# One way to make a knife



## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

This is a WIP thread I had done for another knife making forum but I thought maybe some on here might be interested since this particular knife could be used for bushcraft. Keep in mind I wrote this for other knife makers so if any has any questions please feel free to ask either on this thread or through MP's, my purpose of posting this here is to generate interest and discussions about making your own knives because I don't think many sportsman realize how simple and fun it can be. I'll do my best to answer any questions. All of the grinding and heat treating I do can be done with much simpler and readily available hand tools. 

I guess I've been hanging around here for a while so I thought I would snap some pictures and do a little write up on how _I_ make a knife. A lot of what I have learned has come from other makers doing threads like this so I hope this helps someone out. I tried to be as thorough as I could but if you have any questions pleases don't hesitate to ask. 









1.) For this knife I will be using O1 tool steel. The &#8220;O&#8221; in the name designates that this is an oil hardening tool steel. O1 is a very popular tool steel for all different levels of knife makers. This piece is precision ground which means that it has been ground perfectly flat. This is advantageous because too makers who don&#8217;t have the capability to forge because the steel is annealed and ready to work. The size of this piece is 18&#8221; x 1 ¼&#8221; x 5/32&#8221;. Most pieces of precision ground steel come in 18&#8221; or 36&#8221; lengths. 










2.) The first thing I do to the steel is to use Dykem to &#8220;paint&#8221; one of the sides. Dykem is a type of fluid that machines use to layout parts on a piece of steel. As you can see in this picture I have traced the knife outline as well as the holes in the handle onto the piece of steel. 









3.) The next step is to cut out the shape as good as I can on my metal cutting band saw. This can also be done on the grinder as you will see in the next step but using the band saw is much faster and saves on belts. 









4.) Here I am using a 6&#8221; contact wheel on my KMG to grind off what I couldn&#8217;t get with the band saw. 









5.) Now that I have the shape I want I will double check to make sure the holes for my handle pins are perfectly centered. I picked up this particular caliper at Harbor Freight for $6 on sale and it&#8217;s been one of the best things I have ever bought. I use it almost every day I&#8217;m in my shop and after three years it&#8217;s still going strong. If you don&#8217;t have one of these I would strongly advise to get one. Even when they&#8217;re not on sale they are less than twenty bucks. All I am doing here is measuring how wide the handle is where I am going to drill a hole for the pin and dividing it in half to find the exact center. Once I find the center I will use the caliper to make a mark. 









6.) After I scribe the center I use a center punch to make a small divot so that my drill bit won&#8217;t wander as I am drilling the hole. I am using a 1-2-3 block that is bolted to my drill press table so that I can drill on a perfectly flat surface and get the holes as straight as possible through the tang. A 1-2-3 block is a metal block with dimensions measuring one, two, and three inches long respectively. I don&#8217;t know what their exact use is but I have found various uses for them and they are inexpensive.









7.) Here I am measuring the thickness of my steel so I can scribe a center line for grinding. As you can see it is 0.157&#8221; thick. I divide this number to get the center and then subtract 0.015 from that number so that when I scribe I have two lines with .030 distance between them. So the equation I use is 0.157/2=0.78. Next I do 0.78-.015=0.765, this is the number I set my caliper to. The reason I do this is so that I have 0.030 distances between the lines. This is how thick I want my edge to be after I am done grinding. 









8.) Here are the two lines I will use so I can make sure and grind evenly on each side.









9.) This is a guide I made so that I can keep my plunge cuts square to each other. I will mark the angle I want my plunge cuts to be on one side in the Dykem and then attach my guide.









10.) This is after the first pass on a 60 grit belt. I first grind down to the line I scribed. Once I do this I will start to work the ground down area up towards the spine.


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

11.) Continuing to grind back towards the spine









12.) This is as far as I go on the 60 grit belt As you can see I left some steel near the plunge cuts. I will go back later and true these up with a 120 grit disc. 










13.) Okay now on to tapering the tang. I will again scribe two lines similar to what I did when I ground the bevels in. 









14.) Next with my contact wheel I will hollow grind out up to where I want the taper to start, I use my guide here again to keep everything straight. 









15.) Here you can see where I have hollow ground one side out down to the scribed line. The reason for hollow grinding out before I actually taper the tang is simply to remove material, that way when I switch to the flat platen I am only grinding the sides as opposed to grinding the entire width of the tang. 









16.) So here I am actually tapering the tang. I do this with a 60 grit belt initially and then switch to a 120 grit disk to get every this perfectly flat. One this that I found really helps is the push stick I am using here. All that it is a piece of wood with a bolt glued in the end of it. I cut the head off and filed some grooves in it to give it grip. With this it allows me to put pressure on the very end of the tang while I hold onto the top of the blade above the platen.









17.) Some of these pictures are a little blurry so I apologize but here you can see what I have ground so far. I reapplied the bluing so I can see what I have ground off and what I have left to grind. 









18.) Once I get tang pretty well tapered I use pressure from my thumb to do the last little bit. Since I am only removing a little bit of steel at the top as opposed to the bottom my thumb allows me to control the pressure better. 









19.) Here I have almost all the steel removed, you can see that I have about a half inch to go to where I hollow ground out the steel. 









20.) A better shot of my push stick. After the blade and tang are ground out I move to my disc sander and a 120 grit disk. I finish out flattening out the tang and then move to the blade bevels. I dont have a picture of this but the disc sander really allows you to work in you plunge cuts. I


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

21.) Once I am done there I heat treat the knife using my salt pot. It's homemade and runs off propane. I set my controller to 1475 degrees and it takes about an hour to get to stabilize at that temperature. Once the temperature has stabilized I suspend the blade in the bath by a stainless steel wire for twenty minutes. 









22.) Here is a picture of me moving the blade from the salts to the quench tank. 









A shot of the blade after it has cooled down and just before it gets tempered.









24.) After the blade is tempered it is time to hand sand it. Sometimes I will use my disc sander if there are any deeper scratches but usually I just start with one of the sanding sticks here. I always start with 220 grit. The most important thing to remember is to get ALL the scratches out from the previous grit. You can achieve this any number of ways such as sanding in different directions at each grit or looking over the blade carefully with some kind of magnifying glass. When I first start out at 220 grit this is where I "erase" any other scratches and make all the scratch lines go the same way. I liken this to starting a painting on a blank canvas as opposed to starting it on a canvass with a bunch of other paint marks on it. If you dont get all the scratches out at 220 grit you'll never be able to get them out at the higher grits. I've found that 220 grit is really the last grit where you will be able to remove any significant amount of metal, the rest of the grits are just to get scratches smaller.









Here the rig I use to clamp my blade for hand sanding. I wrap the piece of steel in electrical tape to protect the blade surface from getting scratched. I also make a few extra wraps to support the tip of the blade since it is tapered. 






























26.) Here is a series to demonstrate how I will do the final strokes at whatever grit I end up with. I start at a point that will be covered up by the scales and in one motion wipe the sandpaper off the end of the tip. If stop and start you risk getting the J-hooks that you sometimes see. 









Now that the blade is finished its time to start on the handle. To protect the finish I once again use electrical tape. I used to use the blue painters tape but found that it left a residue on Damascus blades that I had to sand to get it off. I buy the electrical tape in logs of 10 at Harbor Freight for like $5 so its cheap as well. 









28.) These are the corby rivets that I will be using. At the beginning of remember I had drilled the two rivet holes and the thong hole. The drill bit I used was 11/64 and the beads are ¼.


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

31.) Next I trace the rough outline of the handle on the scales I will be using. In this case I will be using scales I bought from Shadtree Composites at the Wolverine Knife Show in Novi, MI, the owner post on here under the username fod. These particular scales are made out of denim.










Here is the rig I use to drill the holes in the scale material. Since the tang is tapered I cant set the scale down flat on the drill press table. I clamp the blade at the ricasso since it is perfectly flat, this keeps the tangs perfectly perpendicular to the drill press table and allows the drill to drill straight through the scale even though the scale is at an angle to the table. 










34.) Next I use the flat platen to grind the scales closer to size so when I glue them up I will have less work to do. 









35.) The next step is to grind a bevel where the front of the handle will be.









In preparation for gluing the scales to the tang I drill little holes to give the scale more surface area for the epoxy to stick to. One thing to be careful of here is to not drill too close to the edge otherwise they could show once you grind down to the tang. 










37.) Before I glue the scales to the tang I give the blade a good once over to make sure there arent any scratches, if there are they are a lot easier to get out before the handle is glued on. Here is a shot of the blade through a magnifying glass. 









Here is the handle glued on. I use the drill bits again to make sure everything is lined up. I use superglue as the glue to hold them on, later I will put the rivets and thong tube in. If you ever do this make sure to coat the drill bits with a release agent so that the glue wont stick to them, I use Vaseline.










The next thing do is to drill out the rivet holes to ¼ so I can install the corby rivets. 










40.) Now it is just a matter of sanding off everything to make it look like I want. I start at the front and grind it down to how I want it on both sides, using my contact wheel. 










41.) Once the front is ground down I move to the back and start to grind in the palm swell. As I go I check to make sure that things stay relatively close on both sides, Ive found that its easier to do a little a time on each side rather that finishing one side and trying to make the other match it.


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

42.) Here is a shot of the handle after it is pretty much done. Next Ill use files and sand paper to finish it. 









43.) One thing I noticed about grinding the denim was afterwords my shop looked like a smurf had been massacred. 

Finally once everything is done I'll make a sheath for it. I haven't had a chance to do this yet but I'll be sure to post some pictures once everything is finished.


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## Rupestris (Aug 25, 2000)

Wow. Very nice. Thanks for the tutorial.


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## B540glenn (Mar 9, 2007)

I was planning to make my first knife this winter. This tutorial will certainly help.


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## Frantz (Dec 9, 2003)

First,very cool info and great job on the knife.

The holes you have in the handle, why are they there? Are they just to make it lighter? Is there a reasoning behind the pattern of the holes or is that just the way it worked out?

I wish I had some of the equipment to make such tools, I think it would be a fun project both for myself and maybe even to make a couple gifts for outdoors-men that are close to me.

Again, cool pics and thanks for sharing the info.


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

Frantz said:


> First,very cool info and great job on the knife.
> 
> The holes you have in the handle, why are they there? Are they just to make it lighter? Is there a reasoning behind the pattern of the holes or is that just the way it worked out?
> 
> ...


Your correct, the holes are there to make the handle lighter. I also taper the tang to make the handle lighter as well. There is no reason behind the pattern of them aside from the two pin holes and the lanyard hole.


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## ricochet (May 10, 2008)

I made a knife out of a industrial hacksaw blade ,the kind they use in a machine shop.I do not have the tools that you do but it turned out nice. The knife holds a edge better than a store bought


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

I am currently working on one myself. I made the blade out of a 10" chop saw blade. I am doing my from the things I have already, however I do need to find or buy something to use as the rivets for the scales. Just curious if you have any suggestions for what a good finish would be to put on hickory scales? I was thinking linseed oil? If I have time I'll take some pics to post of where I am at. It's been a really fun project so far! I should be done with it this weekend.


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

ibthetrout said:


> I am doing my from the things I have already, however I do need to find or buy something to use as the rivets for the scales. Just curious if you have any suggestions for what a good finish would be to put on hickory scales? I was thinking linseed oil? If I have time I'll take some pics to post of where I am at. It's been a really fun project so far! I should be done with it this weekend.


The cheapest route to go with the rivets is to go to the hardware store and buy some 1/8" brass or stainless rod. You can either peen the ends over or leave them the way they are. The only finish I have used on wood is tung oil, but I know knife makers use linseed oil too. If you want to go the route with the pins that I did look at a knifemakers supply place and buy corby rivets.


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

I ended up buying the small brass rod and tung oil to finish it with. I have no power sander to use so the last bit of making scales out of a hickory branch is a bunch of work. Scales are epoxied and pins are in. I am working on shaping the handle this week. This is a crappy cell phone pic but you get the idea. The dark spot on the scale is a knot that I thought might look cool on the handle. It got bigger the more I sanded it down, hopefully it still adds character once I get done taking off all that excess material.


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

Here is a pic of the blade after being cut out and the rough edges taken off.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/uploads/6808/IMG001111.jpg


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## rtj1981 (Oct 29, 2005)

One thing you might want to pick up to help finish the handle is a set of files. I use ones from Sears because once they wear out I can get a new set. A round and half-round file make pretty quick work of most woods. I use files for a lot of my handle shaping even though I have a grinder. Thanks for taking the time to post pictures, it looks like it should make a handy little knife!


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

My dad was a millwright at Ford. I have files coming outta you know where! I located my old belt sander last night. Sounded like hell when I tried it out. I spent the night tearing it right down to the spindle on the electric motor and found a siezed bearing. I then left it for a hour while I looked up the part. 9 bucks from Sears. Then I remembered the rollerblade bearings I saved. Waddaya know they fit! Not a perfect fit, but it will do until I get the right part and can replace both bearings. I have to deal with a pressed on belt pully on one end. The siezed bearing I replaced last night I cut off with the dremel. I'm really starting to appreciate those cheap cut off disks! So the belt sander lives for now and I should be able to finish up my first knife using that. After the holidays I would like to pick up something better....hopefully on a sale!


This knife was just an experiment to see if I could do it. It's been a fun project so far. I think I'd really like one just a bit bigger than this but still in the same design. So I have #2 already laid out and ready to cut the blade. If they both turn out it may end up being a father son matching set. Lastly, I need to start looking at making a sheath. I know nothing of leather work. Do you have any good websites for that kind of info?


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

Excellent tutorial. Is that an old Wilton vice I see in the background on the pic of you getting ready to quench the blade? I want it.


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

I think I have the exact same vice. Inherited it from Dad. Is there something special about them?


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## ESOX (Nov 20, 2000)

ibthetrout said:


> I think I have the exact same vice. Inherited it from Dad. Is there something special about them?


Just good old Made in USA Iron. You inherited it from you Dad, your kids will get it from you, their kids....... Newer Wiltons are mostly Taiwanese as far as I know, a step up from the Chinese crap out there, but there is nothing like an old USA made Wilton........


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## ibthetrout (Sep 24, 2003)

Interesting, now I have to check it out and see what I really have there. I wish I had half the cool tools that rtj has!


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