My first attempt to make a DIY knife

[samrat]

Hello Members.
This is my first attempt to make a DIY knife out of an old file.
I tried my best with whatever knowledge I could gather watching YouTube tutorials and of course from sharp and shiny section of IFG.


The piece of file I used, after annealing



Shaped the blank using an angle grinder



Marked the center line for a balanced bevel.



Grinding the bevel with angle grinder. Thats hell of a job I say,It all most took one and half hour to complete the bevel.



After finishing with 100 grit paper





After etching with vinegar





Tried to make a wooden handle, but it didn't turned out well. Will try my hands on some other type of material.
For now posting some photos with just dry fitted handle







Your suggestions for further improvement are always welcome[emoji4]
Regards

[anonymusneo]

great work for first DIY knife, the color looks well

try giving it a paracord instead of a wooden or horn handle

[essdee1972]

Very good DIY! Sure it is the first one?? Looks like you've been doing this all your life!

How did you get the steel annealed?

The wood handle is good, you just need to sand the edges down so you have rounded edges - more comfy to hold. The back of the handles look as though you have sanded them. Do the same to the front part, esp the choil. Roll the sandpaper on your index finger and move in to and fro as well as lateral movements long the round sides, like an earbud inside the ear (sounds yucky, but that was the best analogy I could come up with!). Bevel the front edge of the handles (facing the blade) with a wood rasp or sandpaper attached to a straight surface (I used sandpaper rubber-banded to a piece of plywood about 1" wide X 8" long X 1/2" thick). Bevel it so that the handle starts from the metal in a slope. Polish and oil the wood before attaching to the tang.

[Rrahulkumar]

Wow

It turned out really great given the fact that it's your first time

The handle too looks good but as essdee1972 pointed out, you may just need to sand or a little bit and toy will have a perfect DIY

[samrat]

Hi anonymusneo, thanks for the appreciation. I think horn handle would be too much for this knife, shall try paracord for sure

Hi essdee1972, thank you very much for your appreciation. I shall definitely try you suggestion with the handle
I annlealed the steel by heating it red hot and then allowed it to air cool.repeated this process twice and the material was soft enough to work with

Hi Mr.Rahul, thanks for appreciating my DIY work.

Regards
Samrat

[Mark]

Samrat your knife is looking quite nice, congratulations so far!

A couple of comments, please do not take these as criticisms but as helpful suggestions since you have obviously put a lot of work and talent into your project so far.

First and most urgent- do not ruin your lovely knife by even considering using paracord for a handle! Your wood handles are shaping up nicely. Do you have a drill available to drill some holes through your tang? You will need to make some pins to hold the handle scales to the tang. I like to use plain copper wire, from 2mm-6mm depending on how I'd like it to look. I am sure there are plenty of examples on the internet on how to do this, but basically you drill the holes in your tang, then epoxy one side on. When that side has set up drill through the hole in the tang and through the wood, Now epoxy the other side on, when it has set up drill through from the opposite side and epoxy your pins in.

Before you glue the handles on, do the final fine sanding/polishing on just the front of your handle slabs. The part exposed here:


Everything else you can shape and polish afterwards but those front surfaces are close to impossible to do and not blemish the finish on the knife blade.

Now, you may not wish to hear this but I did not see anything about you hardening and tempering your blade. You still need to do that and it is easy if you have access to a welding torch. If you do, just heat the blade red hot just to where a magnet will not stick to it and dunk it straight into some used oil or just a bucket of water. It will cool off in a matter of seconds, when cool give the blade a rough polish with some sandpaper so it is shiny, then carefully and slowly heat the spine. The shiny surface will first turn yellow and then eventually blue. Ideally you would want the edge to have the yellow (properly called a "straw" color) and the spine to be light blue but don't be too picky for your first knife. Just let it air cool and you are finished. Of course now you have to polish and acid etch it again but in the long run you'll be happy you did.

Anyway, even though you have a little more to do I think you are doing a wonderful job!

[essdee1972]

Mark, thanks! I just came back to talk about hardening....

Do you rivet the copper wire or just use epoxy? I tried rivetting with 5 mm brass rod, didn't get good results. Copper should be softer than brass and hence more malleable.

[Mark]

I like to do both unless the pis are yiny, put epoxy on the pin and then peen both ends. Wait for the epoxy to set up then file and sand. I like to put some file nicks in the pins too so the epoxy has something to hold on to.

To peen the pins, I use a hammer 300-500 grams and have the pin protrude 2-3mm and use a solid metal surface to back it up. Just give it a few raps, then turn over and give the other side some raps. Then file flush.

[brihacharan]

Great DIY Samrat
IFGian Mark's suggestions if implemented - Your knife should look awesome
Keep turning them out!!!!
Briha

[essdee1972]

Thanks, Mark! Actually I think I used too much brass rod - about 5-6 mm each hole. It was while peening that they cracked. Probably too much metal to fold over. Spoiled 4 days' hard elbow greasing on the wood handles!!

[samrat]

Hi Mark,
Sorry for answering late.Thanks for your suggestion.
I shall definitely rework on my knife accordingly

Hi Briha Ji,
Thanks for the compliment, am glad that you liked it.

Samrat

[Mark]

Samrat,

Do you have access to an acetylene torch or a forge? If not there are a few simple way of getting your blade hot enough but a torch will be the simplest and quickest.

[essdee1972]

If not there are a few simple way of getting your blade hot enough

Mark, looking forward to your suggestions. I don't have either!

[samrat]

Samrat,

Do you have access to an acetylene torch or a forge? If not there are a few simple way of getting your blade hot enough but a torch will be the simplest and quickest.

For now yes, actually I live within my factory premise. But when am on vacation I don't have access to all those tool & machines[emoji22]
By the way, I was wondering that can kerosene torch be used to heat up metal red hot

[Moin.]

If not there are a few simple way of getting your blade hot enough

Mark, looking forward to your suggestions. I don't have either!

Dada go to one of those stores which supply spare parts for ac units... they ave these small portable gas cans the size of a HIT or a Mortein can and nozzles you can buy for 300 i guess. Ac mechanics use this for brazing copper pipes for split units.. you can have gour own torch for less than 500

Regards
Moin.