# Making Knives, Tools of the Trade



## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

We have been busy in the workshop lately. I think good knives will be a useful commodity for life and trade in the near future. Some are made from files, some from tool steel, some are stainless. Do not let anybody tell you that hand made knives do not last. Many in the picture were made before the bicentennial of the USA. My uncle made the older ones, he still makes them now, but I was lucky enough to be around and learn the trade from him.

I have lots of Studebaker springs, older cut files, and tool steels. It is nice to take a piece of metal and make a useful item out of it.


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## purecaffeine (Nov 2, 2011)

Very cool!


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

I'm headed to the shop later myself,I do love a blade with a rolled edge!no machine can tap that out yet.

Nice work on the handles,what did you use to carve them?

Ever use a broken wrench as a blade?they never go dull!


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

purecaffeine said:


> Very cool!


Thank You>


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

Magus, I have thought about beating out an end wrench, but I have so much already flat things around here that I just haven't done it yet. My brother has a stack of chain saw bars off of a tree cutting machine that I am gonna grab. They are maybe 40" or so, I think I can make some large hackers out of them, and they are extremely tough. If one gets bent, it is nine kinds of you know what to straighten them out. I have some black walnut that came from the courthouse where arguably the first secession papers for the civil war were drawn up. The lighter handles are Bois D' Arc (bodark) and some are sassafrass. All turn out pretty. The other handles are some type of resin that my uncle used many years ago, maybe 35-40 years old. I always got his extra knives when I was a kid. I am thinking of making a survival line with tough plastic handles held on with large hand made steel rivets. More for function than form. Thanks for looking.


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## 1969cj-5 (Sep 14, 2011)

I have a good stack of railroad spikes than I plan on turning into knives one day.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

My next project.  Something from a dream and a brush knife.
I use 1/2 inch all thread as rivets and gorilla glue on my grips when I
make pretty ones.


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

i aquired a spring stack from a Kenworth today. (free) I would like to make some chopping and hacking tools. Any words of advice?


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

JustCliff said:


> i aquired a spring stack from a Kenworth today. (free) I would like to make some chopping and hacking tools. Any words of advice?


That Kenworth stack is going to be pretty thick to work with, maybe pushing 1/2" or so, am I right? Heat the metal good to anneal it and it will be softer and you can beat the curve out of the spring. The slower it cools down, the better. Any edges that you are going to sharpen, go ahead and beat them down thinner so there won't be so much grinding. It is good steel, real good. Go ahead and work it down like you want it while it is soft, then harden it. Heat it, then quench it, keep a file handy to feel how hard it is, do it again if it isn't hard enough for you. It needs to be hard enough to keep an edge, but not too hard to sharpen. Too hard will also make it brittle. Burnt motor oil is good to quench in because it is black with carbon.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

Magus, some wicked designs there. You have captured the Medieval look. That hook blade would be good for getting through a brier and vine thicket, and with the back side sharpened, you can also do some digging with it. Plus, as we know, it would be a deadly hacking tool to catch somebody just under the skull....


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

1969cj-5 said:


> I have a good stack of railroad spikes than I plan on turning into knives one day.


I was digging through a pile of old cross ties, big as a house, to get some to put around the bottom of an animal pen. Saw a few old smushed buckets laying around, maybe the railroad grease buckets, and they had new spikes in them. I felt lucky. It wasn't a lot, but each bucket had a handfull of spikes. I have seen people heat them and twist for a handle and then beat a blade out. Never made one with a spike, myself.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

JustCliff said:


> i aquired a spring stack from a Kenworth today. (free) I would like to make some chopping and hacking tools. Any words of advice?


Quench only in oil, and anything over 1/4" is best used for an axe unless you love to wear out grinding pads.



VUnder said:


> Magus, some wicked designs there. You have captured the Medieval look. That hook blade would be good for getting through a brier and vine thicket, and with the back side sharpened, you can also do some digging with it. Plus, as we know, it would be a deadly hacking tool to catch somebody just under the skull....


Heh. I patterned it after one I saw the army used in the Philippines in the Moro wars.think it was called an "engineer's knife."


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

luckily the springs are mostly flat some are flat. Yea. They are thick but that will not be much of a problem with what i want to do. I have some other springs,files and tool steels to work. I could be doing it now but some bastard stole my anvil. I have priced another one.....it might be a month or 4 before I can get another.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

Heh. I patterned it after one I saw the army used in the Philippines in the Moro wars.think it was called an "engineer's knife."[/QUOTE]

My friends dad had a WW2 knife laying in his shop that was about a quarter inch thick and the end was round. It was a thick heavy thing that could hack down a tree easy, but not for small brush, too heavy to flail around. It was military, for sure, had it burned in the wood handle. I did find an old WW2 machette that I got out of a shed up the road. The old man had died, and his family got what they wanted and let me clean out the rest. It has the arm and hammer logo on it, laying beside a duffel bag that said Phillippines on it, out on a shelf in the barn.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

JustCliff said:


> luckily the springs are mostly flat some are flat. Yea. They are thick but that will not be much of a problem with what i want to do. I have some other springs,files and tool steels to work. I could be doing it now but some bastard stole my anvil. I have priced another one.....it might be a month or 4 before I can get another.


A real anvil is a hard thing to come by these days. My grandads was stole from a locked building down at the old farm where my dad grew up. I got my Papaw's anvil after he passed away. There is one here for sale, it is 350 lbs or so, biggest anvil I ever seen, big price too. Maybe you'll find one, with some luck.


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## efbjr (Oct 20, 2008)

*Awesome resource for knifemaking...*

Check this site out:

BritishBlades - Home


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

JustCliff said:


> luckily the springs are mostly flat some are flat. Yea. They are thick but that will not be much of a problem with what i want to do. I have some other springs,files and tool steels to work. I could be doing it now but some bastard stole my anvil. I have priced another one.....it might be a month or 4 before I can get another.


I just got a loader frame off of a hydro ax tree cutting machine that they broke one side of the boom off. It is a lot of 2" tool steel. Thinking about cutting it up for an anvil. It is maybe 1000#s or so. It was part of the deal for me using my crane to get a stuck pin out and replace the boom. He gave me a 20 ton porta power too. It's still in the bed of my crane truck. I was going to weld it together and try to sell it, but not much market in that now.


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## sugarmagnolia (Nov 21, 2011)

My man says that a lot of times you can get old saw blades from the lumber mills for free. I'd imagine you could get a lot of blanks out of one.


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## VUnder (Sep 1, 2011)

sugarmagnolia said:


> My man says that a lot of times you can get old saw blades from the lumber mills for free. I'd imagine you could get a lot of blanks out of one.


I am sure you can in a saw mill town like Gurdon. Those blades have some good steel in them. I have a large circular blade, but it is a wall hanger for now....


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