Making my own knife is something I've wanted to do for years and years. The trouble was simply where to start? While poking around two saw filer's shops and noticing they BOTH had planer blades, it got my gears turning. Then, our family decided to do a Christmas devoted to homemade gifts. Perfect timing! Ooops, not quite perfect...I was rapidly running out of time if I wanted to get some knives made.
Now, just so you know, planer steel is incredibly hard (which I quickly found out.) You cannot cut it nor drill it. It must be ground. THAT turned into quite a bit of time in front of Butch's grinder! The positive side of that is that it holds an edge like no one's business! But the first step, and probably one of the more interesting steps was to design the blade! Honestly, that was pretty neat....I have had some ideas for knife blades for quite a while.
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| Design for knife #1 |
This design evolved while I was trying to figure it out. Unfortunately I didn't utilize all the steel I should have in this blank! It was a lot of grinding, but over a couple of afternoons/evenings it finally came out to look like this!
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| Ready to be touched up, and to get that tanto style edge off....even though it kinda looks cool. Notice the planer edge is still on there and the stamp from the manufacturer above it. |
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| The other side, ready for the edge |
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| I had a hard time trying to get good photos... |
Well, I got the edge to approximately where I wanted it, and decided to switch gears to the handle. Now, since I couldn't drill holes in the metal itself and the only other option was to burn a hole in the handle with a torch I relied on this nifty little "sandwich" method and some heavy duty epoxy. By the way, the wood is birch that Butch slabbed out of a full round. Pretty stuff!
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| Epoxied and ready to sit overnight |
After the epoxy dried it was time to take down the handle. Luckily this went faster than the grinding, but there was little cutting I could do to the wood. I relied more on a belt sander with a very aggressive grit. You'd think that making the handle would be simple...I know I did. But it was actually more stressful than making the blade itself! In my mind, handles have to be the perfect size and shape...and since this was epoxied on and not something I could do over...well, I took my time.
It eventually transformed from two blocks of wood to this!
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| It may LOOK a little wonky, but it's actually a really comfortable knife! |
And, I just want to point out the handle/blade combination. Didja notice how there are two positions for your forefinger and thumb? It has what I called a "finesse" grip and then a position you can suck up on and get really serious. Believe it or not, both positions remained comfortable!
Then, it was time for a couple coats of stain and varnish.
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| A bit out of focus, but it's a good view |
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| Purty purty purty |
Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of what came next! Yep, Butch pulled out a big box of scrap leather and I found a piece to make a sheath out of! Boy, that was even HARDER than shaping the handle because I REALLY didn't know what I was doing. But, I figured it out with some help from the internet. I got the leather trimmed to shape, added a welt, drilled holes, and then hand stitched it together. It came out a little loose, but it basically completely engulfed the knife, so it should be sufficient unless you're rolling around doing flips and whatnot.
While all this was going on, I had also made ANOTHER knife! I don't have the step by step photos of it, but again, it was a design I've always wanted to use. I wanted a heavy duty skinning knife with a short blade and a long handle. It should work really well for all field-dressing work since it's got a significantly curved blade. I ground it out like the other and found two chunks of pine for the handle. It was a little different as it wasn't a full tang so fitting the blade in took some chiseling. After getting it even and solid, it was again epoxied overnight and sanded into shape. This is the finished product!
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| Blurry, but again it's a good view |
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| Top of the handle...pretty tight tolerances eh? |
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| The pine took the stain really well! It took me some thinking to figure out which way I wanted the grain to be arranged. |
I DID take more photos of the sheath making for this one. The other sheath is exactly similar in design.
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| Pretty leather |
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| Just another look |
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| Back of the sheath. Just so you know, that's hand-waxed hemp cord. (I used a beeswax candle.) |
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| Topside |
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| And, side by side |
After all that was said and done, I spent another day working my Lansky sharpener to finish the edges. That's the sharpener with the rods and various grit stones....it holds the knife still and you can choose a constant angle. Now, I didn't get them PERFECTLY sharp and I would like to say it was a safety thing, or because I simply ran out of time. Unfortunately, after the first 1000 strokes (actually, I only counted until 500) and not seeing much metal coming off, I was getting tired of it. I suppose next time I need to work on the sanding belt a little bit more. Seriously, taking off even a millimeter took a LONG time.
Overall it was a really good experience. I learned a lot and I fulfilled a lifetime desire...twice! I gave my Dad the two grip-position one and gave Sarah's Dad the skinner. I already have an idea of one for myself, but can't bring myself to spending another couple weeks behind that grinder!
