On the edged weapons market there are many various types knives, but there are still people who want to make their own knife at home. And rightly so, because it will be exclusively their product, original and unlike others.
This article will help a beginner understand the business of making knives in the absence of special conditions and will tell you how to choose the right materials for making knives and in general outline will tell you what to do with them, so don’t judge too harshly :)
To make a knife at home from start to finish you will need:
- blade or material for its manufacture;
— materials for the handle;
- additional parts for making a pommel, guard, bolster - or ready-made ones from the store;
- fasteners (depending on the manufacturing strategy - epoxy, screws, etc.)
Blade for making a knife
First, let's consider the question of what to do with the blade. Firstly, making it yourself at home will be extremely problematic - if you do not have the opportunity to forge a blade yourself, so the best solution will buy a ready-made, for example, Lauri 125 blade made of carbon steel.
Where to buy a blade for making a knife?
There are quite a few sources selling blades prepared for home-made knife making: you can buy them from private craftsmen at guns.ru or at bladed weapons exhibitions, or buy blades in other online stores; Or you can order an industrial blade from the manufacturer, including on Chinese auction sites such as ebay or aliexpress.
There are very high-quality and inexpensive catalogs of blades from Finnish (and Scandinavian in general) manufacturers, I can recommend them.
If you really have difficulty finding a suitable blade, just take a sheet of metal, for example, a sawn-off piece of a spring, give it a shape and work with it.
Of course, the purchased blade should be modified. To do this, you need to take a file or even a circle and rough water stones (if your product is very “raw” and you still need to remove the slopes) and sharpen the blade to the desired type and shape, and then use sandpaper to smooth out any irregularities.
The easiest way to check the quality of a product is this: wipe the finished blade and breathe on it. Perspiration will come off from a high-quality blade without any unevenness, and it will lie there without breaks. In this case, it is better to carry out such an experiment several times and from different sides.
What steel to make a knife from - questions for other articles, you can read the materials on our website, for example the article.
DIY knife handle
Next, let's look at the future handle of your knife. It is best and easiest to take wood for it, since in the future the wooden handle of a self-made knife will look nice, and your hand will not freeze. Absolutely any type of tree is suitable - especially since you are just learning.
The simplest DIY knife handle is made from old legs Soviet tables, chairs, sofas or armchairs, because previously furniture was made to perfection. Using a hacksaw, we cut off the piece to the required length, then roughly cut out the shape of the handle that we would like to see on the finished product. It is also necessary to make a recess in the handle for the shank of your blade - for example, drill it and process it with needle files. Whether this hole is through or not through depends on finished design knife
Ideally, you would also need to draw a rough drawing of a knife that is made at home. You already have a blade for this and the approximate dimensions and outlines of the handle. And according to the drawn layout it will be easier to make a finished knife, finishing it after assembly with sandpaper.
If you already more or less know how to make a knife with your own hands, you can buy blocks of stabilized wood (you will get very beautiful and strong handles), or try to make a handle from birch bark or pressed leather; you can make a wicker handle - there are a lot of options. You will move to the next level of “knife building”, so to speak :)
Important details for making a knife at home
In addition to these two main parts of the knife, there are also additional elements:
The guard is a part specially designed to protect the hand of the knife owner. You can make it from metal or wood, or buy it ready-made in specialized stores. You can make a knife without a guard or a combat rest at all - such a knife is not a bladed weapon.
Bolster - serves both to decorate the knife and to relieve the handle from excessive load. You can make it from wood or metal - for example, make a bolster from a coin or a soldering iron tip.
The pommel of the handle is opposite to the blade and performs functions such as: changing the balance of the finished knife, an aesthetic function (for beauty). Also, the pommel often plays the role of a nut that is screwed onto the shank (if you have a through shank). The top of the knife handle is made from various materials– but it’s better to stick to a single style.
Knife assembly
Having examined all the details of the future knife, putting everything together, a little preparing and processing the constituent ingredients of this “recipe”, you can turn directly to the assembly of the knife itself. To do this you will need a few more simple things: sandpaper for finishing the handle and polishing finished product, two types of binary glue (epoxy and " cold welding"), a hammer or mallet, paper tape (to seal - to protect the blade and other polished metal parts of the assembled knife from scratches when sanding the handle and giving the homemade knife its final shape).
First you need to dilute the epoxy and coat the leather gasket with it, which we then apply to the part of the blade that will be inside the wood - the tang. Next, the “cold welding” is cut and quickly placed at the bottom of the hole drilled in the handle under the tail of the blade, where it is, in fact, inserted.
Gently driving the blade inside with a hammer or mallet will give the knife its final look. It would be ideal to hold the assembled knife with a clamp for a while while the epoxy hardens. In the end, a knife made with your own hands at home will only need to be polished and decorated at your discretion.
As a simpler option, you can make an overhead handle - from two plates (wooden, for example), which are attached to the shank of the blade on the right and left. This type of handle is usually attached with screws, in addition to epoxy, but usually looks simpler.
When you give perfect shape handles and make sure the assembly of your homemade knife– you can start making :)
If you want to make a simple but high-quality knife with your own hands, you can take a closer look at these instructions. The knife reviewed has a simple and elegant appearance, it’s easy to assemble if you compare this homemade product with others. During the manufacturing process, the blade is hardened, which makes the knife not dull for a long time and sharpens well.
For ease of manufacture, a belt sander is required; without it, the process of forming bevels and grinding will be lengthy and tedious. To make this knife you will need a high carbon steel, this could be 1095 or 1070. The author chose 1070 steel.
Materials and tools for making a knife:
- steel 1095 or 1070;
- paper, felt-tip pen (or a ready-made knife template);
- wood, deer antler (or other material for making a handle);
- pins made of copper or brass for attaching the handle;
- belt grinding machine;
- a drill with drills (or better yet, a drilling machine);
- a furnace or other heat source for hardening steel;
- files, sandpaper of different grain sizes, WD-40, etc.;
- linseed oil for impregnating the handle;
- band cutting machine (in the worst case scenario, a grinder and a lot of patience).
Knife making process:
Step one. Blank
When making any knife, it all starts with a template. You can download the template ready-made and simply print it on a printer. Or you can develop your own. Next, the template needs to be cut out and then glued to the sheet of metal from which the workpiece will be made. Or you can simply trace the template, but it’s easier to work with paper.
Next comes the most difficult part: you need to cut out the main profile of the knife. If you don't have a band cutter like the author, this process will be more difficult and time-consuming. Theoretically, the work can be done with an ordinary grinder.
Step two. Drilling holes
At the next stage, the author drills holes for the pins that will hold the handle. At a minimum, there should be two such pins. But you can make more of them for beauty. It is convenient to drill holes on drilling machine. Select the diameter depending on the thickness of your pins.
Step three. Sanding the workpiece
Before sanding our workpiece, you will first need to work a little with a file. Using it, you will need to remove the burrs that formed after drilling. Also, if there are too rough edges on the knife, you can carefully grind them off with a grinder. Well, then a belt sander comes to the rescue. We carefully process the profile on it so that the shape becomes the same as it was originally intended.
Working for draw machine, you must use a respirator and it is advisable to wear safety glasses, as a lot of metal dust. Although our blade will undergo hardening, there is no need to allow the metal to overheat excessively.
Step four. Forming bevels
The next stage is the formation of bevels and this activity can be considered the most responsible. The sharpening angle determines the cutting characteristics of the knife and how easy it will be to sharpen in the future. For a knife to cut well, the blade must be thin, and for a knife to cut well and be durable, the blade must be made thicker.
It is also important to remember that if the metal blade is too thin before hardening, it will overheat too much and the hardening will not be of good quality, or will not work at all. So it’s better to first form the main profile of the bevels, and then modify it on a tape grinding machine, or better yet, manually.
To form the bevels correctly, you first need to draw a line on the workpiece and only then, focusing on this line, grind the metal. In general, here you will need some skills in working with a grinder.
Step five. Tempering the blade
Now we need to harden the steel, so it will become elastic, and the metal will not bend when cutting hard objects, in addition, the knife will hold hardening well. The hardening temperature is selected depending on the type of steel. If we talk about steel with a high carbon content, then it is usually heated to a temperature of up to 800 o C.
To understand what temperature to heat the metal to, if you don’t know what kind of steel it is, you can use permanent magnet. As soon as the magnet stops being attracted to it as the steel heats up, the steel can be cooled.
Still to determine desired temperature heating is possible according to a special color scale.
The metal is usually cooled in oil; in rare cases, steel is hardened between two plates, in water or in air.
After hardening the steel, there is one more technique - tempering the steel. If the steel is not released, the blade may break into small pieces when it falls, since the metal will be too brittle. To make it more resistant to mechanical stress, we place the blade in an oven with a temperature of about 200 o C. Here our knife should warm up for an hour, and then cool down along with the oven. As a result, metal release will occur.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that the quenching oil should not be cold, otherwise it may be too thick. If the oil is thick, you may need to heat it up.
Step six. Blade cleaning
After quenching in oil and heating, there will be a lot of dirt on the metal. How to deal with them is up to everyone to decide for themselves. You can lightly sand the steel with a belt sander and then finish the metal by hand. Or, armed with sandpaper and WD-40, you can clean the metal by hand.
The author set himself the task of polishing the steel to a mirror shine. Here he needed a polishing wheel with paste.
Step seven. Handle installation
The author makes the handle from wood, but you can choose the material to your taste. First you will need to take two pieces, tighten them with clamps and then drill two holes, at the beginning and at the end. These holes should line up with the holes in the metal part. It is advisable to drive holes in the steel with a drill in order to clean them. Well, then epoxy glue comes to the rescue. It must be applied over the entire area to the two halves, and then tightly tighten them with clamps or clamp them in a vice. At the same stage, you need to remember to hammer the pins into the handles.
Step eight. The final stage of knife assembly
When the epoxy glue is completely dry, the clamps can be removed and now the knife is sent back for grinding. This time, using a grinder, you need to set the profile of the handle. Well, this parameter corresponds to the profile of the blade where the wooden handle is attached. So we just level the wood at the level of the metal. A rough profile can be set with a rasp.
You will also need to remove all burrs, irregularities, and so on. Finally, you need to bring the handle to a perfectly smooth state. This is done by reducing the grain on the belt grinding machine. It is also advisable to sand the handle by hand with fine sandpaper.
A hunter definitely needs a gun and a knife. If there are no questions regarding the application of the first, then there are questions regarding the second different opinions. Some believe that a knife is necessary for finishing and cutting up a shot animal, as well as for protecting against an attack by an animal.
Others use this item, first of all, to chop branches, cut bread, open cans of canned food and perform various household work, but cutting up game is an occasional task. Thus, it turns out that there is no universal blade. Any man can create hunting ones.
What is the product
A hunting knife is a bladed weapon with a short blade. The blade and handle are its main elements. To protect the hunter's palm from damage at the moment of striking, the product has a utik, that is, a limiter. Homemade hunting knives look very stylish. The photos below clearly demonstrate this.
In order to make a weapon, you need to decide, first of all, on the shape of the blade and handle, select necessary materials, as well as establish a list of tools and equipment that will be required to perform specific operations. Making hunting knives is not accessible to everyone.
Features of creating a blade
For this item, the ability to cut is more important than the ability to stab. For this purpose, the blade is made curved and bent upward. The curve of the cutting edge should be large enough to allow long cuts to be made in one movement. This greatly simplifies the process of cutting up prey. The shape of the blade of a hunting knife is of great importance.
Such bladed weapons have a handle shank made from a single metal blank. The sharp edge of the edge of the blade is called the blade. This is the cutting part of the knife. The opposite edge is always made blunt; it is often called the butt.
Knife hardness and length
To give the blade rigidity, special grooves are made in the metal part of the product. Such depressions are called valleys. They also reduce the weight of the item. The widespread belief that the lobes are intended to drain blood is deeply erroneous.
The length of the blade ranges from 12 to 15 cm, width - from 2.5 to 3 cm. It is better to make hunting knives with your own hands according to the drawings. But some hunters prefer to carry two types of bladed weapons. One blade is used for cutting prey, and the other for household needs. Not everyone knows how to do hunting knife.
Selection of materials for manufacturing
The metal for the blade must be durable and not subject to corrosion. Tool steel has proven itself very well. Blades for pendulum saws are made from it, and it is not so difficult to get. Of the carbon steels, it is worth noting the brand. It has the necessary hardness, holds an edge well, and has high corrosion resistance. How to make a hunting knife so that it lasts long time, we'll tell you below.
Even the most perfect blade can become ineffective and useless without a reliable and comfortable handle. It is this that ensures proper use of such weapons. Whether the knife blade will move in the right direction or go to the side, whether your hands will get tired or not - all this largely depends on this detail. The handle of a hunting knife should fit correctly and comfortably in the hand, but its beautiful finish is a secondary matter.
Attaching the handle
The handle can simply be mounted on the shank or attached to it using rivets. The first option looks more attractive. The knife shank is made in the form of a narrow rod. Part of it may extend beyond the handle. A thread is cut on the protruding part, and the handle is secured to the shank using a nut, pressing it against the stop. With this method of fastening, the base can be made from a set of individual rings. The locking nut is often called a knob and is usually given an attractive appearance. The handle is simply pushed onto the short shank and glued.
The riveted part is made differently. The shank of the knife is made in the shape of a handle, that is, it is flat and wide. Holes are drilled in it. The linings on both sides are symmetrically applied to the shank, the rivets are inserted into the holes. The fastening is very durable.
Handle: material
The material for making the handle must be durable, comfortable to the touch, not cold on the hand, not soaked in blood and not freeze to the fingers from the cold. The main requirements also include light weight, ease of processing and availability of purchase. It is probably not advisable to obtain exotic materials for a hunting knife.
The best raw material for making a handle is wood. The blanks are made from dense varieties. Very good parts are obtained from maple, ash and apple. Coniferous trees do not apply. So-called burls are taken from birch trees, that is, growths on the trunk. A hole is made in the workpiece for attachment to the shank. If it is planned that it will extend beyond the handle, then the hole is made through. Its diameter should allow the shank to fit inside the handle without splitting it.
Advantage of birch bark
Birch bark is considered the ideal material for the handle. To make the product softer, the raw materials are heat treated in hot water within 2 hours. You could say it is simply boiled in a large pot of water, then dried thoroughly. The finished birch bark sheet is cut into small plates rectangular shape. The size of the parts should be slightly more sizes future handle. Next, the plates are put on the knife shank one by one.
Holes in rectangles must be made immediately before inserting them, since the transverse dimensions of the shank do not remain constant. The collected birch bark is compressed with a nut, which is screwed onto the thread at the end of the shank. If necessary, plates are added until all the birch bark is compressed into a single dense briquette, and several turns of thread remain under the nut. By using sharp knife and a file the handle is given the desired shape. In the final version, the handle is sanded with fine sandpaper. No varnishes or paints are needed. It's always nice to make a hunting knife with your own hands. The drawings will help you decide on shapes and sizes.
The limiter prevents the hand from moving onto the blade. It is attached in front of the handle. Only a single limiter is installed. The crosspiece is used in However, many hunters prefer not to install a special limiter at all, and protect their hand thanks to the protrusions on the handle. These knives are more convenient for skinning and butchering animals.
Basic operations for making knives
The manufacturing process includes several stages. Let's look at how to make hunting knives with your own hands (photos will help you evaluate the labor intensity of the process).
The knife is ready. All that remains is to place it in a reliable sheath. Making hunting knives can be a good business.
Knives are an important accessory that is, without exaggeration, in every home. Buying a beautiful and high-quality knife today is not particularly difficult. However, if you wish, you can easily make a knife at home with your own hands. Moreover, you can make any of them: table, hunting, for throwing, with a handle made of wood, stone, and so on.
What are the requirements for knives?
Knives must meet a number of requirements that must be taken into account when planning to make a knife with your own hands. For example, it must be sharp and retain this property for a long time, even with active use.
Particular attention should be paid to such a process as making the handle. It can be anything - stone, wood, plastic - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that it fits comfortably in your hand. After all, if the knife is not comfortable for the hand, it will be impossible to work with it - the hand will begin to get tired, and calluses will begin to appear on the palms.
If you want to make a knife with your own hands, you need to take care of its rigidity. For example, only such a blade can guarantee precise cuts, while the length completely covers the cutting area.
Knife classification
When planning to make a knife yourself, you should understand for what purposes you will use it. The production of each of them has its own characteristics and nuances. So, knives are divided into:
- Those used for cooking: their shape is an elongated triangle. These differ from each other in blade length and size. The handles are made in the same style
- Lunch options: these are used for making sandwiches, slicing vegetables, cutting out seeds from various fruits
- Hunting and tourist: represent universal option, with which you can easily cut meat or fish. In addition, hunting knives make it easy to chop branches and even defend yourself when attacked by wild animals.
- Machete: a bladed weapon that is used to cut a passage in the forest - it is more powerful than hunting and tourist ones
- Martial: weapons designed for combat sports
- A separate category for stabbing: dirk, dagger, stiletto, etc.
Before you start making knives, you need to find out what options are allowed to create with your own hands. Indeed, there is even criminal liability for the production, storage and distribution of such special class items.
How to make a knife?
To make a knife with your own hands, you will need the following materials:
- steel sheet
- drill
- file
- sandpaper
- magnet
- vice
- drill
First decide on the design. If you are just trying your hand at making bladed weapons, you should stop at simple version with a straight blade - these are much easier to process.
- Draw a template on the plate
- Next, drill several holes in a row along the contour
- Fix the sheet of steel and press your blade out of it. So, you were able to make a blade with your own hands. Of course, it's still raw, but still
- Next, take a file and start processing the surface of the blade.
- To make it easier to get rid of irregularities, outline the blade with a marker - it will highlight the defects for you. Afterwards, you need to treat the surface of the blade with sandpaper dipped in soapy water - this way the work will go smoother and there will be almost no dirt left.
- When finished, be sure to wipe your blade thoroughly, otherwise it may rust.
How to harden a knife?
To do this you need to do the following:
- Kindle the fire
- Wait until the wood burns out and place your blade on the hot coals
- Keep it there for at least 15 minutes
- You can check the readiness of the blade like this: take it out after 3 minutes and bring it to a regular magnet; if the blade is attracted, it means it is not ready yet
How to make a handle?
An important process in making a knife is creating a suitable handle. If you prefer natural products, you can choose a handle made of wood or stone.
- In order to make, for example, a wooden handle, take a piece of wood and divide it into 2 bars
- Clamp the blade on both sides
- Drill holes in the future handle, then outline the outline
- The finished wooden handle needs to be attached to the blade, securing epoxy resin, as well as copper wire
- The pads should fit as tightly as possible to the metal
- If this does not happen, additionally sand the wooden handle with sandpaper.
Almost all knives are made using the same principle. Moreover, they can be canteens, hunting, machetes, and so on. The main thing is to strictly follow the instructions, and then you will get an excellent copy that will be useful both at home and on the go.
Hello fishermen and hunters, I present to your attention a strong, beautiful, high-quality knife that you can make with your own hands. This knife will be an excellent friend for you when hiking, hunting, fishing and other similar activities. Despite the fact that the knife looks very high quality, it is not so difficult to make it yourself. You will need a minimum set of tools for this; grinding and polishing will be the hardest thing to do if you do not have a grinder, a sharpening machine, and so on.
But in order for the knife to be strong and of high quality, you need to choose good steel for it. Unfortunately, the author did not indicate what grade of steel he used. But these days you can buy a blank for a knife of any steel grade. The most important thing is that the steel contains sufficient quantity carbon for hardening. By the way, good steel used in old Soviet files, various cutters and other tools. So, let's take a closer look at how to make such a wonderful knife!
Materials and tools used
List of materials:
- carbon steel for the blade;
- wood for linings;
- sheet brass for the handle;
- brass or steel pins;
- epoxy adhesive.
List of tools:
- belt grinder;
- orbital sander;
- grinder with cutting and grinding discs;
- grinder;
- drill or drilling machine;
- drill;
- hammer;
- sandpaper;
- Japanese water stone or other sharpening tool;
- forge furnace and hardening oil.
Knife making process:
Step one. Cut out the main rough profile
To begin, prepare the source material and apply a template to it. Ready template You can find them on the Internet, for example, there are quite a lot of them on Pinterest. We scale the drawing properly and print it on a printer, then cut it out. You can cut a template out of cardboard, it will last for a long time, and you can also hold such a template in your hands and figure out what the future knife will look like.
Next we transfer the template to the workpiece. For convenience, the author painted over the “body” of the knife green. If the template is made of paper, you can simply glue it to the workpiece. Let's start cutting, for these purposes the author used an ordinary grinder. We securely fasten the workpiece with a clamp. There shouldn't be any problems with straight lines, but you'll have to try harder with curves. To cut out the bends, we make a series of transverse slits. After this, you can cut out the pieces of metal in sectors. Of course, there will be a lot of uncut metal left, but now it can be easily removed.
Step two. Primary grinding
After cutting, we need to finalize the contour of the blade. For these purposes, we go with a knife to sharpening machine, we remove everything unnecessary. We also go over the contour using a belt sander. Bends can be easily processed using a drill with the appropriate attachment. A sandpaper attachment works best for this task.
Step three. Forming bevels
This is a very crucial moment in blade processing. We need to form bevels, that is, the sharpening angle of the blade. First, we make markings; for this, the author uses a caliper. You also need to be sure to divide the future blade into two halves, so it will be very convenient for you to grind off the metal on both sides of equal thickness. This line is usually drawn with a drill of the same diameter as the thickness of the blade.
To begin, take a file and apply the end of the bevel to the blade. Well, then we arm ourselves with a grinder with a grinding attachment and remove the excess metal. When everything is ready, we carry out finer processing on a belt sander. At the end, we go through the bevel with files, sand it with sandpaper and polish it if desired.
Step four. Drilling holes
We drill holes in the handle of the blade for the pins. The wider the handle, the more pins need to be installed. The author decided to install 5 pins. We mark the locations and drill holes. If the hole diameter is large, use a small diameter drill first. If the steel is hardened, you may need a carbide-tipped drill bit to drill into it. It's easier to drill steel if you lubricate the drill bit.
Step five. Tempering the blade
Now the blade can be hardened, for this you will need a forge furnace. In principle, you can simply blow up the coals with a household hairdryer, and the temperature can be more than sufficient. Typically, carbon steel glows yellowish, and with this glow it can be cooled in oil. But all brands are different, as are the hardening methods, you need to remember this.
When the blade is hardened, the metal should not be taken with a file. After this, the metal is usually tempered, otherwise it will be very brittle.
When the blade has cooled, we clean it of oil; they are usually washed under running water using detergents. Next, the author polished the blade with fine sandpaper until it was shiny.
Step six. Let's move on to making the handle
The author has a combined handle; it consists of brass and wooden linings. First, let's start with the brass plates, for this we will need sheet brass, from which we cut out four parts for the front and back of the handle. Brass is cut perfectly with a grinder. Next, drill holes for the pins in the pads, and now you can install them on the handle. This will allow the products to be adjusted to the shape of the handle. You will need brass pins; eventually they will become one with the linings. The pins should be of such a diameter that they enter the material with little effort. After installing the pins, they need to be riveted.
Next, you can proceed to the wooden overlays; to do this, find boards of suitable thickness. We cut the boards to the required length and drill holes for the pins. We install the pads themselves with epoxy glue, this is the key to their reliable fastening. As for the pins, the author decided to use steel pins for these purposes; ordinary nails are suitable for such purposes. There is no need to rivet these pins, since we have everything on glue. Tighten the pads with clamps and let the glue dry completely.
Step seven. Sanding the handle
When the glue dries, the handle can be processed. To do this, first cut the pins; this can be done with a hacksaw or file. Next, we go to the grinding machine and grind the planes, everything should be on the same level. You can also sand the handle to some extent along the contour.
Now we will have those places where we could not get to with a grinder. To process them, the author uses a drill. A sandpaper attachment works well for this task.
Step eight. Finishing
Finally, we put a polishing attachment on the drill and polish the brass to a golden shine. Similarly, we pass this nozzle along the contour. If some areas cannot be polished, they still need to be finished by hand with very fine sandpaper. Well, then polish it using a polishing machine. wooden part or the whole knife if desired. When the pen is ready, apply oil to it. This will protect the wood from moisture and the brass will not oxidize.