Need To Make A Homemade Knife? Consider Old Hand Saws Your Material

But if you cut it with a torch it needs to be heat-treated and tempered again. The secret is antique hand saws. The steel source for these knives comes from antique hand saws. The high-carbon steel is top for making great knives that take and keep a good edge. The high-carbon steel in hand saws that are over 25-30 years old is also of excellent quality and will make an exceptionally strong knife that takes and holds a fine edge for a long time. You can make kitchen and filet knives from carpenters' saws or much bigger and stronger knives from thicker crosscut saws that were used to fell trees. Follow along as I tell you how to make a knife.

Saws with broken handles and light rusting can buy cheaply. There's not much market for these is why. Just don't buy ones with deep rust pits. Bring it home, remove the handle and clean it up with fine sandpaper and mineral spirits. Then draw a knife profile with a felt marker. It's now time to cut out the knife blank. You must devise a method to do this without using high heat otherwise you risk losing the temper in the steel. You see if the steel is removed with a cutting torch it will be compromised. It will lose both its hardness and temper, making it useless as a knife steel. If heat treating and tempering are no big deal to you, then you can cut this steel any way you want. But if you want the steel to remain strong start cutting this steel with cold chisels and hammers to get knife blanks and take a shortcut around the heat-treating process altogether. The crosscut steel is tough to cut being thicker, but it can be done. Try it yourself and you may have found how to make a knife for great household uses. Now, use a belt sander to remove any ragged edges left by the cutting stage. And take off any rust left. Drill three holes in the handle area for rivets. Make some rivets out of brass or copper round stock. It's easy and will be very handy for you in the future when you make knives. The wooden pieces used as a handle on this knife are called slabs. Make two of them and attach them to the knife with three rivets peened over tight with a hammer. The last phase requires a light touch. It's now time to put an edge on your knife. Do this with either a grinder or bench top belt sander. Take slow, smooth passes with little pressure on the blade. Try to set the bevel at about 15 degrees on each side. Before long you will have a keen, sharp edge on your blade and it will remain there for a long time. As you continue to make knives, it will go faster and get easier. Soon you'll even be able to keep up with all the requests for your knives