# i want to make a knife. bare with me.



## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

been looking around for a special knife that i want but cannot find anywhere for the life of me and am wondering how hard/expensive it would be for me to make my own.

i have access to a machine shop with all of the mills,lathes, lazer/water/plasma cutters and tools a man will ever need, what i want to do is make a drawing of the knife i want and get it made in the shop sans-edge and then take the blank to a knife maker and get an edge put on it...will a knife maker do this? what is the "trick" to making a knife? thickness taper? what can i do take make his job easier?

or is the minimal price difference between him making the whole thing and putting an edge on my blank so small i should just have him do the whole thing?

i get materials cheap and machining/welding/coating for trade in beer/booze.

what I'm looking for and correct me on my terminology if I'm wrong as I'm not a knife guy, i just know what i want.

is a "reverse blade"- "d guard"- "bowie" knife kind of like this...but meaner and a bigger guard, lol


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

Heat treating the blade (temper). Is what makes a knife hold a edge. The carbon content for a good knife is important. The higher the carbon the harder the blade can be made. 
The drawback is the more carbon and temper you use the more britel the medel becomes. Before you start I would sugest you find a reputable knife maker around your area, or some one you want to use. Ask them about price. 
I have made a couple knives and would not put a temper on a blade I didn't make. Some knife makers will though. 
1. Start with good high carbon steel. (I use old saw mill blades). 
2. What are you making it for hacking like a machettie. Or just cutting? (This will help determin the thickness the blade needs to be.) Also if its for hacking you don't want much temper. Hope I was some help. 

speak softley and carry a big stick


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

This is one I made from a sawmill saw. Deerhorn handle.









speak softley and carry a big stick


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

md1911 said:


> Heat treating the blade (temper). Is what makes a knife hold a edge. The carbon content for a good knife is important. The higher the carbon the harder the blade can be made.
> The drawback is the more carbon and temper you use the more britel the medel becomes. Before you start I would sugest you find a reputable knife maker around your area, or some one you want to use. Ask them about price.
> I have made a couple knives and would not put a temper on a blade I didn't make. Some knife makers will though.
> 1. Start with good high carbon steel. (I use old saw mill blades).
> ...


yeah I've been reading about the steel types, looking at D2/A2/01/440c or possible this stuff
http://www.knifeart.com/talbychucbyb.html

i plan on handing the guy something that looks like this








or this









but in the shape i want, basically i want to just cut the shape from the steel on one of our waterjet machines and let the knife maker do the "ART" part of the knife making, i just don't know enough about knife making to know if it works like that, you mention tempering, i wasn't planning on doing that bit, just basically handing the guy a blank...


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

md1911 said:


> This is one I made from a sawmill saw. Deerhorn handle.
> 
> View attachment 2172
> 
> ...


nice! magnus is making me want to get into this more and that pics helps to haha, i'm also looking into how to put an edge on things and such, i've made plenty of sharp parts of steel before by accident i just hop i can do it on purpose and do it as to where it'll hold an edge, haha


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

If you start with good metel then the knife maker should be able to do the rest. Good luck I enjoy making knifes.

speak softley and carry a big stick


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Ration-AL said:


> been looking around for a special knife that i want but cannot find anywhere for the life of me and am wondering how hard/expensive it would be for me to make my own.
> 
> i have access to a machine shop with all of the mills,lathes, lazer/water/plasma cutters and tools a man will ever need, what i want to do is make a drawing of the knife i want and get it made in the shop sans-edge and then take the blank to a knife maker and get an edge put on it...will a knife maker do this? what is the "trick" to making a knife? thickness taper? what can i do take make his job easier?
> 
> ...


Hooo.haven't seen one of those erzatz Ranger knives in years!

I'd start with a 3/16ths" X 3" piece of leaf spring, cold forge it in my 6 ton press[soon to be 12!] cut a 1/2"X2" slot in the butt for a 1/2" hot roll rod, grind off all the scale and slag in the weld area and weld that bad boy with a 7018 and cover it in sand to anneal.depending on what the colors told me when I was welding I might go ahead and torch the point on it, but if it stays "in the straw" I'd use a friction blade to shape it.Then I'd get a 1/2" wood spade drill and make a bunch of Walnut or oak washers, enough to put one every 1/2" on the grip and fill in the rest with PVC washers or leather.as for the "D" guard, I'd cut out 3 small skill saw blades about 2" from the bottom of the teeth, drill 4 matching holes and use nuts as spacers and 1/4" bolts as rivets, cut 3 slots to fit the blades top and bottom in heavy 1/2" washers and silver them in or TIG weld them.thread the butt of my grip with a 1/2" die and hold the whole thing on with a big brass nut.


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

soo i just went into the shop and grabbed some rem's from the shelf i got

a piece of 4142 in
3/8'x13x2.5

a piece of A2 in
3/16x13x8

a piece of s-7 in
3/4x 5.5 x 6

of these which is my best starting point? from my reading sounds like the 4142 is the stuff....we got a bunch more types laying around, i just looked for stuff over in the tooling steel sections....if all of these are not what i want then let me know, we didn't have L6 so i went with s-7 we didn't have 440 so i went with 4142...

@magnus
pretty cool knife huh! i love the old ranger knives but i wanted one with an reversed blade can't find them, the only reverse blade ranger/bowie type knife i've ever seen was on this show @ 8 min 50 sec





and that was it i was sprung, i must have one of those, lol


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

I'd go A2, but only if I had access to a band saw and a drawing oven, so probably 4142 otherwise.neither really like being torch cut so I'd use a friction saw or band saw.got any O1? I mostly use it.


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## efbjr (Oct 20, 2008)

*Awesome website...*

Check this out knife builders:

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/content.php


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Great for anybody over there.ever been to cold steel's page?


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

so i'm slowly moving along on my first ever knife, here's a model i made of the basic shape, i'm going to basically trace and cut the shape out, i went with a very simple shape because frankly i suck and don't know what I'm doing, i figure with this shape it will be easier for me to learn how to grind and produce a working knife, got any advise, like should i now proceed to actually making this thing or is there something i should change first? i just don't have an eye for this yet and don't want to scrap a bunch of good material because i suck, lol, this is my baseline, i can go bigger and better shapes from here, i just need a good simple design to learn on.


















thanks a ton guys and appreciate it.


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## Woodsman-uk (Jun 12, 2012)

Ive had a go at making a few knife types with varying results and found that a full tang is a stronger design for the type of abuse that I use it for.


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## zracer7 (Apr 17, 2012)

Haha as soon as I read the description of the knife you wanted I immediately thought of Sons of Guns. Someone beat me to post the vid. The one on the show was left handed tho. Very nice knife tho... And a whole different approach to fighting techniques in order to use it.


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Ration-AL said:


> so i'm slowly moving along on my first ever knife, here's a model i made of the basic shape, i'm going to basically trace and cut the shape out, i went with a very simple shape because frankly i suck and don't know what I'm doing, i figure with this shape it will be easier for me to learn how to grind and produce a working knife, got any advise, like should i now proceed to actually making this thing or is there something i should change first? i just don't have an eye for this yet and don't want to scrap a bunch of good material because i suck, lol, this is my baseline, i can go bigger and better shapes from here, i just need a good simple design to learn on.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice paint shopping!:2thumb:

I'd make it a bit thicker and sharpen the back edge about halfway back to increase utility and penetration.made one a few years back on similar lines out of a worn out file.


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

zracer7 said:


> Haha as soon as I read the description of the knife you wanted I immediately thought of Sons of Guns. Someone beat me to post the vid. The one on the show was left handed tho. Very nice knife tho... And a whole different approach to fighting techniques in order to use it.


haha, right , i saw that show and had to have one of those knives, i liked everything about it! I don't know much about knife fighting but when "playing" around i naturally want to hold my knife and use it like the way they described that one being used, this piqued my interest and has spurred me into getting into this realm of things, got any sources of info i should be reading about how to use that beast? reverse bowie knife fighting techniques? lol


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## Ration-AL (Apr 18, 2012)

Magus said:


> Nice paint shopping!:2thumb:
> 
> I'd make it a bit thicker and sharpen the back edge about halfway back to increase utility and penetration.made one a few years back on similar lines out of a worn out file.


 hahaha,jerk, j/k, we're cool...

i'll get get around to making it soon enough and then it'll be more then just a painting! but your right until then it's just art, lol, that said, i suck and have no eye for this yet, so i figured i'd draw one up,plot it out, and trace the basic shape on to my block of material, cut out the shape leaving a little bit ,then grind down to a final basic shape, then get someone who knows WTF their doing to show my how to create a good edge....

sooo, like i said i suck and basically don't want to scrap a bunch of material trying to get a knife like shape on the ban saw and grinder by trying to eye ball a bunch of shapes that i'm not familiar with. lol

so buddy, let me just say i appreciate the free education and don't mind a little ribbing, it's just great to have someone to slap me around until i know whats going on , haha, so with that i want to ask you why do you mean about


> sharpen the back edge about halfway back


am i running the edge grind on the backside of the knife all the way back towards the handle ? this is what i picture from your instructions.

thanks a ton again man, this is my first go and i'm sure it'll be fugly as all hell, but hey i learn best by doing so i hope by the time i get to my reverse bowie knife project i'll know enough to be able to pull it off reasonably even if i have to take it to get professionally sharpened.:dunno:


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Aw man I should post the pic of my first knife. the file teeth still show, the grips came from a soda case and then I burned a swastika into the handle to make it bad ass.

Yes,I was 12.

No man,on the opposite of the cutting edge, sharpen it like a dagger or a false edge if you prefer but only go half the length of the blade, it gives increased strength and penetration power over a simple dagger. think m-16 bayonet.


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## zracer7 (Apr 17, 2012)

Ration-AL said:


> haha, right , i saw that show and had to have one of those knives, i liked everything about it! I don't know much about knife fighting but when "playing" around i naturally want to hold my knife and use it like the way they described that one being used, this piqued my interest and has spurred me into getting into this realm of things, got any sources of info i should be reading about how to use that beast? reverse bowie knife fighting techniques? lol


I would suggest Krav Maga as a good knife fighting technique but it doesn't really have much extensive reverse edge based techniques. The fighting style for the knife you are making was used in the civil war/ revolutionary war so I am sure finding someone to teach the technique may be next to impossible. Possibly look at some of the hardcore civil war reenactment shows. Some of those guys are actually full fledged historians on the era and may have a little more incite.


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## zracer7 (Apr 17, 2012)

Magus said:


> No man,on the opposite of the cutting edge, sharpen it like a dagger or a false edge if you prefer but only go half the length of the blade, it gives increased strength and penetration power over a simple dagger. think m-16 bayonet.


Plus if you go halfway and leave the rest of it flat you have a good surface to use a mallet to cut wood or provide more stability like you said. But that's just me. You may already have another knife designated for wood cutting or abuse. :dunno:


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