How to make knives

So now to shape your handle

This for me is the really fun part, this brings your knife to life. I now use my grinder to shape my handles to more or less their final size, and hand sand them to remove all scratches ensuring both sides are even. However, in the early days, I did this with rasps, files and sandpaper. The results can be the same, it just takes longer.

To do this you are going to need to clamp the knife by its blade to something to secure it. Before you clamp it, make sure to wrap the blade in layers of masking tape to protect the blade from being scratched. Then use something soft on either side of the blade and the clamp. This could be some leather from an old belt or some rubber matting for example.

First remove the material from all around the tang of the knife, down to the metal. Go easy as you approach the tang, and in the final stages move to sandpaper rather than a rasp or file so you don’t get any deep scratches. Once you have this shape you can begin to visualise how your knife will look. Do you want a handle that is of the same profile the whole length of the handle? Do you want the coke bottle profile? Do you want a flared butt such as that of a parang? Have this picture in your mind before you start.

Go slowly with your rasps removing material from both sides. From time to time take your knife out of the clamp and test it in your hands to see how it is beginning to feel. Once the bulk of the material has been removed move to a finer cut file to remove the deep scratches. From this move to sandpaper. Cut strips no more than an inch wide and hold each end of the strip pulling this back and forth over the length of the handle to remove the previous grit scratch pattern. I would recommend starting at 120g, then 240g, 320g and then 400g. Sticking duck tape to the back of your sandpaper sheets before cutting your strips will also stop them from tearing when you are using them.

Once you have finished it is time to add your final edge. Do this with bench stones, sandpaper clamped to a flat board or your favourite sharpening method. And finally, apply a coat of oil to the handle. This brings out the life of the materials you have used.

Make sure you use your knife, only through use will you find out what in your design is good, and what needs to change.

Knifemaking is a great hobby and doesn’t need to be too expensive either. I have seen some fabulous knives made with only hand tools. There are a few things that will make your life easier in the early days, but rest assured that if you do get bitten by the knife making bug you will want to expand the tools in your workshop.

If you have ever questioned how to make a knife then this three-part blog will show you how to start knife making using only hand tools and elbow grease.

So if you want to make a chef knife, a bushcraft knife or a utility knife then this blog should help you get started.

So what tools do I need?

Let us start simple, with a pen and paper. When drawing out my final designs I tend to move to pen and card, or more specifically a cereal box. Having a stiff template makes transferring to steel much easier than plain paper.

I would suggest for your first knives that you don’t go too crazy with your designs. Look at the knives you enjoy using the most, both in blade style and also in the handle shape and ergonomics. Use this to form a basis for your design, but don’t just copy someone else’s pattern unless you have asked and gained permission, or they have made it freely available.

So you are going to need some steel to transfer your design onto. I have read lots of people suggesting that you practice on mild or scrap steel when you start. How annoyed would you be though if you made a half-decent knife and couldn’t then harden it? Good steel is not that expensive, you can buy a bar of O1 tool steel or 10 series steel for only a few pounds. This way if you do make something you are happy with at least you can continue your journey rather than having to start again with some decent steel at a later date. I buy all my steel from Ground Flat Stock. They have a great range of knife making steels and would be more than happy to assist you in choosing what steel is best for your knife.

When your steel arrives you need to mark your pattern. These days I use Dykem but when starting out I used to colour in the steel with a Sharpie.

Lay your cardboard template onto the steel, and then scribe around it. If you don’t have a scribe pen you can use a nail, a Stanley blade or anything else that will mark your outline. Buy your steel in width that best suits the size of your knife and then lay the spine or the edge of the knife along the edge of the bar to minimise what you have to cut.

For this, you will need to either have a hacksaw or an angle grinder. If you use an angle grinder please be careful, they are scary machines and must be treated with respect. It is also important that you wear suitable protective equipment, I recommend a PPE3 face mask and eye protection.

Now you need to profile your knife. If you have access to a belt sander you can move to this. If not you can do this stage with hand files. A bench vice will make this easier as you can clamp your blank between its jaws, if not find a way to secure it to your workbench. Then using the hand files remove the metal up to your scribe lines.

With your knife profiled you need to work out your pin placement. It is a good idea to now revert to your paper template and draw where you want the front of your handle to start. Once you have this in place you can work out where you want to put your pins. I don’t like pins very close to the front of the handle, I think it looks ugly. You do not want them too far back either as that front pin aids in securing the handle material to the tang of your knife. Transpose your pin placement to your knife blank and mark where you want to drill with a centre punch.

Here a set of callipers comes in handy to check the diameter of your pins and your drill bits. After you have drilled your holes make sure that the pins fit snugly, if you cannot get them through before hardening the blade you will struggle afterwards.

To drill your holes it is really useful to have a pillar drill as this will enable you to drill straight holes. If you only have a hand drill go slowly and try to maintain the drill in an upright position.

Next, countersink your pinholes. By this, you are chamfering the hole which will greatly reduce stress on the blade when it is hardened. You can do this with a dedicated chamfer, or a much larger drill bit. You just need to remove a really small portion of steel, to break the edge.

So now you need to start adding your bevels. However, before we start moving steel we need to set ourselves some guidelines to work against. We shall start on what will become the edge. Grab that sharpie you had earlier and colour the edge in. A good rule of thumb when removing steel before hardening the blade is to leave at least 1mm of thickness at the edge of the blade. So we need to mark lines along the edge that allow us to work towards that edge. An easy way to do this is with a drill bit. If your steel is 4mm thick you want to remove 3mm of steel (1.5mm on each side) to leave that final 1mm thick edge. Se we want to mark a line 1.5mm up each side. To do this get a 3mm drill bit, the point of this drill be will be central to the drill at a height of 1.5mm. Now lay your blade on a flat surface. A granite chopping board is great for this, and then with the drill bit also flat on the plate scribe along the blade. Do this a few times, flip the blade over and scribe again. You will now have 2 lines to aim for that will leave you with a 1mm thick edge.

Now you need to begin removing steel again, this time in the shape of your bevels. If you have a belt sander you can use this, but again it can be done with hand files. There are some wonderful hand filing jigs people have made if you fancy going this route or you can go slow and steady yourself. Maintain a set angle and work towards your scribed lines. Work on each side, and keep examining to keep each side as symmetrical as possible.

When you have got your bevels looking good on each side of the blade, and down to that 1mm line you want to look at tidying up the flats. I swear by Rhynowet sandpaper to remove scratches from steel. You want to get it nice and tidy before hardening, as any deep scratches are much easier to remove when the steel is in its annealed state. I would recommend sanding the flats to a minimum of 220g before hardening and making sure that you have removed all scratches.

When it comes to blade hardening, instructions on how to do this will be available from your steel supplier. For O1 tool steel, you need to be able to get your steel to 800oC, or non-magnetic. You can do this by digging a pit in the garden, filling it with lump wood charcoal and blowing air into it from a hairdryer. You can also send your knife off to someone to harden and temper it for you. Shing, maker of wonderful folding knives offers this service.

So when the blade has been hardened and tempered you will need to take that edge thickness down to your final geometry. You will find that the hand files that you used earlier now don’t bite into the steel they instead skate over it. You will now need to use either abrasive stones or lower grit sandpaper. Again for the paper, I would recommend Rhynowet which you can then wrap around your file, or a flat piece of steel to begin removing the material. Be prepared for many hours of work, it is a slow process removing hardened steel but it will be worth it.

Again, pay attention to the flats of the steel, and before you put that final edge on it make sure you have sanded the flats up to 400g.

Read Part 2 Here

So now that your blade is all cleaned up it is time to stick a handle on it. eBay is great for finding handle material. You can buy pre-cut wooden scales meaning that you do not have to cut a block yourself. You will also be able to find micarta and G10 scales meaning that you do not need to buy a whole sheet.

If you want to use a knife liner in between the tang of the blade and your handle you need to glue this up first. Make sure that both surfaces are flat, and keyed to accept the glue. Clamp these securely to a flat surface and allow them to cure for 24 hours. You can purchase G10 liner sheets or cut them into scale sizes depending on your requirements. They come in a range of colours and add something to your finished knife.

You now need to drill your pinholes. I never do this with a sharp blade sharpening is my very last process. If you are using a pillar drill it is worth making a blade stop. I have a bolt going through my table, so if the drill bit does catch a burr and grab the blade it will not spin like a helicopter blade. I have seen so many injuries in knife makers where the drill had grabbed the blade and spun it into the maker’s hand. Do not become a statistic.

So drill your first pinhole. Drop a pin through the knife and into the handle material, and drill the second hole. Repeat drilling and dropping in a pin until you have drilled the last hole. This will ensure that all holes line up. Now flip the blade over, onto the other piece of handle material and drill your holes in that side.

Once all holes are drilled, pop a pin in each hole and fit the blade to one scale. Draw around the blade onto the handle material, and you now have the outline of the blade to cut to. I always remove excess material before I glue it up to save having to grind it off afterwards. Do this on both sides, and then with a saw remove the handle material just outside of this line you have drawn.

You also need to ensure that your handle material is completely flat. My method for this is to stick a sheet of 120g sandpaper to a granite chopping board. I draw in pencil a cross pattern on the handle material and use a circular motion on the sandpaper to remove the material. The criss-cross pattern in pencil shows you where you are removing material and you can keep an eye on it when you are getting too flat.

Steady pressure and a circular motion help not round off the corners of the scales.

You can see in the photo below where the scale is now nearly flat. There is just that shiny section with the pencil lines remaining under the top hole.

You now need to work out how you want the front of the scale to look. Do you want it straight or in an arc? Do you want it slanted from the top to the bottom? Mark your decision and remove the material up to this line. You now want to clean this up and sand it to its final finish as you cannot tidy this area up once you have glued your knife together. Keep putting the scales onto the knife to make sure you are happy with how they are fitting.

Once you are happy drill small divets onto the handle material on the side of the scales that will touch the tang of the blade. Make sure that you drill these not too close to the edge, as if you sand through them they look unsightly on a finished blade. These divets help the glue secure the handle material to the blade.

When you have drilled these holes, a few quick circular rounds on your sandpaper will ensure that your scales are flat again.

Then go over the tang of the knife with low grit sandpaper to key the steel. This again helps the glue to have something to grip to, however, make sure that you do not sand areas of the knife that the handle material will not cover.

To glue up use a good 2 part epoxy, I use West Systems G-Flex but you should be able to pick up something from your local hardware store. Epoxy is a skin irritant, so latex or nitrile gloves should always be worn.

Make sure that your knife, your scales and your pins are all clean. Nail polish remover does a great job of this. Use a piece of an old t-shirt to clean up every surface of dust and debris to ensure you get a good fit up without any contaminates. Mix up equal parts of the epoxy and spread a thin layer over one of the scales. Next coat the pins and pop them in. Put a thin layer on the tang of the knife and press this over the pins onto the bottom scale. Finally a coat of glue over the inside of the top tang and push this over the pins. You now want to clamp your knife together. You can do this is a bench vice, with G clamps, with hand clamps, with a workbench, whatever is at your disposal. Don’t over tighten and squeeze all the glue out, but tight enough that you don’t end up with gaps or a visible glue line. Again you need to clean up the front of the scales at this point, removing any squeeze out of glue. Remove this with a cotton bud, or a piece of old cloth. Once the majority has gone a light wipe with some nail polish remover or acetone will clean that last bit of glue from the blade.

Now patiently wait at least a day before moving on to the next step. Even fast cure glue needs a day before you start working on it.

Read the final part here