How to make a quality knife at home. How to make a hunting knife: step-by-step instructions Making knives at home
I decided to make a knife with my own hands with a total length of 290 mm. I will tell you about the progress of work, the nuances of production, as well as difficulties in the process of work in this article.
I have been interested in the topic of making knives with my own hands for a long time. This topic is widely covered on the craftsmen's website: and. So I decided to post my work step by step, maybe it will be useful to someone.
Sketch, drawing of a knife with your own hands
And so the making of the knife began with a sketch and discussion of the shape of the knife.
Manufacturing process
I didn’t find the required blank at hand, so I had to order it from a friend who specialized in this area. I recommend not taking everything in a row, for example, a file, a hacksaw blade, since they are very difficult for heat treatment steel.
Having outlined the outline of the future knife on the workpiece, we roughly file the workpiece with a grinder.
Next, we process it more accurately along the marked kennel with a file or needle file. Those who will do this with a sharpener, do not forget about cooling with water so that the steel does not temper.
We perform metal hardening. This can be done as in muffle furnace, and in a regular stove or fire. Cool in water.
After sanding we have this look.
I made a device for sharpening the wedge. The result was smooth and even chamfers.
Making a knife handle with your own hands
The hardest part is over. Next we make the knife handle. To do this, I took: epoxy, red plastic, mikarda for the handle, a drill, a carbon rod for pins, and a clamp.
I saw the mikarda plate in half, then cut plastic into spacers. Having assembled it into a sandwich, compressed it with a clamp, I drilled it through in three places.
The parts are ready for assembly.
Mixing the ingredients epoxy resin. We degrease all parts of the surfaces to be glued with alcohol or vodka.
For reliability and better gluing of parts, I scratch the surfaces.
I apply glue evenly.
We glue all the parts of the knife handle.
We clamp it in a vice and remove any remaining glue.
Here's what a DIY knife handle turned out like.
We begin to sand the handle with a high-grit tape.
The next steps were sanding with sandpaper: 80, 100, 150, 220, 320, 500, 600. And we give the desired shape.
Next we sharpen, in my case diamond stone, the result is excellent!
DIY knife sheath
I came across very tough leather.
I soak the skin, it becomes soft and elastic. I wrap the knife in film and cover it with leather. After drying, the skin will tighten again and take on the shape of a knife.
Knives are currently popular not only in the kitchen, but also among people who have connected their lives with extreme types of active leisure - fishing, hunting, tourism, etc.
On the market in modern times There are various knives: variable models, different sizes and designs. But none of them can replace a knife that you make yourself.
People often write on the Internet about how to make a knife with your own hands, but you have to try hard to make them.
Knives: types and basic properties
In the photographs of the knife on the Internet, you can see that each product is a creative element created from various mechanisms.
Available large classification knives depending on their functionality: combat, tourist, folding (for example, butterfly), knives intended for hunting, multi-tools, bivouac knives, as well as ordinary kitchen knives.
Kitchen knives are bought ready-made, but knives intended for hunting or tourism can easily be made at home yourself.
There are also such knives as survival knives, the main task of which is to help in living in conditions wildlife. This option is relevant for tourists and hunters.
The blade of such a knife is usually no more than 12 cm. This length is sufficient for cutting wood, processing game, cleaning fish or other similar actions. Small dimensions make this knife easy to transport.
When making such a knife, great attention should be paid to the material intended to create the blade. Steel is often preferred.
Procedure for creating a knife
To get a positive result when making a knife, you should first sketch out a drawing of the knife. In this case, you can know in advance what exactly you want to achieve in the end.
Instructions on how to make a knife at home include a number of rules.
Making a knife step by step
Cut out the blank for the future knife. Based on finished drawing, cut out the shape for the knife.
You will need a knife sharpener. With its help, the base is brought to the required shape. And after this you will have a clear blank in your hands, where you can distinguish the places of the handle and blade.
Rough sharpening of knives. At this stage you need to clearly know what your future knife is intended for. If it is made for hunting, fishing or hiking, then it is better to give preference to the blade type of sharpening.
And, if a knife is created to function in the kitchen or in the garden, then a razor type is suitable.
Don't expect perfect sharpening at this stage, as this is just a rough draft intended to determine the future shape.
If the blade is pre-prepared, then you can start working with the handle. To create the handle, the most various materials– this is: wood, plexiglass, bones, thick types of leather, etc.
Pay attention!
Having cut out a blank to create a handle, you should check whether it fits comfortably in your hand, as well as its proportionality relative to the blade. The knife handle is secured using the riveting method.
The shape for the foot handle is given using a sharpening machine.
The knife is ground and polished using sandpaper.
The final sharpening of the blade is carried out after sharpening on a sharpener, also using sandpaper.
At the end, the finished knife is polished with velvet cloth or polish.
Pay attention!
As you can see, the process of making a knife with your own hands is not that difficult, so everyone can try their hand at this area.
You can also give the future knife the necessary and desired design. Pay special attention to the handle during the design process.
Knife design
Because it is by the handle of the knife that others can then judge your creative thinking and status.
Some write their names on the handles of the knife, draw certain patterns and sketches in the form of tattoos.
The simplest knife can be built in an emergency in the forest; the main thing is to find the materials necessary to create it.
Pay attention!
You just need to find the cutting part for the knife, and then you should insert it only into the handle, which will be in the form of a piece of wood, rope or leather.
Photo of a knife with your own hands
If you want to make it simple, but quality knife with your own hands, you can take a closer look at these instructions. The knife reviewed has a simple and elegant appearance, it’s easy to assemble if you compare this homemade product with others. During the manufacturing process, the blade is hardened, which makes the knife not dull for a long time and sharpens well.
For ease of manufacture, a belt sander is required; without it, the process of forming bevels and grinding will be lengthy and tedious. To make this knife you will need a high carbon steel, this could be 1095 or 1070. The author chose 1070 steel.
Materials and tools for making a knife:
- steel 1095 or 1070;
- paper, felt-tip pen (or a ready-made knife template);
- wood, deer antler (or other material for making a handle);
- pins made of copper or brass for attaching the handle;
- belt grinding machine;
- a drill with drills (or better yet, a drilling machine);
- a furnace or other heat source for hardening steel;
- files, sandpaper of different grain sizes, WD-40, etc.;
- linseed oil for impregnating the handle;
- band cutting machine (in the worst case scenario, a grinder and a lot of patience).
Knife making process:
Step one. Blank
When making any knife, it all starts with a template. You can download the template ready-made and simply print it on a printer. Or you can develop your own. Next, the template needs to be cut out and then glued to the sheet of metal from which the workpiece will be made. Or you can simply trace the template, but it’s easier to work with paper.
Next comes the most difficult part: you need to cut out the main profile of the knife. If you don't have a tape cutting machine, like the author, this process will be more difficult and lengthy. Theoretically, the work can be done with an ordinary grinder.
Step two. Drilling holes
At the next stage, the author drills holes for the pins that will hold the handle. At a minimum, there should be two such pins. But you can make more of them for beauty. It is convenient to drill holes on drilling machine. Select the diameter depending on the thickness of your pins.
Step three. Sanding the workpiece
Before sanding our workpiece, you will first need to work a little with a file. Using it, you will need to remove the burrs that formed after drilling. Also, if there are too rough edges on the knife, you can carefully grind them off with a grinder. Well, then a belt sander comes to the rescue. We carefully process the profile on it so that the shape becomes the same as it was originally intended.
Working for draw machine, you must use a respirator and it is advisable to wear safety glasses, as a lot of metal dust is generated. Although our blade will undergo hardening, there is no need to allow the metal to overheat excessively.
Step four. Forming bevels
The next stage is the formation of bevels and this activity can be considered the most responsible. The sharpening angle determines the cutting characteristics of the knife and how easy it will be to sharpen in the future. For a knife to cut well, the blade must be thin, and for a knife to cut well and be durable, the blade must be made thicker.
It is also important to remember that if the metal blade is too thin before hardening, it will overheat too much and the hardening will not be of good quality, or will not work at all. So it’s better to first form the main profile of the bevels, and then modify it on a tape grinding machine, or better yet, manually.
To form the bevels correctly, you first need to draw a line on the workpiece and only then, focusing on this line, grind the metal. In general, here you will need some skills in working with a grinder.
Step five. Tempering the blade
Now we need to harden the steel, so it will become elastic, and the metal will not bend when cutting hard objects, in addition, the knife will hold hardening well. The hardening temperature is selected depending on the type of steel. If we talk about steel with a high carbon content, then it is usually heated to a temperature of up to 800 o C.
To understand what temperature to heat a metal to, if you don’t know what kind of steel it is, you can use a permanent magnet. As soon as the magnet stops being attracted to it as the steel heats up, the steel can be cooled.
You can also determine the desired heating temperature using a special color scale.
The metal is usually cooled in oil; in rare cases, steel is hardened between two plates, in water or in air.
After hardening the steel, there is one more technique - tempering the steel. If the steel is not released, the blade may break into small pieces when it falls, since the metal will be too brittle. To make it more resistant to mechanical stress, we place the blade in an oven with a temperature of about 200 o C. Here our knife should warm up for an hour, and then cool down along with the oven. As a result, metal release will occur.
In conclusion, I would like to remind you that the quenching oil should not be cold, otherwise it may be too thick. If the oil is thick, you may need to heat it up.
Step six. Blade cleaning
After quenching in oil and heating, there will be a lot of dirt on the metal. How to deal with them is up to everyone to decide for themselves. You can lightly sand the steel with a belt sander and then finish the metal by hand. Or, armed with sandpaper and WD-40, you can clean the metal by hand.
The author set himself the task of polishing the steel to a mirror shine. Here he needed a polishing wheel with paste.
Step seven. Handle installation
The author makes the handle from wood, but you can choose the material to your taste. First you will need to take two pieces, tighten them with clamps and then drill two holes, at the beginning and at the end. These holes should line up with the holes in the metal part. It is advisable to drive holes in the steel with a drill in order to clean them. Well, then epoxy glue comes to the rescue. It must be applied over the entire area to the two halves, and then tightly tighten them with clamps or clamp them in a vice. At the same stage, you need to remember to hammer the pins into the handles.
Step eight. The final stage of knife assembly
When the epoxy glue is completely dry, the clamps can be removed and now the knife is sent back for grinding. This time, using a grinder, you need to set the profile of the handle. Well, this parameter corresponds to the profile of the blade where the wooden handle is attached. So we just level the wood at the level of the metal. A rough profile can be set with a rasp.
You will also need to remove all burrs, irregularities, and so on. Finally, you need to bring the handle to a perfectly smooth state. This is done by reducing the grain on the belt grinding machine. It is also advisable to sand the handle by hand with fine sandpaper.
The selection of knives in stores is quite large. Kitchen, shoe, hunting, pocket - the list can be continued for a very long time. But there are situations when there is no cutting object at hand, but you desperately need it. 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 works? In short, there are not so few situations when such a homemade product may be needed. What is the best way to make a knife? We will now talk about this, as well as how best to do it in this or that case.
Where will you do it?
The need to make a cutting tool can arise anywhere:
- Houses:
- at the dacha;
- on a hike.
At home, as a rule, they make knives for some special work, as well as for gifts or collections. If you don’t do this professionally, then you don’t have any special equipment yet. But there may be a lot of suitable ones in the tool cabinet.
There will probably be a lot of useful things at the dacha. 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 making a knife must be hard enough and hold an edge well. Suitable for this:
- metals;
- stone;
- glass;
- mollusk shells;
- animal bones;
- tree.
Metal
Not just any metal is suitable. So what metal is best to make a knife from?
- It’s unlikely that you’ll think of messing around with aluminum - with such a knife you’ll get more pain than you can work with.
- The most suitable material is steel, preferably stainless.
- Ideal option– hardened, but it depends on your luck.
Important! At home you can do the heat treatment yourself, but on a hike it’s unlikely.
Stone, glass, shells
On a hike, you will certainly find stones that can cause sharp chips:
- obsidian;
- slate;
- quartzite.
Important! These are layered materials, and the chips when separating the layers are quite sharp.
In the places you visit, it’s not difficult to find a suitable shard of glass - here’s a simple solution for what to make a knife out of. On the banks of rivers there are shells of mollusks - for example, toothless. When they delaminate, they also give sharp chips, which makes it possible to make a good, albeit small, blade.
In case of urgent need, even wood will do; however, a wooden knife is only suitable for small kitchen work.
Bone blade
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 sandpaper, 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 necessary 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. It can be made from different materials:
- plastic;
- wood;
- ropes;
- wire.
Plastic
At home perfect material for the handle of a metal or glass knife - epoxy. However, in economic and construction stores the most sold now different compositions, which when hardened turn into beautiful and durable plastic. It is quite possible that you have some left over after renovating your apartment or building a summer house.
Tree
Wooden overlays – traditional way handle design. The handle can be given any shape, it is comfortable, does not heat up and is easy to attach.
Important! Many nations have knives with wicker handles. You can braid with cord or coated wire.
Homemade rope
It is possible that a traveler who finds himself without a knife on a desert island or even just on a long hike has lost his rope. There's nothing you can do, you'll have to get out of the situation. A rope can be made, for example, from nettles. It has fairly long fibers:
- Remove the skin from the stem.
- Collect the fibers and dry them (for example, by a fire or just in the sun).
- Remember fiber.
- Then all that remains is 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 best to make a knife from?
Despite the abundance suitable materials, best knives They are still made from metal. This was understood in ancient times, when they learned to process iron. And now the vast majority of cutting tools are made of steel. Suitable for a homemade knife:
- 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 require hardening and tempering.
Good DIY knife
To make a small knife with your own hands that does not need hardening, you, in addition to hacksaw blade, you will need:
- sketch;
- marker;
- epoxy or other material for the handle;
- rivets;
- hammer;
- emery wheel;
- center punch;
- drill.
Sketch
Any work begins with an idea. A homemade knife in this sense is no exception. 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 the hacksaw blade) and print it on paper with a self-adhesive layer.
Important! The method of transferring it to the blade depends on the material on which your sketch is made.
Option 1:
- Place the cut-out image of the blade with the shank on the hacksaw blade.
- Circle with a marker.
- Grind along the contour using sandpaper - at this stage it is not necessary to maintain extreme precision; the processing can be quite rough.
Option 2
In this case, the stencil is cut out, pasted onto the canvas, after which the workpiece is ground using sandpaper.
Lever
The handle needs to be made before finishing. The workpiece should be comfortable to hold.
Plastic
The easiest option is to fill it with epoxy according to the method of application indicated on the package:
- Let the plastic harden.
- Sand it with sandpaper.
- Sand it down.
Wooden handle
The wooden handle consists of two identical plates, between which the shank is inserted. First of all you need to cut 2 wooden blanks, absolutely identical. You don’t have to do the final processing yet - it’s important that they just match exactly in shape.
The entire structure is held on by two rivets, for which you need to make holes:
- Make marks for rivets on the wooden blanks and the shank - when you assemble the handle, you should have through holes.
- Use a drill to drill holes.
The rivets themselves are best made from copper tube from the heat exchanger of an old refrigerator:
- 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.
- Place the wooden pieces together, placing the shank in the middle.
- Insert the rivet so that it protrudes slightly above the holes on both sides.
- Lightly rivet the edges using a center punch to slightly widen the ends.
- 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 (insulated) or rope. You can also use a leather cord.
Important! Any type of weaving is suitable, making it possible to obtain a three-dimensional object. For example, macrame.
You can also make a temporary handle, which is extremely simple. To do this, just wrap the shank with electrical tape.
Blade finishing
Once the handle is ready, you can begin the final finishing and sharpening of the blade. This is done on an emery wheel. The process continues until you are satisfied with the shape of the knife.
Homemade knife with hardening
To make such a knife with your own hands, you will need a file.
Important! It is best to take an old Soviet one - cheap Chinese models, which most often break, almost always use low-quality steel.
Base material
The file should have a width of 30-40 mm and a rectangular or diamond-shaped cross-section. The second option is preferable - the knife will be more durable.
Tools
Prepare other materials and tools. You need:
Making a knife with your 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 tang. Then proceed like this:
- Clamp the workpiece in a vice.
- Pre-sharpen with a file.
- Sand 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:
- Place the workpiece in a roasting pan with burning coals - the coals should completely cover it.
- Leave for 20 minutes.
- Remove the workpiece and let it cool completely.
- Place the workpiece in the oven.
- Preheat oven to maximum temperature.
- Set a timer for 60 minutes.
- After keeping the future knife in the oven for an hour, turn off the heat and let the entire system cool completely.
- Repeat the procedure.
Hardening with heat shield
In fact, the ideal temperature for hardening is 700º. But it can only be achieved in a forge - neither gas stove, neither a Russian stove produces such heat. However, a way out can always be found. The space above the workpiece can be heated to almost the required level, if you build a heat shield. This is simply a thick metal plate larger than a file and rising 1 cm above it:
- Place the file on a baking sheet.
- Place several nuts around the perimeter of the workpiece.
- Put on the nuts thick metal sheet(for example, a small cast iron frying pan).
It is very convenient to heat metal in an oven with a transparent door. If you see that the metal has become an even cherry color, it means the process is going correctly. You can perform hardening without a stage with coals, just in the oven. But then you will need to keep it at maximum for at least four hours. In this case, the metal should cool down simultaneously with the oven, that is, there is no need to remove the workpiece.
Important! You can use table salt as an indicator - as soon as it starts to melt, this will mean that you have achieved the desired temperature.
Quenching in a furnace followed by tempering
The oven is still not the best convenient device for hardening metals. This is an urban option. It is much better if you have a Russian stove. 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 tempered, which, naturally, will improve the quality of the future product.
Important! You can use a magnet as an indicator. It naturally reacts to cold steel. As it heats up, it reacts less and less, and at one point it stops doing so altogether. Then you need to take the workpiece with pliers and lower it into a bucket with cold water. And you will get a knife from the best steel, which you can think of. This material leaves scratches on the glass.
To prevent 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 can be replaced:
- vinegar;
- raw potatoes.
IN acetic acid the blade is lowered, raw potatoes are simply rubbed. The effect will be the same as when treated with ferric chloride.
Next steps
After the blade has been hardened, you can begin making 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 pick up the workpiece without fear of injury:
- Clean the workpiece.
- Do final sanding.
- Sharpen the blade using sandpaper.
DIY glass knife
Making cutting tools from glass is not a very pleasant task, but sometimes it is necessary, for example, in hiking conditions. You will need:
- a suitable piece of window glass;
- sharpening stone;
- rope or electrical tape.
Important! If necessary, window glass can be replaced with bottle glass. The main thing is that there is a long piece with a more or less even edge. It is better to immediately remove chips that are too protruding by placing the workpiece on a large flat stone and working with a smaller stone.
Once you have a blank of approximately the right shape in your hands, make a handle. This is especially necessary when working with glass. You can simply 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 cut meat, vegetables, etc.
Glass knife at home
At home, you can make a real masterpiece out of glass, which will both cut and decorate, for example, the kitchen. A product made of colored glass will look especially impressive:
- Make a sketch - you can just do it on a sheet of paper.
- Place a piece of glass on the paper.
- Cut along the contour with a glass cutter.
- Make a handle from transparent plastic and sand it.
Such a knife does not need sharpening or polishing if you just cut it fairly evenly.
Now you know what is best to make a knife from in any conditions, how to do it, so in any unforeseen situation you will not be left without 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!
Today, even with this large assortment various fine quality knives from famous manufacturers, hand-forged knives are still very popular. This is not surprising, since such knives have a special energy and attractiveness. And if the blade itself is made of alloy steel and with skill, then such a knife is priceless. From in various ways When making a knife with your own hands, the most labor-intensive is forging a knife with your own hands. It should be noted that forging a knife allows you to create the most durable and high-quality blade that will last for decades and at the same time retain its qualities. Forging a knife with your own hands is a task that requires a master high level tool skills, knowledge of metals and their properties. For those who have decided to forge a knife for the first time, the recommendations described below will help you make your first blade.
How to choose knife steel
Qualitative homemade knife distinguishes correct selection steel for him, cutting and strength characteristics the knife itself. To choose the right steel, you need to know and understand what properties the steel itself has. To forge a knife with your own hands, you need to focus on the five main properties of steel - wear resistance, hardness, strength, toughness, and red-hardness.
Hardness- this is a property of steel, indicating its ability to resist the penetration of another more hard material. To put it simply, solid steel better resists deformation. The hardness index itself is measured on the Rockwell scale and ranges from 20 to 67 HRC.
Wear resistance- resistance of the material to wear during operation. This property directly depends on the hardness of the steel itself.
Strength indicates the ability to maintain integrity under the influence of various external forces. You can check the strength by bending or with a strong impact.
Plastic- the ability of steel to absorb and dissipate kinetic energy during impact and deformation.
Red fastness- this is an indicator responsible for the resistance of steel to temperatures and the preservation of its original qualities when heated. The minimum temperature at which it can be forged depends on how resistant the steel is to heat treatment. The most red-resistant steels are hard grades, operating temperature forgings for which more than 900 °C. It should be noted that the melting point of steel is 1450 - 1520 °C.
All these properties are interconnected and the predominance of one of them leads to the deterioration of the other. Moreover, this or that property of steel depends on the content of various alloying elements and additives in it, such as silicon, carbon, chromium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, molybdenum.
The presence of certain alloying elements and their proportional use in the manufacture of steel, knowledge of the properties that alloying elements and additives impart, made it possible to create steel for specific purposes and needs. These steels each have their own markings. At the same time, domestic and foreign steel grades are designated differently. For convenience, the steel grade indicates the main composition of one or more alloying elements. For example, steel grade U9 indicates its carbon content in tenths of a percent. An analogue of steel grade “U” is steel 10xx, where “xx” is the carbon content. And the smaller the value, the smaller its content. Or steel such as X12MF indicates a high content of chromium and molybdenum, which indicates the stainless and high-strength properties of the steel.
Domestic brands, which are often used when forging knives at home, include all steels marked from U7 to U16, ШХ15, 65G, R6M5, X12MF. Among foreign analogues, steel can be distinguished O-1, 1095 , 52100 ,M-2, A-2, 440C, AUS, ATS-34, D-2. Each of the above brands is used in the manufacture of knives, various instruments and spare parts. For example, steel grades R6M5, U7-U13, 65G are used for the production of drills, drills, cables, springs, bearings, and files. Therefore, it is from these items that folk craftsmen make hand-forged knives.
Of course, you can find other products made from one or another steel. To do this, it will be enough to read full description grades of steel and its use in the Making of Steel and Alloys, and then use a product made from it to forge a knife.
To forge a knife, you will need a certain blacksmith's tool, which can be purchased at the store. But you can also use a non-professional tool:
- a hammer of 3 - 4 kg and a hammer of smaller weight up to 1 kg;
- blacksmith's tongs or ordinary pliers, but without insulation on the handles, as well as an adjustable wrench;
- vice;
- an anvil or its homemade analogue from an I-beam;
- grinder and welding machine;
- sharpening machine;
- bake.
If with ordinary tool everything is more or less clear, some clarifications need to be made about the stove. The thing is that in an ordinary fireplace it is difficult to obtain a temperature of more than 900 °C. And the workpiece will take forever to warm up there. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the hearth a little. If you have not previously at least hardened metal, you will have to make a small furnace from scratch from thick-walled metal. Then attach a pipe to it, through which air will flow using a fan or an old vacuum cleaner. In this simple way, you can get a fairly reliable crucible for bringing workpieces to a temperature of 900 - 1200 ° C. Regular fuel is used as fuel. charcoal, preferably one that gives as much heat as possible and burns longer.
Before starting the work itself, you need to do sketch the knife itself.
In fact, a knife is a fairly simple object, consisting of a blade and a handle. But each of these elements has a whole set of components. In the photo demonstrating the design of the knife, you can see all the elements of the knife and what they are called.
You also need to know about some basic blade profiles in order to make the most suitable sketch. The photo below shows the profiles of the knives.
Having chosen the most suitable profile for you, you can safely begin creating a sketch. Certainly, experienced craftsmen do without sketching, but for a beginner it is still important to make a sketch and keep it before your eyes during the forging process.
Forging a knife from a drill
Drills have become very popular when forging knives due to the alloy steel R6M5 used in them, which is durable, easy to sharpen and wear-resistant.
When choosing a drill for forging, one thing to note is important point. Large drills consist of a working spiral part made of P6M5 and a shank made of ordinary steel. Small drills are usually made entirely of P6M5. When forging a knife from a large drill, you must immediately determine which steel is which and where the boundary between them is. This can be done quite simply, just by sharpening the drill a little along the entire length. Where there is ordinary steel, the sheaf of sparks will be large and yellow-orange in color. But where there is alloy steel, the sheaf will be sparse and closer to a reddish tint. The procedure described above is necessary in order to determine where the blade of the knife will begin and where the shank will begin. Having finished with this, we move on to the forging itself.
In the beginning light a fire in the stove, turn on the blower and wait until the coals get hot enough, after which place the drill in the crucible. But we do this using pliers and so that the shank mostly stayed out of the fire.
Important! When forging a knife for the first time, you may not immediately determine when the metal has heated to the required temperature. As a result, more than one drill can be damaged. Therefore, before you start forging a drill, you can practice a little with heating and forging metal on ordinary fittings. In this case, it is necessary to remember what color the metal was and when it was forged most softly. It is also worth remembering that the sunlight even metal heated to 1100 °C will look dark.
As soon as the drill will heat up to the required temperature, which is more than 1000 °C, it is immediately necessary remove from the crucible, and clamp the bottom of the shank in a vice. Then take an adjustable wrench, hold the top of the drill with it and make a circular motion, straightening the spiral. Everything must be done quickly so that the metal does not have time to cool, otherwise you risk breaking the drill. If you couldn't do it in one go, that's okay. Just reheat the drill and repeat the procedure. The result should be a relatively smooth strip of metal.
The next step would be forging drill And rolling metal to an acceptable thickness. Everything is quite simple here. Having heated the metal to the required temperature, we take a heavy hammer and begin to level the metal with strong but uniform blows and give it an even shape. The result should be a strip of metal about 4 - 5 mm thick.
Important! When forging metal, you must constantly monitor the color of the workpiece. As soon as it began to fade, acquiring cherry blossom, we immediately return it to the forge. It is better to heat the metal one more time than to break it under a hammer blow.
Next the edge of a knife is forged. Everything is a little more complicated here. The fact is that it is necessary to give a rounded shape and at the same time maintain the required thickness of the blade. All the work is practically jewelry and will require a certain dexterity. Forging is performed in such a way that gradually rounding the tip, the blade is gradually drawn out in length. The blows must be strong, but careful. A beginner may not succeed the first time, but a little practice will improve everything.
The next step would be forging cutting edge knife. This is a rather important and difficult stage. This will require a lighter hammer and preferably one with a rounded head. Starting from the middle of the blade, we gradually move the metal down to the cutting edge. We try to make the cutting edge as thin as possible. At the same time, we make sure that the blade itself remains straight and even. We apply the blows very carefully and try to apply only as much effort as is required to slightly deform the hot metal. We remember the color of the workpiece and, if necessary, send it back to the crucible.
After we managed to forge the blade and point, move on to forging the shank. The work itself will be much simpler than when forging a blade. First, we heat the round shank of the drill and then roll it out with strong hammer blows. Depending on the sketch, the shank can be either narrow or wide. Here, who already likes to make the handle of a knife. Some people make simple overlays, while others make a stacked handle.
Upon completion of forging, let the metal cool gradually and then let's move on to polishing. Using a grinding machine, we remove excess layers of metal and unevenness, making the knife perfectly smooth and shiny. When sanding, up to 2 mm of thickness can be removed, and the knife will become much lighter and thinner. You can also sharpen the knife at this stage. Finally, we harden the knife. How this is done will be written below.
Forging a knife from a drill video review:
Another popular material for forging knives is the bearing, namely its inner or outer rim. Moreover, the internal one is even preferable. All work on forging a knife from a bearing is almost identical to forging from a drill. With some exceptions.
First, we cut out the blank from the bearing rim using a grinder. We try to take the length with a reserve, so that there is enough for the knife and another 1 - 2 cm left. Secondly, at the initial stage of forging, the cut blank should be welded to the reinforcement bar. And in this form, heat and forge. Thirdly, if in the case of a drill the workpiece was rolled out from round to flat, then for the bearing race it simply needs to be aligned. And the further steps for forging the blade itself and the shank are completely similar. The only thing worth noting is that it is still more convenient to make a knife with applied handles from the bearing.
Forging a knife from a bearing video review:
In search of suitable steel for a quality knife, many people use springs. The metal of this car part is highly elastic and durable, which makes it an excellent example for hand-forged knives. In fairness, it should be noted that a knife from a spring can be made by simply cutting out the profile of the knife with further sharpening and hardening. But still, for the knife to be truly reliable, it is better to forge it, especially since the thickness of the spring is quite large, and for good knife it should be reduced.
We begin forging a knife from a spring by cleaning off rust with a grinder and marking the plate. Only a small part of the spring will be needed, so mark it and cut it off using a grinder. Next, we weld the workpiece to the reinforcement and heat it up. Then we gradually forge it, bringing it to required thickness. We forge the tip and cutting edge; how to do this is described above using the example of forging a knife from a drill. Having achieved the desired result, we leave the knife to cool gradually and then grind and sharpen it.
Forging a knife from a spring video review:
Forging a knife from a file
Wear-resistant and durable steel can be found in a variety of locksmith's tool and the file is a prime example of this. Making knives from a file is quite a popular activity. Moreover, the blades are extremely durable with an excellent cutting edge. But forging a knife from a file has its own characteristics.
First of all, you will need to clean the file from nicks and possible rust. This can be done using a grinder. Next, if necessary, cut the workpiece from the file required length. Then we weld it to a piece of reinforcement and put it in the furnace. Having heated the workpiece to the required temperature, we begin to roll the workpiece to the thickness we need. Then we make the point and cutting edge. It is best to make the shank of a knife from a file under an overhead handle.
Forging a knife from a file video review:
Forging a knife from a rope
Making a knife from steel cable quite a rare occurrence. Since, unlike all the workpieces described above, the cable consists of scattered fibers of wire, and it is quite difficult to forge them. In addition, cable steel does not have such high performance, like the steel of a drill or file. Most cable knives are forged because of their unusual pattern on the wedge, vaguely reminiscent of Damascus steel. In order to make such a knife, you need to put in a little more effort than when forging from a regular steel bar.
Forging a knife from a cable begins like regular forging. There are just a few little secrets. Firstly, this concerns the shank. Many craftsmen make a knife shank from a cable in the form of a finished handle. It looks very unusual and beautiful. And here there are two approaches to making a handle. Take a thick cable and then weld its end, making it a monolithic piece. Or make a handle in the shape of a loop, and forge a blade from the ends. Secondly, forging a cable is a difficult task due to the scattered wires that make up the cable. To make a knife, you will need to weld them together. But this is a whole art and you shouldn’t expect that you will get a knife out of a cable the first time. Welding can be done in two ways. The first is to electric weld along the large grooves. The second is to perform forge welding. The second option is more complicated and at the same time preferable.
So, having chosen the method of creating the handle, we proceed to forging the knife. To do this, heat the cable until it turns bright red. Then we take it out and sprinkle it with borax. Then we send it back to the crucible. This is a simple way to prepare for forge welding. is a salt of tetraboric acid and is used by craftsmen for welding individual layers of steel. Essentially, it is a flux that facilitates the melting process and protects the molten metal from oxygen and eliminates metal oxides. Borax can be found in the public domain without any problems.
After the cable has been treated with borax on all sides and it has heated up from 900 to 1200°C or more, we remove it from the furnace and begin to forge it. We strike with a heavy hammer, but at the same time we try to keep the cable fibers together. The difficulty of forging a cable lies precisely in this. But with practice you can achieve acceptable results. In the end, the cable can be heated and forged as many times as desired. But at the same time, every time you heat it in the forge, sprinkle the cable with borax. The result is a monolithic piece of steel consisting of many layers, almost like Damascus steel. After which all that remains is to forge the blade of the required shape. Videos demonstrating the forging of knives have repeatedly shown exactly how to roll out a blade and create a cutting edge and point.
Blade hardening and tempering
As noted earlier, hardening a knife is one of the most important stages its manufacture. After all, the performance characteristics of the knife depend on how correctly it was performed. The hardening process itself is performed after the knife has cooled and been ground on a sharpening machine.
Begins by heating it from light red to orange color. After which the knife is lowered into water or oil. In this case, add 2 - 3 tablespoons to the water table salt per 1 liter, and the water temperature should be 18 - 25 °C, oil 25 - 30 °C. Hardening is carried out quite quickly and for everything to go well after hardening, the blade must be released. The steel hardening itself occurs in the temperature range from 750 to 550 °C. The moment of hardening can even be felt when the steel begins to “tremble and groan” in the liquid. As soon as the process ends, the blade must be removed and allowed to cool naturally.
Blade release performed after hardening. The process itself involves weakening the internal stress of the steel, which makes it more flexible and resistant to various kinds loads Before tempering, the blade should be cleaned of possible scale and then heated again. But the temperature during vacation is much lower. The knife itself must be held over the flame and observed. As soon as the entire surface is covered with a yellow-orange film, remove the knife from the heat and let it cool naturally.
Sometimes quenching and tempering are done with oil or water, and sometimes through oil into water. This type of hardening is done very quickly. First, the blade is lowered into oil for 2 - 3 seconds, and then into water. With this approach, the risk of doing the hardening incorrectly is minimal.
Forging a knife with your own hands seems like a simple task. In addition to the fact that you will have to swing the forging hammer quite a lot, even without experience in the matter of forging metal, you may not be able to forge a knife the first time. Therefore, you first need to get good at it and practice a little, and then start forging a knife.
