A wedding Knife...

I'm slowly getting into the hobby of building knives out of kits for people. I've been fascinated with it for years. After an abortive attempt to make a stock removal knife out of an old file, I gave up and decided to purchase pre-finished blades for now and just fit handles to them. I want to get into actual forging or stock removal and heat treating, but the space and time constraints of career and three small kids come into play. I'll do it eventually.

So. Flash forward to this past fathers day and I put some walnut on a stainless blade for my father. It was crude and I learned a lot. I learned that epoxy gets everywhere and you need to spend a great deal of time cleaning it when it is wet saves lots of time sanding on the back end. I learned that you need to spend a lot of time on handle sanding/finishing if you do not want a blocky knife. I also learned that walnut is hard and hand sanding walnut is a hell of a chore, especially around the finger grooves.

That's my fathers day knife. My dad loves it and uses it for gardening.

Fast forward to now... My friend, best man at my wedding, is getting married in October. He loves knives and I thought I'd make him one for a wedding present. He doesn't hunt anymore but he tries to spend a good deal of time camping. He is also studying to be a professor, so I wanted to make him something a little classier than a TACTICOOL/Nutinfancy/leghumper/BUSHCRAFT cause the internets said so knife...

The search was on for a blade... I settled upon this guy: http://www.knifekits.com/vcom/product_info.php?products_id=4091 The stainless bolsters will be a nice touch and also provide a challenge. It will be tough to see how tight I can get the handle to bolster fit up. I chose some presentation grade book matched sycamore for the handles. The light wood with a few coats of oil buffed up, should be a nice contrast to the stainless.

Time for some POWER...

I knew I had one month to get this all done and my other time constraints(kids starting school, new position at work) required I add some power to my knife making quiver. So I picked up: http://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-x-30-in-belt-sander-60543.html Digging around found one of their standard 25% off coupons and I was able to score the sander some belts, sand paper, socket rails and a file shaped piece of metal for less than $60. I also ran to Home Depot to grab a granite tile. If I was to have a chance of fitting the handles and bolster correctly, I'd need a "surface plate".

Imgur Album here: IMGUR ALBUM

(don't think I'll do the album thing again, I don't like it)

I first unpacked everything, 1st image in the album above. The sycamore was really nice, just what I wanted. I also realized that the people at knifekits.com cannot measure. I hard ordered 6" of the pin stock for the handle and realized that they sent 5.5" and that this wasn't enough for all the pin holes on the handle. Hmmm.. I' guess I'll just do two sets.

I taped some sand paper to the "surface plate" and flattened the backside of the scales. I used a pencil like dykem to mark the back side to ensure I had flattened the backside. (images 2 and 3 on the imgur album).

Now was the time to mark out the handles and drill them for the pin stock. I used a combination of a backup piece of material and tape to minimize tearout. Since I don't have a drill press it was a very odd balancing act of success and near total disaster. Next I made some "soft jaws" for the small bench vise left in the house we are renting and cut out the handles.

I started rough shaping on the sander to ensure it would be easy to wipe up the epoxy and ended my day with a good result.

Next steps are to dissassemble the knife and glue it up. Hopefully, I'll get some time to do that next weekend.

Very nice. Watching with interest. Knife making is one of those things I've always been interested in, but never made time for. It's on the list.

I really want to find an old kitchen set of knives and rehandle and refinish the blades. Would be awesome I think. Going to watch for sure.

That reminds me that my trusty old Craftsman combo sander (disk/belt) finally passed the point of being repairable. I think we recently celebrated our 18th anniversary together. Her motor is still good, but all of the cheap plastic and metal that make up the rest of her are just too far gone. Sorry, I have something in my eye...I have to go.

Can you make a pair of Glockenschläger replicas so my wife and I can trade dueling scars for our 20th anniversary?

Toyman01 wrote: Very nice. Watching with interest. Knife making is one of those things I've always been interested in, but never made time for. It's on the list.

This. Always wanted to try it...too many other hobbies.

This hobby is born out of desire, lack of space, and lack of time. I leave the house at 5:30 and get home at 6:30, plus an hour on the computer at home and helping the wife take care of the kids. It's a busy time.

G. P. Snorklewacker wrote: Can you make a pair of Glockenschläger replicas so my wife and I can trade dueling scars for our 20th anniversary?

usually you are funny.

So, I followed the links above....I think I need to try my hand as well.

so pretty:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote:

G. P. Snorklewacker wrote: Can you make a pair of Glockenschläger replicas so my wife and I can trade dueling scars for our 20th anniversary?

usually you are funny.

It shouldn't be too hard... although I'm not sure how to make the bell.

In reply to Grtechguy:

I was oogling over the Damascus blades as well. And they had an 11" scimitar blade for $19.99!

Grtechguy wrote: So, I followed the links above....I think I need to try my hand as well. so pretty:

I'm not thrilled with knife kits.com. They did ship fast. Next order will be texas knife makers supply or jantz supply.

Don't expect cheap Damascus to be real. Lots of stuff on the market now is laser etched to look like Damascus.

Very cool! I haven't done the handle part yet, but did make a knife.

The heat treating/aneling is easy, and fun! I used an old file (good carbon steel), un-heat treat by making a really hot fire (briquettes and a heat gun in a pile of bricks works great) heat till orange and cool, shape knife then reheat in the same fashion and drop into a vat of used motor oil to cool (it will catch fire and boil....)

In the oven

Wood blank

Shaping

After oil quench

I am all about gifts that are intended to be used, not set on a mantelpiece to admire.

In reply to Mitchell:

yeah, and he'll use it as well. That's why I didn't want something that 12" long of internets best knowledge.

Try to find some of the Dave Gingery stuff.
You can build virtually any forge or heat treat equipment needed from odds and ends and ingenuity.

I want to build one of these. http://goughcustom.com/blog/2013-08-16-making-a-filing-jig/making-and-using-a-bevel-filing-jig.html

java230 wrote: Very cool! I haven't done the handle part yet, but did make a knife. The heat treating/aneling is easy, and fun! I used an old file (good carbon steel), un-heat treat by making a really hot fire (briquettes and a heat gun in a pile of bricks works great) heat till orange and cool, shape knife then reheat in the same fashion and drop into a vat of used motor oil to cool (it will catch fire and boil....) In the oven Wood blank Shaping After oil quench

Gonna have to try this.

Update coming soon!

I glued the knife last night and need to wait until tonight to start any work. The wedding is 1 month away; SCARY!

Here's a quick review of kinfekits.com:

I bought my first knife kit from the local woodcraft store. It was slightly more expensive but altogether cheaper when factoring shipping. The selection at woodcraft is more limited, but I think I'll go with them again if I am doing onesy-twosy making.

I had heard of knifekits.com from some knife forums where they have an OK reputation. Jantz Supply, Tx knife makers supply, crazy crow, and ragnar's ragweed forge have about the samerep. All have about the same blades available. I purchased from knifekits because the blade style I wanted was available with the bolster attached. I do not have a drill press and since it was my first knife with a bolster I wanted easy as possible.

Here are the good parts about KK:

1. Good Selection

2. Fast click to ship (I got the ship confirm email 28 minutes after the order confirm email).

3. Their customer service was nice and fairly responsive. I tried to alter my order after I placed the order, but the item shipped so fast they could not help. They did note that calling would have fixed this instead of emailing.

4. The Scales and blade were finished very nicely. Edges were very square and finishes were nicely ground or sanded.

Bad things:

1. The grind on the tip of the knife blade is off. You can physically see it veer to one side. There is also a small dent in the bottom of the bolster where their assembly operation was less than careful. These are small issues, but I being an engineer by trade, am extremely picky on details.

2. Their returns service is not free. We are all so used to Amazon like service that having to pay return shipping was a shock. I would have returned the knife based on #1 above, but chose not to because of the cost and my short time frame to the wedding.

3. $12 for shipping? Really? Who charges that much in the Amazon age...

TL:DR If you can find what you want locally (woodcraft) or through Amazon do it. Would not order from this place again, will try another knife supply next time with a bigger order to spread out of the cost.

Old Saw Blades are also an OK source for knife steel, but proper annealed steel is so cheap from online vendors I'd just do that.

I've also heard that finding a railroad spike with HC(High Carbon) on the head works... I don't have time for that.

These are awesome. I forged this knife with a friend's help out of a 60s Mopar leaf spring for a Christmas gift last year.

He's pretty big into blacksmithing, so all the equipment was ready to go when I showed up.

It's definitely not food-safe (we quenched with old hydraulic oil) but it was a fun way to spend an afternoon. I've been wanting to go back and make something else this year.

Back at it. It was time to glue up the scales to the tang.

I gathered my supplies:

The goof off is used to clean up the epoxy squeeze out. The alcohol is for prep of the blank to ensure cleanliness. The epoxy is kinda garbage, but ehh..

I disassembled the knife and cleaned everything with alcohol.

I buttered the scales with epoxy and placed them on the knife. To ensure that the whole thing isn't going to move, I coated the pins in epoxy as well and inserted them into the scales.

Glued up.

Now, comes the fun part. You apply the spring clamps and use some goof off and some q-tips to clean up a large amount of squeeze out before it dries.

Then you wait 24 hours.

24 hours later, it looks OK.

So... Then I started shaping.....

Moar to come.

Update. It's getting there. I have some minor shaping to finish and then a few coats of oil.

http://imgur.com/a/53rco

That's going to be a great knife. Looking good.

I've been watching quite a few blacksmithing YouTube videos and my wallet can't afford to see this thread.