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.
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Knife 56 – Forged Hunter (broke cold forging)
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.
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Knife 55 Seax – Vine Filing-laminated scales
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.
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Knife 54 Hunter EDC from a file – Blade Filing
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 […]
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Straightening a Custom Made Knife after Heat Treating
I had a Knife that came out of the quench with a small warp. Here is how I fixed it. I’ve used this several times since and it has worked fine every time.
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Knife 53 Chef’s knife
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.
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Knife 51 & 52 Friction Folders
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.
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Knife 50 5 ½” Hunter – What About Knife Handles
To me a classic looking knife, a truly exquisite knife, one you just want to carry on your next adventure, will always have a wood handle. Wood is the traditional substance for a beautiful knife handle, and unless you plan to be in the most extreme survival conditions, for lengths of time almost humanly unbearable, a wood handle will always perform wonderfully. And nothing really can compare to wood for adding beauty to your knife, but a basic note about wood scales or handles.
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Knife 49 – Hunter – EDC – Testing the Knife’s Hardness
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.
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Knife 48 – Small Seax – EDC – Stone Washing
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.
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