My First Attempt at Knife Making!!

[Gman1128]

I recently decided to try to make a knife. I purchased a 1/4 inch thick bar of 1095 steel and got started. My dad was kind enough to let me use his angle grinder and belt sander. However he does not have a vise, which makes things much harder.

I first cut the bar to size with the grinder (very difficult without a vise or an extra pair of hands)

Then I used the grinder to rough the profile, making smaller cuts with the grinder. What I had to do was brace the grinder against my chest while holding it securely with one hand as I used the other hand to hold the knife. And the grinder had to be positioned so the hot shower of sparks went away from my face.

Now that it looked like a knife I used the belt sander to start putting an edge on it. This part took forever (several hours) and used up 3 80grit belts. I also sanded the spine and all the rough edges.

Now it was time for the fun part, the heat treat. Other that a couple web sites and an post on bladeforums I am completely clueless on how to do this. I used a whole 18lb bag of charcoal to heat the blade and left it red hot for 15 minutes before quenching it in a pan full of cooking oil. Then it went into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I have no idea if this is right so I may redo the heat treat later when I know more.

http://s287.photobucket.com/albums/ll144/Gman1128/th_001.jpg

Here is the finished blade. If you recognize its design that would be because I based it on Swamp Rat's infamous Chopweiler, a blade I've always wanted. The finish is from baked on grease. I was going to sand it off but decided against it because I like the look of it.

[Gman1128]

Oops, I wasn't finished with that post and I accidently hit the submit reply button. Here are some better pictures.

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll144/Gman1128/003.jpg?t=1216905819

I put a nice thick convex edge on it and it has an ok working edge but I will sit down with a hand stone and get it really sharp soon.

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll144/Gman1128/002.jpg?t=1216906014

I put a really thick tip on it because I hate knives with thin, fragile tips.

http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll144/Gman1128/001.jpg?t=1216906069

Here is a better picture of the whole knife. Electric tape is not a bad handle material either:D

[kiah]

Looks good to me. Congrats on your first knife. A couple of notes.

1. The most important. If you decide to do another, please use a vice. If you don't have access to one, then I would postpone knifemaking till you do. You can get a usable vice at Wal-Mart for 20 bucks or so.
When grinding on a blade held in your hand, the blade can easily be slung back into you. Just as deadly, and a lot more gruesome, when a grinder is used one-handed, it can easily kick back and remove important parts of your anatomy. I reiterate, get a vice.

2. A lot of edge profiling can be done with the angle grinder before taking it to the sander. This saves time and abrasives.

[sharpshooter996]

Nice job Gman. Bet you had fun making that.

I got an idea for your handle. you could drill several holes and use paracord to make a wrap. Im sure that would fit your hand better and be more comfortable. And im with you on the knife tip, thin tips drive me crazy. :headbang:

[Noss]

Gman1128: Great job on your first attempt. Much better then I could do. :p Nice work on the shape. Since you don't have a vice you could clamp the handle down to the edge of the work bench I guess and free up your hands. Have you done any preliminary testing with it ?

[Gman1128]

Thanks for your concern kiahs. I am definitely going to buy a vise before I begin the next knife. Before I started making the knife i didn't know what to expect and thought it would be much easier and simpler then it was and I would be ok without a vise. Now I know much better.
I had also thought of using the grinder to profile the edge but I was afraid that with my lack of experience I would mess up the edge.

Sharpshooter, thanks. Yeah it was a lot of fun. I will probably try to cord wrap it like you suggested sometime soon. It would be way better then tape.

Noss, thanks. If I can find some clamps that will be strong enough I will try that. I have not tested it yet mainly because I burnt the several pieces of wood I had lying around in the fire after heat treating the knife. I will give it a real test in the woods near my house soon.

[kiah]

Gman1128:Since you don't have a vice you could clamp the handle down to the edge of the work bench I guess and free up your hands.

One other solution is to drill a few holes in the handle area and screw it to a solid surface.

[Noss]

That would work also.

[kiah]

Here's a cool link for you. Scroll down to the very bottom for even more pages of links.

http://gbrannon.bizhat.com/instructionallinks.htm

And here's a cool setup for doing bevels with an angle grinder if you don't wanna freehand it.

http://myhome.mweb.co.za/~20022586/jig.htm

Hossom's got a neat little page on doing it with hand tools.

http://hossom.com/tutorial/jonesy/

[Gman1128]

Thanks for the links, those are great. I really like the idea with the angle grinder. I will have to try that some time. After seeing the bottom link I will probably need to redo the heat treat because mine did not look that hot when I pulled it out of the coals.

[lsutigers1010]

its preety nice alout better than mine you cab use it as a pry bar or chopper