My first knife

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Shadrack
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My first knife

Post by Shadrack »

So basically a while back I was feeling especially unproductive so I went into our workshop and had a bit of a scavenge around. I found a small bar of steel half buried under some gravel and in a spur of the moment decision I decided to make a knife of some sorts. I took a hacksaw to it and cut off an angle at the top and a chunk out of the bottom to make the basic silhouette of the knife. Then I clamped it to a table and started filing away at it to shape the edges.
initial shaping
initial shaping
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After I finished shaping the blade I did a quick and dirty heat treatment over the kitchen stove since I don't have a forge or anything fancy like that. I know this is probably not the best way to do it but this whole project was a bit of an experiment and the stove seems to have done the job.
I then cut/ shaped some aluminium sheet and various woods to size and bored a hole through them so that they could fit over the tang. When I did this I found it hard to keep the hole straight and parallel to the rest of the blade and as a result the handle is slightly crooked. Any advise on how to solve this for next time would be greatly appreciated.
test fitting
test fitting
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Then I started peening the tang which took ages and was by far the most laborious part of this whole endeavor. Unfortunately during the process I managed to crack the handle. To solve this I filled in the crack with some two part epoxy and stitched a leather grip to keep the whole thing together. This worked out quite well.
After the handle was fitted, it was a simple matter of stitching up a scabbard, wet forming it to the knife and sealing it with a coat of beeswax.
sheath nearly complete
sheath nearly complete
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I then decided to decorate by carving some geometric patterns into the leather with a dremel and tada!
finished sheath
finished sheath
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finished sheath and knife
finished sheath and knife
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It's not perfect, it's in no way historically accurate and I probably drew a bit too much inspiration from Weta's dwavern props but I'm very happy with the outcome especially since when I started I did not think that I would end up with a functional knife.
So there you go. Thoughts? Advice?
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Elleth
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Re: My first knife

Post by Elleth »

Very cool! I love the designs on the sheath!
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Melthrist
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Re: My first knife

Post by Melthrist »

Amazing! I just wish I had the facilities and space to do something like this.
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o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
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Udwin
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Re: My first knife

Post by Udwin »

I do like the geometric deco! Once you said it, I do see a lot of Weta!Dwarf-aesthetic influence - looks like a seax but the long side isn't sharpened, big ol' sheaths, &c.
Curious to know what 'heat treating' was...did you actually quench (harden) and temper the steel? Hard to know if you don't know what kind of steel you're using. Can't imagine it could get anywhere near working temp on a kitchen stove. Low tempering temps, maaybe. Iiinteresting!
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Shadrack
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Re: My first knife

Post by Shadrack »

by Melthrist » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:49 pm
Amazing! I just wish I had the facilities and space to do something like this.
I'm sure that you would be able to manage something like this yourself without loads of space and fancy equipment as that's what I did! The only tools I used to make the blade itself were a couple of hand files, a hacksaw and some sandpaper. You can get a set of decent files for around $18NZ which I think works out to around $12US and a basic hacksaw will cost you about the same. Apart from that you just need some small clamps to keep the thing in place while you work on it. The only power tool I used was a hand drill to put a hole through the handle parts for the tang to go through but you could probably work around that by fitting the handle with wooden scales or wrapping it with leather. As for space, you just need a little table area and a willingness to sweep up lots of little metal shavings.
by Udwin » Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:55 am
Curious to know what 'heat treating' was...did you actually quench (harden) and temper the steel? Hard to know if you don't know what kind of steel you're using. Can't imagine it could get anywhere near working temp on a kitchen stove. Low tempering temps, maaybe. Iiinteresting!
I basically just held the blade over a large stove element for about twenty minutes until the metal had darkened and discoloured before plunging it into a bowl of cold water. I don't know if it significantly affected the hardness of it but the finished knife can carve and cut into wood without damaging/blunting the edge and the blade so that's something I guess.
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Manveruon
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Re: My first knife

Post by Manveruon »

Dang! For a first attempt this is pretty darned impressive! Very creative, too, considering your limitations! And I must say, I really love the look of that sheath.
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Melthrist
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Re: My first knife

Post by Melthrist »

Shadrack wrote:
by Melthrist » Tue Apr 25, 2017 8:49 pm
Amazing! I just wish I had the facilities and space to do something like this.
I'm sure that you would be able to manage something like this yourself without loads of space and fancy equipment as that's what I did! The only tools I used to make the blade itself were a couple of hand files, a hacksaw and some sandpaper. You can get a set of decent files for around $18NZ which I think works out to around $12US and a basic hacksaw will cost you about the same. Apart from that you just need some small clamps to keep the thing in place while you work on it. The only power tool I used was a hand drill to put a hole through the handle parts for the tang to go through but you could probably work around that by fitting the handle with wooden scales or wrapping it with leather. As for space, you just need a little table area and a willingness to sweep up lots of little metal shavings.
Mmmm... I guess I have another project to add to my fast growing list.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon!
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