SpudFiles

Yesterday I spent about 2 hours in front of my bench grinder with a couple of steel bars, and decided I wanted to make a knife. About 30 minutes later, I already had the start of the edge. Here's what I have so far.







Note, those are both sides, and it is unfinished. I still need to fabricate a handle of some sort, and sharpen the blade a bit more.

What steel do you use?

Labtecpower wrote:What steel do you use?

I have no idea what type of steel. All I know is it rusts in like an hour after contact with water.

Low carbon mild welding flat stock...

Its truly awful metal, I have used some stuff like that before to make a pair of shortswords, it bends easy as but is preetty good if all you want is a showpiece best of luck and post some pics when its completed

Cammy, this stuff does not bend.

I got around to sharpening it some more today, I need to find my old knife sharpening kit, maybe that will help.

Cammy, this stuff does not bend.

It does when you use a meter of it ;D
it looks like its gonna turn out pretty good should it be formed properly, just make sure you get all that black coating it comes with off before you make a handle because nothing sticks to it for some reason! ... or that could just be me but oh well

I don't think this is what you used. What you used sounds like a much thinner type. This is 1/8" thick, so this won't bend. And I don't plan on gluing to it, I plan on drilling through it and using wooden dowels and making a wooden handle for it. I want it to be nice for my first.

Warhead: you are not able to get it sharp whit bench grinder and that seel is awfull. Try getting some high quality steel

Work with what you got and see what you can make of it. Sounds like a plan.

How do you plan to heat treat it, what kind of forge, I guess your doing a concave grind for the blade. Full tang I assume? Do you plan to use it or just use it as a show piece.

well i think its mild steel, so it cant be heat treated. but its good to try with something which doesnt cost much

Well, I got this stuff free, some contractors left it at the hotel my dad manages, and he brought it home for me. So honestly I have no idea what type of steel it is, all I know is that it came from people who put up cable lines.

As to heat treating this, I can't even build a combustion without getting yelled at, how the hell am I supposed to make a forge?

And as to what this is going to be, its more of a show piece, I don't plan on using it since its nearly a foot long.

warhead052 wrote:Well, I got this stuff free, some contractors left it at the hotel my dad manages, and he brought it home for me. So honestly I have no idea what type of steel it is, all I know is that it came from people who put up cable lines.

As to heat treating this, I can't even build a combustion without getting yelled at, how the hell am I supposed to make a forge?

And as to what this is going to be, its more of a show piece, I don't plan on using it since its nearly a foot long.

Are you serious? It's THAT hard for your parents to let you build cannons? I mean my parents are fine with me building this stuff! we REALLY need to get together sometime. Like.. Now. Also, I've made a number of knives out of steel, and it is a huge boner killer. If I were you, I would start out doing something like I first did, which was using the steel backing pieces of a binder, instead of thick steel, they can be easily cut with tin snips, are QUITE strong, and while being pretty, they will last a LONG time. If you would like to know more about binder knives, here's a link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Binder-Knife/


ALSO, about heat treating: If you still decide to continue with this without making a binder knife, do what I do, get and old grill, fill it up with some hardwood, and charcoal, and simply put your blade in. If you use this method, I would drill some 1/2 inch holes in the bottom of the grill, so oxygen can reach the flames. When you're done heating the blade, fill up a large container with some cheap oil, and quickly dunk it in there! (that's what she said.) And that's home forging for CHEAP!! (20 dollars)

make it out of s old file just make sure you keep it cool while you grind if it gets too hot it'll be the same as this one. after you done a quick hit in the oven when you parents aren't home and you will have a all right knife
im not sure how long or how hot the oven will need to be maybe jakethebeast can shed some light on it