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This is about making your own simple but utilitarian knife at home.
One of the utility knives that I made was from a hack-saw blade. I wanted a knife for cleaning the trout when I was stream fishing and for making "figure 4" traps on back-packing trips.
I bought a good "bi-metal" hacksaw blade.
I then positioned it so the teeth were angled back toward where the handle would be.
Leaving the hole in the handle side I broke the blade using my vise to hold the part of the blade I would use. (don't clamp the teeth in the vise)
I then ground the blade from the spine of the hack-saw (leaving the teeth) to a gentle drop point blade. (I did lose about 3/8" of the teeth)
Next I ground the spine to a sharp edge that extended to the top of the drop point.
I made brass sides and fashioned a "spring lock" from the rest of the hack-saw blade.
I ground a notch in the plade and fit the lock to keep the blade in the open position until I wanted to fold it.
I used some parts from an old (yard sale alert) bowling ball for the scales (sides of the handle) and riveted it all together using stainles steel wire.
After finish polishing of the blade and scales it was almost pretty. It was great for cleaning fish and the saw made it simple to make figure 4 triggers for snares and dead falls.
This is a simple knife that anyone could make and if you think a folding knife is too hard you could easily make a fixed blade the same way. It is not strong enough to use as a pry bar or even a screw driver but for its intended purpose it was a great little knife. It was one of the first knives I ever made and I have never seen anything better for the same use.
Try making one and you will be hooked on making your own knives.
One of the utility knives that I made was from a hack-saw blade. I wanted a knife for cleaning the trout when I was stream fishing and for making "figure 4" traps on back-packing trips.
I bought a good "bi-metal" hacksaw blade.
I then positioned it so the teeth were angled back toward where the handle would be.
Leaving the hole in the handle side I broke the blade using my vise to hold the part of the blade I would use. (don't clamp the teeth in the vise)
I then ground the blade from the spine of the hack-saw (leaving the teeth) to a gentle drop point blade. (I did lose about 3/8" of the teeth)
Next I ground the spine to a sharp edge that extended to the top of the drop point.
I made brass sides and fashioned a "spring lock" from the rest of the hack-saw blade.
I ground a notch in the plade and fit the lock to keep the blade in the open position until I wanted to fold it.
I used some parts from an old (yard sale alert) bowling ball for the scales (sides of the handle) and riveted it all together using stainles steel wire.
After finish polishing of the blade and scales it was almost pretty. It was great for cleaning fish and the saw made it simple to make figure 4 triggers for snares and dead falls.
This is a simple knife that anyone could make and if you think a folding knife is too hard you could easily make a fixed blade the same way. It is not strong enough to use as a pry bar or even a screw driver but for its intended purpose it was a great little knife. It was one of the first knives I ever made and I have never seen anything better for the same use.
Try making one and you will be hooked on making your own knives.