Savino teaches you how to build a knife.

[fanglekai]

1084 or 1080 are good steels for beginners, but 1095 is not. In general hypereutectoid steels aren't good for beginners because of the heat treatment protocol.

[fanglekai]

What is the thickness behind the edge? What primary angle are you grinding them down to?

[Number13]

They aren't labeled, so consider them 1-whatever, from top to bottom.

http://s4.postimg.org/835zbhvwd/knife3333333333.jpg


Don't pick the second one actually though, I am not ready to make that one.  For, reasons.

The fourth one looks nice enough and simpler too.

[Savino]

What is the thickness behind the edge? What primary angle are you grinding them down to?

What angle?  I don't know man.  I am amateur still.  I work with 1/8th inch thick steel now, use an 1/8th inch drill bit to scribe my line across the edge, grind it down to that, heat treat it, then make quick even passes until it is sharp and jagged, at which point I take it to the "buffer wheel", and finish the edge to a point where you cannot tell the difference between a razor slice to newspaper, or one of my knives edges with the naked eye, seems pretty sharp to me even if the geometry isn't perfectly set.

The fourth one looks nice enough and simpler too.

Actually, unless I am mistaken, I chose that same one for the work knife I want to make for myself.  http://s22.postimg.org/zffl5mm1t/kn_ife.jpg  The last one from the bottom, though, I have modified the shape slightly to my own liking.

I'll post it when it is done, however I will make another, like I said in detail.  As close to that as I can and we will see how it turns out.

I won't have much time though, I need to finish the one I just talked about, and the other for a friend, which is the last one in that picture.  From there, i'll do this next one for the thread.

[fanglekai]

What is the thickness behind the edge? What primary angle are you grinding them down to?

What angle?  I don't know man.  I am amateur still.  I work with 1/8th inch thick steel now, use an 1/8th inch drill bit to scribe my line across the edge, grind it down to that, heat treat it, then make quick even passes until it is sharp and jagged, at which point I take it to the "buffer wheel", and finish the edge to a point where you cannot tell the difference between a razor slice to newspaper, or one of my knives edges with the naked eye, seems pretty sharp to me even if the geometry isn't perfectly set.

The fourth one looks nice enough and simpler too.

Actually, unless I am mistaken, I chose that same one for the work knife I want to make for myself.  http://s22.postimg.org/zffl5mm1t/kn_ife.jpg  The last one from the bottom, though, I have modified the shape slightly to my own liking.

I'll post it when it is done, however I will make another, like I said in detail.  As close to that as I can and we will see how it turns out.

I won't have much time though, I need to finish the one I just talked about, and the other for a friend, which is the last one in that picture.  From there, i'll do this next one for the thread.

Angle cubes are $20. Calipers are cheap and you could measure the thickness behind the edge. If you aren't interested in the technical side then it's no biggie. I read knife forums including a couple technical ones.

[Savino]

What is the thickness behind the edge? What primary angle are you grinding them down to?

What angle?  I don't know man.  I am amateur still.  I work with 1/8th inch thick steel now, use an 1/8th inch drill bit to scribe my line across the edge, grind it down to that, heat treat it, then make quick even passes until it is sharp and jagged, at which point I take it to the "buffer wheel", and finish the edge to a point where you cannot tell the difference between a razor slice to newspaper, or one of my knives edges with the naked eye, seems pretty sharp to me even if the geometry isn't perfectly set.

The fourth one looks nice enough and simpler too.

Actually, unless I am mistaken, I chose that same one for the work knife I want to make for myself.  http://s22.postimg.org/zffl5mm1t/kn_ife.jpg  The last one from the bottom, though, I have modified the shape slightly to my own liking.

I'll post it when it is done, however I will make another, like I said in detail.  As close to that as I can and we will see how it turns out.

I won't have much time though, I need to finish the one I just talked about, and the other for a friend, which is the last one in that picture.  From there, i'll do this next one for the thread.

Angle cubes are $20. Calipers are cheap and you could measure the thickness behind the edge. If you aren't interested in the technical side then it's no biggie. I read knife forums including a couple technical ones.

It's not that I'm not interested, its just, well, there is sooo much to absorb to make a real fucking proper knife... Learning about steels, different grind types, the shape and look of the knife, heat treating, wood working, shop safety, ect ect ect.  I am taking it step by step really.  I know some about steel, how to deal with it, I am learning how to work with wood, I am reading user manuals for all the tools I use, plasma cutter, drill press, bench grinders, angle grinders, these are some scary fucking tools.
Eventually yes, I will be trying to dial in the angles exactly right and have perfect geometry and all that good shit, because you have to if you want a perfect knife, but right now, all my edges slice paper as clean as any razor, so I am happy with that for the moment.

[Savino]

Gonna be fucking around, doing some sanding and shit in my kitchen tonight.  Guess ill take some pictures, nothing exciting though.

[Savino]

Well, not much exciting, as I said... All I did was work a bit of wood down to a reasonable thickness for a handle.  Shitty soft wood, to match the shitty practice knife..  It will look nice with the wood varnish and stain I've bought though..
Also, just polished up the said practice knife a bit to test the new sandpaper, didn't go as hard as I could have, that will come after the heat treat and such..  Went from like 120 grit, to 600.  120, 2something, 400, and 600 I believe was the progression.. Though, I only spend a minute or two on each, had other stuff to do and this was just killing time.

Before:
http://s27.postimg.org/a92sg78c3/1workbefore.jpg

After:
http://s27.postimg.org/x45oiuyur/1workafter.jpg
All I did was flip it over for some reason, I worked both sides the same.  I imagine had I spent 5X as much time on each grit, it would be pretty fucking shiny..  We will see...

Here is a skinning knife I am making for a friend..  So far its the knife I've been putting the most work into.. I bough all the different sand paper for it, a bunch of stain and varnish for the handle, ect.  I even stamped it on the other side with my makers mark, and serial number (01, lol)  I made the mark from "hardened" type writer keys, they stamp into hot steel very nicely.  Though, I won't show you my mark yet..
http://s27.postimg.org/pqqajwesz/1friend.jpg

Here's what I was sanding with for the most part, trying to thin out some soft wood for my practice knife handle.  60 grit sand paper, taped to my counter top.
http://s27.postimg.org/n84lj7t2r/1paper.jpg

Here's how thin I made it for now..  This is like 1/4th as thick as each piece was.. It was a plank from a particularly nice pallet I found at work.  With stain, and varnish, it should look nice enough.
http://s27.postimg.org/49jmqacxf/1shavedwood.jpg
http://s27.postimg.org/ybjmb2oz7/1wood.jpg

And here is what I was using to keep my fucking kitchen free of fire hazard wood shavings...
http://s27.postimg.org/n5kpwdpf7/1shopvac.jpg

Basically taped the big wide attachment to the edge of my counter, thing is STRONG.  Almost all wood dust got sucked down immediately, and I used it to clean up the extra frequently.


And here, is the first 1084 knife I made, for use at work.  Fully hardened and tempered.  At least a few weeks old, can't be sure exactly.  It's been worked hard, cutting everything from boxes, plastic, paracord, whatever, and I have only sharpened it lightly once since then, but here it is, going to work on a piece of generic computer paper..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIE7DPtzXX0&list=UU8rvUdhK_CpTmzx7vChdACw
Holds a pretty good edge I think.


You cunt's better reply.  I am putting in work to make this thread worth a read, you could do the same.

[fanglekai]

Computer paper is way too thick to demonstrate sharpness. Use phone book paper. This knife is decently sharp but it could be better.

http://youtu.be/vwPEYU1l-sE

[Savino]

Computer paper is way too thick to demonstrate sharpness. Use phone book paper. This knife is decently sharp but it could be better.

http://youtu.be/vwPEYU1l-sE

Yeah, spyderco is no joke.  I've seen some of their knives slice through half a dozen full water bottles like air, over and over, and over.

In my defense, this knife hasn't been sharpened in at least a week, and it has cut a dozen boxes, like 3lbs of plastic, a bunch of rope, and some other shit since.

Still, I know, I'm amateur..  I'm learning at least.

[fanglekai]

I find that most knives aren't very sharp out of the box for my standards. That Military needed a bit of work. The steel is S30V, which isn't super fine grained, so it ends up with a "sticky sharp" edge, where if you very very carefully and gently test the edge on your thumb it will grab and feel "sticky" with almost no pressure at all. If you put much pressure it's going to cut.

I wouldn't be able to make a decent knife without a lot of work and reading up. Mainly I wanted to show that you should strive for a baseline sharpness level that doesn't have to be super technical. I like phone book paper because it's very thin, it's pretty uniform, and I can use 1 phone book for a long, long time. Computer or printing paper is way too thick. A knife has to be very dull to not cleanly slice computer paper.

What are you using to sharpen? Sharpening technique is a big part of knifemaking and knife maintenance. You don't need a ton of equipment. Once you grind the main bevels you should finish by hand on a stone. Even a cheap $20 Norton India or Crystolon (silicon carbide) stone would be plenty for the low carbide steels you're using. Free handing does take a bit of effort and practice, though. I tend to reprofile/shape the bevels on a stone, then finish up on the Sharpmaker so I get a more uniform edge.

[Rook]

I've currently been forging.. or more specifically, grinding down a bunch of old lawn mower blades I've had lying around. They are actually shaping up to be some pretty decent machetes of a sort. Ive found the metal to be of an appropriate thickness, and yet easily malleable on a grinding wheel. I've read elsewhere that they are even easily tempered or its easy beating out the curvature in some of these old blades by even using a standard fire due to the low carbon content.. I'll try to post some pics when one if actually complete.. trying some different styles on each.. they're definitely rough, I wont even try to boast any form of expertise on knife making.. Just a little diy project I've been recently inspired upon, and for a rough outdoors machete.. it doesnt have to look beautiful.

[fanglekai]

The thing about machetes is you can get a cheap imacasa or tramontina for....cheap. Machetes are meant to be cheap and decent central/south american ones are under $20.

[1983]

The thing about machetes is you can get a cheap imacasa or tramontina for....cheap. Machetes are meant to be cheap and decent central/south american ones are under $20.

I think I got two Tramontina machetes from Brazil and those things are some of the best work horse machetes I've found out there on the open market. I have to resharpen the one because it's seen allot of action but they're built right with a blunted front for over strikes.

That being said the first machete I made looks something akin to an Egyptian sword.



I unfortunately don't have a picture of it because it was stolen out of my truck a few years back but for a crude piece of hand forged metal I've never seen something work so hard and take as much abuse as this thing did, I used it for just about everything including de-grouting tiles, Starting my truck, Chopping down trees and brush, cutting up a warehouse of insulation, ect.

Al