/r/knifemaking
The world of Knifemaking
A helpful community for knife makers of all skill levels to talk about different techniques, steels, and tips for others. Show off your work and where you work here.
Let's make this a very helpful community.
1) Post anything related to knifemaking
2) All official AMAs must be Mod approved with verification.
3) Keep comments respectful and on topic.
4) Blatant advertising and for sale posts are not allowed. You are welcome to make transactions private. LINKS TO BLOGS AND WEBSITES ARE CONSIDERED SELF-PROMOTION.
5) Posts that address questions easily searched or answered in the WIKI will be removed.
Click HERE to get to the WIKI
User Submitted Content:
Kiln Build by meepstah
Large and in Depth List of Wood for Handles
Dirt Cheap Guide to Knife Forging
Useful links and Information:
Heat Treating Tool Box- Kevin Cashen's detailed guide to heat treating
Knife Shop Safety and PPE by Jim Ferguson (Downloadable, Right Click, Save As)
Absolute Cheapskate Way To Start Making Knives (PDF)
Bob Engnath Knife Patterns (PDF)
Nick Wheeler- Hand sanding 101 (YouTube)
Steel: The “welding steel” at Tractor Supply/ Lowes/ Home Depot is mild steel and useless for knives Buy new, known, annealed blade steel. It is well worth it. Files, railroad spikes, lawnmower blades and other unknown steels can definitely be used for practice forging but will not perform for a knife. For the work involved, it is very cheap to buy and use known good steel.
1084FG sold by Aldo Bruno is formulated for Knifemaking, Cheap & made for DIY heat-treat. http://njsteelbaron.com/ Phone # 862-203-8160
His telephone service is better than his website.
Heat Treating:
Heat Treating Basics Video (downloadable) Right click and save this and watch it often
Kevin Cashen Heat Treating Info
Heat Treat services:
Air Hardening Stainless Steel Only A2, ATS34, Elmax, CPM154, 154CM, 440C etc.
Buck Knives- Paul Bos Heat Treating
Oil Hardening Carbon Steels and Air Hardening Stainless Steels Oil quenched O1, 1095, 1084, 52100, 5160 Or air quenched A2, ATS34, Elmax, CPM154, 154CM, 440C etc.
Knifemaker CA (Canadian)
-Be sure to check the Shipping and Price tabs
Quenchants for Oil hardening steel
Forget the Goddard's Goop Quench, Motor Oil, Transmission Fluid
Use commercial quench oil & match oil speed to the steel type Here is a good post by Kevin Cashen with the Explanation and classification of oil speeds
For heat treating yourself with minimal equipment, find a Eutectoid steel 1080, 1084. Grocery store canola oil can work well -if you use clean preheated oil
Brine and water are cheap for "water hardening" steels W1 and 1095, but use fast oils Parks 50 & Houghton Quench K If you use water or brine, expect broken blades!
/r/blacksmith is great for general blacksmithing tips beyond knives
/r/Bladesmith is great for those interested in forging knives
Check out /r/ChefKnives for all things regarding culinary cutlery
Gunsmithing /r/gunsmithing
Want a knife made? /r/MakerMesh
Like general knife discussion? /r/knives is the place for you.
Making knives isn't your thing, but the metal still calls? Here ya go: /r/metalworking
Need help with a different type of craft besides steel? Search here: /r/ArtisanHelp
Want to talk about knives and share yours? /r/knifeclub
Buy/Sell/Trade:
/r/knifemaking
132,187 Subscribers
Hi, I'll share another job I did in collaboration with Gazebo Custom!
12:53 UTC
Petition for Instagram to stop pursuing knife makers
As many of you know some time ago IG started treating knife makers like criminals. There was a post here 3 months ago about that situation.
Now there's a petition for IG to stop that: https://www.change.org/p/stop-systematic-restrictions-on-contents-about-knives-on-instagram-facebook-threads
I think we could at least try to make a change.
12:20 UTC
New batch coming up! Mini clippoints in 1095 and 14C28N roughly shaped and on their way to HT. The top and rightmost are commissioned.
10:41 UTC
Made from an old file first complete with a sheath knife
05:00 UTC
I give you Walpurgisnacht my fantasy messer
Here is Walpurgisnqcht 27 inch blade and 35.25 inch overall 80crv2 steel .27 inches at the thickest, this is just after the very rough grinding to 6.5 degrees each side for a total of 13 degrees and the flase edge is 15 degrees each side. It will be a left hand messer with the nagel being a crescent moon with it and the guard being made of wrought iron as well as the pommel haven't decided on the wood yet though give me your thoughts, kinda going for a short bastard sword/ hand and a half kreigsmesser with a shorter blade and obviously fantasy inspired. It's 1.25 ath the widest and down to .75 inches at the thinnest portion of the blade width. It's still rough and will have a tone more finish grinding even before heat treating.
04:06 UTC
Finally wrapped this guy up! 8.5” Food Prep/Camp Knife
01:09 UTC
help with makers mark on rasp
hello, can some one identify this makers mark? I can get these for 5$ a pop if they are worthy of messing with
00:29 UTC
Small guy made for my client 🫡
Just finished this little guy, let me know your thoughts.
22:38 UTC
My first time using an Alabama Damascus billet
21:00 UTC
First knife using an Alabama Damascus billet
20:49 UTC
Hello. How thin I make the egde efter grinding.
19:43 UTC
First friction folder
My first friction folder – actually, a number of firsts for me, as I’ve only made a handful of fixed blades at this point:
- First folding knife (I designed it in a CAD program)
- First time heat treating a blade myself
- First time grinding in the bevels by hand
I threw it together pretty quickly – less than 24 hours – it’s for me and really a prototype so I didn’t spend a ton of time on fit and finish.
I broke the first blade after trying to cold-fix a small warp after tempering. For the second blade, I clamped it in three points to a piece of angle iron while tempering. Still ended up with a very slight warp. I think that may be due to cooling in water after each temper and the blade end having so much more mass than the tang.
Things I’d change:
- Slightly different bevels to get less material behind the edge
- Slightly longer blade/slightly shorter handle to make it more proportional
- Better pin strategy – the stop pin is epoxied, the one on the tail is peened – was having a hard time getting a peen on the stainless stop pin.
- A nicer spacer in the tail – right now it’s just a drilled scrap of steel to match the blade width
17:36 UTC
Recent knives
Finishing up some Christmas gifts. These are my final prototypes before I start making them to sell (finally!). All are 1/8” AEB-L and have an overall length of 6.5 inches. Two are black G10 with bronze lanyard pins. The other two are burlap micarta with g10 pins. I’d love any feedback or criticism! Thanks for looking.
17:11 UTC
7th knife, made from 80CrV2 and ebony wood
16:56 UTC
Shop cat approved
Shaping up some pinecone scales with a white glow in the dark effect.
14:38 UTC
1/8'' thickness AEB-L Steel scandi grind knife blanks (heat treated). %15 OFF for you guys! REDDIT15 is your promo code for our Etsy shop knifemakersupplies.etsy.com/listing/1632133066
13:00 UTC
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