A couple of people were interested in seeing a project log after I posted the knife kit in the purchases thread in GD so here it is.
I have never really worked in metal before, let alone made a knife, so this could go very wrong. I am wanting to get into carving and so this will hopefully be a useful tool when done. If it goes wrong i'll make another and hopefully correct mistakes I have made on this first try.
Doing the grind for the blade and heat treating and tempering the steel will be the hard parts, if I can get these right it should be good.
This is what I am hoping to achieve, although it probably wont end up anywhere near as good
.
This is the kit from a seller on ebay. Its 4mm thick annealed Sheffield o-1 tool steel, a brass bar for holding the handle in place and a stainless tube to use as a lanyard hole. He also includes some basic information on heat treating and tempering the blade, or you can send it off to be heat treated.
Here is the rough outline for the knife I sketched up. I have looked at quite a few different knives to get an idea of the size of blade and handle, although It's based mainly on the Woodlore bushcraft knife posted above. I have made subtle changes and sketched it out myself, rather than print a direct copy out.
Final design stuck to the steel using some double sided carpet tape. This will make it easier to cut the piece out and help protect the steel form any slips with the files.
Then I drilled the holes for the handle pins and lanyard with my pillar drill. Starting with a smaller bit and working up to the 6mm final size. I was expecting this to be harder, but it drilled very easily.
Removed some of the bulk with my angle grinder and a 1mm metal cutting blade.
Then moved onto the final shape using my Black & Decker power file. This tool is awesome! I was amazed how fast it cut through the 4mm steel. You can also get Zirconia belts for it that are supposed to cut faster and last longer. I only had a 40 grit belt, so I finished it by hand with some 400 grit silicone carbide paper to remove the grinding marks.
This is the stage I am at now. Pretty happy with the final shape, but the handle can be changed once the wood scales are added.
Next i need to do the hard part, which is creating the grind for the blade. The best way I think would be to buy a decent single cut file (gets a better finish) and then making some sort of jig to get a consistent cut all along the blade. It is supposed to take a long time to file a grind on the blade using this method, but i could speed it up by using my powerfile to rough out most of the material. Then just finish it off with the file.
Need to order the handle scales, but not sure which wood to go for. The Ray Mears knife uses a plain looking English Oak, which I think looks quite nice. Although I could make it more fancy and go for a burl Oak or Walnut.
I usually use this English Walnut for the Pistol grips I make and think this could look quite nice for the knife handle. It's just a bit of luck getting sent a nice piece that matches on both sides, but then again its cheap at £6 inc delivery.
I have never really worked in metal before, let alone made a knife, so this could go very wrong. I am wanting to get into carving and so this will hopefully be a useful tool when done. If it goes wrong i'll make another and hopefully correct mistakes I have made on this first try.
Doing the grind for the blade and heat treating and tempering the steel will be the hard parts, if I can get these right it should be good.
This is what I am hoping to achieve, although it probably wont end up anywhere near as good
.
This is the kit from a seller on ebay. Its 4mm thick annealed Sheffield o-1 tool steel, a brass bar for holding the handle in place and a stainless tube to use as a lanyard hole. He also includes some basic information on heat treating and tempering the blade, or you can send it off to be heat treated.
Here is the rough outline for the knife I sketched up. I have looked at quite a few different knives to get an idea of the size of blade and handle, although It's based mainly on the Woodlore bushcraft knife posted above. I have made subtle changes and sketched it out myself, rather than print a direct copy out.
Final design stuck to the steel using some double sided carpet tape. This will make it easier to cut the piece out and help protect the steel form any slips with the files.
Then I drilled the holes for the handle pins and lanyard with my pillar drill. Starting with a smaller bit and working up to the 6mm final size. I was expecting this to be harder, but it drilled very easily.
Removed some of the bulk with my angle grinder and a 1mm metal cutting blade.
Then moved onto the final shape using my Black & Decker power file. This tool is awesome! I was amazed how fast it cut through the 4mm steel. You can also get Zirconia belts for it that are supposed to cut faster and last longer. I only had a 40 grit belt, so I finished it by hand with some 400 grit silicone carbide paper to remove the grinding marks.
This is the stage I am at now. Pretty happy with the final shape, but the handle can be changed once the wood scales are added.
Next i need to do the hard part, which is creating the grind for the blade. The best way I think would be to buy a decent single cut file (gets a better finish) and then making some sort of jig to get a consistent cut all along the blade. It is supposed to take a long time to file a grind on the blade using this method, but i could speed it up by using my powerfile to rough out most of the material. Then just finish it off with the file.
Need to order the handle scales, but not sure which wood to go for. The Ray Mears knife uses a plain looking English Oak, which I think looks quite nice. Although I could make it more fancy and go for a burl Oak or Walnut.
I usually use this English Walnut for the Pistol grips I make and think this could look quite nice for the knife handle. It's just a bit of luck getting sent a nice piece that matches on both sides, but then again its cheap at £6 inc delivery.
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, here's a few recent pics after sanding the bevel to 240g.
