Nice job
Home made knife
3
A while back I got the bug to try to make my own knife so I started surfing around to see how hard it would be. I watched a lot of videos and read a lot of material before I started the project in earnest. I decided on a lawn tractor blade for the raw material since I had a lawn tractor with a blown motor sitting in my yard. So I stared out with this:
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Step 1 was to straighten the blade and since I don't own a forge I decided to build a good hot fire in the firepit in the back yard and then use an electric leaf blower from about 6 feet away (to keep down the sparks) to get that fire hot enough for forging. Then I needed to shape the blade but since I don't own a bench type belt sander, band saw or drill press all the grinding and cutting was done with had power tools. I used a sawzall to cut the rough shape of the blade and then a bench grinder and dremel tool to refine it. I used a belt sander clamped in my vice to create the bevels on the blade, this allowed me to keep both hands on the stock to get the bevels consistent. Once that was done it was time to select the handle material, I settled on a piece of red oak from the local home improvement store, I cut the wood and then clamped the scales to the stock to drill the holes for the brass pins I was going to use. I then sanded the stock to 400 grit before heat treating. For heat treating I basically used the same method I used for forging and then quenched in hot used motor oil to up the carbon content in the blade. After the heat treating I cleaned up the oil and put it in the oven at 400 for an hour or so to temper the blade. More sanding on the blade all the way to 1200 grit and I was ready to attach the handle and start shaping that. I used brass pins and Gorilla Glue epoxy to attach the scales and then shaped the handle. The handle is a little chunky for almost anyone else but I have big hands and it fits me like a glove. Once the handle was final sanded I did 10 coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil and a final polish on the blade. It was a lot of work but I'm pleased with the results, there's a couple small imperfections in the blade (scratches) that I should have done more sanding to remove but they don't bother me. Here's the finished product:
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I had a lot of fun with the project and am planning at least 2 more 1 will be a machete type blade and the other will be some sort of fighting knife, I may also do a boot knife before it's over with. I'll be working on those this winter to keep myself from turning into a couch potato.
-Infidel
Step 1 was to straighten the blade and since I don't own a forge I decided to build a good hot fire in the firepit in the back yard and then use an electric leaf blower from about 6 feet away (to keep down the sparks) to get that fire hot enough for forging. Then I needed to shape the blade but since I don't own a bench type belt sander, band saw or drill press all the grinding and cutting was done with had power tools. I used a sawzall to cut the rough shape of the blade and then a bench grinder and dremel tool to refine it. I used a belt sander clamped in my vice to create the bevels on the blade, this allowed me to keep both hands on the stock to get the bevels consistent. Once that was done it was time to select the handle material, I settled on a piece of red oak from the local home improvement store, I cut the wood and then clamped the scales to the stock to drill the holes for the brass pins I was going to use. I then sanded the stock to 400 grit before heat treating. For heat treating I basically used the same method I used for forging and then quenched in hot used motor oil to up the carbon content in the blade. After the heat treating I cleaned up the oil and put it in the oven at 400 for an hour or so to temper the blade. More sanding on the blade all the way to 1200 grit and I was ready to attach the handle and start shaping that. I used brass pins and Gorilla Glue epoxy to attach the scales and then shaped the handle. The handle is a little chunky for almost anyone else but I have big hands and it fits me like a glove. Once the handle was final sanded I did 10 coats of Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil and a final polish on the blade. It was a lot of work but I'm pleased with the results, there's a couple small imperfections in the blade (scratches) that I should have done more sanding to remove but they don't bother me. Here's the finished product:
I had a lot of fun with the project and am planning at least 2 more 1 will be a machete type blade and the other will be some sort of fighting knife, I may also do a boot knife before it's over with. I'll be working on those this winter to keep myself from turning into a couch potato.
-Infidel
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