making knives from odd steel

[Soundguy]

now that i have an anvil and a torch set and some mauls.. ets.. I'm going to play aqound with making a few knives from some things i hve seen others use.

so far I have a piece of leaf spring ( straight section, no bow ), a file with a broken tip. a worn out circuliar saw blade, and a railroad spkie.

any hints / tips or?

soundguy

 

[Inspector507]

Great looking knife blades can be made out of wire rope/cable too.

 

[davygp38]

now that i have an anvil and a torch set and some mauls.. ets.. I'm going to play aqound with making a few knives from some things i have seen others use.

so far I have a piece of leaf spring ( straight section, no bow ), a file with a broken tip. a worn out circular saw blade, and a railroad spkie.

any hints / tips or?

soundguy

I've been making knives for about 15 years, and I just started with a kit. I now make them from scratch with a big belt grinder. I always wanted to make a few out of old files. Try Jantz supply for the rivets etc. Stainless steel bar stock is cheep enough, and you can get the blades heat treated easy enough. I make my own sheaths as well. Post some pics.

 

[MillWeld]

A source of odd steel might be broken bands from a bandsaw mill. They are commonly 1.25 to 2 inches wide and once broken are not worth re-welding. I break them occasionally on my mill but have not made them into knives but am told they make good ones.

 

[Soundguy]

when I start playing, I'll post pics.

I think the railroad spike will be my first attempt. saw a nice one at a gun show a while back.

soundguy

 

[RobertBrown]

now that i have an anvil and a torch set and some mauls.. ets.. I'm going to play aqound with making a few knives from some things i hve seen others use.

so far I have a piece of leaf spring ( straight section, no bow ), a file with a broken tip. a worn out circuliar saw blade, and a railroad spkie.

any hints / tips or?

soundguy

I have heard that an old chiansaw bar will make a few good knives. There are several knife forums out there. I have a friend who is somewhat obsessed with knive collecting and making. He buys very high dollar alloys from scrap dealers. 250$ for a knife is no big deal for him.
I guess the harder the metal the harder the tooling gets

 

[SandburRanch]

If you decide to try a file, first drop it in the oven at 475 F for an hour/inch of thickness to draw it.

 

[Soundguy]

gas grill work?

 

[catfishdaddyengineering]

My Papaw makes them out of worn out lawnmower blades. You could probably make a sword out of brushcutter blades.:thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

hmm.. got lawnmower blades too....