A couple of pieces I've made during the pandemic

A couple of knives I've finished in the last few weeks. I've yet to make a sheath for the larger one. Both are forged from old steel I have lying around. All forged, heat treated, tempered and mainly hand filed with a little bit of machine work.

A little utility knife, 3" blade (was a coil spring from my old truck) brass guard, felt liner and Sapele handle.




Something a bit bigger, 5.5" blade (Leaf spring from a different old truck) brass pins and Leopard wood scales.





Anyone else made anything interesting recently?

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They look great. You should make a kitchen set for steaks etc,.

Beautiful looking knives, especially the larger.

I was watching a few interesting videos the other month about making Knife blades from old files, it did make me want to try it myself. I am now more interested in the process and equipment you used to make these, i havent forged metal since school mind, did you make these at home, or is it something you have access to through work or the like?

Oh very nice

Seen a few knives made, mainly on you tube, and most stick to the tried and tested sheath knife style.

Have you considered a specialty knife of some sort ?, or something for the kitchen as a set of three maybe.

Cheese knife


Can I ask you about the rivets that go through ?.
I've an old kitchen chefs knife, about 16" overall, with a full shaped tang, blade is 11"x3"X 6mm thick and I've been meaning to cut that down to something better for camping.
Im thinking about 5", maybe 6". Spent years working with a 5-6" boning knife, seems the right length for me.
Steel is good, sharpens to a razor, the old non stainless type.
I can probably shape it(STILL working on a shape) ok, and cold grind/work it. Maybe not to that lovely polished beauties above, the rough as a badgers arse suits my nature
The scales arent a prob, and I have the choice of exotic woods, but somethings I think youll agree, a plain and simple handle looks best of all. Riven Ash is very strong,knock resistant and usually has a nice light catching ripple about it, but its how its secured is a mystery.
Done some light riveting with a hammer and block, but here you'd grind off the mushroom. How do you rivet and still have enough flat left after shaping the grip.
Some I've seen screw into each other, but I'd prefer the style you've done.

Is it a kit, or just a straight brass rod, hammered flat and ground smooth ?

Thanks for the kind words.

Everything I've made so far is carbon steel - not ideal for kitchen use. Stainless requires special heat treatments that I can't do with the equipment I have.

mk one":sk4aqms6 said:

Beautiful looking knives, especially the larger.

I was watching a few interesting videos the other month about making Knife blades from old files, it did make me want to try it myself. I am now more interested in the process and equipment you used to make these, i havent forged metal since school mind, did you make these at home, or is it something you have access to through work or the like?

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All done in my garage, but I do have a small gas forge and a few other bits that you may not have lying around. File knives are okay and can make great knives, but ironically unless you have a way of heat treating them they're quite hard to make due to the hardness. a proper grinder makes life a lot easier. One of the steps I do involves softening the metal as far as possible so that you can work on them with a file - most of the work done on the 5.5" blade above was done with a file when soft, then hardened and tempered afterwards.

dyna-ti":sk4aqms6 said:

Can I ask you about the rivets that go through ?.
I've an old kitchen chefs knife, about 16" overall, with a full shaped tang, blade is 11"x3"X 6mm thick and I've been meaning to cut that down to something better for camping.
Im thinking about 5", maybe 6". Spent years working with a 5-6" boning knife, seems the right length for me.
Steel is good, sharpens to a razor, the old non stainless type.
I can probably shape it(STILL working on a shape) ok, and cold grind/work it. Maybe not to that lovely polished beauties above, the rough as a badgers arse suits my nature
The scales arent a prob, and I have the choice of exotic woods, but somethings I think youll agree, a plain and simple handle looks best of all. Riven Ash is very strong,knock resistant and usually has a nice light catching ripple about it, but its how its secured is a mystery.
Done some light riveting with a hammer and block, but here you'd grind off the mushroom. How do you rivet and still have enough flat left after shaping the grip.
Some I've seen screw into each other, but I'd prefer the style you've done.

Is it a kit, or just a straight brass rod, hammered flat and ground smooth ?

Click to expand...

It's straight brass rod. Although it 'used' to be the way to make a knife very, very few makers now pein (mushroom) the ends of the pins. the pins should be a snug fit in the scales, and it's all held together with a high strength epoxy (which also seals between the tang and scale and stops things getting in between them). Corby bolts are a great option, but still need the epoxy to seal it all. Peining the pins runs a huge risk of splitting the scales and really doesn't add any strength any more.

The 5.5" camp knife has just spent 2 weeks camping, hacking wood and splitting logs (batoning them) basically beating on it hard - other than a few scratches it's all good (although needed to be about 2" longer). Next design is already being thought out.

FYI, polishing them is about the easiest bit, but just takes a bit of time.

I'm also planning to make my Dad a folding pocket knife from some of his old tools, files, brass drifts etc. Hopefully by christmas, but maybe later...

These are fantastic - really impressive and inspirational! Thank you - I used to enjoy watching forged in steel and my wife’s uncle is a blacksmith in peru.

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Brilliant work, I can only dream of being as skilled with my hands.
This forum is always great at delivering up sentences I never imagined I’d read, and today Ibbz offers up ‘my wife’s uncle is a blacksmith in Peru’, thanks buddy, genuinely made me smile!
And by the way, that does sound really cool

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MatBH5":38r4mvi7 said:

Brilliant work, I can only dream of being as skilled with my hands.
This forum is always great at delivering up sentences I never imagined I’d read, and today Ibbz offers up ‘my wife’s uncle is a blacksmith in Peru’, thanks buddy, genuinely made me smile!
And by the way, that does sound really cool

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Thanks for the detailed reply, though you have sent me off down the rabbit hole of forges now

mk one":23ws8dev said:

Thanks for the detailed reply, though you have sent me off down the rabbit hole of forges now

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*evil laugh*

The real pain comes as you try and find a decent anvil...