Knife build-along.

[Any Cal.]

Just for fun, here is a pictorial of part of my process. First pic is after design has been hammered out on paper, along with steel type, blade length, etc.



Shape is cut out, then glued to steel, and blank cut out on bandsaw.



See the resemblence? The owner LOVED the Spyderco Manix, so we used the same handle shape, but adapted the blade and steel to his uses.



Finishing the shaping of the blank. This is the small wheel attachment, made to order for finger grooves...



Once the blank is shaped, the handles are cut out to match. This step could have been done later too, but there was a reason I did it this way on this knife- if only I could remember what it was!



And into the heat treat oven. This is my oven, just warming up in the pic. It will be running at 1650*f or so to treat the A2.



After the heat treat, it goes into a dry ice bath. This helps it hold a sharper edge, and prevent any cold weather brittleness.



And then into a toaster oven for tempering. Monitoring the temp with a thermocouple. Trying to keep the blade pretty hard, it isn't going to be a rough use knife. Remember- a Spyderco owner.



Checking the hardness. I think this was a check in between a couple of tempers, it ended up around 61.5rc as I recall.



Blade is done! Grinds complete, logo etched.

[Any Cal.]

Gluing up the handle scales. Gtech marine epoxy, so it will sit like this overnight. Gtech is not brittle and a touch stronger than regular epoxies.



And all done. Sheath is completed, knife is sharp, owner is waiting for me to get done taking pics so he can take his knife away...

[MrWolf]

Nice job and thanks for showing how it is done.

[jakemo]

Great looking knife. I have some that I want to put new handles on and wondered if there's a company that sells knife making parts, like to studs to connect the handle to the tang.

[Dapaki]

NICE! I love watching talented people make knives, I am neither talented or artistic so I use used up saw blades to make my knives I am just make functional blades, nothing fancy.

Do you have any video? I would love to see your process.

[45&30-30]

Great grind lines. What grinder are you using? What hardness tester are you using? Did you build your own furnace? Thank you for sharing your work!

[smithnframe]

How much do you charge for a knife like that?

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Very interesting and educational post. Nice looking knife.

[Minerat]

Great looking knife. I have some that I want to put new handles on and wondered if there's a company that sells knife making parts, like to studs to connect the handle to the tang.

Try this one. Have not used them but they have some nice toys.

https://knifemaking.com

[Any Cal.]

Great grind lines. What grinder are you using? What hardness tester are you using? Did you build your own furnace? Thank you for sharing your work!

Thanks!

The grinder is one I built using a Polar Bear Forge frame kit. and a VFD drive/motor. Any would likely work, but speed control is helpful for work flow.

The hardness tester is one of the C-frame ones. They work fine, and are easy to store.

Furnace is one I built.

[.44 RF Express]

a really nice pictorial