Knife making - newbie questions

[M F]

Here are a couple of links that may help out a little. I will try to find a few more. There is tons of info out there if you're serious about building quality knives. I have jsut purchased a belt grinder(after procrastinating for a long time) to get started on some of my own. The first link is a tutorial about making a simple knife with only hand tools. It includes heat treating after grinding, which doesn't seem very difficult. The second link is to a Shop-Talk Forum at Bladeforums.com, which is the largets knife related website out there. Tons of good info. I'm sure you can find everything you need if you do a few searches there.

http://hossom.com/tutorial/jonesy/

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=741

 

[Bob Hubbard]

That first link was def. good. Thanks.

What about balancing?

:asian:

 

[theletch1]

Kaith,
My grand-dad made a couple of really good machetes out of an old two man cross-cut saw. You know the kind you see the guys on the lumberjack competitions using with the push-pull action. You can sometimes find them at flea-markets (swap meets) or even find a few rusting away in a farmers barn now and then. The steel is rigid enough to take a beating but flexible enough not to shatter on you. I'm trying to talk my dad out of one he has in the basement right now to make a fantasy sword with it. Gonna keep the teeth on it for the back of the blade. Not sure how well that's gonna go but still have to talk my pack rat dad out of it first.

 

[Sensei Paul Hart]

You may want to try using a Circular Saw blade to cut your blanks from. They make great knives. I started making knives with these about 16 years ago as we lived next to a mill and they had them available pretty much all the time after the teeth wore down and they could not be resharpened. If you are interested in other materials get in touch. I have made knives for a while now plus I am a CNC/Manual Machinist at my full time job so steel and aluminium as well as Titanium is pretty easy to come by. I have been making Tanto's with titanium Handles for a few years.