Anyone into knife making??
- Thread starter mmbbc
- Start date
It’s another hobby to keep me occupied until the golf courses green up again. Retired at the end of December after 30 years in the telecommunications business.
Only way if possible! I bought a 4x36 belt sander… I’ve already done 2 mods on it to adapt it for knife making and doing 1 more to fine tune it. The look on my wife’s face when she walked out into the garage and saw me taking an angle grinder to the new belt sander was priceless
been doing it for a long time....I know they make parts/kits or etc to do pocket knives....never done one of those though.....do collect pocket knives....well used to sold a little over a thousand last year.....had way to many...kept them in rolls of 50......still got about 100 left....hen n rooster...real tree and etc....got heavy into Case when they were considering selling out....bought a bunch before they did ....thought they may go the way of china....along with Frost and so many othersI can only imagine - most women don’t get it
but I used to deer hunt alot and had a big collection of antlers.....and i am also into old cars....so have a small collection of old leaf springs......get on a nice flat part of the spring....draw me a nice bowie or a skinner........cut it out and leave a tang on the end for the handle.......I have a collection of brass safety gaurds I get from gun shows......start grinding down me an edge.....takes a while.....longest part of it......get it close.......then I use an air orbital sander with 80 grit to sand it all down and make it look more like a steel blade with a small shine and get grinder marks out...........get that done......put a rag on it....put in vice and use a file to start getting the edge.....get it close....take it out put the "tang" in the vice holding the knife flat....time for a whetstone......take a magic marker and draw how i want my edge to look and how much knife i want to turn into edge....longest and hardest part of it.....get a nice edge after what seems like forever....after that.....get me a nice piece of antler that I like......drill a hole to fit the tang I have made.........buy some 3M structural adhesive.......gets rock hard and very solid.......about 70bucks for 2 smalltubes that you mix.........................mix it up....take a Q-tip to poke a lot into my antler hole.....put blade in vice...slide brass safety tang on.....then slide my antler on........let sit over night....come out next day I have several different die grinders with various ends......shine the blade and clean it up taper the antler into the tang......................ready for a knife sharpener......i have several..........you can also buy all kinds of sheaths at gun shows and I have several of those.....normally pick the sheath first and make the blade to fit the sheath.....cheating.....suppose should just make the knife and then the sheath....but not really into leather work
I enjoy it.....takes me a good week at least to do one.....after the orbital sander with the 80grit..........you have to work your way up to higher grits....which also is time consuming........then i also have this small little air sander that uses an emory belt....that helps also......like anything else the more you put into it the more you get out of itYou are nothing if not a skilled mechanic - didn’t know ya translated that into blade smithing - they sound amazing - specially using the antlers in that way - must make ya feel good creating in that way - would me !!!
It’s a fun and interesting hobby. Nothing like taking something from nothing and making it into something useful. I have a huge supply of deer antlers from my years of hunting. The two knives I posted have deer antler in the handles from bucks I’ve harvested.
My dad was into case and old timer pocket knives.. I still have his old pocket knives in my gun safe.. sentimental value. Sharpened them up and put a light coat of oil on them to protect them.
I remember as a kid you just never saw my grandfather without his "old timer" pocket knife in his pocket......got me started carrying them.....used to be....USED to be "old timer"....one of the best there was ...American made........then they got bought out by Shrade and they were also a good knife.....but when Smokey Mountain went on this tear buying up knife companies.....and moving them all to China.....things kind of fell apart.........................China can and does make a few good knives.......Buck still has a few made here....you can tell real easy by the price when you buy a buck...pay more for American made.........but buck still has a bunch made in China now......not worth a *******!............you have to check and keep an eye on what china puts out........Boker is a good example with their tree brand.......on the emblem....if the tree has a lot of "leaves" it is German made.......no leaves and just branches....made in China....but they seem to be one of the few that gets by with China stuff and still has the quality
Greed and China has destroyed a lot of good American made stuff.....................Look at Winchester....good example.........they ran on hard times and sold the name and etc.....back in the late 80's if I remember right..........right away the guns all left for China......still seemed to be alright just not same quality.........and everything else they shipped there ...knives and etc........pure junk!.....selling ******* under a good American traditional name.............................but somehow a few years ago...they came back into some money and have bought their name and gun rights back........just sitting on it for now and not producing anything......haven't since they bought it back...........hoping to start restoring the good name I guess
but with any luck China soon be out of knife biz anyway........understand the mills are getting old and in need of money so they are slowing in production......starting to see alot of Italian made knives out now......not bad....
you just about have to have deer antlers that you have shot and harvested.......funny how if they lay in the field or on the ground any length of time...... the mice will have them eaten in short time.....seen some remnants on the ground before and picked them up to see why not much there...........been eaten!
I hear nobody can match German steel for cutting steel - their kitchen knives are considered the best in the world from what I’ve read. Wish America would stop selling companies like Case, Winchester and Harley to the f’n Chinese - next we’ll be selling those sumbitches the rights to apple pie
