My Go with the Bushcraft Build-Along Kit - Very Beginner

Hi all! Waiting for fun stuff to be delivered, so thought I'd post some pics of my first attempt at making a knife from a bar of steel onward. Maybe will be interesting to some other new people. Background: Bought myself a 1x42 grinder earlier this year and sharpened everything I could get my hands on. Got a kick out of that, so ordered a blade blank and added a handle to it. Here's what I ended up with...yes, I took a picture of my knife sitting on my deck rail. I didn't know any better!



Sanded it to 200 grit and liked the grip of the Micarta so I stopped there. Considered contouring the scales a bit more, but they're thin and fit my hands well as-is. So there they are. :3:

While I was working on this, I ran into Josh Dabney's AWESOME WIP and thought it would be great to get the Bushcraft Build-Along Kit found here. Good timing, too! I jacked up the scales I bought for my blade blank, so scavenged the scales from the build-along kit. Those are the black Micarta scales you see up there, with orange G10 liners.

Anyway, I drew out a pattern for what I think I wish my hunting knife was. Here I've boxed out three sections of quad-rule paper the exact dimensions of the 1084 bar included in the kit. Took them to work and made a few copies, just easier to pick up and draw on, although the copier was being fussy this day. The bottom one was abandoned as ugly early on, the middle one stuck.



Used a Sharpie to color up one side of my steel and used a scribe to trace out the pattern - again, see Josh's sweet, sweet WIP to see how I did this. Then drilled holes around the perimeter to ease up time on the hacksaw. In the picture below you can see how my grubby hands wore off a bunch of the color. You can also see where one of my holes went off the mark on the belly. Blade will be a bit shorter because of this, since I had to grind in to get rid of that mistake.



And here I have used the hacksaw to go around the perimeter and cleaned up the jagged edges with grinder and files.



Have some nasty scratches to work on right on the ricasso. The scribe line running from choil to spine is my intended plunge line. The choil is slightly beveled, for lack of a better word, because I dinged it with the hacksaw and left a mark in my drilled hole. (And I'm back on the deck, for those counting.) Also, the more I look at the little tab thing at the end of the handle, the more I want to grind it down. Maybe to 1/3 the size it is now.

My buddy dabbles in woodworking and decided to get out of the exotic woods. Said they're tough to work with and I can have a box of stuff he was getting rid of. I brought it home, read about how cool lignum vitae is, and proceeded to gum up my bandsaw, drill bits, and a grinder belt. Stuff is crazy! Apparently will not require or appreciate stabilization due to the density and oil/wax content, and a good wood for having outdoors. Below I have a shot of one scale, there are purples in there that aren't showing up in my photos.



Also attached a pic of both scales, drilled for pins. I probably should use Corby bolts. If I have a problem with these later on I suppose I can drill out the holes and use Corby's.

I started shaping the front of the scales, where they end on the ricasso. This is what filled up a belt very quickly, and scorched either the oily stuff in the lignum vitae or the G10 liners. Gave up on power and picked up a file - should have done that to start with. SO much easier. Faster, doesn't stink. BTW - I'm using a respirator, and so should you!! Will try hand tools when it's time to shape the scales around the blade. These began slightly curved, but seemed to look strange with my angled plunge lines. Considered dumping the angle on my plunge, but the front of the scale would be sitting right on top of my plunge line and I'm afraid to work back too close to the pin. Would look strange, I think. So now they're straightened to match my planned plunge line. Looks OK. Think I may bring the top and bottom of the scale to the center a bit to shorten the straight line, but I like the general idea. Massive scratches still visible on blade. *laughs*



How do you guys work with liners and scales? On the bushcraft up top, I epoxied everything at once. One scale, one liner, blade, other line, other scale. Should I epoxy liner to scale and work with each as a single side of the handle, then epoxy those units to the blade when the time comes around?

Also have filing coming up (waiting on my new goodies to show up to start that), and have heat treating floating around in the back of my mind. Will hopefully have an update later this week/this weekend.

Thanks for looking - I'm open to advice, as well!

*EDIT* I also need to thank everyone who has posted any little tidbit on this site, without which I would have never had the guts to start this project.

looks good so far.

Looking great thus far !

I prefer to epoxy the liners to the scales first. Then attach those to the tang at "Glue-Up"

-Josh

Thanks, Josh - will epoxy those together before I start shaping the handle.

Received my new fun stuff over the past couple of days - a Bruce Bump file guide and knife vise from Rudy Joly. These are my first tools specifically designed for making knives, and I love 'em. The file guide kept plunge lines straight and even on both sides of the blade, and I expect it will do a lot more if/when I get a decent belt grinder. The knife vise makes my old bench vise feel useful again! Worlds better than horsing around with 2x4's and hoping they'll hold the material in one place - my bench vise is a hand-me-down and doesn't get along well with 2x4's for some reason.

Here's one side shaped, with a quick touch up with 120 grit. Need to finish the sanding in the morning, then start filing the other side. It's all file work on this for me, and I'm used up for tonight.

It did go more quickly than I thought, although there's little chance of accidentally eating through the material. *laughs*



I took my plunge lines too far toward the spine. Think I'm stuck with those at this point. Will clean them up and sand them as finely as I can, hopefully they'll look ok.

My distal taper isn't tapering as much as I expected. Will look it over after I have the other side filed down, and maybe give it some love on my little belt grinder.

Thanks for looking, all. Hope to update again tomorrow with a knife ready for heat treat, and some better lit pics.

Alright, got up before everyone else in the house and started filing the bevel on the left side of the knife. Opened up the garage door to get some decent light and took some pics - didn't have enough light last night to get any pics.

Here's the knife in the vise, ready for action.



And after 30 minutes or so...



And after two hours(!)...



Was almost finished there. Another 20-30 minutes and I called it good.



The distal taper came out fine. I was worried for nothing - it just kind of happened while filing at the tip. Camera angle makes it look lopsided, but it's fairly symmetrical.



Here's a pic of what will be the edge. A little less than a dime, but enough meat there that I would not want to sharpen this by hand.



And after an hour or so of sanding on both sides. Plunge lines still strange from me taking them too high, but I don't think I can do much with 'em.



Hoping to redneck heat treat later today, if I can talk the neighbor into letting me use his firepit. Maybe I can bribe him with some cheap beer. =)

Thanks for looking. If you have suggestions before hardening, I'm happy to hear them!

My backyard fire pit heat treat plan did not work out last weekend, so I ordered some Kaowool and made a paint can micro-forge. Better for ongoing knife work, anyway. Right? =) Got the li'l forge up and running last night, and heat treated my blade this evening - went a bit beyond magnetic and quenched in canola oil. Here's a pic of it after bringing it back in the house to clean off the oil.



A file skates over the blade, so I'm a happy man so far! Had my oven heated up to 400*F according to a digital thermometer. Placed blade in a cast iron Dutch oven to guard against heat spikes when the elements turn on and am tempering right now. Exciting stuff!

Heat treating was much easier/less terrifying than I expected. Hope to finish sanding to 600 grit or so tomorrow, will see how it looks. I'm not looking for mirror finish, a satin look will suffice. Shape my handles, make a sheath, maybe done before this long weekend is over.

Thanks for looking, everyone. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

LH,
Knife is looking good!
Get some satanite and ITC 100 for your forge, it will make it more efficient. At least the satanite to seal the kaowool. you don't want to breath the burnt kaowool.
Fred

very cool , that's getting back to some old style knife making. looking good

Another update -

Have had a bear of a time getting my symmetry right on this handle! It's more contoured than the first handle I shaped, started with thicker scales. It's still not "there" but it's close and I'm starting to worry about shaping it back down to a bare tang. hmy: This has taken WAY more time than I expected.

So, here's some shots during an overcast day, but the best light I can come up with this afternoon. Got some tung oil and am applying that in light coats, will supposedly fill in some of that grain. Couldn't even see those spots before I started with the tung oil. Also put on a forced patina with white vinegar, just to see what it looks like.



And one shot of the bottom, to show how poorly my red liners stand out from the lignum vitae. Live and learn! On the upside, sometimes the light catches it *just so* and those liners glow glow glow.



Ordered steel from Aldo over the weekend and some scales and pins from Boss. Enough to keep me busy through the winter, I think. :biggrin: Still need to make a sheath for this one, probably this weekend. Have some latigo a friend gave me and want to use that up. Saving the leather from the kit until after I get some stamping and tooling practice. In the meantime, the latigo is good for slogging around in the out of doors, even if it's not as prettied up.

Thanks for the comments, Gary, Josh and Pelallito - have had a blast shaping this and watching it come together!

Pelallito - I have a soup can in the interior of my tiny forge. Would you suggest removing that and applying satanite in its place?

Will post a pic of the finished sheath later, and of the handle after more tung oil if it looks vastly different. Until then, thanks for looking!

Looks Great !

A very fine effort on it :35:

Your off and running now !

When you make your sheath it's much better to make the belt loop part of the sheath body than the way I did it in the kit tutorial. My leather wasn't long enough from the kit.

This isn't a how to make a sheath tutorial but the construction is pretty self explanatory. I'd recommend this style for you and any questions just holler-
http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?27930-Leather-Carving-WIP

AWESOME work man !!!

-Josh

Good going Matt.
I just discovered this WIP. It might just be me but your writing style definitely conveys your enthusiasm. I always recommend to people starting out to just use hand tools for their first knives.....makes you appreciate electricity and also just what you're capable of without it. Looks like you're on your way. Thanks for the honorable mention on the vise.

Thanks,
Rudy

Thanks for the kind words and suggestions, guys. I really appreciate it!

Took Josh's advice and made a sheath with an 'integral' belt loop. It's similar to a sheath on a cheapy import Gerber I picked up years ago (coincidentally, the same knife I'm replacing with my homemade one because the Gerber won't keep an edge), so had a model to scrutinize.

Here's an action shot - guess who made a knife that bevels leather more easily than his utility knife? :s11798:



Glued up and stitched - sun came out so I grabbed some quick pics. Notice I went ahead and took off the little tab-like thing at the end of the handle, which I was considering in a previous post. Was bothersome to sand around, and I wasn't sure I liked it anyway. A little extra contact cement is showing at the top of my stitching, but I figure that will wear off at some point.



This leather is latigo, supposedly veg tanned. From what I've read online it doesn't take stamping too well, and I don't have stamps anyway at this point, so plain looks good to me. Ha!

So...this finishes my WIP, which I mostly posted because Josh said he wanted to see what other people came up with using the kit. :3: I used all materials in the Build-Along kit except the leather, which I'm saving until I pick up some stamping tools. The handle material is on the knife in my first post. Steel, pin stock, and epoxy are on the finished product in this post, as is the waxed thread seen in the sheath. Also used one of the needles, which didn't make it into a pic.

Before this build I had never made a knife before. I had done some woodworking maybe 30 years ago, but had no real metalworking experience. My WIP used many techniques provided in JOSH'S AWESOME WIP, but I cheated a little. I used a 1x42 grinder to aid in cleaning up my profile after drilling and hacksawing off most of my excess. Picked up a Craftsman drill press and bandsaw. The drill press has seen a LOT of use. The bandsaw not as much as it can't handle metal. Really, the only things I had to buy were a few Nicholson files and loads of sandpaper.

If I had to name a tool I don't have but wish I did, I would probably say a portaband saw. Maybe in the future a nice grinder, but it's hard to justify that expense at this point.

Did I have fun? Oh yeah! Sixteen feet of 1084 is showing up Wednesday. I can't wait!

Any other potential knifemakers out there should go ahead and take the plunge. Get the Kit from Boss and jump in - you really don't need specialized skills to have a great time and build a great knife.

I'll pretend to be one of the big dogs for a minute...

1084 steel, heat treated by me
4 1/4" blade length, 8 3/4 OAL
Scales are lignum vitae with a hand-rubbed Tung oil finish (several coats yet to apply) and red G10 liners
416 stainless pins
Sheath is brown latigo, also made by me



Thanks for looking! Will post future endeavors in the New to Knifemaking forum. As always, comments and suggestions are very welcome!

Superb !!!

That's a heck of a knife and sheath for a first !!!!

Looking forward to see what you come up with next

-Josh