My custom knife making hobby

I use to post on a couple of other forums where other knife makers posted random pics of their custom handmade knives. So, I thought I'd share here since TW is a favorite forum of mine. Not sure if this is in the right forum of TW, but I guess I'll find out. LOL! Anyways, I just completed another batch of 01 and 5160 knives. The 01 knives are 1/8" and 3/16" thick, and the 5160 are 1/4" thick - they are a beast when finished. I do all of the work in my shop.

I start with annealed bar stock, cut out the shape I want and then profile each piece. After I profile the blank to the shape I want, I then grind the knife to remove the scale and make them flat with very little imperfections as possible. Then it's off to the 2x72" belt grinder for grinding the bevels. Once that is done, I heat treat each one for hardening, then put it in the tempering oven to 2 hours, twice for each knife.

Once each blade is hardened and tempered and cleaned up, I then start working on the the handles. Usually I use G10 or micarta, sometimes I use stabilized wood but it's very expensive. Once the handles are cut out, holes drilled, and fitted to the knife, I then glue, clamp, sand, and finish each one.

Once the knife is complete and then start on a sheath for each knife. I prefer leather sheaths. It takes a while to make each one but it adds a custom finish to each one.

This is just a hobby of mine, I quickly found out there's really not a lot of money in knife making if you are doing it for fun. Each one takes about 10-12 hours to complete, I'm slow and since I work full time, I can't take the time to do a lot at once.

I'm posting random pics of the last batch I just finished, and some of my basic equipment. I use a home built propane forge to heat treating, a 2"x72" belt grinder, home built PID controlled tempering oven, and lot of sand paper!

Grinder

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Home brew PID controller oven

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Blank cut out from 5160

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

First pass on grinder for bevels

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Completed with handles

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Sheath started with wet forming

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Thickness of each knife - that 5160 is awesome.

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

First set of sheaths done.

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

Family photo.

Untitled by James Ellin, on Flickr

All sharpened and ready to unload. I usually put a 25 degree primary (cutting edge) and 20 degree secondary bevel (behind cutting edge to aid in slicing) on the thicker knives and about a 22 degree on the 3/16 or thinner blades. They cut great and are hair shaving sharp.

Each sheath is sewn and finished by hand. Once the sheath is finished, I heat it up and coat with beeswax and then buff it.

Just thought I'd share my hobby. It's kinda cool to start with metal, wood, leather, and some fiberglass resin sheets and end up with something like this. Built to last and made in southern Maryland. Fun hobby, takes a lot of hours to make one, but in the end it's worth it.

If anyone has any questions on what I do, the process in which I do things or any other knife making questions, I'll be happy to try to answer them. I'm not a professional at this, but I take my time and try to make each one as nice as I can.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

Blair

 

A buddy of mine does this, it is a lot of work. I think that whoever coined the phrase 'labor of love' , made knives, he sure as hell didn't make money!

 

Nice looking blades!
Are you open for sales?

 

@Sandytaco14

 

Yes, but I haven't posted any as of yet. I have a couple of them sold locally to some guys that have been waiting for them. But I do have 5 that I'm going to sell.

 

Yeah, I couldn't do it full time, don't even think I could do it part time if I had to rely on it for income. But, like you said, labor of love. I always like the outcome of the final product.

 

Those look terrific.

 

This is really cool, OP! Some really good looking work here.

 

I'm not super local but not so far in Va

 

Thanks for thumbs up! It's fun, and it's cool to make something that gets put to good use. Hopefully on game! I'm a dedicated bow hunter and most of my friends are as well. So, using one of my knives is pretty cool. As a matter of fact, I've pretty much sold off all of other store bought knives because I thought that if I could make my own, why not. I think my knives are better (a little biased I guess) than one bought off a production line. Maybe not true, but what's not to like about something homemade.

 

Where are you located? I'm in La Plata, just south of crappy Waldorf.

When I do put these for sale, I include shipping in the price always. It's only a few bucks to ship them anyways.

 

Shoot, I would too if I had the same skill!

 

If you are good with tools, and pretty handy, you could get the hang of it. I've been doing it for a few years, and while I don't make that many a year, I try to do batches so that I get the hang of doing it in phases. I don't think it's too hard, just takes a good eye and a little patience.

 

I'm really not that great with tools. My only skills come from a stint working Saturdays at AAP changing batteries and windshield wipers.

 

I can make knives and design networks, but I hate f'ing with car/truck batteries and wipers. We all have our weaknesses.

 

Can you point me to resources for re-forming a sheath? The knife is fine but the sheath has stretched over the years...

Nice work - I've built a couple kits and love the work

 

Try a kit - with modest tools and skill you can still put together something easily. A fixed blade is more about shaping scales and setting pins. A lock back was more of a challenge but easy too. Don't discount your abilities - kits are cheap and if you screw up, cut it apart and try again.

 

Are we going to see you on "Forged in fire" anytime soon?
Great hobby, some sweet looking knives.

 

My FIL is pretty big time into blades, a lot more than I am. My knife is a work and camp tool for me. I'm going to pass this info along to him! Thanks!

 

To be honest, I don't really have any Internet resources, however, I can see if I can find some videos and send you the link.

Here's what I do, in a nutshell.

Only buy vegetable tanned leather, chrome tan is not the same.
-cut out a shape that is oversized for your intended sheath.
-cut out a welt and keep it off to the side until you need it.
-case the leather - wet it and let it sit a few minutes.
-wrap your knife, if it's carbon steel, in saran wrap.
-fold your sheath over your knife (lay knife half way on sheath, check out my pics above) while wet and form the top piece of leather round the knife handle
-don't form the whole handle the entire thickness by having the top leather touch the bottom piece, you'll need to put the welt in and you don't want the leather to too formed. just press the leather around the top outline of the handle.
-pull the knife out of the leather and let it air dry completely.
-put the knife back in the leather when the leather is dry, place your welt in the sheath and glue it to the bottom piece so that the knife edge is about 1/16 away from the welt.
-once you have the welt in place and the sheath is still "open" meaning the top and bottom are not sewn or glued, you'll want to attach your belt loop. You'll need to stitch or rivet your belt loop while the sheath is still opened.
-place the knife back in the sheath after the belt loop is attached, then glue the top piece of the sheath to the welt, clamp lightly and let dry. Make sure knife is tight in sheath while drying.
-when dry, remove knife, cut off or sand off the outer edge of the welt and sheath to get a decently smooth edge.
-mark holes for stitching, then sew/stitch.

I know these are steps without pics or actual instructions, but this is off the top of my head. Not sure it helps, but I can try to answer questions on the steps if you need me to.