard).

[Anonymous No.1452210]

>>1452192
Yeah ask around and see if some people have other ideas on striking techniques, most are happy to help... they feel pain too

>>1452194
>I'm hella slow
At some point I have to dig deep and work on getting a better grinder. Most of my time seems to be spent in finishing work and there's not much of a way around that. Did manage to get the BFK 10in kitchen knife done last night and that's a load off, except I've got to make up the saya today and it'd be much easier to watch tv and veg out.
This was basically a 'fun' knife, whats for fighting hostile vegetables and wild dogs

[Anonymous No.1452212]

>>1452210
Do it man, the quality of my knives went right up when I spent a couple of grand on a good 2x72" grinder.
Don't bump your finger on it though, I did that a few days ago, now I'm sitting here on 4chan instead of in the workshop.

[Anonymous No.1452214]

>>1452212
Jesus christ.
I have similar to pic related and brushed my thumb on it the other day but had on a welding glove at the time so got lucky.
Funnily the only time I've burned myself at my forge was doing finishing work on a belt sander and touched the blade like an idiot after smoothing a section out.

[Anonymous No.1452216]

>>1452204
Oh cool the sycamore-bubinga knife got finished off. Remember asking about that when I was finishing off the wire-wrapped knife.

>>1452212
I've got a beat up elbow from endless sanding so I'm on light duties as well. the '36grit nip' is fairly fearsome, I've got a whole set of kevlar gloves torn to ribbons on those, so basically nothing stops it. Thinking of making a modular little 48" to do some of the finer work and keep costs/floorspace down but dunno just yet.

Had someone wander in the other day from next door asking if they'd make them a fancy paintscraper of all things... being the weak cunt I am, said yes and haven't heard from them since with the specifics so I might have dodged that bullet. Don't know why someone would want a tool they can get for $3 at a chain store that -will- get covered in goo and crap- and they call me weird!

[Anonymous No.1452218]

>>1452210
Those bolsters are fan-fucking-tastic (as is the knife, of course). Since you know your shit, obviously, what type of epoxy do you prefer for attaching scales when you use epoxy?

I've been using DevCon 2 Ton because some guys seem to like it but I'm curious what others use.

Close up on my recent bolster cluster just because I really like how it came out.

[Anonymous No.1452221]

>>1452216
>Oh cool the sycamore-bubinga knife got finished off.
I'm also working on a bubinga-sycamore matching puukko set for my aunt and her boyfriend. These are small camping puukko I went a little wild in the design with and am calling "Mudut" ("Minnows" in Finnish).

[Anonymous No.1452224]

who else riceknifes here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6_ugobl5sk

[Anonymous No.1452227]

>>1452216
I know, right? I've seen makers ask $250 for small kiridishi knives while I've been making pic related out of leftover steel scraps and giving them away as bonus freebies with my larger knives...

I guess we're the fools for not cashing in on it.

[Anonymous No.1452229]

>>1452218
Bolsters took a whole day to match up and press-fit the timber into. There is a 1mm G10 liner just to space them off the handle as well. found it tends to make for a nicer fit under compression just in case you miss a high spot.

BladeBond Ultra seems to be working for me, its a reasonable price (you can spend a lot more on some of their others) and is waterproof/fairly high sheer strength. I also keep a fair bit of thin CA around for other fiddly shit and some cheaper 5min epoxy for stuff that just has to stick together and won't be put under too much stress.

[Anonymous No.1452233]

>>1452221
yeah given a choice (which I mostly don't get) I prefer the smaller knives both to make and for general usability. Finally finished off a little 5" hunter the other day, no photos yet but its so nice to just get a handle done and dusted in under 5-6hrs

>>1452227
Most of the time I'll throw in a little 3" paring knife made out of bits. Nothing special. Just some G10 handles and doesn't take long to make, I do like the kiri's as they're easy to do and seem to suit the off-cut bin shapes I have, given a fair few away to tradies in return for work on the house and they love them for opening boxes, cutting tape etc.

[Anonymous No.1452240]

>>1452229
Appreciate the input. Hadn't even heard of BladebBond.

>>1452227
>leftover steel scraps
I've been looking into making "sieniveitsi" ("mushroom knife") with mine. Mushroom hunting isn't nearly as popular here as it is in Estonia or Finland but I think I still find buyers and it's such a cute little project.

[Anonymous No.1452270]

>>1451781

For rust proofing I usually do a coffee finish because it gives a fairly even coat and a dark-greyish color. (Pic related) just fill something hat can fit the blade in up with cool coffee stronger than anyone could drink and leave it in it overnight. Keeps a blade rust free without oil for a few weeks. Or look up mustard finishing for another cheap easy one, ferric acid for another.

>>1451997
Love ya brother. Pic related is knife 4/5. Never put a handle on 4 because my dumbass didn’t drill holes before the heat treat but I might just throw some of my extra micarta on it.

Speaking of, have you used micarta? Gimme whatever tips or comments on the material if you have them. There’s not as much info as I’d like on it online.

[Anonymous No.1452273]

Did this one a few weeks back, 1084 with a paracord jap wrap

[Anonymous No.1452415]

>>1449870
the bhind the belt thingy, was cheap steel

[Anonymous No.1452416]

>>1450126
thx i think we should make those regular here

[Anonymous No.1452417]

>>1450253
THIS ^ there are guys who are good ad wielding but i do not think that knifes are so much their thing , kinda a charackter thing i guess

[Anonymous No.1452418]

>>1451781
we would first finish them by giving them a well smoth surface, just grind with finer and finer sanding paper

[Anonymous No.1452419]

>>1452196
well idk i have developed a dislike of those spike knifes but yeah the sophisicated knifes do not realy pay off too well... and well here in germany idk people kinda stopped bying stuff in many cases

[Anonymous No.1452424]

>>1452240
Small company that makes it so its not just repackaged goo from somewhere else, where I get it from my semi-regular knife suppliers it doesn't really cost me in postage so its working out economically. Other than that, boat builders are the next best bet for a good structural epoxy that takes no shit from water or UV.
Stuff like West Systems G-flex and the like is also excellent, but problem I have is I don't need buckets of it and don't really want to fork out a small fortune on glue- they do usually have some kind of shelf life of around 3-6 months after opening.

>>1452273
Never been a fan of wraps as moisture gets underneath and starts rusting.
But man. Those grind lines are a thing of beauty!

[Anonymous No.1452643]

>>1452270

You can drill holes on hardened steel with carbide bits or sharpen masonry bit with diamond file and then cool it constantly to not melt the brazing . Don't waste material by just gluing it on , it will not hold long. You can wrap the handle with cord if you can't or don't want to waste time drilling it.

I have never used micarta , only g10 or textolite. Most important thing with those composite materials - don't overheat them while grinding them. Also they split easily along the grain if you wedge something sharp . And I find it that they finish a bit nicer if you use water while sanding them with fine grits.

These 2 look like nice working knives. The bevels are not perfect , but this will come with practice.

[Anonymous No.1452729]

>>1452204
3 coats of poly and made the wood scabbard for the sheath today. Ended up not getting into the shop as early as I wanted to.

[Anonymous No.1452860]

my third knife ive made, its a lockback folder. works really well im quite happy with it

handle is burned walnut with loads of tung oil

steel is crazy hard waferizer knives out of a sawmill

takes fucking forever to grind, i didnt burn it so never heat treated it

[Anonymous No.1452866]

>>1452860

my second knife ive made, i dont want to post the first lol.

being a heavy duty mechanic/welder i had a fairly good grasp on the skills and techniques to do the job. i use mostly hand tools excluding my bench grinder and angle grinder. oh and the 18 inch belt sander lol.

im really enjoying it ive done nothing but make knives for the last 2 weeks

the lockback folder took all in all like 20-25 hours. loads of fucking around trying to figure out the order to do things in/positioning of the holes/size of handle

theres a tiny bit of rock in it that i could probably eliminate but i dont want to fuck with it.

any ideas on a 4th knife?

oh heres a pic of my 2nd knife, with more of the folder following

[Anonymous No.1452869]

>>1452860
handle could have been a bit smaller

[Anonymous No.1452870]

>>1452860

here it is folded

thinking of maybe a liner or button lock next

[Anonymous No.1452936]

>>1452860
>y third knife ive made, its a lockback folder
nice work i am working on a folding knife too but not a foldable one

[Anonymous No.1452978]

>>1452936
and the wood has broken again...
fuck i never will give wood to that guy again for cutting...

[Anonymous No.1453342]

Just need to sharpen the edge, give the blade a buff and maybe another coat of wax to the sheath (made it today).

[Anonymous No.1453368]

>>1452870
Pretty cool, they are very challenging to make without a lot of fairly precise machine tools, teeny tiny fiddly little screws and other shit that's more at home in a clock makers shop.
Best bet is just to get a cheapo knife, rip it to bits and get an idea off how they all fit together and then model yours off that.

[Anonymous No.1453795]

Not sure if this is even related but made this beaut today from random shit I found on the beach here in Senegal. Blade is still completely dull so i need to figure out how to sharpen it with the things I have access to, which is basically a bunch of garbage and natural resources...
Friend told me to use a broken piece of pottery or something similar, but if anyone can give me a detailed guide on how to do it (what angle and all that...) Id greatly appreciate it.

Also Im definitely gonna be able to find some leather here somewhere, so if anyone has a guide on how to make a sheath for it, Id also be very happy.

Lastly does anyone know what the regulation with stuff like this is for plane travel? Obviously dont wanna just put it in my luggage, but home in germany these are technically banned outside of your how (even though it isnt enforced if you dont look like a hooligan or gangbanger), so Im thinking they might say something if its in my backpack. Anyone got any experience there?

[Anonymous No.1453869]

anyone have any suggestions on how to get this rivet out?
i'm restoring an old butcher's knife for my grandma and everything was going smoothly until this one rivet bent while i was squeezing it down in the vise.
i went about 1/8 an inch or so at a time and kept checking things to make sure they were straight, then after the 3rd squeeze this one ended up being out of whack.
this is the female side if it makes a difference. the other 2 compressed fine.

[Anonymous No.1453871]

>>1453795
Haha I like you you african post apoc shiv-smith.
In America you can fly with whatever weapon you like as long as it's in a check bag and if it's a gun it can't be loaded. Can't fly with bullets at all in fact because explosives.
I know euro laws are wacky so honestly I wouldn't even try and fly with that thing in a checked bag. Just make another at home.

[Anonymous No.1453889]

>>1453795
Honestly yeah, if it's going to be an issue I wouldn't call it worth the hassle of getting it through customs, it's definitely something you can make at home, and do a significantly better job of it.
That said, if it's a souvenir you think would be particularly valuable for the memories, you could look into mailing it to yourself. The couple times I've had to take short notice flights and tried to board a plane with a knife in one of the obscure pockets of my pack they just let me buy an package envelope and drop it in the post box so it would be sitting in the post office when I got back. You'd probably have to actually box it up and shit and pay international shipping but it has a better shot of making it into the country I bet. I don't know anything about europe though.

As for sharpening, just find some flattish cement or a brick to put something approaching an edge on it and then once it looks like the edge is thin but is still too rough to actually cut decently, try to find some ceramic or something. The bottom of a coffee mug where there's no glaze on the raised edges can work well, and I've seen people do a really good job with the edge of a piece of frosted glass, or the top of a car window.
As for angle you're probably best served just doing whatever is easiest and trying to be consistent about it.

Also you probably want to grind down the spike in the handle, at least round it off somewhat. That looks like it could rip your palm up pretty good if the knife twists on you or something.

[Anonymous No.1453895]

>>1453869
Drill them out if you can, drill press and then just run a bolt or tap into the hole and yoink it out

[Anonymous No.1453929]

>>1453895
haven't done that before, makes sense though. guessing i need a vise for the drill press for that? or with it being brass would just some clamps do?

[Anonymous No.1453937]

>>1453929
Brass is fairly soft, if you're keeping the scales and want to avoid damage, wrap them in a bit of cardboard or something, also run the drill slow as she goes

[Anonymous No.1454062]

>>1453795
Sharpening is easier than most people think. It does take some practice to get some consistency down to make the process more efficient and so you can achieve finer results, but you can sharpen to a rough cutting edge without very crude materials and not much practice. Grab a brick and get going.
This guy has a lot of practice on good stones and has developed his own technique already, but you can see that it applies all the same on a piece of garbage brick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoEZI82-M_k
As for the angle, don't try to make a really acute edge at first. You're not looking to create a refined cutting implement. You just want to get some technique down, in a way that works for you and your materials. Keeping the angle more consistent helps most, but it's not so important that you have to have a jig to keep it perfectly in line, especially on rough surfaces.

[Anonymous No.1454063]

>>1454062
with very crude materials*

[Anonymous No.1454068]

>>1454062
Also bear in mind that he is sharpening what he considers a dull blade, which I am certain is much sharper than the one you will be playing with to begin with. Considering his already developed technique with a much nicer edge to start with, don't be frustrated when it takes you significantly more time and it is not nearly as nice as that guy's edge. See it as a step toward rather than an end result.

[Anonymous No.1454126]

>>1453871
Haha thanks, man!
I guess euro laws dont really matter since its only gonna be senegalese customs and airport security who are gonna check my bag hopefully with lower than international standards.

>>1453889
Ive got like five or six weeks to work on it and make it nice, but I think I wanna keep it just for the novelty value.
Thanks for the tip on mailing it though! How did it go down in your experience though? Do they call you out on speaker to come to them or what? Cause they would only be able to see it a couple minutes after you drop it off, while youre already in the security area for bording right? I think Ill try no matter what, and if they flag me out I can still mail it. Shouldnt be more than like 10 euro or something...
Also thanks for the sharpening guide! I can definitely find something that should work.
You really think I need to grind it down? I was thinking of getting some thin rope to wrap the wire-bits with (although not too sure how Id actually do it), so maybe I can just extend that to make the spike more even?

>>1454062
Sweet! Ill check it out later and give it a try!

[Anonymous No.1454128]

>>1449641
you gay haha :d

[Anonymous No.1454141]

>>1453795
holy shit wth is this?

[Anonymous No.1454144]

folding knife i work on still much work all the wood around the brass has to go and then some shaping,
should be a complete friction holder, also the blade became some smaller then planned due to a incidend. idk. should i make a new blade?
all this is a pain in the ass, wood is appl btw

[Anonymous No.1454197]

I know this question isn't directly related with knives. But I like to forge stuff, so far I have forged a couple of strikers for flint, and bottle openers. Do you guys have an idea of what else I can forge? Things that I can sell? No knives, thanks

[Anonymous No.1454234]

>>1454197
Jewelry

[Anonymous No.1454243]

>>1454197
Fancy key holder which is shaped like a tree or something.

[Anonymous No.1454265]

>>1454197
hooks , you can make quite fancy hooks for kitchen and to attach shit at your belt

[Anonymous No.1454267]

>>1454197
also you can make joints for chests

pic related are very simple viking age joints and such

[Anonymous No.1454400]

>>1454141
Its a beauty is what it is. I tried to sharpen it myself with some slow progress but in the end I was too bored and just gave it to a fisherman to sharpen it for me for four euro, which was most likely way too much.
Also added the string tonit so now it feels a lot nicer in your hand.
Now I just need a sheat for it. But I guess I can just pay someone to do that for me as well...

[Anonymous No.1454403]

>>1454400
Its a beauty is what it is. I tried to sharpen it myself with some slow progress but in the end I was too bored and just gave it to a fisherman to sharpen it for me for four euro, which was most likely way too much.
Also added the string tonit so now it feels a lot nicer in your hand.
Now I just need a sheat for it. But I guess I can just pay someone to do that for me as well...

[Anonymous No.1454408]

>>1454403
dude you gave him alittle fortune but ok

[Anonymous No.1454410]

>>1454403
>/diy/
>i guess i can pay someone to do that aswell

[Anonymous No.1454654]

>>1454144
>all this is a pain in the ass,
Yep, that's why I don't make em!
Though I have entertained a big old ratchet style navaja before realising how much trouble it is for something no one wants and I don't have time.

Thing with your knife and handle is the blade + extended tang has to conform to the shape of each other. In your example there the tang does pop up from the spine of the blade and that's kind if cool, but a massive shit to try and get something that's actually going to conform to the shape of anything remotely human hand shaped. I'd recommend that it just runs parallel to the spine of the blade and that way you've got a bit more wiggle room to make a handle that is much easier to work on, curves are cool but they can really complicate some aspects of the mechanical workings.

[Anonymous No.1454832]

>>1454654
it's a historical built so there is not much room for such things,

[Anonymous No.1454934]

>>1449565
Hey guys, a smithing related question. Can i forge powder metallurgical steel? the sheet stock of Vanadis 4 Extra that i have comes a bit too thick and i am thinking of hammering it thinner to save material and grinding.

However I have not found any guidelines on how and at what temperature to forge V4E or its close alternative CPM 4V.

Can i even do it, or would it ruin the metal structure?

[Anonymous No.1454957]

>>1454654
made some progress, but there is still much precission work todo, the small pins are too thick so i have to file em to a smaller diamete,r lucky i only drilles 7 small holes...

[Anonymous No.1454984]

>>1454934

It's not a good idea. It will move realy hard, you have very tight window of temperature to forge it and there is a high risk of cracking it. Only case that I would forge powdered steel is if i have some small and thick scrap piece and if i ruin it , it would not be a big deal. Also if you manage to forge it properly , it will air harden no matter how slow you cool it and it will be a pain in the ass to grind.

[Anonymous No.1454999]

>>1454934
If you have to ask a question like that, I wouldn't do it.
It's hard enough to do with non-powdered steels, let alone adding the extra heat needed and higher hardness to deal with.

[Anonymous No.1455163]

>>1454934
High chromium, high carbon steels and air-hardening stuff which has austenising temps around 1000+C just really can't be easily forged. Biggest problem is them burning the carbon out of the steel by the time you get to forging temps and then the cyclic cooling will end up hardening them under normal conditions.
These really are machinist steels and where never intended for heating n beating on during the processing

[Anonymous No.1455172]

>>1449641
the black skin is scale, and it is still there because u left tool marks, if ur going to make this a hobby id suggest learning to dress your hammers for this it really cuts down on the tool marks. im curious what you made this from too, as if it was just household junk its likely that it wont really hold that edge well.

[Anonymous No.1455177]

>>1450>>1452196
>
if u feel brave enough start ordering actual knife steel, rr spikes make meh quality knives bc it doesnt really harden much. they are however AMAZING for practicing.

[Anonymous No.1455192]

>>1455172
yeah i forgot the term, , i did a larger time no work and i got worse in terms of hammer adjustment,
i also know how the marks came in and they were made by the fin, I usualy sell knifes. and usualy without marks, but i found them not to be too grave for not finishing it.
for the steel it is unhardened as it is an early medieval knife before hardenign was realy popular(in late medieval tiems they hardedned everythign they could heat up and dip into fluid)
would have grinded them out but well i maede it all by file and stone, and the summetry would have been damaged,and i valued the symmetry higher than getting all of it out.

[Anonymous No.1455215]

>>1455177
Would you mind posting a link for a decent place to buy some knife steel?

[Anonymous No.1455230]

>>1455215
Not him, but I get my 'Kauhava' steel (80CrV2) from Alpha Knife supply.

Reasonable prices (a 12 x 1.5 x 1/8 bar is $6.00 and I can cut three blades out of that). $25 minimum order and shipping works out to $8 with priority mail.

https://www.alphaknifesupply.com/shop/

On a side note, new puukko handle blank I made today.

[Anonymous No.1455234]

>>1455230
that's some fine shit right there

[Anonymous No.1455243]

>>1451969
wearing gloves and swinging a hammer will make you hold even tighter to the hammer, you'll get callouses and it won't hurt anymore after a bit of time

[Anonymous No.1455245]

>>1455234
Thank you. I like experimenting with handle designs a lot. A friend suggested I could sell these and scales as a side to my side business.

[Anonymous No.1455260]

>>1455215
Not him, but can throw a few out there I know are good

>Groundflatstock - UK based and stock some pretty cool stuff
>NJ Steel Baron- vast amounts of knife and tool steels in the US
>Texas Knifemakers Supply- not a large amount of steels but they also carry heaps of other stuff you'll use
>Artisan Supplies- Australia & NZ, good variety of steels + everything else you can think of

Most of them cater to the beginner/intermediate knife makers that just need a little bit of this and that, won't bitch about not selling you $2000 of sheet and all the other smalls. Brisa in Finland are also a quick go-to for some of the more exotic, weird shit to stick on knife handles + some blanks and assorted bits if you 'just want to make a knife' but skip over the heat treating and shit.

>>1455245
Yeah, I dunno about that. Simply because they're 'your style' and I think as an artist that might be something to work an angle on where if someone wants that look, they go to you. Everyone over time figures out what their bum groove in the shop looks like and produces stuff they like and is distinctive. So maybe the long term goal is skipping over the easy, quick money and "Anons Knife" as a look sometime further down the path.

Lot of side hustle's out there are people making stabilised timbers for knife handles.

[Anonymous No.1455278]

>>1455215
I get steel from Jantz spully near OKC, but I like keeping money as close to home as I can. Always got good shit from them.

>>1455260
Gimme the rundown on stabilized woods. Haven’t looked too much into it, but I’m getting into micarta and epoxy craft bullshit.

Isn’t that one of the things that require vacuuming?

[Anonymous No.1455306]

>>1455278
>Isn’t that one of the things that require vacuuming?
Not him, but usually. $60 HF vacuum pump and a $15 clear plastic cigar humidor cylinder and maybe $10 in fittings works. Pentacryl wood stabilizer works well but ain't cheap. Really good if you want to use birch or purpleheart in a project.

Bonus: if you dye the stabilizer, you can completely dye a piece of wood in no time.

[Anonymous No.1455368]

>>1455278
Yeah, most people use some kind of pressure cylinder, pop in some stabiliser, evacuate the pressure and leave it to juice away for a while. Most also require some kind of cooking in an oven to finish the process.
Have a look at stuff like Cactus Juice and there's a few decent youtube vids on it.

I guess the good thing for us is that the wood is effectively 'plasticised' and makes it impervious to water, warping and generally fucking tough all round. But it can also make it heavier so its something to consider when it comes to balance.

[Anonymous No.1455401]

>>1455245
would order if you were a eurofag,
i like to combine woods too but you master it with precission

[Anonymous No.1455515]

>>1451873
Color your edge with a black sharpie. If the black ink goes away, your getting the edge, if it stays then you're not.
I bought a cheap knives to practice with. Bunch of kiwis and a couple random Walmart kitchen knives. It doesn't take long to get pretty good at it.

[Anonymous No.1455547]

hello fellas, anyone can help me reassemble my knife?

[Anonymous No.1455554]

>>1455547
well put it together in the opposite way you took it apart

>you forgot which was te way you did it
>you have to try
or what is the actual problem?

[Anonymous No.1455557]

>>1455547
That is one ugly knife. You seem to be missing parts like stand offs or back spacers.

Watch videos on assembling button lock

[Anonymous No.1455558]

What do you guys use for a forge? Ive been thinking about trying my hand at knife making, and am in the process of sourcing some train track for a small makeshift anvil, but haven't decided on what i want to do for a forge. Since it's mainly for knife making it doesn't need to be big, so I was thinking about one of those firebrick ones that use gas burners for the flames.

[Anonymous No.1455586]

>>1455558
But I'm a richfag.
I've never seen it get metal white hot but it works for what I use it for so far. Planning on getting a larger charcoal forge in the future.

[Anonymous No.1455592]

>>1455558
Search atlas forge if in the us

[Anonymous No.1455634]

>>1455592
Dual burner for $100 cheaper: https://www.majesticforge.com/2-Burner-Knifemaker-Economy.html

[Anonymous No.1455654]

>>1455558
If you do get a propane forge btw make sure you just dive in and buy a big ass blue rhino tank to hook up to it. The smaller torch canisters and camp canisters not last a few hours tops and don't don't have the gas output that you'll get with a big ol tank and a thick gas hose.
When I used a camp can at first I could hardly make even fairly thin metal dull orange. Switched to a big tank and it created this flame tornado in the forge that still doesn't get white hot but does make it glow pretty well.

[Anonymous No.1455890]

>>1452212
Holy fuck man. Saved though, going in my gore folder.

[Anonymous No.1455895]

>>1453795
Beautiful, I've always liked the crude look.

[Anonymous No.1455902]

>>1455558
This is what I used as my first forge. Doesn’t have to be expensive. Just a place for fire and some extra air.

[Anonymous No.1455934]

Cut and ground a blade today. Decided I want to try an exposed rat tail mushroomed/peened/whatever you call it out of the rear bolster.

I cut it using my 18 x 100 mm template but I think I'm going to grind it to 16 x 95 mm before I heat treat it tomorrow. (I grind the Scandi in after tempering.)

Still thinking of handle shape, probably a guardless "oval" utility puukko shape.

[Anonymous No.1455996]

>>1455934
I have nothing to contribute but I am interested in seeing how this progresses so please update as you are able.

[Anonymous No.1456001]

>>1455996
I thank you for your interest. The few knives I have sold have all been to friends and I haven't even started a website yet. I'm worried people are just buying them out of sympathy (I'm the loser in my few and far between friends groups), so seeing interest on /diy/ gives me hope I'm not fooling myself into thinking I can actually do this.

All of me hopes people will find my designs attractive, but the fatalist in me assumes I build and sell to a few to friends trying to help me because they feel sorry for me and that will be the end of it. I fear I'll be back to Less Than Zero soon enough.

When you have nothing, even the volition of a complete stranger being curious of your works means more than you could possibly understand is the world. Again, Thank You.

[Anonymous No.1456003]

>>1456001
I identify identify with your feelings. When I make something I feel happy and proud of it for about .3 seconds. When I string a selfbow for the first time I step back and get that rush of "this is awesome, good job" that immediately turns to "no one is going to buy this, you have no where to shoot it, it's going to break like that other one". And then even if someone does say it's cool I immediately think of a reason why that persons opinion is invalid: "they have terrible taste, they have no idea what makes this cool, they can't see all the flaws in it like I can, this can't be awesome it was so easy to make".

[Anonymous No.1456158]

>>1453795
>but home in Germany these are technically banned outside of your house.

If you have a practical reason or cultural practice
you can carry every blade you want.

Eg if you're hunting fishing or you're a farmer you could carry a machete on your back while walking through the woods,

more interesting is that hiking is a valid reason so if you're on a hike you can legally carry a fixed bladed knife in a sheath on your belt.

>the only NOT valid reason stated in law is Self defense.
which is of-course because otherwise every hooligan could carry a knife and call self defense as reason.

[Anonymous No.1456170]

>>1456158
I carry a knife in my bag for self defense reasons. Doesn't mean I'm a hooligan.

[Anonymous No.1456251]

>>1451757
All my son does is sit with his face glued to his phone and post memes on Facebook. Your dad must be very proud to use that knife, anon.

[Anonymous No.1456296]

>>1456001
>>1456003

At the beginning these thoughts are reasonable. It takes some time to learn how to make a knife , that is nice enough to be sold. But if you don't give up fast and you enjoy doing this and improving your skills , in some time your knives will be really really good. And if you don't have a belt grinder and cant afford to buy one , search on the internet and make one yourself as soon as possible. It will change everything.

good luck

[Anonymous No.1456856]

>>1455934
nice to see i am not the only one who files in the tang for more grip

[Anonymous No.1457473]

First handled knife i made. Used to making spike knives or just throwing the towel on the project after making the blade.

[Anonymous No.1457609]

>>1457473
It has character.
I've learned from selling spike knives recently that people really dig that unfinished look. In my case that's easy to do when you literally don't know how to make something not look unfinished.

[Anonymous No.1457666]

>>1457609
"Rustic, artisanal, GMO-free knives."

[Anonymous No.1457677]

>>1456856
Twas a tip I learned from a puukko master in Finland. The long piece at the end was so I could make a mushroomed tang (my first).

I went very traditional on this puukko shape. I should have made it a little shorter (5 mm or so) this has been my most complex build yet.

Hard to tell in the photo but the belly is narrower than the top in a rounded V so it's not nearly as cylinderish as the pic makes it look. I really need a better camera.

[Anonymous No.1457703]

>>1450253
Do the just not have masks in china?

[Anonymous No.1457728]

>>1457677
What are you doing to make those copper? flats into what now exists on the top and bottom of the knife

[Anonymous No.1457733]

>>1457728
It's a Finnish-American diaspora thing. The Finns came to America to chop wood and mine copper. My ancestors mined copper for generations here so I use chunks of copper for the bolsters to remember them.

[Anonymous No.1457735]

>>1457733
That's lovely. I was asking how you turn the chunk into those caps.

[Anonymous No.1457737]

>>1457735
Plumbing pipe and a few pieces of bus bar scraps I buy at the scrap yard. I anvil them flat after annealing with a torch.

[Anonymous No.1457780]

>>1457609
I can't stand the "forged finish" look so I grind it all off. It makes my knives look like they've been done by stock removal, but whatever.

>>1457677
That's really nice handle work anon

[Anonymous No.1457820]

>>1457703
Workers paradise mate, BYO PPE or chose not to use it at all
>just kidding, they're completely expendable meat bags

>>1457780
Probably because if you make kitchen knives a lot (like me) and stuff like forge scale is basically a bacteria hive and risk of bits of scale flaking off into food.
Not that anyone's really gunna die from it or its even much of a real risk, but the kind of sanitary standards they tend to have in some places it might be a no-no, though its not my idea of a fun time trying to get people with knives, high blood pressure and too much hostility to anything living... to give up their favourite chopper. That's HR's problem!
I'll very rarely put a hammer finish in on a blade but its pretty uncommon unless I've had some major fuck up and have to make like I totally did it as part of the design.

Anyway, finally got around to finishing off #2 of the A2 tool steel chef's knives I was working on, had these bookmatched slices of Budgeroo (its in the myrtle family- Queensland) which was rare as hell to find with a nice grain. So figured the Saya and handles would be about enough to use it and it was a bit of a squeeze and some fudging to get get it to fit, but by god its a pretty timber. Just a couple of coats of gunstock oil and a waz polish seemed to bring it up nicely.
The A2 has a 304SS spine and fittings, hardened to about 61-62HRC with a double temper, also has some cold bluing and faded with polishing along the edge. Noticed a couple of tiny, fine scratches so I guess I know what I'd doing tomorrow with the 1200grit and some more polishing.

[Anonymous No.1457854]

>>1457473
Whose gonna feed them hogs?

[Anonymous No.1457855]

>>1457473
well this is like a very rough knife i would grinde a finer more plane finish on it , just for rust conserns this is clearly more of a workking knife than a food knife, i blackened my working knife to prevent rust

[Anonymous No.1457856]

>>1456158
i got always a greatsword in my cars back, like you always could need it, and for a free german i see it as cultural practice.

[Anonymous No.1457858]

>>1456158
also in effect mostly criminal migrants and such carry knifes with them and regularly massacre people now .
knife control is bollocks

[Anonymous No.1457860]

>>1457677
oh damn i need now to make a pukko too!, and yes mushrooming is kind of a art itself , i love to make it , i jsut did a few knifes this way but i am amazed to make a knife without any glue, i mean i imagine if i could make a knife without modern tools and such btw wihtout industrial support like sanding papers, and chemical glues and such

[Anonymous No.1457862]

>>1457733
this is beautiful :)

[Anonymous No.1457870]

>>1457858
>and regularly massacre people

I take it you'll also never forget Bowling Green?

Honestly, it helps to have a basis in reality before you start talking.

there have been 4 massacres in Germany in the last 10 years where people were killed. None used knives.
One was a mafia gang war, One was a school shooting perpetuated by a 17-year old german national (of german ancestry too.), one was a shooting by an 18-year old secular german national (of iranian ancestry) who targeted immigrants. and one was an Islamist truck ramming. None used knives.

Where there have been knife attacks, no-one's been killed in them.

Now fuckoff to /pol/ with that shit.

[Anonymous No.1457874]

>>1457820
Why keyhole if not integral?

[Anonymous No.1457931]

>>1449701
Or you could find a welder at a local coworking. Turns out they're fucking everywhere.

[Anonymous No.1457960]

>>1449701
Treadmill engines are usually open and will go to shit with the grinding dust.

[Anonymous No.1457977]

I'm not a poor fag but more of a cheap fag. Is an old style grinding heel (think skyrim/medieval style) any good at doing a good job or is it better to get modern electic.
There is one on a farm near me that I might be allowed to use

[Anonymous No.1458034]

>>1457977
It's pretty good, you could even just use handfiles or waterstones.

[Anonymous No.1458036]

>>1457977
it'll do the job, but they're slow, you cant switch grits, most ones you'll find arent particularly ergonomic.

belt sanders are used by 99% of professionals for a reason - they're convenient.

[Anonymous No.1458037]

>>1457977
Look up Gough filing jigs
Never tried one but they seem to be the standard suggestion for "I don't want to buy a grinder but still want to make nice knives"

[Anonymous No.1458121]

>>1457870
>don't understanding figurative speech
believe me we got a lot more killings now,
and yeah this is pol so don't start with all of this in general

[Anonymous No.1458125]

knife is starting to take form

[Anonymous No.1458209]

I sold another spike and the last two in the display case at the store are getting rusty. I'm going to take a shot at cleaning them up and doing the apple cider vinegar soak to patina/rust protect them.
Question though. Is it essential to heat the vinegar first? I don't have a decent way to heat it at the shop and I don't wanna do it at home due to smell.

[Anonymous No.1458227]

>>1457677

Hey , I see you like to make puukkos. Let me share with you something that I found recently. The proportions of the tommi puukko are like this: The profile of the blade is a wedge - the edge and the spine are not paralel but at angle. The profile of the handle is like a barrel , but if you devide the barrel to 6 parts and remove the last one. The first 3/5 of the handle folow the lines of the blade profile (slightly wider , so you can grind the guard without touching the blade) and the handle's widest point is at 3/5 (the long red crossline) after that it starts to taper to the end at 5/5 where the width is equel to the 1/5 (1/5 and 5/5 are the blue lines ).

I don't know if I managed to explain good . If you want try this shape and see how you like it.

[Anonymous No.1458240]

>>1458227
Clear enough, kittos.

[Anonymous No.1458284]

>>1457874
I mostly use a lot of mitre joints between bolsters and scales, (instead of using pins through the timber). It works fine but I was just sick of doing them and needed a bit of a change, do something a bit more sculptural-mechanical in appearance and still hold the scale down.

>>1457677
Was thinking the other day, if you like gluing fiddly little bits of wood you could try something like the pool/billiard cues where you splice the timbers together with multiple layers

[Anonymous No.1458286]

>>1458284
Waiting on a lathe to do that. I have some work to do on a friend's house are she has a NIB wood lather (Shop Fox) she's going to trade me for labor.

Another friend gave be a shit ton of exotic wood cut off (he makes instruments) like bloodwood, cocobolo, African Blackwood, and some others that are now on CITES and can't be found anywhere.

[Anonymous No.1458290]

>>1458286
Luthiers are great for fancy and exotic woods, they typically cost a bit more but found the timber's usually premium grade and well dimensioned
Bloodwood is really nice, like Purpleheart its a bit hard and will tend to split if you're not careful

[Anonymous No.1458379]

>>1453795
This is not just a Africa thing. I'm an old fart and I recall knives and farm tools made/reinforced in similar fashion with wire, by my grandfather in Europe.

[Anonymous No.1458380]

getting there

[Anonymous No.1458388]

>>1458380
Looking nice.

Life got in the way and I only had time today to sand to 600 and hit the wood with Danish oil. Really brought out the curly in the maple.

[Anonymous No.1458700]

anyone have a good tutorial on how to do scandi grinds? I keep messing them up

[Anonymous No.1458747]

>>1451781
>>1451969
waste of an anvil

[Anonymous No.1458760]

>>1458747
I'm sorry you can't afford an anvil.

[Anonymous No.1458762]

>>1458760
well i can understand him bc the knifes are realy bad for having acess to a realy clear gut anwil my anvil is basicly scrap and overduw no sharp edged anymore and it isn't even flat anymore but well i at least grind my knifes into form

[Anonymous No.1458767]

>>1458762
Buy an anvil then. It's not like they aren't available.

[Anonymous No.1458770]

>>1458767
1. i am a different dude.
2. i have one and do fine like i told you
3. the guy who made though sharp knifelike things may be considering using his anvil more fully to its potential .

i do not want to turn you down but, the thing sis that you should not just beat on the metal and look what happens. you need to roughly plan the knife then make it, this will overtime improve the quality excessivly
.

[Anonymous No.1458771]

>>1458770
When you said your anvil was basically scrap I thought you meant literally. Like those guys that use car parts as anvils.

[Anonymous No.1458773]

>>1458771
my workshop looks like a small scale scrapyard but my anvil is legit.
i abused it propperly when i started as i teached most of m y stuff to myself by watching videos and then trial and error

[Anonymous No.1458776]

I've got everything else set up except the forge and it's becoming a massive pain in the ass.
I used basically mud (adobe clay) from the yard because I heard that Plaster of Paris has worse heat retention, and a piece of scrap metal from an old fire pit table.
It'll work fine, it cracks here and there but it's nothing too crazy.
My table frame for it is just a little wide and I haven't got pieces to adapt it yet, so for now it'll be on the ground pretty much.
The blower is what I'm having trouble with right now, I got one of those exhaust fans and a controller plug for it and it seems like it'll work fine, until I try and funnel the air into a 1" tube (to attach to the hole in my forge), at that point the fan itself slows down too much due to air blockage and I don't know what to do to fix it.

I've been wanting to do this and learning, going to meets and taking classes and reading up for like two years now, and I'm only now just finishing up my own set up (even if it's poor as hell), and I just want this shit to work for once on the first try.

[Anonymous No.1458779]

>>1458776
better try to make a simple bellow i know a guy who just buld himself one and it works while i would suggest using a 2 chamber bellow

pic related is my forge and old fieldforge used to fit horseshoes to the hooves

[Anonymous No.1458781]

>>1458773
Still nice. Mines much smaller and I bought it just to make jewelry, spikes knives were an afterthought for fun.

[Anonymous No.1458786]

>>1458781
got it thorugh a freind of my grandpa , they were both well construction workers etc, adn the guy was electricians and german electricians will steal everything not bolted to the grounds and then the bolts , which includes entire blacksmith shops as long as it fits somehow into the car, and well then he did use it as a grill for food and at somepoint he heard i started knifemaking and he gifted it to me

[Anonymous No.1458788]

>>1458779
bellows are a pain in the ass to use.

[Anonymous No.1458789]

>>1458788
realy? i used a historical one with a charcual fie and it worked ok

[Anonymous No.1458791]

>>1458789
how big is it?
I don't actually see a bellows, pic related, in your forge photo. At least I don't call that a bellows, I call it a forge blower.

[Anonymous No.1458792]

>>1458791
was at a historical event, was a larger one, 1,40 or longer, with an internal second champer, you just needed to open it and put soem weight on top and it would blow cinsitently for a minute or longer, i also had one guy helping because it was only for days, if it was for longe ri would have built a frame so i could pull it up myself

[Anonymous No.1458794]

>>1458792
That's too much work to justify building at this stage.

[Anonymous No.1458797]

>>1458792
1,40 meters
or even 1,60 idk anymore, this was trial
most work was actualy sewing the leather parts and nailing it to frame

[Anonymous No.1458799]

>>1458797
when i look at the pic it might have ben just 60 cm,
it has been a while since then,
>>1458794
i think a 60-80 one does it , on the pic is probably 1,60 with the handle

[Anonymous No.1458955]

Quick Q:
I've seen Trollsky on YouTube. From what I see, he doesn't forge his own blades, but cuts down slabs into great looking bushcraft style knives. Thoughts on the Polish Mr. T?

[Anonymous No.1459143]

>>1458955
that's called stock removal.
Smithing is better.

[Anonymous No.1459184]

>>1459143
What makes it better?

>Buh buh but muh folded steel

[Anonymous No.1459199]

literally don't own a knife if you're not prepared to stab yourself in the hand marine-style

[Anonymous No.1459293]

>>1459184
actualy no the folding but the steel gets a little bit compressed and strengthened at the weakpoints, there are modern steel which basicly do nto need this extra strength, also some extreme amchine parts and so stillg et forged and i think there are only 3 realy large forges in the world that can forge things like giant turbineparts for dam electrical plants, and such forgin is still an important thing

[Anonymous No.1459332]

>>1459293
>no the folding but the steel gets a little bit compressed and strengthened at the weakpoints,

no, it doesnt. that is utter fuddlore bullshit, like "edge packing".

If you can compress steel at a molecular level, I'm never shaking your hand, because you're superhuman. It is physically impossible to compress steel with anything short of 100,000psi hydraulic press/rollers.

You can move steel, but it isnt compressed in the process.

[Anonymous No.1459363]

The basis of the forged>stock removal thing is grain alignment
It might have some truth to it, particularly with lower quality, non uniform materials and poor heat treatments, but will never amount to much and is basically a complete non-factor with modern steels.

The big advantages to forging are that there are just things you can do with heat and a hammer that you can't with a grinder, mostly with regards to fancier stuff like getting patterns to follow the profile of the blade when using damascus. You can buy a Damascus billet and grind a knife out of it, but it won't have the contouring and attractive lines a forged damascus knife can.

Performance wise though a stock removal knife will be just as good in basically every case.

[Anonymous No.1459396]

>>1459363
People also have to remember stuff like precision ground flat stock just wasn't a thing until about 40-50 years ago, back in the old timey days you went to your steel merchant and picked up a lump of high carbon steel, 53100, O1 or W1 in whatever the hell shape they had it in- be it a round bar, block, ballbearing or essentially any shape that that wasn't a knife.
From a practical side of things, you 'could' grind something out of a huge 2" thick round bar, but unless you had a 500lb grinding wheel (belt linishers where not common outside of fabrication shops) then it was just easier to beat the fucking thing into a knife shape with a hammer and fire. If you go back even further than that into the 19th century or even earlier, most places would have given you either an ingot or raw block of spongy, full of slag piece of shit and that required a fair bit of man handling and beating just to get a relatively 'decent' blade out of.

Chances are, it was also very expensive so pattern welding was done to 'bulk' up the amount of material so you had some lower carbon steel, iron and higher carbon steel hopefully on the edge. That kind of stuff persisted all through most of the non-industrialised world simply because its all they had to work with, meanwhile back in the industrialised world we had massive casualties of craftsmen and metal workers in WW1. Then killed off their apprentices in WW2 so there wasn't a large skillset remaining that could teach anyone and ever since we've had a real struggle trying to figure out how to work metals and rediscovering it all over again.
But- we do have science to fill the gaps. Modern tool steels are marvels of industrial manufacturing, info technology and ease of engineering. Everything is documented, consistent and chances are you can get it in something much easier to work + just all round 'better' if you have the tools and machines to bring the most out of it.

[Anonymous No.1459403]

>>1459396
not entirely true, germany had more trained workers after the war than before, which was due to the fact that the nazis tried to prop up war gear production in a very very inefficient manner and it was basicly produced in dozens of companys and sometimes even more, with multi purpose tools instead like the allies who used propper production lines, and i base this on a book about a possible european economy after ww2 if germany one, (a history book no fucking nazi ufo stuff) and what the nazis actualy had planed

but i guess the trained workers were more probably trained for things like machining and wielding not forging

[Anonymous No.1459412]

>>1459403
Farriers existed in some numbers for a while and still do, but they're not quite the same animal as someone like a sword smith or cutler who has to know things about edge geometry, normalisation cycles, hardening, tempering etc. They work milder steels and spend their days trying not to be maimed by bad tempered livestock.

That sort of technical knowledge moved out of the artisan and craftsman 'super secret club' and into commercial industrialisation where it was documented, standardised and the material tech was developed further into industrial processing. Essentially a 10lb block of crucible steel made with supersecret old timey knowledge and has to be beaten into shape by half starved striker monkeys, doesn't really have much of a place when you're making mass produced hardened machine tools, tank chassis or 2 tonne artillery barrels.
Even really bespoke stuff like sword blades where mostly mass produced for many years since the invention of the water wheel, they where hand made and finished but for the most part they followed a production line of smithys, who handed it off to the heat treaters, then the grinder monkeys, then off to the handle maker and so on until it ended up being sharpened by someone that did that for a full time job. Gun barrels where also a very dedicated, hand made art almost into the 20th century, they lingered on for a while longer but mostly it ended up a mass production as well with machine tools.

[Anonymous No.1459442]

Not exactly a knife, but a few hour build of a leather creaser for my sheaths. Just a chunk of a broken file (the tang), some macassar ebony and a bit of copper pipe.

I was about to hit "Place Order" for one on Amazon ($10) when I realized I am more retarded than I thought.

Also didn't use a lathe for the handle but the ebony was already turned when I got it.

[Anonymous No.1459632]

>>1458794
Built this sumbitch in about two days out of scrap materials. If I worked continuously and didn't wing the entire thing it would have been much quicker. Rude and crude,but it gets the job done. I had no experience whatsoever with upholstery, turns out it's easy to do something of this level. I've used it several times, only problem I had was sucking flames back through the tuyer(?). Turns out that was from accidentally hot glueing the vavle closed. Wasn't all the way though so it still worked, just not great and with flame sucking features added.

[Anonymous No.1459948]

>>1459632
what'd you use as the fabric?

[Anonymous No.1460010]

>>1459632
Did you follow any schematics or was it all just eyeballed?
Any details I should know about before trying to build one?

[Anonymous No.1460017]

>>1460010

[Anonymous No.1460083]

>>1459948
The fabric is an old cheapo airbed I cut up.

>>1460010
Kind of, I made a pattern for the top and bottom. I followed a diagram of a simple bellows. By that I looked at it enough to get the idea of how she worked and winged the rest. One thing you definitely want to do is make sure the fabric is long enough to completely cover the back.

>>1460010
This is a double chamber bellows, much nicer but way more into it.

[Anonymous No.1460123]

>>1460083
>This is a double chamber bellows, much nicer but way more into it.
Was meant for
>>1460017

[Anonymous No.1460855]

>>1458779
>>1458789
>>1458791
>>1458792
>>1458797
>>1459632
>>1460017
Paint is warmed up

[Anonymous No.1460865]

>>1460855
wooden double acting cylinder
some sort of ancient Asian design

[Anonymous No.1461162]

>>1460855
>>1460865
this is assuming you have two drums laying around or want to take the time to experiment with a less common design.

[Anonymous No.1461659]

>>1460865
interesting idea

[Anonymous No.1461664]

>>1461162
I might try the second one with some large PVC pipe I have laying around.

[Anonymous No.1461690]

I really don't want to ship this out to the customer... it's too nice.

I guess i need to eat though.

[Anonymous No.1461691]

>>1461690
God damn. I love the finish on that blade.

[Anonymous No.1461703]

>>1461690
yes it's realy a beauty, magnificient work, i wish i would work this clean

[Anonymous No.1461710]

>>1461690

pretty cool indeed , but give us some more info like :

thickness
steel
is it chisel grind
is there a distal taper

[Anonymous No.1461918]

I know this is a knifemaker thread, but I trust no one will get butthurt about this. This is the start of my first sword, any thoughts or advice?

[Anonymous No.1461922]

>>1461918
Making a military saber?

[Anonymous No.1462026]

>>1461918
you're so early in the process that it's too hard to give an opinion. like taking a photo of sliced bread and asking how your sandwich is coming along lol
have you started beveling?

>>1461922
that would be my guess, judging by dem curves

[Anonymous No.1462036]

>>1461703
>>1461691
>>1461710
cheers
it's something like 3.8mm at the heel. absolutely tapered like a mofo

[Anonymous No.1462038]

>>1462036
How do you do that?

[Anonymous No.1462039]

>>1462036
sex

[Anonymous No.1462043]

>>1462036
stabilized rosewood burl
copper spacer
black g10 ferrule
w2 steel, differentially hardened

i wont polish out the hamon, it looks like shit compared to the rest of the knife. it's there though, and in the right spot thank goodness

[Anonymous No.1462046]

>>1462039
thanks man

>>1462038
some of it is forged in, but most of it is done on the grinder

more detail in the g10. this shit is like carbon fiber, but cheaper lol

[Anonymous No.1462067]

>>1456251

Well he lost the first one I made him, but he seems to like it so far.

Don't, worry. I was the same way years ago when I was underage b& on /b/. He might grow out of it eventually.

[Anonymous No.1462070]

>>1456251
>>1462067
Separate guy here. But I've gotta tell you, if I didn't piss away so much time on the internet I don't think I would have ever realized what an amazing tool computers are for gaining knowledge.
Overspending my time actually ended up teaching me a lot.

Make sure to encourage but not over-encourage any good hobbies your son may choose, >>1456251

[Anonymous No.1462080]

>>1462043

Good job , it will fly through meat and fish . I want to make something similar , but with symmetrical grind and 2.5 or 3 mm spine and a bit more width.

[Anonymous No.1462091]

>>1462080
Thanks.

Actually I forgot to say, it's an asymmetrical 70/30 right hand grind.
It kinda looks like a chisel grind in an earlier picture but it isn't.

More width is good, this one feels a little short but that's what the customer asked for.

You say a 2.5 to 3 mm spine, but have you tried one before? It's not nice to hold, makes it feel like a cheap knife. You can still put a thin grind on a thicker knife, it just sends the bevel further up the blade-face towards the spine.

[Anonymous No.1462094]

>>1462091
>>1462080
You can also try a double convex grind if you want a thinner grind. This one turned out good, blasts through food like crazy.

[Anonymous No.1462118]

>>1462094
>You can also try a double convex grind if you want a thinner grind.

i mean double concave, of course...

[Anonymous No.1462124]

>>1462091
>>1462094

Yes I have made some out of 2.5 thick stock and bevel height almost to the spine. I even heared about guys using 2.2mm and bevels to the spine . I know that it will not be an easy job to grind and heat treat it perfectly straight but I just want to try it and see how it works .

How did you made the concave grind ? It looks like reali big radius for a wheel. Maybe radius platten? I made one with 90 cm radius , but it's not very smooth and flat , so it leaves uneven finish.

[Anonymous No.1462128]

>>1462124
Actually I looked at the prices of the radius platens and thought it was a ripoff.
I took some mild steel bar, put a slight bend into it and forged the end into a hook so I can hang it between the flat platen and the belt.
it works like a charm, and I if I want to change the radius in any way, I can take it over to the anvil and hammer it into a different shape - it's freaking awesome

You made your platen? looks much fancier than mine

I work professionally as a chef and thin spines are super uncomfortable to use over long periods. They also make the knife feel like a kiwi knife, so I try to avoid them at all costs.

[Anonymous No.1462138]

>>1462043
>>1462046
absolutely fucking beautiful man, you got any social media or a website i can follow you? love your stuff.

[Anonymous No.1462139]

>>1462138
Thanks dude. The only thing I have is instagram, @kippingtonblades
I hardly use social media, i uploaded these pictures to 4chan before my own instagram lol

I'm terrible at marketing my stuff, i dont even have a makers mark

[Anonymous No.1462143]

>>1462139
also a question, do you use stock removal or forging? and doyou have any reason for your choice?

[Anonymous No.1462147]

>>1462143
I forge all of my knives because when i started out, i was told it was better for the quality of the steel

After learning more, I now think that's total bullshit. Stock removal guys cop too much flack from the community, there's nothing wrong with it, but i still forge my knives because it saves me from wasting steel and it's the method i have the most experience in using. Doing it this way is much slower though.

[Anonymous No.1462148]

>>1462128

No it's not my platten. I just don't have picture at the moment. Even if I want to buy one i can't ,because I live in Bulgaria and shipping will double the price. Maybe I should try to make another one or go to the guys that make tombstones to cut me a piece of granite with a curve.

Does your radius platten makes alot of friction and is there a problem with the starting of the motor? I was afraid that if I use mine long time it will overheat the motor.

What do you think about cutting hard vegetables like carrots with a thicker blade? And do you use carbon steel knives at work? Are they hard to maintain ? What happens when you cut onions and acidic fruits or vegies? I realy like carbon steel blades , but never used one in the kitchen. I plan to make one for myself soon.

[Anonymous No.1462151]

>>1462148
It does put a bit more stress on the motor, but I have a powerful grinder (2HP) so it doesn't make a difference for me.

Carbon steel takes a bit of getting used to in the kitchen. It can really suck sometimes - it's definitely not for everybody - but most of the time it feels the same as using a stainless knife, only you have to wipe the knife down more often and not forget it and leave it somewhere wet. They are harder to look after in the short term but easier to maintain in the long term.

Definitely do *not* get one if your kitchen knife skills are low. If you take too long to do one thing like cutting an onion it's going to suck really bad.

As for hard vegetables, a thin grind is best. You can get a thin grind on a thicker knife (like the double concave one above), but it means the knife will be taller measuring from the heel to spine. Keep the knife really thin behind the edge and you should be sweet.

[Anonymous No.1462158]

>>1462148
Oh and another thing, Even though my knives are thicker at the heel, they always have some kind of distal taper to help move through food easier as you head towards the tip... and it helps with balance too.

If there was one thing I didn't like about stock removal makers, having no distal taper on their knives would be it.

[Anonymous No.1462159]

>>1462151

thanks for the answers. I think i'll be able to manage the carbon steel blade. Keep showing your stuff here .

Cheers

[Anonymous No.1462161]

>>1462158

distal taper can be done on a grinder too, but it eats more time and belts

[Anonymous No.1462168]

>>1462161
on something the size of a kitchen knife, grinding in distal taper can be done in 15 mins, with little effort.

Try grinding the distal taper on a messer or falchion 3 times the length, twice as wide, and which goes from 8mm thick to 3mm, and you'll know what pain is. Those take a lot of work.

[Anonymous No.1462171]

>>1462161
Yeah my bad, I meant they have a tendency to not do it. I know there are stock removalists out there that grind in a taper, but the majority don't seem to care.

[Anonymous No.1462184]

>>1462159
No problem man, will do

[Anonymous No.1463057]

>>1462026
Yee

[Anonymous No.1463135]

>>1462043
>stabilized rosewood burl
Damn, that's a scarce bit of wood, really turned out pretty fucking sweet too.

>>1462091
Yeah if you get into the real nuts and guts of some of the japanese kitchen and speciality processing knives there's some really whack geometry's on them here and there. A whiles back I sort of did a 'dirty white mans' take on a Kiritsuke and using a few examples/research found a high-chisel grind with a minor bevel cutting edge and hollowed out the 'flat' side. Whole mass was basically a 5mm thick stock of D6 and 304 with a really severe distal taper.
Actually fuck it, let me get a camera and brb

[Anonymous No.1463146]

>>1463135
Wasn't sure if I'd posted this.
Sort of a "reverse key-hole handle" as I wanted it something really unusual, but not quite Japanese Wa handle as I don't personally like using them- I think they're cool from an artistic and minimalist approach to knife handles though.
It ended up somewhere around 61-62HRC after 3x2hr tempers, the steel is a 2.2% ultra high carbon with 13% chromium and 0.8% tungsten... that was about as unpleasant as you can imagine trying to grind through, then add on a good 20% more suck and fuck my life value. You do get all kinds of weird ferro-crystal and carbide formations in it though and pack a lunch when you start sharpening.

I am a fairly rubbish knife sharpener though still managed to get it nasty sharp, then it stays sharp after cutting through a small mountain of cardboard and rope just to see how well it holds. I couldn't get it blunt before getting bored and saying 'fuck it' go do something more useful with my life. Aside from that, I mostly don't really make Jap knives aside from the odd kiridashi as no one really wants them here. Was thinking about making a chinese style chefs knife as the 'clever' style looks kind of neat

[Anonymous No.1463240]

>>1463146

Cool idea for the handle. Overal it looks nice , but I don't like the gaps between the wood and the bolster and between the bolster and the blade. Also what is the decoration near the spine - is it etched , or it's arc welded stainless?

[Anonymous No.1463246]

>>1463146
> be me 10 years ago
> first year apprentice chef, working in a fancy kitchen
> knife noobie, trying out different knife handles
> can never find a comfortable handle to use other than the ones with big plastic handles, e.g victorinox cooks knife
> try an oval wa handle - it sucks.
> octagonal wa handles look thin and uncomfortable
> guessing they feel like an oval so I don't really try them
> improve knife skills on big plastics over next 8 years
> learning to hold the knife more efficiently
> one day decide to spoil myself with a new expensive knife
> buy it with an octagonal wa-handle
> whatever, I'll get used to it
> try it
> holy shit this is good

You might think we kitchen knife people love using wa handles for some aesthetic reason, I have to say that I don't find them that attractive at all. Minimalistic? Sure, but we love them for how comfortable they are to use rather than their looks.
You gotta get some small things right though, they can be made wrong which makes them shit to hold.
And some people don't round the corners off, like picture related. Fuck off with that shit, it might look good but it's uncomfortable as hell to hold. People that do this don't work with a knife in their hand for hours.

[Anonymous No.1463247]

There are quite a lot of kitchen knife makers that don't understand working handles. For example in this video there's a well known knife maker - ABS Master Smith Murray Carter - using a kitchen knife. He's sort of fast, but he has no idea how to be fast and accurate at the same time. This lack of skill reflects in his uncomfortable handle styles... but that's my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Exy01C2VEA&t=58s

[Anonymous No.1463253]

>>1463246
Had some knives with contoured polyurethane handles. They were sweet. You could get them in any color. Mine looked like a hotrod flames paint job, but it wasn't paint it was just colors in the resins. someone stole them

[Anonymous No.1463262]

>>1463253
Is that a bowling ball cut into handle scales? thats a pretty cool idea lol
I tried cutting bits out of vinyl records to make PVC spacers. kinda worked, but doesn't take kindly to the polishing/buffing wheel.

[Anonymous No.1463264]

>>1463262
you can just mix resin and mold the handle, you don't have to cut a ball. i just posted the pic to reference how hard and cool urethane is.

[Anonymous No.1463269]

>>1463240
It was worth an experiment to figure out time/cost/weight and if it really added anything aside from a bit of a learning experience. It is a good, functional knife thought so I'm not overly unhappy with it aside from the cost of the timber and time. From a mechanical perspective you do need an extremely strong timber to support the tang-bolster insertion where its compression fit into it and that was quite tricky to figure out.
I run a bar of 304SS parallel to the tool steel, bit of a bevel between the surfaces, heat them up to 400-450C on a big block of metal with a propane torch, used a 309SS as the filler metal and then its a case of punching down the weld with a hammer, clearing it out, repeating until its all joined up and surface grinding flat- this is all done at temperature so its a bit scary. Billet then goes into the kiln at 650C for 2hrs and left to cool overnight to stress relieve and then the next day I'll cut it to shape and start on the bevels, then probably a 2nd stress relief cycle. Mostly it comes down to two reasons-
>3-series SS is cheap, tool steel isn't
>3-series SS is extremely corrosion resistant
So any moisture going down into the handle area isn't going to cause mischief 10-20-50 years down the track and rot out your knife where you can't see it. Same with bolsters, they're quite important to the structural strength and if someone really cranks on it, hunting bears, fighting ninjas etc, its a bit more stable. I do tend to put a layer of G10 between the bolster-knife for spacing as it just tends to be a better fit and its impermeable to water for all intents and purposes.

[Anonymous No.1463272]

>>1463246
Asian technique with kitchen knives is also a bit of a different way of doing things compared to European, lot of pinch grip and choking up on the front of the handle, the knife being parallel to the cutting surface underneath the food. They 'chop' down, slice a lot more. Western chefs where more likely to rock and slice with either a bolster pinch grip or sabre grip and tend to have to process a lot more starchy, root vegies and rip apart large amounts of meat.
I mean there's a lot more to it than that, but that's just my observations of 'how' it seems to be done across various schools of training, mostly I just throw a prototype at my nephew who's a chef and let him go hack away with it for a while and get back to me with what works, what doesn't and anything else that needs work.

Lot of the more serious 'pro' knives where a chef or cook will want come down to a couple of things, light weight, holds an edge and doesn't take too much to clean. Usually in that order, but some people prefer a bit heavier blade for some types of work, others want a very thin blade for flexibility and some just want something they can beat on like a rented mule, clean easily. Lot of the composite materials like G10, Micarta and the plastics are great for process workers as they take a fucking hell of a beating, don't weigh much and tend to sacrifice a bit of durability to keep the weight down so you're not getting strain injuries swinging it 8hrs a day.
Vast majority of the knives I sell are going to the more boutique consumer, home users and as a result I make a few compromises where I'll trade in a bit more weight, durability into the design and materials so they'll happily use it for years and never have a problem.

As a knife maker, the tool for the job is also part of the consumer as well. We mostly just look after the materials, geometry and comfort, how they use it, guess a little bit of that also comes down to the knife itself and its characteristics

[Anonymous No.1463274]

Finished her last week

[Anonymous No.1463282]

>>1463264
polyurethane handles, lifetime guarantee

[Anonymous No.1463291]

>>1463274

very nice , is this buffalo horn?

[Anonymous No.1463292]

>>1463274
awesome work

[Anonymous No.1463303]

>>1463272
It's quite interesting you call it the asian technique. I mean, sure it tends to be done with more of a japanese style knife, but many of us are using them to cook western cuisines.
We use this parallel cutting style because it's a faster, more efficient technique rather than it being based on any kind of cuisine or culture.

Rocking (image related) just feels too slow and takes too much effort for most jobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx1U-bja3i8

[Anonymous No.1463307]

>>1463303
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-Z7ggCJ6sM

[Anonymous No.1463309]

>>1463282
Is there a name for that sexy handle shape?

[Anonymous No.1463522]

>>1449565
What do you think anon?

[Anonymous No.1463597]

>>1463303
Yeah the edge geometry and balance of the blade tends to lend itself to those techniques, things like a gyuto and santoku have the chisel grind which will skew to the left (on a RH chisel grind) if left to follow the knifes inclinations and the balance bias is in the back 1/4 of the blade somewhere. Whereas the western knives tend to have a bolster balance bias and a neutral cutting direction with their symmetrical grind.
Then you're getting all the hybrids like Japanese knives with symmetrical grinds, western handles and everything else appearing from mass-production.
How, what and why really seems to mostly just come down to personal preferences and some people's initial training in the kitchen when they're apprentices, who taught them, what type of knives they used etc. I'm actually fairly sure a lot of people don't give too much thought to what they buy and use, as long as it works for them, they like how it looks and then all the other considerations like durability, weight, ease of cleaning, stain resistance and so on. Fashion also has a bit of a hand in the matter as well, they'll see peers using certain types of knives in the kitchen, cooking shows on tv where someone famous uses a particular knife type/brand/manufacturer and then get caught up on all sorts of technical numbers.
(which may or may not have an effect on performance... depending on how well they're spun by an ad-man to sell!)

Really the only people that seem to care are other knife makers :)
Most customers I speak to tend to want their knife to a certain size, a style, how much stain resist it has and how it looks. They'll also want documentation on who made it, when it was made, the materials used and some of the technical aspects of the geometry, hardness, size, how to sharpen, clean and other stuff. Which ultimately the end-customer is the only one that matters who's happy with it

>Just my observations on what people buy and why

[Anonymous No.1463779]

>>1455245
looks really sick
what are you using to do the black marks on the wood? Haven't made any myself so this is probably really obvious

[Anonymous No.1463957]

>>1463779
I'm using black leather for the spacer material. I'm fond of the look, personally, but I've been getting requests for colors, so I intend to make a few with G10 on vulcanized fiber soon.

[Anonymous No.1464248]

What is it like having a really gay hobby?

[Anonymous No.1464251]

>>1452240
Why is there a deers asshole in this photo.

[Anonymous No.1464329]

>>1464248
>Making weapons is gay

Liberal detected

[Anonymous No.1465004]

[Anonymous No.1465610]

Anyone use Pentacryl for wood stabilizing? Much cheaper than cactus juice but it's brown and I wonder if it discolors the wood.

>>1465004
Looks good. Like the handle color and th snake skin sheath. Are you going to flatten that front pin?

[Anonymous No.1465996]

>>1463522
not op, but to be blunt, thats a kind of ugly that only a mother would love

[Anonymous No.1466241]

Anyone have any good websites to buy materials? Or even a place to get a fairly priced anvil, it seems that everyone has anvils priced through the roof.

[Anonymous No.1466252]

>>1466241
Anvils are fucking expensive
Your best bet is get very lucky at an estate sale or some kindly old guy on a farm who is happy to let it go for peanuts if you come pick it up

[Anonymous No.1466255]

>>1466252
damn that's what I was thinking...maybe its time for a trip to the countryside then, unless I get lucky at a flea market or something.

[Anonymous No.1466341]

>>1466255
The thing is, once you get used to a good anvil you'll start to see why they're worth so much. Every other work surface starts to feel like a rickety old bedside table in comparison to a quality anvil and stand

[Anonymous No.1466676]

small skeleton edc , 70mm blade 85mm handle. Not the most comfortable handle in the world , but i wantet something lightweight and simple that i can put horizontaly on my belt and I'll not care if someone damages it . The shape is of tommi puukko .

[Anonymous No.1466704]

>>1449565

I have a couple questions for you guys if you don't mind.
So, I got this long ass 5*30mm steel bar and some beech left over from my last project, and I thought what the hell, why not make a knife or two out of it?
What is the likelihood the steel has a high enough carbon content to be properly hardened? How do i find out? I bought it in Hornbach and they provide fuck all info about it except "construction steel."
Will a couple of firebricks and a MAP torch work for heat treatment? How long does it need to stay hot before quenching?

[Anonymous No.1466709]

>>1466704

>>1466704

Construction steel is not hardenable. Don't use this piece for a blade. You can buy a piece of high carbon steel for cheap and make a proper knife out of it. Just look for some knifemaking store in your country and order 80crv2 or something similar. You can also look for local knifemaking forum and check the "for sale" section

[Anonymous No.1466722]

>>1466709
Oh. Thanks, that sucks.
The only knife making sites sell billets for one knife for like 12 eur.
Could I just buy old leaf springs as scrap and try making a knife out of that?

[Anonymous No.1466724]

>>1466722
You can get some hidden tang knife blanks from Laurin Metalli in Kauhava, Suomi for about 3-5 Euro each.

[Anonymous No.1466737]

>>1466704
Structural steels are about 0.2-0.3% carbon and typically have other additives like manganese to help alloy, get rid of sulphides, toughen and enhance their hot workability, welding capability.
In terms of 'hardening', yes they can technically be hardened by sticking it in a kiln at about 950C for 2hrs, then water or air quenching... but the gain in terms of a hardness factor isn't exactly huge and not exactly enough to make even a 'bad' knife- you might scavenge it up to about high 30's-40HRC, but most western swords are around 45-50HRC and a 'good' knife is somewhere around the 55-62HRC mark. This drastically affects its edge holding capability over time, you can basically sharpen anything, but how long it stays sharp still mostly comes down to how hard it is.
There's a few other things which affect it- but we're starting at the real basics!

The main reason is carbon, or a lack thereof.
During a cycle of reaching critical temps and then stopping it during the quench, you're locking materials into a state forming Carbides, a mix of Carbon atoms being donated into the base metal's structure, which in this case is mostly iron. From there, frozen into the metals crystalline structure at the quench, you've now got a piece of metal that has been altered enough to have some percent of carbides in its makeup, the more carbon you have in the steel (the % talked about earlier), the more carbon can be donated to the metal= more carbides on the cutting surface and all's good in the knife world.
Course there's a lot more to it than that (I'm not writing a materials thesis here), but its basically why a higher percentage of carbon is good for knife blades... up to a point, after that it gets very brittle and we get into Tempering, which is a whole other discussion

[Anonymous No.1466933]

>>1466722

Yes you can , but leaf springs are thick , curved and hardened to some extend , so you will need to forge it to thin it down and straighten it.

[Anonymous No.1466967]

how practical are bone knives and where can I get bone?

[Anonymous No.1466990]

>>1466967
Bone can be obtained here:
www.redtube.com

[Anonymous No.1466992]

>>1452117
if you made that you can be proud of yourself

[Anonymous No.1466994]

>>1466990

[Anonymous No.1467030]

>>1466737
How do you know so much yet get fundamental things wrong? The main micro structure you try to achieve for normal hardening through heat treatment is martensite by quenching the steel when the crystal structure turns into austenite. If anything, there are fewer carbides (cementite) laying about since the carbon atoms are trapped in the iron crystal structure via quenching when the carbon is in solution with the iron (austenite).

Also at the lower range of the carbon percentage you gave us not harden able at all through normal heat and quench technique. .3% is where it barely starts being possible, and either way, for basically plain steel like these structural steels they definitely cannot be hardened by air quenching even if they possessed sufficient carbon. You would need a specially alloy with additives that allow the slower quench like A2 or D2. For plain steel, it is recommended to have a fast quench to harden like water or brine or soapy water or at the slowest, oil. Faster is harder results in more stress, which in can cause cracks and warpage. This is especially true if the part is complex.

[Anonymous No.1467081]

>>1466967
Bone and horn can be found at pet supply places.

[Anonymous No.1467170]

>>1466341
well I don't have the money for a "good" anvil and I also am just starting out so anything will really do for now. I used to be a welder so I have a basic understanding of metal, but I've always wanted to make blades.

[Anonymous No.1467441]

>>1467170

[Anonymous No.1467462]

>>1467441
So you used a grinder and made a blade, that's not really what I was going for here.

[Anonymous No.1467513]

>>1467462

[Anonymous No.1467525]

Sheath build for >>1457677

Took 9 ounce veg tanned cow hide and skived it down to 5-6 ounce. This is my first attempt to put some patterns into the leather.

>>1457780
Thank you.

>>1457860
I love making puukko designs. My next one is a curly maple-purpleheart handle with a 95 mm blade (intended for a female owner).

>>1457862
It's a bit niche and gimmicky, I suppose, but whatever. :)

[Anonymous No.1467526]

>>1467513
idk why you keep posting this in reply to me but alright.

[Anonymous No.1467535]

I've gotten my hands on some hitachi white #2 steel for making my first knife.
What's the best way to heat treat this stuff?

pic is my design.

[Anonymous No.1467563]

My first knife

[Anonymous No.1467564]

My second knife

[Anonymous No.1467619]

>>1467526

[Anonymous No.1467678]

>>1467535
No pro but you might want to start small and messy before trying something like that
Don't want to waste good steel on your first knife either

[Anonymous No.1467782]

>>1467678
I used to be a steel worker so I'm very familiar with how to shape steel. I've just never made a knife.

[Anonymous No.1467848]

>>1466990
kek'd

[Anonymous No.1467850]

>>1467563
solid work anon

i discored making spoons this week so i made a spoonknife today need to make the handle tomorrow

[Anonymous No.1468082]

>>1452224
What kind of dark magick is this man practicing

[Anonymous No.1468089]

>>1467525
After buff and polish today.

[Anonymous No.1468237]

>>1468082
he is a fucking japanese knife god idk he is literaly weaponizing everything

[Anonymous No.1468249]

>>1468089

nice realy like it

[Anonymous No.1468259]

not sharp.
for school demos of medieval history.
kids love them.

[Anonymous No.1468261]

>>1468259
bad fotos, nice work anon
also idk ido you have source for this way of attaching fitting sand handle? ölooks very 19th cent to me but could be wrong

[Anonymous No.1468267]

>>1468261
yeah bad cam that day.
sort of copied the handle look from a etching type pic.
they have a swallow tang that i belt in and the brass bit squashes the wood in.
again just a prop to scare kids but i love the look.
have another bad pic of another prop.

[Anonymous No.1468268]

>>1468267
*swollen

[Anonymous No.1468280]

What type of whetstone is the best?Do I go Japanese? What is the highest grit I should go to? Generally I keep one knife razor sharp and one closer to a wedge that I (ab)use as a strong straight edge to do things like scraping bits of dirt off of metal, cutting thin wire and other bad things.

[Anonymous No.1468398]

>>1468267
>a prop to scare kids
well i know that there i an agricultural tool from the late middleages that looks the same

is that a gladious?
if so great work anon

have one of my historical props, but this one is actualy sharpened

[Anonymous No.1468400]

>>1468280
depends what you want, and what kind of knife you sharpen etc.
if you wanna gor razor go up to 6000 grid and then use polishing paste

[Anonymous No.1468632]

>>1468280
>>1468400

Don't forget about using a leather strop with jewellers rouge.

[Anonymous No.1468664]

>>1468632
i never use my paste without a good leather strap.

[Anonymous No.1468675]

For stock removal makers like me, I will tell you this $99 HF portaband with my own version of a SWAG table for it is a godsend. I could only get 2 blanks from a section of bar stock with the angle grinder, but managed to cut 3 with fair precision in 5-10 minutes with this and didn't warp any metal. (The c-clamps are my jerry-rigged safety cage in case the blade comes loose).

I'm going to build legs on the table and get a foot switch for it (I currently just use a loose c-clamp I can quickly pull away). It's noisy enough that I wear ear protection but what a time saver.

[Anonymous No.1468689]

>>1468280
Diamond plates
Mostly I just use my MDF wheels on a cheap grinder, one with a loose fine carbide grit + heavy cut wax and the other is just a plain wheel with cuts in it covered with fine cut wax to do the polish. Then maybe a bit of a strop on cardboard with rouge,
Its quick, works well and a learned art to do, but I honestly don't have time to do much more than put a working edge on my knives before sending them out. End-users love fucking around with exotic nippon memerocks and stuff because they have time on their hands but the cost and time to invest in them, just can't really justify it

[Anonymous No.1469286]

what is post limit on /diy/?
shall i make another KMG thread? i think this one went pretty good

[KNIFE MAKING GENERAL /KMG/-Mes(...) No.1469291]

>>1469290
new thread