I started out with the following tools: angle grinder, file set, sanding and cutting discs, a good 2.5 lbs. hammer, and a somewhat nicer bernz-o-matic torch. In the fall I went to a scrap yard and picked up a huge chunk of steel to use as an anvil. It cost me about $20 for over 100 lbs. Some guy there also gave me a vice for free that will come in handy. Next, I went by a spring shop, AAA springs in Salt Lake, and got a 36"x1.125" piece of 5160 spring steel. Then I headed out to South Jordan to Interstate Brick and got half a dozen fire bricks for a little under $10.
Eager to get started, I drilled a hole through one of the fire bricks for my torch nozzle to sit in. In the back yard I made a small box out of the bricks with an opening just big enough for my spring to slid into. I fired it up and it took about 15 minutes to see the steel starting to glow. So eager to do something, I started pounding away at the steel to no avail as it quickly cooled. I let it cook for another 15 minutes, but it only ever got to be a faint orange. Nevertheless, I banged the heck out of the end of the spring. I ended up waking up my neighbor who shouted some unpleasantries in my directions.
I learned quickly that I don't have enough heat and I really suck and smithing so I decided to simply grind my first knife from the stock. I traced my design onto the good end of the spring and roughly cut it out with a cutting disc with the angle grinder. This took about 5 minutes followed by about 30 min of rough grinding. Next, I ground the knife blade to roughly the right thickness. I went a little too far in a couple of spots, but this is my first try, so I can accept a few blemishes. Overall, it turned out OK. I started trying to grind down the blade a little more using a sanding disk but found that it was too abrasive and too fast. I decided to avoid further damage and took a file to the blade. I've probably put in about 30 hours of filing on this knife.
A little before Christmas, I picked up a really old drill press from my uncle Scott. I got a set of sanding drums from Harbor Freight and that seemed to work a lot faster and better than filing or grinding. I had a lot more control and it was much slower. The only problem is that the drill press is a bit wobbly and I couldn't get a very straight grind so I will have to do more filing.
I'm about done with the bulk of the grinding. The next step is to make a guard and pommel, but the steel I have is buried under a foot of snow somewhere in the back yard and I can't find it. I'm not sure how to make a guard, but I assume I'll just cut out the shape I want, drill a hole for the tang, file the hole until it is just right, and slide it in to place. I'm going to solder it in place for good measure. For the pommel I'll just cut out two identical pieces to match the bottom of the handle and sandwich them around the tang and grind them flush. I want to put a hole at the bottom of the knife for a rope or lanyard. As for the handle, there are some nice branches from the cherry tree I chopped down last spring that would look great. I'm not sure how I'm going to bind the handle to the tang. Since the knife is a full wide tang, I guess I can hollow out the middle of the tang (see picture) so that the handle can attach to itself.
Some of the things I've designed into the knife are:
- long axis of the knife from the tip to the center of the pommel is weighted exactly down the middle so if I have to smash nuts with the pommel or something, the weight of the knife is directly over it.
- Where the blade and guard meet there is a small notch that can serve as a wire stripper/cutter
- Scandinavian grind for long edge life and easy sharpening
- Slightly curved handle for ergonomics, but not much.
- Knife dimensions are 4.25" blade, 4" handle, tang is .5cm thick, and the blade is just thinner than that at its thickest
Here are pictures:
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