Knife "Templates"

S

scjohnson243

Member
Good evening, guys (and gals if any are out there)

I'm a new knifemaker and have quite a few designs sketched out on my sketchpad, I would like to take a few of the ones I plan to make more of and make a sort of pattern with them - I have tried it with a few pieces of 1/4 wood, and T1 wood, but they dont seem to hold together great I was thinking of cardboard, but it would be really neat to have some to keep to build up a "inventory" of them. Do any of you do this? I was thinking this was going to be an extremely simple process, but A few attempts this afternoon didn't turn out like I wanted.

I thought of plexiglass sheet but Im not sure it would work on the grinder, or would it just "melt'...

Any pointers would be Wonderful.

Glad to meet you all, and look forward to many unproductive days at my office while I read these. :)
 
Consider going to the hardware or home store and buying some 1.5" wide mild steel in 1/16" thickness. I make a pattern that way for every blade I've ever made.
 
Mild steel will work as Bossdog pointed out. If you are taiking about making profile patterns? The late Bob Loveless had his patterns profiled out of 1/4 micarta with all the holes drilled up on a peg board when I was in his shop in the mid-90's.

He would cut a length of knife grade steel, clean it up on the flat platen, spray it with Dykem and then scribe around the micarta pattern.

I have my favorites patterns waterjet cut out of my chosen knife steel. the Cutter has files of all my patterns.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com
 
I have a cigar box full of patterns/templates that I have made. Most of them are 1/8" thick mild steel I had laying around. Some are 3/16" thick... some 1/16" thick.
 
Same here...I have templates made for every knife style I have ever made. I make mine out of mild steel either 1-1/2 or 2 inch wide 1/8 thick.
I normally draw a profile of a design I like on paper then cut it out and paste it to my pattern stock with regular elmers glue. Then I cut it out on my band saw and then profile it on the belt grinder. I then smooth the edges with sand paper. I then take my knife steel and coat it with dykem, place my pattern on and hand clamp it with a small "C" vise grip and then scribe around the pattern.
Lasts indefinitely....
 
Thanks everyone, I think I'm going to head to home depot tomorrow and see about getting some mild steel and start working on some templates.

I appreciate the help!
 
Hate to admit it but I only have 3 templates, made of 1/8" steel (because it was handy and doesn't burst into flame if it gets hot :)). Thinner steel would probably be quicker to shape. The 3 templates were for orders where the customer wanted more than one knife and wanted them the same, 99% of the knives I make I start with an idea of the shape and size and free-form it.
 
If you have a scrap yard or a fab shop nearby, try to get some "drops" or cut offs from them. You can get probably 3 to 5 times the amount if steel for your dollar than the big box stores sell it for.


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I've also made some templates out of old license plates (not the REALLY old stamped kind) when I get a new plate for my car. If I'm throwing something out that has any flat, smooth and clean metal (or even plastic or a similarly hard material) I'll try to keep it as well. Never know when it might come in handy for a template or something else.

Another thing I've been trying to so is tranfer some of my more "popular" patterns into a CAD file and back it up on my computer. That way I can just print a sheet of templates out at any given time and start making the knife.
 
I do all my design in CAD (flew a CAD desk for 20yrs so its easy for me )

even before I Got stuff Laser / waterjet cut or now if its one offs etc just print off and stick the paper to the metal center punch the holes grind to the line
or you can glue to card / plastic etc and make a more durable reuseable template
 
I love the idea of cad, and then just printing them out on paper, but not used to CAD so its taking a while to learn the "correct" way for cad... I have downloaded Autodesk Inventor and have been working on it...

I like the idea of the thin metal, so that will be my next attempt while i'm learning the software...

Originally I got the idea while looking at Jay Fisher's site (Omg that guy makes amazing looking knives)

http://jayfisher.com/Patterns_Knives_Custom.htm

Anyway... Thanks everyone for the ideas!
 
I guess I'm too cheap to waste steel on a template, if I'm buying steel, it's getting turned into a knife. What I do is take my paper drawing and cut it out very carefully with the sharpest scissors I can find. I then use spray adhesive and attach my paper drawing to a piece of kydex. After the spray glue is dry, I profile it out the same way I do steel. I then locate a drill my holes for handle fasteners, thong tube, ect. Best way I have found so far to get easily repeatable results and consistency while operating on a shoe string budget.
 
A lot of people mention steel and you seem ok with that, but just in case you can pretty much use anything thats durable and flat (and easily shaped)
You got phonelics likecmiczrta and G10 like mentioned above, you got plexi glass and acrylic. Cardboard even, altho if you want to get serious about knife making i wouldnt advise it
 
me its 1/4 plexi glass I got for free works fine for me but no one ever said I was normal ................not a word boss!:p
 
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