Making My First Knife

[coryerndt]

Hello everybody, My Name is Cory and I am 17 years old. I have been looking at some youtube videos of folks making knives with tools the I have at home and I figured that i would give it a go. Now mind you the materials that I am using are not of tool grade steel what so ever, I basically found a chunk of high carbon steel and started to mess around with it. This is basically a trial run so i can get a little practice and experience before I spend money on some good tool steel.



This is what I have so far after one day of fiddling










If you could please leave me some hints or tricks to better myself please do! I have seen some of the things you guys have made and they are absolutely stunning.

[counteryboy5]

Insted of makeing the handle so big i would make it smaller so you can put a nice oak or antler handle on it. You just cut the metal where the handle goes to the size of a pencile then drill a hole in the peace of wood your useing for a handle the same size it needs to be a tight fit. Then before u put the metal in the hole put some type of epoxy or glue in it to seel it shut when it dries. Hope this helps

[cbul]

I see your also a Fire Student good for you! Well I do have a pal who builds knifes near Hayward Wi.
www.rabuckhandmadeknives.com/

I have seen his shop a few times and he will grind a rough shape then use a belt sander to shape the blade. I have 3 of his blades and I really do prefer real steel over stainless crap. Usually takes a few tries to get it right.


There is certainly some satisfaction of building your own tools.
Keep at it!

[mike348]

Looks like the start to a pretty good knife. I don't have any preference with respect to type of steel myself, but a number of my friends are like cbul and prefer the high carbon steel to the stainless. Easier to sharpen and takes a mean edge. One of them dabbles with knife making from time to time, likes using old saw blades for small knives and spring steel for the really big ones. Keep at it, I'm sure its like anything else, practice makes perfect. Good luck.

[Deleted]

Looking forward to seeing the end product

[hntswbow]

Looks like a good start! If you can get your hands on some older table saw blades, they are tempered and make good knife steel. I have built a few saw blade knives for family members and myself. There is a great sense of accomplishment when your skin a turkey or gut a deer with a knife you made yourself.

[rick2]

There are a lot of sites on you tube about knife making and plenty of videos.