Knife Thread: All about Knives and other edged tools

[Nader393]

The blade has to be heat-treated, so I made a forge out of an old charcoal chimney starter, bolted on some screws for legs, lined with mixture of plaster and sand, insulated with fiberglass furnace matting. Fired with a butane torch. Quenched in some old cooking oil. Then tempered in a cheap toaster oven I bought on Amazon just for this purpose.

[Nader393]

Then I decided to get a little more serious. I wanted a shop knife, a bad-ass chopper that I could beat on and not worry about. I stuck with 0-1 tool steel since it's good stuff and I already bought a bunch for this new winter hobby.

Took some home-made clay, and squeezed it to shape a grip. Cut the pattern on the steel using my band saw and bench-top mill with a carbide burr. Decided I like the look and feel of thumb jimping on the blade spine, so I cut those on the band saw as well. That other blank is another blade I was making simultaneously, experimenting with a Wharncliffe type blade.

[Nader393]

I felt like a shop chopper should be heavy and balanced, so I wanted copper liners for the scales to offset the blade weight. First, I had to make brass threaded inserts to mount the scales. Did this with my bench lathe and some hand tools. Then cut some copper sheet to fit the handle. Scales will be a nice jade-colored G10 material. When the copper oxidizes, it should match nicely.

Those are titanium, fine-pitch hollow fasteners which I intend to use for the scales. I used stepped drill bits to cut the inset in the scales' mounting holes for the fasteners to have a near-flush mount.

[Nader393]

Came out nicely! Custom grip for my hand. Heavy, but balanced. Still needs heat treating and tempering, which I'm saving for later when I have a batch of blades done to do all at the same time.

[Nader393]

Then I decided to make a Kydex sheath. It requires the flat Kydex sheets, heat-proof foam, the good ole toaster oven, and a home-made press. I could have done better incorporating the belt loop, but I'm satisfied that the blade snaps in to the sheath with a nice click. Okay for a first attempt.

[Nader393]

Made most of another knife. Still needs more sanding of the scales, beveling of the blade, forge and heat-treat, then final edge. Then a sheath. Made this knife smaller to follow our state's 3.5" carry rule. Same deal with 3/16" 0-1 tool steel, G-10 scales, and hollow Ti fasteners. I like the translucence of the scales in the last picture.

[Exodus_2pt0]

This is awesome.

[myinfernalbmw]

Good work and thanks for sharing those. I dig you choice in scale material. I too hope to make the leap into making in the near future. I'm working on building a 2x72 grinder right now. Just need to source a few more parts and I should be making sparks soon hopefully.

These two are in my pockets every day-

[Nader393]

Made another. This time a Wharncliffe shop knife. Usual 3/16" O-1 tool steel, G-10 scales in natural green, hollow titanium fasteners. I like to be able to disassemble my knives for cleaning and replacing scales. I don't like the idea of glue and permanent pins or rivets on a working knife. Pictures are otherwise self-explanatory:

[Nader393]

Finished product. Not perfect, not pretty, so it's more likely to be used as intended. It's a Seattle knife, so I coffee-etched the blade for patina. Used fancy espresso, because I don't mess around.

[Rob]

damn, awesome work on those!

[Nader393]

Then I made this Minecraft chisel/knife. Needs more work.

[LowR3V'in]

here's a zero tolerence flipper it actually feels good.
allot of cutting power the clip is very tight blade tight.
great knife. alittle too heavy for me though to be edc.

Ztknifvez by jet jones, on Flickr

[Rob]

What's a good, beefy flipper in the sub-$100 range? I lose knives way to often to carry/use anything more spendy than that

[myinfernalbmw]

If you're OK increasing that to around $150-160 you can get into some really nice knives like a ZT. The 0566 specifically or 0450 for a something a bit fancier. That would be my recommendation for a strong flipper. ZTs are built solid with great steel and is going to be a little more fun to flip than one of the 0300 series as shown above. I used to carry a 0302 and it was built like a brick shithouse. The authoritative THWACK when you opened it was very satisfying, but the action was like a barn door opening and it was huge in the pocket.