• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Selfe Made Knives

Quality Handmade Knives

  • Handmade Knives
  • Shop
  • My Account
  • Cart
  • Checkout
  • About
  • Contact
Home » knife design

knife design

Knife Design – How to get started

March 20, 2021 by Matt Selfe

It can be quite a daunting task trying to design your own knife for the first time, but I hope that this guide will give you a few pointers and help you feel more confident in planning out and drawing your knives.

Firstly you need to think about what purpose the knife will be serving. Are you designing a knife for wood carving, a kitchen slicer or a diving knife? Each of these has properties that need serious consideration when designing your knife. A dive knife for example should not have a sharp tip, whereas a wood carving knife may want a sharp fine tip for detail work.

Take inspiration from knives that you own, or have used that you enjoyed using. What was it about these that you like? Is it the proportions of the handle or the design of the blade edge for example? What would you change to suit your preferences better? Do you wish that the blade was wider, and thinner on your favourite kitchen knife? The blade length on your favourite carving knife was a little shorter?

It is important when taking inspiration that you don’t just copy someone else’s work though and that you put your touch to the design.

When designing the handle you need to think about how it will be used. A kitchen knife isn’t going to be used in a reverse grip, but a bushcraft knife will so it is important to design a bushcraft handle that is comfortable in both forwards and reverse grip. A kitchen knife however does need careful consideration for finger clearance when chopping. No one wants a kitchen knife that will smash your knuckles into the work surfaces or chopping board.

Paper and pencil is a great place to start. Grid paper is excellent, as you will be able to use this to size your drawings, but you can also do this with a ruler. A nice set of French curves will also really help you get your lines to flow.

This is a set of French curves, these tools have many different radii that can be used to allow the lines to flow nicely when designing knives.

Using French curves to help design knives

Coins are great for tight radii and a rubber will take out your many mistakes. Make sure you continue to refer back to your notes and pay special attention to the handle. It is very easy to make a handle both too long and too wide when just drawing, and neither of these is comfortable in the hand. Use your hand as a reference on the paper to see where your drawing fits against your proportions.

This is a photo of a drawing I made very early on, with a knife handle that would be far too big for the average person’s hands. However, in drawing, you begin to realise the importance of proportions.

Using French curves to get the basic shape of a knife

If like me you are not great at drawing then it is a good idea to learn how to use a vector graphics editor to transpose your drawings from pencil and paper to a computer image. I use Inkscape which is a free open-source application. I use this to transpose all of my freehand drawings and improve the flow of my lines. It is also excellent for designing folding knives such as friction folders. This will allow you to play with more natural lines, and get a nice flow to your drawings. You can save the file, and tweak it as you make and test your knives. You can print it out to scale, and then transfer this straight onto your steel. I simply cut around the image with a scalpel and glue it to the steel.

A friction folder knife designed in Inkscape

Here is an example of how a pencil drawing evolved into a knife I redrew in Inkscape, and then made into a knife. This model is my Forager.

A hand drawn knife design
The same design transposed into Inkscape
The finished knife

The more you draw, the better you will become. All aspects of knife making are improved by content practice and drawing and design is the same. Just draw knives, get your ideas out of your head. For every 10 you draw you will probably only ever transfer 1 to steel, but it is that practice that will help you become a better knife designer and ultimately a better knife maker.

Have you now got the bug to start making, why not read my three-part series on how to make your knives here.

Filed Under: How to make knives Tagged With: knife design, knife making

Footer

Product Search

Find what you're looking for using our advanced product search below.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Products

  • Blue denim micarta Broken Biscuit Carving Knife Broken Biscuit Carving Knife - Blue Denim Micarta £170.00
  • Brown micarta Broken Biscuit Carving Knife Broken Biscuit Carving Knife - Brown Micarta £170.00
  • Red hessian micarta Broken Biscuit Carving Knife Broken Biscuit Carving Knife - Red Hessian Micarta £170.00

Product categories

  • Friction Folder Knife
    • Goliath
    • Kwaiken
    • Standard Friction Folder
    • Tanto
  • Kitchen Knives
    • Petty
  • Skot Knight Carving Knife

Copyright © 2022 Selfe Made Knives

  • Handmade Knives
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • FAQs
  • My account
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund and Returns Policy
  • About
  • Contact
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo