Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but practice does make you better. Since I decided to start forging my own knives instead of using kits, I’ve made a few so far. And I reached out to a couple friends to help me spread the word while I work on these skills.
One friend took me up on this offer, asking if I could make one for him, and this is the result:
I want to make a note that there are a plethora of ways this can be done. This is the way I chose to make this particular knife, and methods change depending on design, available tools, and the mood you happen to be in the day you make whatever you’re working on.
Much of what I’ve learned came from Red Beard Ops, so I felt that it was necessary to recognize that here.
I started out with a piece of 1084 steel. My buddy gave me an idea of what he wanted, and this is the basic design.
I started by cutting away the majority of the stock with a combination of a reciprocating saw and an angle grinder. As you can see in this photo, the design changed a little from the first photo.
After removing the majority of the unwanted material, I used a belt sander and oscillating spindle sander to get the shape of the knife the way I wanted it.
Once I had the shape ready, I sanded both sides of the knife, working my way to 1000 grit sandpaper. As you see here, it looks pretty rough before sanding.
I created this jig a while ago when I made my first knife, and the idea came from Walter Sorrells. Since I have to use what I’ve got for now, I used my belt sander for this. But if I continue to make more knives in the future, my plan is to purchase either a 1-inch or (most likely) 2-inch belt grinder.
I didn’t get a photo at all, but I did drill a couple holes for the pins, and then I did a couple more for the epoxy to be able to adhere better when attaching the handle material.
After the blade was ready, I heat treated it based on the advice from the Red Beard Ops video. I got a video of the forging process, but I didn’t include the four hours of tempering.
Here it is after heat treating. Not much to look at right now.
After heat treating, I sanded the knife flat, starting at 220 grit and moving up to 5000 grit. I also cleaned up the bevel at this point.
I then used my Work Sharp knife sharpener to grind in the 20-degree angle of the blade. It started at 220 grit and went up from there. We ended up sharpening this knife after the entire knife was completed anyway. But oh, well.
My buddy wanted to design the handle, so he came over so we could finish his knife together.
I didn’t get any photos of the glue up process, but I have videos on this. The video is a couple years old, and I’ve improved on my tools and skills since then.
We started by making the rough shape of the handle using the spindle sander, belt sander, and disc sander.
After he got the basic shape, we epoxied the bloodwood pieces to the knife and then finished getting the shape exactly the way he wanted.
Here’s the completed knife. As I mentioned earlier, we did sharpen this after the photo.
Overall, I’d have to say I’m pretty happy with this knife. Plus, I got to design and work on it with (and for) a good friend of mine, and we got to spend some quality time together.