I had several of these heavy power hacksaw blades hanging in the shop. I decided to cut one up and make some hook knives. The blades were wide enough to cut two widths, then halved to make 4 knives.
I used my cheap crappy Beaver Craft knife as a sort of template. I used a piece of aluminum flashing to make a template of sorts. I tend to make things larger than I need, and in this project that is not a good thing. Bending the aluminum to shape, marking it and then straighten it back out I got the right dimensions.
I used the grinder to form a rough bevel. I’ve now done this both before and after heat treating and I’m not sure there is a big difference. Obviously after heat treating you need to make sure you don’t let it get to hot, but its still very doable.
The “forming a rough bevel” step could be completed with a hand held grinder if that’s all you have. If you annealed the blade first you could even use a file,
I’ve made a couple of these knives so far. I’ve used both my propane mini forge and nothing but the mapp torch. Obviously the mini forge is a little quicker to heat, but the mapp gas does just fine.
To form the hook I clamp a piece of steel rod (1″ black pipe works as well. I used the black pipe until I found this piece of solid steel in a pile of metal scraps I had)
Here i made the final bend. I held the knife in the vice, heated it and bent it with an adjustable wrench.
I have also purchased some 3/8″ O-1 rod to make hook knives.
The rod took a little more forging, but seems to have a more consistent results. I heated and flatten the hook end and ground to shape similar to the blades above. I then bent it by forming around the steel rod the same as I did above.
A word of caution. The first one i made I accidentally thumped on the bench after heat treating and before tempering. It snapped it in half. Be careful. After heat treating the blade is very brittle.
This seems to be a little easier to sharpen, but I’m also advancing my skill level so that could come into play a little as well.
Two things prompted me to get a different quench tank. First, I discovered that it was better to heat the oil by heating the tank instead of dropping a piece of hot steal in it. The oil doesn’t break down as fast. To be honest, I didn’t even think about the oil breaking down.
I plan to add a block heater to the quench tank but for now I’m just sitting a torch beside it until it hits a little over 120 degrees.
And the second reason was I was starting to think about making longer knives.
It only takes a couple minutes with the torch to heat the oil to approximately 130 degrees.
I made my first knife when I was a young teenager. So that would put it about 50 years ago now. Back then we didn’t have internet, or Google, or YouTube, so information was much harder to come by.
The knife was stock removal (although i didn’t know what that was back then) from a piece of leaf spring. I used an old angle grinder. I somehow knew I had to heat treat it, but I had no idea what that meant.
I remember I made two knives. They looked a little like Bowie knives and I went around the farm bouncing them off trees and stumps and whatever else I could find to throw them at. I’m not sure they ever stuck in anything. They were not at all balanced.
Today, with all the abilities to gather information, it’s easier to take up and learn different techniques and processes.
I’m not sure what sparked the resurgence of my desire to form metal into things shaped like axes and knives, but I’ll share the journey. If you, learning from my mistakes, makes your journey better, I’ve done my job.
I tend to like to make tools I use if possible. And that’s an attribute of most blacksmiths. Now I get I can’t really call myself a blacksmith or a bladesmith, but I’m certainly undertaking some of the activities of one. That’s what this is about. Learning. Never stop learning.
Most of use can’t just go out and buy a new shop when a mood strikes, so we learn to use what’s available. That was my approach when this started.
I had bought an anvil a few years ago from Tim Bailey. As usual, Tim gave me a good price, and since it was something I’ve wanted since build that first knife 50 years ago, it came home with me.
The first thing I did was built a stand from an old stump. You’ll note a blacksmith vise in the photo as well. That was a flea market find from a few years ago as well. At $35 I couldn’t leave it behind. You will want some kind of vise, but a leg vise like this isn’t a requirement. I tend to use my bench vise more, but if your beating hard on hot metal, the leg vise is constructed to take a little more punishment. For now, even a few clamps will probably do you.
Don’t think you’ll need either of these for your start. You really don’t need an anvil to make knives, but you will if you plan to forge knives. But even then, almost any heavy solid chunk of flat steel will work. A chunk of railroad track is an often used anvil replacement.
You can easily start your journey with stock removal. Stock removal is simply taking a piece of metal and cutting and grinding away to shape your piece. Many bladesmiths never forge, they make all of their knives with this method.
In this stage of my journey, I do both. Some of my knives are stock removal, and some are forged. My journey will include blacksmithing and bladesmithing, so both makes sense.
In line with using what I had, I started my stock removal using a belt sander. I made a stand for it. This worked and to be honest if I had taken the time to build some jigs, it would have worked much better.
Belt grinder in a DIY Stand
My next step to improve this was to build this 2″ x 72″ grinder. This of course made a huge difference, but it’s definitely not a requirement. Use what you have or what you have access to to start.
I made my fist knives out of found metal. An old file, or a piece of leaf spring. But the first really decent knife was from a brand new piece of 1080 high carbon steel. My recommendation is start with a few pieces of known steel.
I chose 1080 because after some extensive research I found that 1080 is a long standing standard for making knives. It makes exceptional knives, is somewhat forgiving in heat treatment, and of the good steels to work with, it’s one of the easier metals to work with and find. It’s also reasonably priced.
Heat treatment
Next I needed a way to heat treat my knife. I decided since I’d also like to forge, I needed a forge. Your basic choices are coal or propane. I currently have both. If you’d rather not have a forge at this point, you can either find someone to heat treat them for you, or send the blades to be done. Many bladesmiths offer this service.
I don’t use the coal forge much. I can’t find a local source for blacksmith coal, and the home heating coal at Tractor Supply is a pain to use in my opinion. It works, and I plan to continue to use it from time to time, but I find the propane much more convenient for what I am currently doing.
I chose to build my propane forge to save some budget. There are two things I’d change if I had to do it over. First, I would have just bought my burners from Zinger……… and I wouldn’t have put a second burner on. I almost never turn the second one on. It wasn’t necessary. By the time I bought all the little parts, the savings compared to just buying the burner didn’t make sense.
Here is my journey building my propane forge. I’m not looking at this as a coal forge replacement, but an addition to my blacksmithing tool set. This forge is a compilation of watching a whole bunch of YouTube videos, reading blogs and websites. You don’t typically find two the same, so it seems it’s best to pick a design and go with it.
zoellerforge.com was especially helpful and I wound up ordering everything I couldn’t find local from there. Here is a list of what I used: A 7 gallon air tank (an old tank that’s been around forever) For the burners (2) 3/4″ black iron pipe tee (2) 3/4″ x 8″ black iron pipe (2) 3/4″ to 1″ adapter (this is because I couldn’t find a 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ adapter) (2) 1″ to 1 1/4″ adapter (flare) (2) 1/4″ plug (drilled and tapped with 1/4″ x 28 for nozzle) (2) .035 nozzle for mig welder. (2) The ball valve came with the connection kit from Zoeller Forge Here was what I bought from Zoeller Forge (for 2 burners) (1) Two burner connection kit (4) 9″ x 4 1/2″ x 3/4″ 3000°F heavy duty fire bricks (2 extra for when I use flux to forge weld) (2) 2 1/2″ x 9″ x 4 1/2″ 2600°F insulated firebricks 4 lbs Plistix 900F (2 each) Propane Quick Disconnect and Coupler (4 running feet) 1″ 8# density 2300°F Durablanket 24″ wide Building the burner. This was pretty simple once I figured it out. I drilled a 1/2″ hole in the top of the tee. With just a little filling, the plug fit through the hole. Next time I think I will tap it for the plug. I drilled and tapped the plug 1/4″ x 28 to accept the .035 nozzle. The plug fits through the hole and the ball valve threads on it to hole it in place nice and tight. The propane connections added per Larry’s instructions. Building the forge body I cut the front of the tank off following the original weld line. This is just to facilitate the ability to work inside it. This cut was made with a 4 1/2″ grinder with a cut off wheel. I used a 2″ hole saw to cut the holes for the burners. You can obviously use a different technique like drilling a series of holes around and knocking it out and grinding or filing it round. The black pipe adapters were welded to the tank I just made a few brackets to bolt the front back on. I have seen a few designs where the door was hinged. The front opening on mine isn’t much smaller than the size of the box, so I didn’t see an advantage I made the back opening the size of the insulated fire brick. This allows me to slide the brick in to reduce the box size and use a single burner. The shelves on the front and back are just 1/8″ plate steel. The front opening is also the height of the firebrick, but wider. I can use the brick as a door to close down the opening when appropriate.
Here is the back view. The firebrick is just closing the door. This allows me to slide the brick in to reduce the box size and use a single burner.
The firebrick can be slid to open or close the front opening
Here is the 3/4″ to 1″ adapter (this is because I couldn’t find a 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ adapter) then the 1″ to 1 1/4″ adapter to create the flare
A simple bracket to hold the front back on. The tank is threaded to accept the 1/4″ x 20 bolts cut to length.
I had trouble getting one burner to work correctly. It wound up being the nozzle was partially plugged. After figuring it out, I replaced the nozzle and everything was good.
The Cost of Stabilizing Your Knife Scales and Handles
In my opinion, 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 it is planed to be used 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.
So with that after some time making knives, I decided to add stabilizing to my list of “do-it-yourself” knife chores. I sat down and decided on this vacuum pump, and the 6×14″ JuiceProof Chamber from turntex.com. My first order at turntex looked like this
And with shipping the turntex order came to slightly less than $400. Plus of course the cost of the pump from Amazon making it a fairly substantial investment.
Now I like to make anything I can myself. This is a hobby, and I do it for fun. I had just cut a lot of spalted beech, so I already had a lot of nice potential blanks available. Was the investment worth it? Only time will tell.
So my first mistake was miscalculating how much cactus juice I would need. So, my first bit of advice, leave all dye off your first order. Start with wood stabilizing. It will save you some grief, unless you’re going to make everything one color and leave the natural for later. It wouldn’t be my first suggestion, but there may be a reason for a certain color.
After some testing, I’ve determined that the equivalence of 12 knife scales (so maybe 6 scales and 3 blocks that may be hidden tang handles and may be split into scales) takes approximately 1/3 of a gallon. So right off, at close to $100 a gallon shipped, that’s still more than I expected, but not terrible.
But wait! Stop and think about what you just read. I used 1/3 of a gallon for 6 knives. So, once the next batch goes in I am stretching the limit of being able to keep the batch completely covered during processing. So after 12 knives (if you make it) you need to buy another gallon of juice to really get the total of 18 knives out of the first gallon.
And we haven’t even started talking about color. Think about it. Once you add dye to your juice, it’s always that color. So if I want to do a batch of red, I need another gallon. That gallon will get me 12 knives until I buy yet another gallon and some more dye.
Talk about a rabbit hole!
And should we talk about multi colors? It seems pretty easy but hit YouTube for advice. The first 6 videos will give you six different opinions on the best way. Do you vacuum the first color or just let it soak? If you just let it soak how far does it go? Do you cook between (you better unless you want some black juice) or do you soak twice then cook? What I’ve found is it really depends on your wood. For instance, setting that spalted beech in 1/3 soaking will soak up most of the way. Do the same with good solid oak and not so much. So, the only real way to know is try it. The good news is, almost anything you do, once on a knife and finished to perfection, will look fantastic to someone’s taste. It’s still wood after all.
My advice, if you’re headed down this rabbit hole, would be to start with a single color. A nice grained wood with a single dye looks great and will get you started. Using that one color is still going to set you back over $100 if you plan any good size batches.
I have found ways to stretch this a little further by using smaller containers to vacuum in. This takes less juice, but with fewer pieces. I also keep some cleaned up pieces of metal I can add to just take up space. There is often empty space (especially in round containers) that requires more juice. Filling this space allows you to stretch your juice.
Also doing smaller batches mean you may not need the “next” gallon quite as quick. But then your using your equipment to process enough for two or four knives. It’s a trade off and a practice I’ve employed from time to time.
Drying is a must if you’re going to stabilize. And drying to zero percent, so you’ll need to cook it. I’ve found the best way is use my toaster oven that I use for heat treating but be careful. The advice on turntex is to set your oven to about 200 degrees and cook for 24 hours. Well…….did I say….”BE CAREFUL”? I set a batch on fire. I suppose that advice is for bowl turning blocks, but it doesn’t specify. Luckily, I was in the shop and caught it before anything bad happened. Now I refuse to leave the wood cooking more than 30 minutes when I’m not on the shop.
Turning the oven off before it’s fully dry means playing catchup the next day (moisture seeps back in overnight) but it’s better than burning the shop down. I’ve also unloaded the oven and sealed the wood in an airtight container. It’s a bit of a hassle, but again, better than burning down the shop.
I start a batch and take the largest piece. I weight it on this scale, and check it every 30-60 minutes. Once it stops losing weight, I let it cook for another 30 minutes and call it done. I’ve found for knife block size pieces most will be dry in 12-14 hours.
If all this sounds like a marketing strategy to get you to buy stabilized wood instead of stabilizing your own, your damn right! And I wish someone had prompted me to dig deeper. The information out there is really really vague. To be honest, as much fun as it is, I would have most likely held off had I known the full scope. The investment is way to close to a heat-treating oven on my want list.
My basic set up. Note the container inside the tube.
One thing I discovered is heat treatment for beginners doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. Follow a few easy steps and you’ll be ok, but keep researching and learning. There is a lot to it when you get into different kinds of steel.
A lot of beginners, including me, wants to start out making stuff out of old metal we find. We have the mentality of the woodworking prototypes we make out of cheap softer wood. However steel is a different animal.
I recommend you start with a known piece of steel. My research led me to 1080 steel. 1080 is well respected traditionally used steel for high carbon knives. It makes exceptional knives, and it’s a bit forgiving when it comes to heat treating. It fairly inexpensive as well.
You can then move on to old files and spring steel if you want. I’ve used this heat treatment for old files and it works well, assuming they are annealed for shaping.
You’ll obviously need something to heat your steel. Typically a forge is used unless you’ve been fortunate enough to have a heat treating oven. If you have a heat treating oven you can stop reading this. Otherwise, read on.
Heat-treating ovens
From my research into heat-treating ovens, there are many differing opinions of how important a heat-treating oven really is. It seems to boil down to what you plan to build. If you will be building knives with stainless, and want to do your own heat treating, the overwhelming consensus is a heat-treating oven is required.
However, if you will only be using high carbon steel for your knives, it isn’t quit as important, assuming you have the heat-treating and tempering process down using a forge. After all, if the appropriate hardness is obtained, it doesn’t matter how you get there.
Getting ready
First make sure you’re ready. The knife is fully shaped with the exception of the edge. You want to leave a little thickness on the cutting edge. It should not be sharp.
-All holes are drilled.
-Touch mark added.
Another option for beginners is to send the projects out to have them heat treated. I sent my first batch of plane iron blades out, so there is no problem with that. There are many bladesmiths and professional blacksmiths who offer this service.
But heat treating a knife made of 1080 steel isn’t that difficult. Here is my technique that works for me.
I use my propane forge, but any forge should do if it can heat to an even non magnetic heat. I’ve even heard of doing it with a camp fire, but I haven’t tried. I find the propane forge is easier to get a consistent and even heat, however if you have a little experience with a coal forge it can be used as well.
Heat the metal to non magnetic. I have a magnet stuck to the side of my forge frame. It’s easy to check. Once it’s non magnetic, heat for few seconds more and make sure the color is even throughout.
I then quench in Canola oil. I have the oil in a metal military bullet box. I quench only the blade (and on large knives only the edge for an inch or so) leaving the rest to have a little “give”.
I preheat the oil by heating a piece of scrap steel cherry red and quenching it in the oil. This heats the oil which slows the cooling process of the knife blade.
Move the blade through the oil slowly like your cutting a path in it. I keep it moving for about a minute. Avoid a side to side movement. Cooling one side of the knife faster than the other will cause it to warp.
I then let it cool slowly at room temperature. At this point you’ll want to be careful. The knife is brittle and will break if you drop it or thump it against something to hard.
Now you need to temper it. Your kitchen oven will work, but I bought a $20+/- toaster oven so I could do this in my shop. It keeps the smell out of the house. Canola oil doesn’t smell bad, but it just easier and I don’t have to schedule the oven time with my wife.
I clean the knife up. I will do a little more sanding to get it back to looking decent and get all scales and gunk off it. This is just a clean up to keep the heat more even.
I do 2 cycles at 425 degrees for 2 hours each. When I started I did 3 cycles, but after some testing I think the twice is just about right. At the end of two hours (I set the timer on my phone so I don’t forget) I just turn the oven off and let everything cool back to room temperature each cycle.
I’ve also never tried, but my research tells me leaving it to long doesn’t hurt, as long as the temperature never rises.
Now just finish beveling and sharpening the knife. That’s all there is to it.
