Trying to make my first knife.

R

RMSarah

Member
Hello,

I'm trying to get all the supplies needed to make my first knife. I'm planning on making a EDC neck knife. I have a design all drawn out and ready. I have all the tools I need, bench grinder, assortment of files and sandpapers, buffer, vice. Should I use the bench grinder to cut out the knife or use a saw? What saw blade/grinding wheel would you recommend for that? I don't have any steel yet, I hear o1 tool steel is easy to work with I'm just not sure how well it works as a knife. I don't have a forge but could I use a propane blowtorch or a Charcoal grill?@
Sorry if these questions have been overly asked. @

Thanks for any help you can lend.
@
 
Hey, Rachel. By bench grinder, do you mean one with grinding wheels or a belt? If it has grinding wheels you can use it to profile your knife but it will be tricky to use it to set up your bevels. Files will be better for it but use draw filing, not regular "push" filing. You can look up instructions for draw filing on the net. For general filing I would recommend that a single b@stard cut mill file in the longest size that you can find. Also get one in single smooth cut plus you will need a file card to keep your files clean. A drill press would be nice but most things can be done quite well with a power hand drill.

As far as steel goes I would not use O1. I would go with something like 1070, 1080, 1084, maybe even 5160. You can build a gas forge from an coffee can, ceramic insulation fiber matting, something to coat the matting with, and a propane torch. Another option is to use something like 440C stainless steel and send it out for heat treatment. The $50 Knife Shop by Wayne Goddard will give ideas on how to make/adapt tools for knife making.

Doug
 
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Thanks Doug!

I have a bench grinder with wheels. 1084 steel sounds good to me. Is there a website or forum thread that has more info on the coffee can forge? I don't have a drill press but I have a really nice Dewalt drill. Can I find those files at home depot?
 
Try googling the coffee can forge. The links that I did know have been broken and I don't know any more right off hand. Basically it's a coffee can with the ends cut out, lined with a ceramic fiber matting, and coated with something to keep the ceramic fibers from going airborne. There's also a hole in the side to direct the flame though.

You can probably do most of what needs to be done with a hand drill if you can keep things straight.

You might be able to find mill files at Home Depot but they are likely to be double b@stard cut files. I doubt that they would have single smooth cut. Jantz, at www.knifemaking.com has them or you could find them at MSC Direct. You can get the materials for the coffee can forge, except for the coffee can and the torch, at High Temperature Tools and Refractory. You could get some 1075/1080 from Admiral Steel in 60 inch lengths. Try 1/8" thick and 1 1/2" wide. That's a nice thickness for a blade, especially a small one and the width will give you room to lay out your knife on the bar without the width dictating where the straight lines will go.

Doug
 
I would like to suggest using 1084 from Aldo at the NJ Steel Baron. It works well, is designed to be knife steel. Check out paint can forge on YouTube, same concept, nice there explaining how to build it. My 1st forged knife was made with 1084, my youngest daughter carries it everywhere.
 
You could check out single brick forges too. Probably not as good as a coffee can forge but a one brick forge has got to be the easiest to make. Good luck!

My first couple were in o1 heated in a fire, going with a forge and 1084 will probably produce a better result.
 
if you have a haror freig close thy sell a torch to use for weed killing get a regulator it,s a must for safety they sell files grinder exctera for (us ) begginers good luck ,, look over you tube theres a lot of coffee paint can forges ( ceramic fiber matting) is toxic i,m sure! so coated is a GOOD idea
 
I second the 1084 from Aldo. I do stock removal and send out for HT so I'm not much help with the forge but It might be easiest to start with stock removal then move into forging later. Not that you can't do it, but it is cheaper to just start out.
 
Something like that, but that set up is for melting things. What you want is something that has a horizontal fire chamber which I don't think that the adobe featured in that furnace would hold up to. Also a hole in the back so that the blade can pass through would be better. It would allow you to heat treat a blade that is slightly longer than the fire chamber. Take that basic idea and line the can with a layer of 1" 8# ceramic matting and make a hole through it to admit the flame from the burner. You can put in the black pipe nipple if you want but it's not necessary. Be sure that you don't use a galvanized nipple. Cover the with some refractory to seal the fibers because they can hurt your lungs if you inhale them. They're not really toxic as such but will lodge permanently in your lungs if taken in.

Or, you could make a form for the inside of the can as shown in forming the inside of the furnace and use a castable refractory, which can be obtained from High Temperature Tools and Refractory and other outlets. High Temperature Tools will sell it in 5lb bags and you won't need more. If you did that then I would use the black pipe nipple and take it through the hole in the side of the can and through a hole in the interior form and pack the the castable refractory around it and just leave it installed. Pack the refractory around the sides; don't cover the bottom as they did in the melting furnace. Also move the hole towards the middle of the can, entering on a tangent above the mid-line of the forge. You would let the refractory set for a couple of hours to let it set up then pull out the interior form. Rolled up cardboard would be good. It just has to be rolled heavy enough to stand up to the weight of the refractory, which won't be all that much with something that size. You would then let the lining cure for about a week then slowly heat up the forge to dry it out completely. To do that you just burn your torch inside for about 5 minutes and then allow the refractory to cool. Just repeat it a few times until you don't see any water evaporating off it. Force the drying too fast and the steam could blow out the wall of the forge.

After everything is cured and dried then you could cut the back out of the forge and cast a block of refractory to block it off if your not working with anything that doesn't need to pass through. Rest the forge on a couple of bricks for support and rig some sort of a stand to hold the torch so that the flame is directed into the forge. The flame also needs to enter on a tangent towards the top of the forge so that the work is not directly in the flame as it comes off the torch. You want it in the fire that is swirling around inside the forge. As I said, I don't think that adobe that they used would hold up for long but the castable refractory should work fine. I cast the body of one of my forges with a blown burner entirely from castable refractory and it works great. The wall are thicker but the fire chamber is only 7" deep and it's my main forge. Of course the blown burner is a lot more efficient than a propane torch.

To use it, I would run the torch full open with the flame going into the forge until it is heated up pretty evenly. Then you might be able to turn the flame back a little. If you have to use the pass through port , move your work back and forth in the forge so that the blade heats evenly.

Doug

P.S. I just went back to the link and noticed that they were using a concrete mix for that melting furnace. Not a good idea. Regular concrete can absorb and hold moisture and form steam that could blow out the wall of the forge. Castable refractory is not that expensive and High Temperature Tools and Refractory will repackage it into a 5lb bag and ship it to you in a flat rate postal box.
 
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Get Wayne Goddard's Book! $50 Knife Shop.

This will give you simple directions with pic's to built a one brick forge. Plus many other tips on how to get started on the cheap.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
A great production. Comments: 1) A one inch diameter hole is not going to allow for a very wide blade. Maybe 3/4" max. 2) You really need to take the hole all the way through the block with a longer bit or drill it out through both ends. 3) Those bricks are fragile and will break down with heat. You will need to coat the inside of chamber with something to protect the brick.

A better design would be to get two bricks and a high temperature mortar. When I made one I ground out a half round depression in the sides of the bricks with a half round rasp. Made a heck of a mess so you might want to do this outside. These depressions were made so that when the bricks were attached to each other they left a round chamber. It would be easy to make one 2 1/2-3" in diameter and still leave enough strength in the bricks. Coat the channel with some of the high temperature mortar and then adhere the blocks to each other with some more. You will need to wrap the bricks with wire to reinforce the mortar joint or, better yet, get some metal angle iron with holes drilled in them and cut four pieces with the holes lining up that are longer than the bricks are wide, probably 7-8". Take four bolts with nuts and washers and use these with the angle irons to clamp the bricks together. The angle iron extending below the bricks will serve as legs for your forge. Of course you will need to drill a hole from one side to insert the burner of the torch into. Get a third insulation brick to block the back of the chamber if you do not need to pass the work all the way through.

You may be able to find the insulation bricks and the high temperature mortar locally at a pottery supply house that sells kilns or an online store that sells the same. I know that High Temperature Tools and Refractory sells them because that's where I got mine when the store was under a different name and owner. The rest can be had at any hardware store. Best guess on price would be around $50 with shipping, less if you can find material locally or have some of this stuff, like angle iron, laying around the house. If you kept the frame well away from the flame you might even be able to do it with wood but you would have to watch it. Metal tubing would be a better alternative to wood. Think it through and use your imagination.

Doug
 
I would go with the Cast-O-Lite, that what I made my cast forge from and, no you don't have to use Inswool. However, my heat treating forge, which is built in a large mailbox is Mizzou over three inches of Inswool. The reason that I made it so thick was to take up space and not have a huge fire box. What you're thinking of, though, I'd just cast the walls from a castable refractory using the can as the outer frame and have done with it. The walls of the forge will hold the heat and reflect it back onto the work.

Doug
 
They look good to me, make sure that you get a file card too to keep the files clean. Look up how to draw file, if you don't know how, then practice.

Doug
 
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