My attempt to make some knives

My attempt to make some knives

Part 1

Hello. I didn't write since some time but it will change now. Since some time I wanted to do something special so I've decided to make my own knives. I know how to make handles, making a blank shouldn't be that hard to do, so the only hard thing to do is to cut out bevels. It's a long way till I will be able to make bevels so let's get started.

I bought O1 carbon steel blank, 500mm long, 40mm wide and 3mm thick. At beginning I wanted to make 2 big knives but 500mm is not enough so I will make small neck knife and big petty/sujihiki. Also I wanted to try to make western handle on sujihiki but because blank is too short I will make Wa handle.

Here are some projects of neck knife. To be honest they're copies of somebodys knives. This is my first project like this so instead of inventing my own project and loosing enthusiasm I am copying it.

 Here you can see cardboard cutout.

I try to grind a little bit but it was nightmare. Cutting it was a nightmare as well so I had to do something else.

 I drilled holes around my blanks. This will help me with cutting it out.

I tried to cut it out by saw but I am not that patient. Using Dremel tool I cut it out. It took my about 2 hours or even more.

That's it at the moment. Tommorow I will finish my blanks on belt grinder. I am so excited. My blanks are looking more like knives now. I really can't wait till tommorow.

Part 2

I have finished cuting out my blanks. I thought that it will be easier but it wasn't. The point is that most of tools I have are suppose to be used on woods not on the steel. Anyway  after two morning blanks are ready. If everything will be good I will start cutting bevels tommorow.

Part 3

Today I tried to create bevels on my survival knife. I thought that it will be much easier but without proper belts and belt sander it's vaery hard to do. I had to raise belt a little bit but then it was biting in to the table. I laid my belt flat and was grinding bevels free hand. I must admint that a lot of practice is neccesary on grinding bevels. I will continue that tommorow and will try to make even bevels on both sides.

I have marked center of the edge:

And marked plunge line:

My first bevels which I am not happy with. Will continue tommorow.

Part 4

Today it was another grinding day. I really regret that yesterday I didn't prepare like today. First of all I did modify my belt sander. It's only temporary mod but it work well for me today and it really stabilise my hand.
I have super glued a piece of wood on the plate to raise a belt a little bit and then I screwed plate on it. The point is that plate was to low so I just used two pieces of board and clamped it. I will do proper table when I will be back from my holiday. A problem iwth my construction was that I didn't have a lot of space on the right side. Anyway this help me a lot and my today's grinds were much better than yesterday.

Safety first:D It is not ''The Top Gun'' helmet:D

After some grinding I wanted to check reactivity of O1 steel.

 Today's work. I dont't have proper belts. I think that my belts are suppose to cut wood not steel. Anyway today was much better than yesterday. Now I will wait for new belts. TBC

Part 5

Hello. I finished my knives a while ago but I didn't update my blog. This is why I will explained in few word what I have done.

Here is my neck knife ready for heat treating. I sent it to Longstrider and he heat treated my blades up to 60 HRC.

 My blades after heat treating. Longstrider had to grind of some material because I made it to thin.

Here you can see preparation of materials for new handle. Ref fiber spacers and spalted beech.

 Polishing the blade:

Driling holes for pins:

 Shaping and polishing of handle:

 My first knife is ready:D:D

Time for new sheath made out of the kydex:

And ready sheath with my neck knife inside:

Then it was time for sujihiki. Unfortunately i broke when I was straightening it. I thought that I will leave it like this and it will be more like Takobiki knife but I couldn't do that.

 

I changed the shape of the tip. I am very happy with it. It doesn' cut that bad at all and it is very sharp. I've still got some work to do because we use belt grinder on JNS gathering 2013 and we thinned the blade a little bit. Now it will cut even better:D

Conlusion:

I have to say that I am happy with what I have done. Obviously it can be done way better than it is but these were my first knives and it cannot be perfect. I am mostly happy with my neck knife because it really looks cool and it is very sharp. I am using it as my utility knife which can be used for everything and I will not mind to abuse it. I took it to JNS gathering 2013 in Denmark and guys said that it is really not bad as for the first knife. I had a chat with Klaus which is the hunter and he said that this knife is very good for hunting. It is small, pointy and sharp. I am not sure that I will try to make more knives soon because I have plenty of Wa handles to do but if I decide to do that then I will definitely try to make another bushcraft knife.