What is the best way to make a knife. Making a knife with your own hands at home

There are many different types of knives on the cold steel market, but there are still people who want to make their own knife at home. And rightly so, because it will be exclusively their product, original and not like others.

This article will help a beginner to understand the knife making business in the absence of special conditions and tell you how to choose the right materials for making knives and tell you in general terms what to do with them, so don’t judge strictly 🙂

To make a knife at home from start to finish, you will need:

- blade or material for its manufacture;
- materials for the handle;
- additional parts for the manufacture of pommel, guard, bolster - or ready-made from the store;
- fasteners (depending on the manufacturing strategy - epoxy, screws, etc.)

Blade for making a knife

To begin with, consider the question of what needs to be done with the blade. Firstly, making it yourself at home will be extremely problematic - if you do not have the opportunity to forge the blade yourself, so the best solution would be to buy a ready-made one, for example, a Lauri 125 blade made of carbon steel.

Where to buy a blade for making a knife?

There are quite a few sources selling a blade prepared for home-made knives: you can buy them both from private craftsmen at the same guns.ru or at cold steel exhibitions, buy blades in other online stores; or you can order an industrial blade from the manufacturer, including on Chinese auction sites, such as ebay or aliexpress.

There are very high-quality and inexpensive catalogs of blades from Finnish (and indeed Scandinavian) manufacturers, I can recommend them.
If you really have difficulty finding a suitable blade, just take a sheet of metal, for example, a sawn off piece of a spring, give it a shape and work with it.

Of course, the purchased blade should be finalized. To do this, you need to take a file or even a circle and coarse water stones (if your product is very “raw” and you still need to remove the descents) and hone the blade to the desired look and shape, and then sand all the bumps with sandpaper.

The easiest way to check the quality of the product is to wipe the finished blade and breathe on it. From a quality blade, perspiration will come off without any irregularities, and it will lie without breaks. At the same time, it is better to conduct such an experiment several times and from different angles.

What steel to make a knife from - questions for other articles, you can read the materials on our website, for example, an article.

DIY knife handle

Next, we will deal with the future handle of your knife. It is best and easiest to take a tree for her, since in the future the wooden handle of a self-made knife will look nice, and the hand will not freeze from it. Absolutely any type of tree is suitable - especially since you are just learning.

The simplest do-it-yourself knife handle is made from old legs of Soviet tables, chairs, sofas or armchairs, because furniture used to be made famously. Using a hacksaw, we saw off a piece of the desired length, then roughly cut out the shape of the handle that we would like to see on the finished product. It is also necessary to make a recess in the handle for the shank of your blade - for example, drill and process with needle files. Whether this hole is through or not through depends on the finished design of the knife.

Ideally, you would also need to draw an approximate drawing of a knife that is made at home. You already have a blade for this and the approximate dimensions and outlines of the handle. And according to the drawn layout, it will already be easier to make a finished knife, bringing it to perfection with sandpaper after assembly.

If you already more or less know how to make a knife with your own hands, you can buy bars of stabilized wood (you will get very beautiful and strong handles), or try to make a handle from typesetting birch bark or pressed leather; you can make a braided handle - there are a lot of options. Go to the next level of "knife building", so to speak 🙂

Important details for making a knife at home

In addition to these two main parts of the knife, there are also additional elements:

Garda - a part specially designed to protect the hand of the owner of the knife. You can make it from metal or wood, or buy it ready-made in specialized stores. You can make a knife without a guard or a combat stop at all - such a knife is not a melee weapon.
Bolster - serves both to decorate the knife and to rid the handle of excessive load. It can be made from wood or metal - for example, make a bolster from a coin or a soldering iron tip.
The pommel of the handle is opposite to the blade, performs such functions as: changing the balance of the finished knife, aesthetic function (for beauty). Also, the pommel often plays the role of a nut that is screwed onto the shank (if you have a through one). The pommel of the knife handle is made from various materials - but it is better to stick to a single style.

Knife assembly

Having considered all the details of the future knife, putting everything together, preparing and processing the constituent ingredients of this “recipe” a little, you can turn directly to the knife assembly itself. To do this, you will need a few more simple things: sandpaper for finishing the handle and polishing the finished product, two types of binary glue (epoxy and "cold welding"), a hammer or mallet, paper tape (to seal - to protect the blade and other polished metal from scratches). parts of the assembled knife when processing the handle with sandpaper and giving the finished shape to the homemade knife).

First you need to dilute the epoxy and coat it with a leather gasket, which is then applied to that part of the blade that will be inside the tree - the shank. Next, “cold welding” is cut and quickly placed on the bottom of the hole drilled in the handle for the tail of the blade, where it is, in fact, embedded.

Gently driving the blade inward with a hammer or mallet will give the knife its final look. For a while, it would be ideal to clamp the assembled knife with a clamp while the epoxy hardens. In the end, a knife made with your own hands at home will only have to be sanded and decorated at your discretion.

As a simpler option, you can make an overhead handle - from two plates (wooden, for example), which are attached to the blade shank on the right and left. Such a handle is usually fastened with screws, in addition to epoxy, but usually looks simpler.

When you give the ideal shape to the handle and make sure that your homemade knife is assembled reliably, you can start manufacturing 🙂

Knife can be made from anything

Today, I would like to continue the topic of affordable material, from which you can quickly and easily with good characteristics. Many are interested in the question of what is possible without resorting to complex technologies. This is covered in some detail in . Here we will try to further highlight some of the details of a suitable material for knives. The easiest way is to use old broken stainless steel kitchen knives. Knives should preferably be Soviet-made, not Chinese consumer goods. From such a fragment you can make a good knife with excellent cutting characteristics.

Also, good knives can be made from high speed steel, which is used in the manufacture of hacksaw blades for power saws. The disadvantage of this material is that it is quite fragile and tends to rust. But it keeps a good edge.

An excellent material are knives for a wood planer. This metal is very well processed and polished. The planer knife is burnt red-hot with a blowtorch and then cooled. After annealing, the metal can be safely sawn with a hacksaw, shaped, sharpened with a file. After the knife is given its final shape, it needs to be either in oil or in water. But, unfortunately, knives made of this metal also rust.

The next metal that we will consider is a regular file. It is very easy to make a knife from a file, without any special machines. Take a file, heat it well again with a blowtorch red-hot and let it cool. After that, it is very well processed with another file, sawn with a hacksaw to give the desire the desired shape. Further, quenching is again carried out in oil or water. The main thing in order to get a good knife from this metal is needed. There is no need to forge this metal. We simply burn, sharpen, file, remove excess metal with a hand tool or sandpaper. And we get a pretty good knife.

It can also be made from an ordinary hacksaw for wood. It is also very easy to process, very elastic steel. It can be adapted, for example, to make a kitchen knife that will cut well and keep sharpening well.

An automobile spring is also well suited for manufacturing. The only thing bad about a spring is that it needs to be forged and properly heat treated. This is a rather laborious task. But if you build a homemade forge in your area, then you can make a good knife from a piece of spring. Or just take it to the blacksmith, who, for a bubble of vodka, will forge anything for you.You can make a knife from a car valve. It also makes good stainless steel. The valve is heated to a strong temperature, forged on an anvil. Then you need to shape the blade and harden it.

Very good knives are made from large drills. Clamp the drill in a vise, heat it to a soft state, take the gas wrenches and begin to slowly unwind it. After that, heat up again and begin to forge the resulting part, giving the desired shape. The drill is sharpened with a file, it will not. All work on must be done on sandpaper.

The knife can be made from spring steel. It is not necessary to anneal this metal. Immediately from the workpiece, you can make a knife blade. This steel is not drilled with a conventional drill. You must use a drill bit.

Now let's talk about rust, which is present in most metals. If you want to keep your knife from rusting, you can treat it with sulfuric acid or phosphoric acid.

The material used in the article is from a YouTube video.

Make a quality hunting knife. We use 1080 steel as a material. This is a fairly strong steel, it lends itself well to hardening and processing. The knife is made with simple common tools, the main work is carried out with the help of a grinder with a good supply of circles.

Materials and tools used
- billet steel 1080 ();
- grinder with grinding and cutting wheels;
- different sandpaper;
- drill with drills ();
- rods for pins;
- epoxy adhesive;
- wood for finishing handles;
- paper, pencil and so on (for making a template);
- marker;
- grindstone;
- heat source for hardening;
- pliers, hammer, etc.;
- household oven;
- clamps or vise;
- files for metal and wood;
- preferably a belt sander ().

The process of making a knife with your own hands:

Step one. We make and transfer the template
First of all, you need to make a template. We find a ready-made one on the Internet and print it out, or we draw it ourselves. Next, you will need to cut it out, then attach it to the workpiece and circle it with a marker. By the way, if you cut out a template from cardboard, you can hold it in your hands to make sure that the future knife will be comfortable.

Step two. Rough profile work
Next, we arm ourselves with a grinder and slowly cut out the rough shape of the profile, while always remembering that steel heats up quickly, and this is bad for it. When working with a grinder, be sure to cool the workpiece with water and slowly cut it out by hand.

Step three. Finishing the knife profile
After rough cutting, there will be uncut places on the profile, these are various roundings and so on. To cut out all these sections, the author used a whetstone. You can also work as a grinder with grinding wheels. As for the case when there is no such tool, you can use files of various shapes and so on. In addition, when working with a hand tool, again, there is less chance of overheating the metal.

You also have to form bevels on the knife. Some do this with a grinder, but it is best to use a belt grinder. All cutting characteristics of the knife will depend on the bevels. The thinner the blade, the better the knife cuts and the easier it is to sharpen. First, mark the bevels on the knife and be sure to draw a center line on the future blade. It will allow you to make bevels at one angle. To divide the blade into two halves, you can use a drill of the same diameter as your workpiece.

Step four. Drilling holes for pins
If you plan to harden a knife, always complete all major metalwork before hardening. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to work with metal, or you will not be able to do some work at all. So, for example, it is extremely important to drill holes for the pins. At a minimum, there should be two of them, this is quite enough to securely fix the overlays. They do more, but it's more for beauty.

Step five. hardening
Hardening includes two stages, first the steel is made as strong as possible, and then softened a little so that it is not brittle, this procedure is called tempering. For hardening, you need a furnace or a good fire. You need to get a considerable temperature, the workpiece needs to be heated to a bright red glow, and then cooled in oil, motor or vegetable is suitable. To understand that you have exactly reached the desired temperature, bring a magnet to the workpiece, if it does not attract, the steel is ready for cooling.

After hardening, the metal will be very brittle, the knife will easily shatter into pieces if you drop it. To make it more resilient, you need to temper the steel. Here a household oven will come to the rescue, heat it up to a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius and put the knife in for an hour and a half. After that, the oven should cool down along with the knife, do not open it. That's all, the vacation is done, you have in your hands a very durable, high-quality metal.
Before further work, sand the surface to a shine.
Step six. Cut out the handles
Now we need to make overlays for the handles. We select the right material, it can be wood, animal bones, horns, plastic and much more. We cut rough blanks to size, and drill holes for the pins.

Step seven. Glue the overlays
For this step, you will need epoxy and a clamp, or vise. You must also prepare two pins. Pins can be made from brass, copper, and so on, if nothing is at hand, you can even use ordinary nails. Dilute the resin with the hardener and glue the halves. Then carefully clamp the handle with a clamp and leave to dry completely. Epoxy usually takes about 24 hours to dry.

Step eight. We process the handle
When the glue is completely dry, you can form a handle. First, set her the desired profile, you can work with rasps. A grinder or grindstone will also go, but in this case, be careful and do not grind off too much. Slowly draw out the main profile, and then grind the handle with sandpaper. Gradually reduce the grit of the sandpaper to make the handle perfectly smooth.

Step nine. Completion
Another important step is the impregnation of the handle, since the tree actively absorbs moisture, and this is generally unacceptable for a hunting knife. Moisture-saturated wood can crack after drying, however, even when wet, it expands quite a lot, which is also bad. The handle must be soaked with linseed oil, it is especially good if it is boiled (natural drying oil). After impregnation, let the oil dry, and then polish the handle to a shine. If you plan to store the knife for a long time, oil the metal as well.

The choice of knives in stores is quite large. Kitchen, shoe, hunting, pen - the list goes on for a very long time. But there are situations when there is no cutting object at hand, but it is desperately needed. For example, travel is always full of surprises, any thing can end up at the bottom of an abyss or lake. Or maybe you need a cutting tool for some special work? In a word, there are not so few situations when such a homemade product may be needed. What is the best knife to make? About this, as well as how it is best to do it in a particular case, we will now talk.

Where will you do it?

The need to make a cutting tool can arise anywhere:

• Houses:
• in the country;
• on a hike.

At home, as a rule, knives are made for some special work, as well as gifts or collectibles. If you are not doing this professionally, then you don’t have special equipment yet. But on the other hand, there can be a lot of suitable in the tool cabinet.

A lot of useful things are sure to be found in the country. Most likely, there is almost everything there - a broken hacksaw, an old file, etc. If you are left without a knife on a hike, you will have to think and carefully look around. Oddly enough, the answer to the question of how to forge and make a good knife or blade from start to finish with your own hands may be right in front of you.

What makes a good knife?

What can a knife be made from? The material for the manufacture of the knife must be hard enough and keep sharpening well. Suitable for this:

• metals;
• a rock;
• glass;
• clam shells;
• animal bones;
• wood.

Metal

Metals are by no means suitable. So what metal is better to make a knife?

• It is unlikely that it would occur to you to mess with aluminum - with such a knife you will suffer more than you can work.
• The most suitable material is steel, stainless steel is best.
• The ideal option is hardened, but that's how lucky.

Important! At home, you can do the heat treatment yourself, on a hike - hardly.

Stone, glass, shells

On a hike, you will certainly find stones that can give a sharp chip:

• obsidian;
• slate;
• quartzite.

Important! These are layered materials, and the chips when separating the layers are quite sharp.

It is not difficult to find a suitable shard of glass in visited places - here is an easy decision for you to make a knife out of. On the banks of the rivers there are shells of mollusks - for example, toothless. When flaking, they also give sharp chips, which allows you to make a good, albeit small blade.

In case of urgent need, even a tree will fit - however, a wooden knife is only suitable for small kitchen work.

Blade of bone

Bone is an ancient material for making knives. In many regions of our planet, such tools are still used. To make a blade in the absence of emery, stencils and other useful things, you only need a few stones. One of them should be rough enough to sharpen the edge of the bone. The other two are needed to give the workpiece a more or less suitable shape.

What is the handle made of?

The handle is an important part of any tool. Convenience and safety depend on it. You can make it from different materials:

• plastic;
• tree;
• ropes;
• wire.

Plastic

At home, the ideal material for the handle of a metal or glass knife is epoxy. However, a variety of compounds are now sold in hardware and construction stores, which, when solidified, turn into beautiful and durable plastic. It is possible that you have something left after the repair of an apartment or the construction of a summer house.

Wood

Wooden lining is the traditional way to design the handle. The handle can be given any shape, it is comfortable, does not heat up and is easy to attach.

Important! Many peoples have knives with braided handles. You can braid with a cord or coated wire.

Homemade rope

It is possible that the traveler, who found himself without a knife on a desert island or even just on a long trip, lost the rope as well. Nothing you can do, you have to get out of the situation. Rope can be made, for example, from nettles. She has quite long fibers:

1. Remove the skin from the stem.
2. Collect the fibers and dry them (for example, by the fire or just in the sun).
3. Remember fibers.
4. Then it remains only to weave a rope from the “threads” - you don’t need much for a knife, half a meter will be enough - the shank is braided with a ready-made rope.

What metal is better to make a knife?

Despite the abundance of suitable materials, the best knives are still made of metal. This was understood in ancient times, when they learned how to process iron. And now the vast majority of cutting tools are made of steel. For a homemade knife fit:

• blade from a hacksaw for metal;
• broken saw;
• old file (preferably Soviet);

Important! The ideal option is a hacksaw blade for metal. This is the simplest material, which, moreover, does not need to be hardened and tempered.

Nice handmade knife

To make a small do-it-yourself knife that does not need to be hardened, in addition to a hacksaw blade, you will need:

• sketch;
• marker;
• epoxy or other material for the handle;
• rivets;
• a hammer;
• emery wheel;
• punch;
• drill.

Sketch

Any work begins with an idea. A homemade knife in this sense is not an exception at all. First you need to make a sketch. You can simply draw it, but it is much easier to find a suitable picture (so that the blade is no wider than a hacksaw blade) and print it on paper with a self-adhesive layer.

Important! The material on which your sketch is made depends on how it is transferred to the blade.

Option 1:

1. Lay the cut out image of the blade with the shank on the hacksaw blade.
2. Circle with a marker.
3. Grind along the contour on the emery - at this stage it is not necessary to maintain the utmost precision, the processing can be quite rough.

Option 2

In this case, the stencil is cut out, glued to the canvas, after which the workpiece is turned on emery.

Lever

The handle must be done before final processing. The workpiece should be comfortable to hold.

Plastic

The easiest option is to fill with epoxy according to the method of application indicated on the package:

1. Let the plastic dry.
2. Work on emery.
3. Sand down.

wooden handle

The wooden handle consists of two identical pads, between which a shank is inserted. First of all, you need to cut 2 wooden blanks, exactly the same. The final processing can not be done yet - it is important that they just exactly match in shape.

The whole structure rests on two rivets for which holes need to be made:

1. Make marks for rivets on the wooden blanks and the shank - when you assemble the handle, you should get through holes.
2. Drill holes with a drill.

The rivets themselves are best made from a copper tube from the heat exchanger of an old refrigerator:

1. Cut 2 pieces of copper tube - the length is equal to the width of the intended handle (2 layers of wood + a layer of metal) with a small allowance for riveting.
2. Lay the wood pieces together, placing the shank in the middle.
3. Insert the rivet so that it protrudes slightly over the holes on both sides.
4. Lightly rivet the edges with a center punch to widen the ends slightly.
5. Rivet the ends with a hammer (on a metal plate).

Wire or rope handle

If you know how to weave, it will not be difficult for you to make a handle from wire (in insulation) or rope. You can also use leather cord.

Important! Any type of weaving is suitable, making it possible to obtain a voluminous object. For example, macrame.

You can make a temporary handle, extremely simple. To do this, it is enough to wrap the shank with electrical tape.

Blade finishing

When the handle is ready, you can proceed to the final finishing and sharpening of the blade. This is done on an emery wheel. The process continues until the shape of the knife suits you.

Homemade knife with hardening

To make such a knife with your own hands, you will need a file.

Important! It is best to take the old Soviet one - in cheap Chinese models, which most often break down, low-quality steel is almost always used.

base material

The file should have a width of 30-40 mm and a rectangular or diamond-shaped section. The second option is preferable - the knife will be more durable.

Instruments

Prepare the rest of the materials and tools. You need:

We make a knife with our own hands

Start work in the same way as when making a knife without hardening, that is, prepare a sketch, cut out the blade and shank. Then proceed like this:

1. Clamp the workpiece in a vise.
2. Make a preliminary sharpening with a file.
3. Grind the surface of the workpiece with a grinder on a grinding wheel.

hardening

An important point is hardening.

Important! This procedure is necessary because files are usually made of carbon steel, a rather brittle material.

We do the work:

1. Place the workpiece in a brazier with burning coals - the coals should completely cover it.
2. Hold for 20 minutes.
3. Take the piece out and let it cool completely.
4. Place the blank in the oven.
5. Preheat oven to maximum temperature.
6. Set a timer for 60 minutes.
7. After keeping the future knife in the oven for an hour, turn off the heat and let the entire system cool completely.
8. Repeat procedure.

Hardening with heat shield

In fact, the ideal tempering temperature is 700º. But it can only be achieved in a forge - neither a gas stove nor a Russian stove gives such heat. However, a way out can always be found. The space above the workpiece can be heated to almost the desired level if a heat shield is built. This is just a thick metal plate larger than a file and rising 1 cm above it:

1. Place the file on a baking sheet.
2. Put a few nuts around the perimeter of the workpiece.
3. Place a thick sheet of metal (such as a small cast iron skillet) over the nuts.

It is very convenient to ignite metal in an oven with a transparent door. If you see that the metal has become an even cherry color, then the process is going correctly. You can also harden without a stage with coals, just in the oven. But then you will need to keep it at a maximum for at least four hours. In this case, the metal should cool down simultaneously with the oven, that is, the workpiece does not need to be removed.

Important! You can use table salt as an indicator - as soon as it starts to melt, this will mean that you have reached the desired temperature.

Quenching in a furnace followed by tempering

The oven is still not the most convenient device for hardening metals. This is an urban version. Much better if you have a Russian oven. In this case, the heat shield is installed in exactly the same way as in the previous case, but the metal can not only be hardened, but also released, which, of course, will improve the quality of the future product.

Important! You can use a magnet as an indicator. Naturally, he reacts to cold steel. As it warms up, it reacts weaker and weaker, and at one fine moment it stops doing it at all. That's when you need to take the workpiece with tongs and lower it into a bucket of cold water. And you end up with a knife made of the finest steel imaginable. Such material leaves scratches on the glass.

To keep the blade from rusting

A good knife should not rust. In order to avoid corrosion, the workpiece must be treated in ferric chloride. A gray matte film is formed.

Ferric chloride is not always available, but it can be replaced:

• vinegar;
• raw potatoes.

The blade is dipped in acetic acid, raw potatoes are simply rubbed. The effect will be the same as when treated with ferric chloride.

Further actions

After the blade has hardened, you can begin to manufacture the handle. It is done in exactly the same way as in the previous case. As a last resort, you should make a temporary handle so that you can safely take the workpiece without fear of injury:

1. Clean up the workpiece.
2. Do the final sanding.
3. Sharpen the blade with sandpaper.

DIY glass knife

Making glass cutting tools is not a very pleasant occupation, but sometimes it is necessary, for example, in field conditions. You will need:

• a piece of window glass that fits the shape;
• sharpening stone;
• rope or electrical tape.

Important! Window glass, if necessary, can be replaced with bottle glass. The main thing is that there should be a long piece with a more or less even edge. Too protruding chips are best beaten off immediately by placing the workpiece on a large flat stone and working with a smaller stone.

After you have a blank of approximately suitable shape in your hands, make a handle. This is especially true when working with glass. You can just wrap the shank with something. Do the final sharpening on a flat, rough stone. But in any case, this tool can be used more like a scraper, although it can also be cut - meat, vegetables, etc.

Glass knife at home

At home, you can make a real masterpiece out of glass, which will cut and decorate, for example, the kitchen. A product made of colored glass will look especially impressive:

1. Make a sketch - you can just on a sheet.
2. Lay a piece of glass on the paper.
3. Cut along the contour with a glass cutter.
4. Make a handle out of transparent plastic and grind it.

Such a knife does not need sharpening and grinding, if you only cut it straight enough.

Now you know what is better to make a knife from in any conditions, how to do it, so in any unforeseen situation you will not be left without a cutting tool. And perhaps, using the tips and instructions from this article, you will begin to create real decorative masterpieces. And if so, we wish you creative success!

The design of a knife is one of the most important steps in its manufacture. Therefore, to make a good quality knife, it is worth spending some time on the drawings. At this stage, you must carefully plan the design of your knife: the shape of the blade and handle, handle attachment, etc. After selecting the sketches, you must finally draw the knife in 1:1 scale and cut out its template. Now let's turn to the materials and tools that we will need in the process of making a knife.

Knife making steps

10. Now let's start making the knife handle. First of all, you need to completely wrap the blade with duct tape to avoid scratching the blade when working with the shank (and your hands will be safer).

11. First we will make brass pillows. Drill holes in the plates and, connecting to the shank, rivet them together (provided you know how to rivet). Coat all sides with epoxy first. After the epoxy has dried (at least 24 hours should pass), saw off the excess metal with a hacksaw. Then, using emery and a grinder, give the pillows the desired shape. Carefully sand the brass pads.

12. Now let's do the same with the wooden lining. They should be the same thickness as the brass pads. However, if it seems to you that brass is an extra detail and only complicates the work, you can exclude it from the design of the knife handle and perform it using only wooden lining. Also, some craftsmen are so confident in the strength of the glue that they completely ignore the rivets. But I wouldn't recommend doing this. Glue with glue, and rivets with rivets are more reliable.

13. After the glue dries, remove excess wood with a jigsaw and finally form the shape of the handle.

14. Now it remains to grind and polish.

15. Well, the last step in making a knife will be sharpening it. How to sharpen knives you can. Good luck!

Photos are taken from some bourgeois site. What? I have no idea - I lost the link.

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