Hand Made Knives
Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 3:10 am
Here are a couple of hand made knives that I made about 20 years ago. I only made 8 knives total and have not made one in a long time. Since finding this site I may consider making some more.
These are knives #2 and #4 of the 8 total that I made. They are made of 3/16 thick 440C stainless steel and are full tang knives. I made all the brass pieces on the dagger and pinned them in place. The handle scales on the dagger are linen micarta that's a dark burgundy color. When I finished it I said to myself, "never again". Just too much work to get that double edge. I think I had 120 or so hours in making it. The skinner was kind of a fantasy type knife that was modeled after a knife I once saw on the front of a knife book. It was a little easier and I only pent about half as much time making it. It has really old walnut slab handles. I was told that the piece of walnut I used was around 70 years old back then. It has some really wild things going on in the grain that doesn't seem to show so well in the picture.
Both knives were made using the stock removal method. I profiled both knives on a band saw and then used files to work every thing else. No grinder of any kind was used in any part of the process. Stupid, I know. I think this is why I only made a few knives . After filing it came to sandpaper and I mean a ton of it. Started with 250 then 400 to 600 to 800 to 1000 to 1500 to 2000. The whole process kind of burned me out. I know now that there are better ways or at least much easier ways. We will see what the future holds.
I had a friend at the time who ran a machine shop and he was gracious enough to send these blades out for me to get them heat treated. I found that I shouldn't have worried so much about the luster on the blades as when I got them back from him they were mostly black. More sanding followed.
See what you think. Thanks for looking.
Rugmar
These are knives #2 and #4 of the 8 total that I made. They are made of 3/16 thick 440C stainless steel and are full tang knives. I made all the brass pieces on the dagger and pinned them in place. The handle scales on the dagger are linen micarta that's a dark burgundy color. When I finished it I said to myself, "never again". Just too much work to get that double edge. I think I had 120 or so hours in making it. The skinner was kind of a fantasy type knife that was modeled after a knife I once saw on the front of a knife book. It was a little easier and I only pent about half as much time making it. It has really old walnut slab handles. I was told that the piece of walnut I used was around 70 years old back then. It has some really wild things going on in the grain that doesn't seem to show so well in the picture.
Both knives were made using the stock removal method. I profiled both knives on a band saw and then used files to work every thing else. No grinder of any kind was used in any part of the process. Stupid, I know. I think this is why I only made a few knives . After filing it came to sandpaper and I mean a ton of it. Started with 250 then 400 to 600 to 800 to 1000 to 1500 to 2000. The whole process kind of burned me out. I know now that there are better ways or at least much easier ways. We will see what the future holds.
I had a friend at the time who ran a machine shop and he was gracious enough to send these blades out for me to get them heat treated. I found that I shouldn't have worried so much about the luster on the blades as when I got them back from him they were mostly black. More sanding followed.
See what you think. Thanks for looking.
Rugmar
