My first knife...that I made myself!

[whiskyjack]

Hey folks, so I'm learning machining at my community college and after my last project approached the teacher about making my own fixed blade knife out of something better then is available for sale at a reasonable price. Like say something better then stainless steel. He was all for it and helped nail down the cheapest dealer in the area, the next day he handed me a sizable stock of O1 tool steel and said merry christmas.

Anyway, so I started on 12/8/2010. Took me all day grinding and cutting on a bandsaw or with a hacksaw in some places. Milled out the finger grooves with a 1" endmill too.

On friday, 12/10/2010, I clamped the rough cut in between 2 pieces of 3/4 steel to protect it from being hardened during the heat treatment.

After heating it in an oven at 1450 deg./F, quenching in oil, and drawing at 422 deg./F this is the result.

That's how far I am at the moment, have been fine grinding and plan to add a wood or bone handle. I'll post those pics as I get to those stages.

Thanks for looking.

 

[highorder]

Nice. What inspired your design?

It looks a lot like the Tom Brown design I used for inspiration:

 

[whiskyjack]

wow, very nice! I hope mine ends up that good looking.

As for inspiration, no particular design influenced me most. I had been hitting the web looking at as many designs as I could find, my dad said he wanted a bowie style knife for xmas. With that input from him and all the designs I browsed thru, once I started into this project, the design just sort of happened.

 

[HiWayMan]

once I started into this project, the design just sort of happened

That tends to happen alot when making knives, and is what I feel constitutes a truely custom knife.

 

[Sav .250]

Looks like you have a good start on your ...project.

 

[uspJ]

Nice.

 

[BRad704]

Looks good... should make one heck of a chopper

 

[pitsmile]

looks nice!

 

[Fergy35]

Good work so far! Looking forward to seeing it progress. Man, I wish I had access to all those tools.

 

[bikerdoc]

Keep at it son , you got talent.

 

[EVIL]

very good start and nice design. You might want to spend some more time on the grinder to grind the blade bevel higher up or it will not slice and be more of a "sharpened prybar," or ax. I like a flat grind on my knives for bushcraft - to let the knife do the work. Once you do that - then give it an edge bevel.

What is the thickness of the metal?

keep up the good work...

 

[whiskyjack]

Thanks for the support guys. I'll be working on it as I can over the rest of the month, was going to be putting it on a precision grinder with a 2 or 3 degree angle on the blade part leading towards the cutting edge, but I ran out of time to do it that way as the shop is now closed for the winter break. In the mean time I'll be left with trying my best with diamond files and my dremmel until mid january when I can get back on the grinder.

Evil, it's 1/4" thick.

 

[Mp7]

nice work, so far.


I too wish i had access to machinery like that.


On the other side ... days fly by, without me making
knives i do not need

 

[RandomPerson]

Very cool. Probably not something I'll ever learn to do, but a very unique, original and interesting project.