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Custom Knifemaking


AusHunter

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About 3.4 million years ago, in Ethiopia, the first humans discovered that by bashing two rocks together, they could make a sharp edge to cut up and prepare their food. Thus the art of knifemaking was born.

After 3.4 million years, making knives is almost as much of human’s instinct as a birds instinct to build a nest.

When you sit and consider it, not much has actually changed. We still make knives for exactly the same reasons as the first humans.

Before you get started in knifemaking you need know there is a limit to what you can do. The art is trying to find that limit. Pushing the boundaries of design, exploring the limitless combinations of blade profile, handle shape, materials and making the best knife you can possibly make, with each one an improvement on the one before, there is no limit to what is possible.

The custom knifemaker draws on a more varied range of skills than any other crafts person. Fitting and machining, blacksmithing, toolmaking, polishing, woodworking, leatherworking, carving, again limited only by the amount the maker is willing to learn.

Why make a custom knife? Find me a factory knife that can slice through a 25mm thick rope, free hanging, in a single pass, chop through two 4”x 2” planks of wood and still shave, then bend the blade to 90 degrees without it breaking. Making a knife that can do all the above things is a pre requisite for entry into the American Bladesmiths Society of custom knifemakers.

Design

To those that have started the search for the perfect knife, knife making is a logical progression. When you cannot find it, it is time to make it!

I cannot assist you with the design of your knife. You have likely been using knives for most of your life and will have a good idea of what you like, and probably a better understanding of the intended purpose than me. There are some things to consider however.

Keep it small. Your first knife is going to take you a long time. It is important that you start with something that you are likely to finish before it becomes a chore. A blade length of about 100mm is ideal.

Keep your grinds flat. Whether Scandi, full flat or anything in between, steer clear of hollow grinds, at least until you get some practice, and the right equipment.

For a first knife I would choose full tang over stick (hidden) tangs. They are much easier to get right. Done correctly a stick tang can be incredibly strong, but as a first knife, you are unlikely to do it correctly and the full tang design is less likely to end in tears.

Draw it on paper before you start. Work out where the pins will go, whether you will have a lanyard tube, and its location if so. Avoid curved blades, unless you can already forge red hot steel to shape, and have the equipment to do so, curved blades require a wider and more expensive piece of steel, and will result in more wastage. Once you have a design, work out the width of steel you need to purchase to make your knife.

Blade Material

For a first knife I recommend starting with known steel. Good blade steel is not expensive, great blade steel is a different story! Blade steel is normally supplied annealed (soft) so that you can cut it and drill it, file it and shape it.

To the beginner the range will look daunting, with hundreds of alloys and sizes available. Keep it simple to start with. You will need to make a decision: carbon Steel, or stainless steel.

Carbon steels rust, and can discolour acidic foods, though they are normally considered superior to stainless steels in performance. Look for simple carbon steels like 1084 or 1075.

Stainless blade steels can still rust… as the name suggests, they just “Stain Less”, some of the modern stainless steels are extremely good performance wise, consider 154CM (ATS34), 440C, or AEB-L for your first project.

Your knife will only be as good as the combination of the material you use, the blade profile, and the heat treatment.

As discussed above, blade steels are supplied soft. You should be able to cut, drill and file them to shape with simple hand tools.

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Start by using a hacksaw, angle grinder and files to cut out the basic shape of your knife. This process is called profiling. Remember, take it slowly. It is easy to take material off, but impossible to put it back on. The old knifemakers saying is “Knifemakers do not make mistakes, they make smaller knives”.

Next file your bevels. A jig that allows you to file at a constant angle is easy to make and will save you a lot of frustration during this process. Again, this is a slow and painstaking process, but take your time and focus on keeping everything as straight and even as possible.

Finally drill all your pin holes.

Once this is done, it is time to make the steel hard. This process is called heat treating. If you choose to use carbon steels, heat treating at home is a possibility. For stainless steels, there are few commercial heat treaters left that will be interested in heat treating you blade. Your steel supplier will normally be able to direct you to a heat treater .

To heat treat a carbon steel knife, the steel is heated to its critical temperature. If the exact critical temperature is unknown simply heat the steel until it is a dull red and a magnet will no longer stick to it. At critical temperature steel will no longer attract a magnet. The steel is then rapidly cooled by quenching it in oil. Once this process is completed the steel will be extremely hard. A file should not be able to cut it and will simply skate over the surface. The steel will in fact be so hard that even the slightest knock or stress will cause the steel to fracture like glass.

By taking control of the heat treating process, the maker can experiment with techniques like edge quenching. A process that involves quenching the edge of the blade and leaving the spine unhardened and tough.

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The final process in the heat treat is tempering. Tempering is the process of heating your super hard steel bade with the intention of reducing the hardness, and increasing the toughness. A properly tempered blade will allow your knife to be hard enough to hold a great edge, without wearing too quickly, without being so hard that the edge easily chips or worse still, the blade snaps.

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Handles

Handle materials are limited only to the makers imagination. From common day materials like stacked leather, right through to exotic and rare materials like Mammoth tusk. A knife handle can be comprised of a single material, or as many as 20 materials combined, and stacked.

In general, for working knives you should consider materials made from synthetic materials. G10 and Micarta in particular, are incredibly strong, will not absorb moisture or oils, will not shrink or crack and are easy to keep clean.

Natural materials such as timber, horn and antler are susceptible to shrinkage and cracking. For this reason, many suppliers now offer stabilized materials. These are materials that have been impregnated with resin normally in a vacuum chamber. The resin stabilizes the material and prevents any chance of cracking or warping, making the material act more like a synthetic than a natural material.

Down the track, you will want to fit handles with bolsters and guards. These are normally made from free machining Brass or 416 free machining stainless steel and secured with pins of the same alloy.

In the case of a full tang knife, the scales, or handles on each side of the knife are fixed in place using pins, or special fasteners such as cutlers rivets or corby bolts. Additionally the scales are glued in place, both to exclude moisture and prevent contaminants becoming lodged between the blade and the handles causing a hygiene issue.

To those that start the search for the perfect knife, knife making is a logical progression. When you cannot find it, it is time to make it!

First, select your design. I cannot assist you with that, though as a first project I would recommend;

Blade length around 100mm, a full tang, and a handle without bolsters, simply two slabs of material, called scales, that make the handle of the knife. These could be a natural material, such as timber or antler, or a synthetic material like G10 and Micarta.

If you intend to heat treat yourself, consider carbon steels, and particularly 1084, for those that wish to heat treat off site, you can consider stainless steels 154CM (ATS34) is a popular choice for a hunting blade.

Start by using a hacksaw, angle grinder and files to cut out the basic shape of your knife. This process is called profiling. Remember, take it slowly. It is easy to take material off, but impossible to put it back on. The old knifemakers saying is “Knifemakers do not make mistakes, they make smaller knives”.

Next file your bevels. A jig that allows you to file at a constant angle is easy to make and will save you a lot of frustration during this process.

by Corin Urquhart.

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Thanks for that AU, some really good advise, and pointers foe a novice like me. much appreciated.

Paul

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9 hours ago, Fussy said:

Cutting antler?

So I want to split some antlers to use as handles.

I understand it's basically tightly packed hair, so cut slowly?

Or split it like long grain timber?

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

Antler is bone. To split it you use a bandsaw.

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I used to make knives, I brought a heap of old circular mill blades from an auction for a cheap price. I drew my design on the blade and cut them out with a plasma cutter, I then heated them up in the forge and allowed them to cool slowly to anneal. I would put the bevel on the blade with a cheap bench linisher, then get the blade almost to  a dull polished state and then drill holes in the handle and put them in a my home made gas forge, heat them up  a quench in olive oil.

I would clean the steel up and make handles from huon pine, recycle carbon fibre, antler etc. I learnt knife making from and from and ebook, so it was trial and error. I found the steel to be very strong and the knives held a sharp edge, however being carbon steel the knives did rust easily. Once the knife steel got blood on it and a patina developed, the knife did become a lot more corrosion resistant.

I have been thinking about getting into knife making again, as I still have most of the tools. A new linisher would make the job a lot easier, but the one I have been looking at starts at $1000, so for a home hobby, making a few nice knives is expensive.

However there was the satisfaction of hand making a quality product,would negate cost involved

 

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