My First 100 Knives -Working My Way Up!

The Leuku Knife, also known as a Sami knife (Sami: stuorraniibi = “big knife”, Finnish: lapinleuku or leuku), is a large knife traditionally used by the Sami people. I decided to try some Laurel Mountain Barrel Brown & Degreaser to brown the blade. This is how it came out! […]

Horace Kephart (1862-1931) is a familiar name to bushcrafters along with George Washington Sears (See Knife 59) and was one of the leading outdoor writers of his time. Kephart designed the knife. This is how he described it in the first edition of Camping and Woodcraft: “This knife weighs only 4 ounces. It was made by a country blacksmith, and is one of the homeliest things I ever saw; but it has outlived in my affections the score of other knives that I have use”. […]

This Brut de Forge Bowie was forged from a similar tine as Knife - 42 Hunter Forged from an Implement Tine. To the right it is being normalized. Notice the groove (or fuller) in the tang. I cut that with the belt grinder. It serves a couple of purposes. It lightens the knife. It makes less surface area of the tang that must be flattened and gives the epoxy some space. […]

Because this Antler Handled Carving Knife's antler was put on with the base end first, it required a little different technique. It seems the base is bone and is harder. It did not soften like a cut end that exposes the softer insides. To get around this I drilled a hole then slightly widen it to be about the width of the tang. I drilled with a drill bit the approximate width and used a Dremel with a cutter to widen it. […]

This is a modern version of “The Muk” knife. The blade is the same, but it has a full tang and a stabilized spalted beech scales. […]

Bunka Chef’s Knife – Making The Makers Mark Made from 3/32” 1095 Handle is wenge and zebra wood Bunka knives are general purpose knives tackling a wide range of common kitchen tasks. Their reverse tanto profile gives the knives a dexterous and delicate tip and a […]

A railroad spike knife is made (....wait for it....) from a railroad spike and it's a project that seems to be a right to passage for a lot of blacksmiths and bladesmiths. It takes a little knowledge and experience to get it right, but honestly, I find them more of a novelty item. […]

I forged Fully Forged Hunting Knife that I broke from another tine as shown in knife 36. I sound up breaking it. I knew I was not finished forging it but I ran out of time, so I just left it sitting on the anvil. The next day I only had a few minutes in the shop. I picked up the knife and noticed a slight warp. Sure, I should have known better but my experience working with mild steel sort of kicked in and I gave it a couple good whacks with the hammer. Boom! A duh moment. […]

The vine pattern is probably the most common type of file work done on a knife spine. I've outlined the steps below so that most everyone can complete this and move on to more exciting filework. […]

This knife was made from a file with Blade Filings added This knife was made from a file with Blade Filings added. This knife’s design is not what was intended. I had a failed attempt to cut Fuller’s in it. I was using a cutoff wheel with a straight edge guide. The guide slipped. So, tyo make […]

On the tang of the this knife, I started adding a dowel to eliminate the need to burn the tang in. Just drill the hole big enough for the dowel and cut a groove for the tang. It then all gets epoxied together. […]

It was time to try my hand at making a Friction Folder. A friction folder is a folding knife that doesn't use a lock or springs. It uses the handle's friction against the tang to stay open. The design has an extended tang. This allows the user's hand to keep the blade from folding shut. When making a Friction Folder it’s best to make a prototype out of heavy paper or thin wood pieces. This allows you to get the pin locations close enough so it can be tuned in final fitting. […]

Up to this point my knife hardness test has been to chop a hardwood scrap, roughly 2” x 2” by chopping at it as hard as I could. A used knife I had folded on the test and I couldn’t get it heat treated so it would not harden. I was still researching trying to find a better way without buying expensive equipment. […]

Stone Washing for Your Knives' Finish is quite simple. You can actually do it by hand. Just put the knife in a container with media. I used stones I picked up from the side of the road. […]

If you choose, you can make your own mosaic pins. Mosaic pins are simply pins with a decorative look. To make a mosaic pin, simply fill a tube with whatever you think will look cool. Here is a few I did. […]

At this point I decided I wanted to stabilize the wood I used for handles. Stabilizing Scales (and handles) helps eliminate the possibility of the handle going bad because of moisture causing expansion or contraction if it dries out. It minimizes or eliminates warping, cracking and other issues that can occur with wood when used under extreme circumstances. It also would allow me to use some spalted wood that wouldn’t normally be a good handle. […]

The brass finger guard was fitted buy cutting the slot, then slowly filing it until it fit. The blade was also filed slightly to create a very shallow shoulder for the brass to slide up to. It was then drilled for 2 brass 1/8” rods which were peened on (after heat treating). […]

Finding the right belts can be a bit of a learning curve. Here is a little of what I've picked up so far. Here is some information that may be helpful for the steel grinding. […]

I force a patina using Apple Cider Vinegar on "Knife 43 – Hidden Tang Puukko - Apple Cider Vinegar Patina" […]

This knife was forged from an implement tine. This should be close to 5150 if the information on the internet is correct. I found it to be a little harder to forge than the 108x. […]

This Knife "The Knife that has been remade" certainly helped with my knife making education. I made a lot of mistakes and most of this Knife is a transition of those mistakes from trial and error and fix this and try that. […]

Knife 40 – Fully Forged Hunting knife This is the first knife I’m going to call forged. I’ll admit it took me longer due to inexperienced, but not as long as I expected. This is an example of one of the benefits of knowing how to forge a knife along with stock removal. This piece of 1080 […]

I have Used Ferric Chloride full strength. Some knife makers suggest diluting it. It will take some experimenting to determine which works best for you. To make the containers for the ferric acid I took 2 pieces of 3” PVC and plugged one end and added a cap on the top. I found this sand blast medium barrel perfect for a base for a bit more stability. Clamping it to the wall or a post will work as well. You just do not want it to be tipped over. […]

A Kiridashi is a Japanese style knife usually used as a woodworking marking knife or carving knife. The name ‘Kiridashi’ means ‘to carve out’ in Japanese. The only thing different from the previous kiridashis I made is the burnt ash handles and it was made from a worn-out file. […]

A small utility knife made from a file. I made this knife to try filing on the spline. […]

This knife was an experimental knife. I had a piece of low Carbon Tig welded to 1095 high carbon. I like the way this came out and the different look. […]

Knife 35 – Serbian Cleaver Made from 3/16” 1084 Even though I did very little to this before heat treating, I still wound up with a small warp. I clamped two pieces of metal to provide a very slight over bend and tempered. It came back straight. Because of its size, it took some hand sanding. […]

The jimping was first laid out and cut with the band saw. A hacksaw would work well here if you didn't have access to a bandsaw. I then started the filing with a triangle edge of a file. I then used a chainsaw file ADD FILE SIZE> to cut the Jimping. I cut 10 Stokes on each hole until the cut marks disappeared. That way I had even depth all the way across. (See Adding Jimping to your knife) […]

The Knife 33 - Hidden Tang Antler Handled Hunter knife was made from a file using the stock removal technique. You can burn the antler in. Like burning in a wood handle. You drill a hole smaller than the tang. Heat the tang and push the handle down on the tang so it burns in. You repeat the process until the handle is in place. You'd want to do this before heat treating or wrap the blade with a wet cloth. I tried this process, but it didn't work very well on this antler so I decided to file it out. […]

Knife 30 – Cleaver This Knife 30 – Cleaver is the last knife of the Knives 23-30 – Kitchen Knife Set . I had played around trying to build a cleaver type utensil out of some salvaged steel and it kept warping badly when I heat treated it. I tried several things to straighten and […]

Knife 31 – Santoku – With Hand Sanding Details The Santoku is a general-purpose kitchen knife originating in Japan. Its blade is typically between 5 and 8 in long, and has a flat edge and a sheepsfoot blade that curves in an angle approaching 60 degrees at the point.  Knife 31 […]

Knives 23-30 – Kitchen Knife Set This Knives 23-30 – Kitchen Knife Set was made at the request of my son Francis and Daughter-in-law Marla. The ask was, “We are also looking for a new butcher/kitchen knife set. A combo of the 2 sets to replace the old junk set we’ve had for […]

Knife 22 – 7″ Chef’s Knife Forged from a File Knife 22 – 7″ Chef’s Knife Forged from a File is a kitchen knife. It was the first one I’ve made with a forging technique. This started life as a worn-out file. When you plan to forge a knife, there is no reason to anneal […]

Knife 21 – Hidden Tang From a File – Stacked Leather Handle Knife 21 – Hidden Tang From a File – Stacked Leather Handle was made from a worn-out file, this would have been a great knife had I stopped and thought about the design before I built it. There are several design […]

Knife 20 – Santoku Chef’s Knife A Santoku is a multipurpose kitchen knife of Japanese origin that has a lightweight blade with a straight or slightly curved cutting edge and a spine that curves downward to the tip. This knife is made from 3/32” 1095 Steel. Cocobolo scales. Cocobolo is a hard, […]

Knife 19 – Small Hunter or Everyday Carry Hophornbeam scales Another hunting type knife made with 1080 Steel and Hophornbeam scales. Again, I’ve chosen a design easy to make. I Begin grinding the blade by running it in long, even, full length passes. By choosing a design with a short […]

Knife 18 - Small Skinner with Cocbolo Scales was made from a left-over piece of 1084 steel. The Cocobolo scales were scraps sent to me from a woodworker who was going to throw them away. […]

This was made as a hunting and skinning knife. The style was chosen for a couple of reasons. The bevel of the knife makes it easy to make. The curves could be easy made with my grinder, making the hand sanding to a minimum. […]

To make these knives I used the grinding jig for the bevel. The large choil (I'm not sure this term is being used technically correct, but it's close) was done on the belt grinder. I try to design my knives based on the equipment I have to simplify the builds. […]

Knife 12 - Kitchen Knife Hophornbeam Handle […]

This Knife 11 – Leather handled EDC is a simple design and fairly easy to make. Using leather, rope or paracord for a handle saves a lot of time and can be removed and used for another purpose in a pinch. You will see some survival type knives made like this. Adding additional holes in the tang […]

Knife 9 – Hunting Knife from a File Knife 9 – Hunting Knife from a File was made from an old file using strictly stock removal. The scales are laminated purple heart and maple. I typically anneal the files buy heating them to nonmagnetic with the propane forge then just shutting down […]

This Knife 8 – Riggers Knife / Sheep’s Point with a sheep’s foot design is made from 1/8” 1080 high carbon. This knife is similar to Knife 10 – Riggers Knife / Sheep’s Foot I struggled with the plunge line at this point. My grinder was not variable speed yet and I was determined to use it […]

Knife 7 – Small EDC / Small Game Knife I really like this style knife. It’s easy to make (relatively speaking) and fun to use. I carried a knife like this for a long time. This knife is made from 1/8” 1080 steel with Cocobolo scales. The pins are brass. I choose 1080 because of it’s […]

This is not really a knife, but close. A kindling froe is used to split kindling wood. This was made from a piece of old implant tine. Foolishly I made this by all stock removal without forging it first. […]

Knife 5 – Mini Clever or Whacker was made from a leaf spring. I used the forge to straighten the spring, but the rest was completed with stock removal. In retrospect I probably should have forged the blade, but I didn’t. The wenge scales were attached in the usual way with brass pins. I also […]

As you can see, this knife didn’t work out so well. I certainly should have known better, but you simply cannot bend a knife like this after it’s been heat treated. […]

At first I though "This knife could probably use a little more bevel. Maybe it needs a ricasso and probably a choil" but after doing this for a while i realized some knife designs have these attributes intentionally. […]

. Knife 2 is another attempt at turning a leaf spring into a knife. This was strictly stock removal with an angle grinder. Then some filing and hand sanding. It is quite thick and very heavy. It came out quite decent for a heavy knife. It would work as a knife for splitting kindling and other camp […]

I made this first hunting knife as a gift. This really isn’t the first knife I ever made, but it’s the first one after thinking I might want to actually make knives as a hobby. This knife was made out of a truck leaf spring. It was a heavy spring, so it was too thick. I cut the spring […]

Nessmuk knife … Sometimes making a knife is more than just making a knife. Some knife styles have a history more interesting than others to the maker. Here I took a look at the Nessmuk knife or the Muk Knife. The Muk knife is named after George Washington Sears (Nessmuk) (December 2, 1821 – […]