A knife made from old wrench

[hawgrider]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2bvHrMSJA4

http://survivallife.com/2016/01/07/knifemaking-make-knife-from-old-wrench/?utm_source=reembed&utm_medium=widget&utm_campaign=popular

[RubberDuck]

What a great hobby.
I really need to move an get the pole barn to dabble in all this cool sht.
I would like to get my sharpening skills up like that too.

[Arklatex]

Great video. Thanks. That guy has some good skills!

[shootbrownelk]

Great video. Thanks. That guy has some good skills!
Boy, that's for sure. I consider myself a pretty fair fabricator, but I would love to try that. He's pretty darned talented. Thanks Hawg.

[hawgrider]

Another I saw today was made out of a old saw blade. Fire and steel gotta love it!

[Infidel]

Trollsky is one of my favorite channels. Chandler Dickinson is a pretty creative guy too on youtube. Chandler is more of a blacksmith where Trollsky seems to be only a bladesmith. Files make great knives too although the wrench will be a little more interesting. Railroad spike knives are always popular also although unless you've got access to high carbon spikes they won't hold an edge unles you're forge welding HC steel into it. I tend to stick to old USA made files. This one started out as a 14" Mill Bastard file:

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/knife_July_14_zpsdcb9e6d7.jpg (http://s1214.photobucket.com/user/stu925/media/knife_July_14_zpsdcb9e6d7.jpg.html)
No forging on this one, this was just a stock removal knife.

This skinner was also made from an old bastard file but this one was forged to shape:
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/skinning%20knife/Skinner_zps2ktb9vcc.jpg (http://s1214.photobucket.com/user/stu925/media/skinning%20knife/Skinner_zps2ktb9vcc.jpg.html)

A forged Railroad spike knife, pretty plain but this was really more of a proof of concept.
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/Blacksmithing/knife%20and%20twist_2_zps9n1twzrz.jpg (http://s1214.photobucket.com/user/stu925/media/Blacksmithing/knife%20and%20twist_2_zps9n1twzrz.jpg.html)

-Infidel

[hawgrider]

Nice work Infidel! The railroad spike is a neat idea.

[Infidel]

Nice work Infidel! The railroad spike is a neat idea.

Great letter opener but no high carbon steel in that one. Next one will have some forge welded HC steel in it for the edge I think.

[Inor]

Great letter opener but no high carbon steel in that one. Next one will have some forge welded HC steel in it for the edge I think.

I am not much of a metal worker, although I really want to be someday. But if you folded a railroad spike in wood or coal fire several times, wouldn't the steel get carbon from the fire and make it much harder once you went through the correct temper process?

I really want to get back into metalwork once I get enough room to keep it separate from my wood shop so I am just fishing for info.

[rice paddy daddy]

Not having a forge, I'm curious if an old 10" circular saw blade would be able to be made into a knife if I took care not to heat the blade much during the process of cutting it to shape and putting an edge on it.
My alternative is trying some old lawn mower blades.

[hawgrider]

Not having a forge, I'm curious if an old 10" circular saw blade would be able to be made into a knife if I took care not to heat the blade much during the process of cutting it to shape and putting an edge on it.
My alternative is trying some old lawn mower blades.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7WIyMDjBMU

[hawgrider]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ASS3RiNviU

[hawgrider]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy8K-6R4-Oc

[S.....P......]

Not having a forge, I'm curious if an old 10" circular saw blade would be able to be made into a knife if I took care not to heat the blade much during the process of cutting it to shape and putting an edge on it.
My alternative is trying some old lawn mower blades.


We used saw blades to make cabage axes. We dident do anything to try and "save" the temper in the blades. Sharpened with a grinder. They were axes and not knives though.

Not much help was I?

[rice paddy daddy]

Again, no forge.
No oxyacetaline torch. Propane torch might not get hot enough.
I'm going to try it anyway.

[James m]

Propane probably won't get hot enough. They sell a mapp gas torch that is going to replace the regular propane torch that is a little hotter. Might pick one up at the hardware store. I can't even find my propane torch anymore.

[James m]

Mapp gas and oxygen torch for $120 they sell them at some hardware stores. 5,000 degrees.

http://www.grainger.com/product/4LFJ4

[Inor]

Again, no forge.
No oxyacetaline torch. Propane torch might not get hot enough.
I'm going to try it anyway.

Maybe try a regular old charcoal fire. That is how the Europeans did it for centuries before the industrial revolution.

My plan to experiment with it is to take an old brake drum from an old pickup truck and make a grate for the bottom and fill it with Kingsford and rig up some kind of bellows through the center hole.

[RubberDuck]

I have this one I got it on sale for like $25 at Harbor freight.
Rig this up with a clamp on the trigger promise it will do the job.
Works good for melting glass and exploding rocks too.
Now that this thread has sparked my interest in trying to make weapons I may try it when I get some time.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160112/994ac1b9b7cbe0a4ddd0e98229a72661.jpg

[Infidel]

My first knife was annealed in a wood fire, just light a good hot fire throw the file in and let the fire burn out naturally. After all the grinding was done I built another fire and got the leaf blower out. Back off about 6-8 feet and hit the coals of that fire with the leaf blower and it'll get hot enough to bring the metal to critical temperature. You'll also need to find out how to harden it whether it's water quench or oil quench. Use a small piece of the steel and try both methods to see if it hardens. If it's hard a file will skate across the material and not bite in, it'll also be very brittle and should snap very easy using a vice to hold it and a pair of pliers to snap it off.

You can grind a blade without hurting the temper as long as you go slow and quench frequently. Don't wear gloves doing this so you can tell when the steel is getting too hot. A good rule of thumb is if it's too hot to hold then it needs to be quenched. As for circular saw blades you'll have to test the steel and see if you can harden it, no real mean feat there. Plenty of videos on youtube about it. Rumor has it some blades only the teeth are high carbon and the rest is mild steel which does not harden.

Mapp gas will work pretty well on a standard propane torch provided you build some sort of forge for it using fire brick. Basically 5 fire bricks is plenty.

https://youtu.be/lQ_wmiGLa3k
Charcoal (real charcoal, not briquettes) will work well also, in fact a lot of hobby blacksmiths use only charcoal in their forges as it's easier to obtain and can even be made at home. Coal for me is cheaper and burns longer so that's what I use. There is even a forge now that runs on scrap wood and will reached forge welding heat, check out the Whitlock forge for more info on that. No matter what you use you'll need a steady supply of air to the coals to get them hot. Running your air supply from underneath seems to be the most efficient way to get the heat you want. I use a hairy dryer for my forge blower and it works great, a bathroom fan will work too. Again, plenty of videos on youtube for forge building.

That reminds me I have a knife blank sitting on my work bench that I need to finish for my oldest boy's den leader soon. Had all the scouts at the house forging the blank now I just need to do the finish work so we can surprise him with it at the blue and gold dinner next month. I'll get some pictures up of that knife when it's done.

[Infidel]

Maybe try a regular old charcoal fire. That is how the Europeans did it for centuries before the industrial revolution.

My plan to experiment with it is to take an old brake drum from an old pickup truck and make a grate for the bottom and fill it with Kingsford and rig up some kind of bellows through the center hole.

Use a rotor instead, you don't want your bowl too deep and use lump charcoal. Use some black iron pipe and if you can find one a cast iron shower drain will make a perfect grate, connect a hairdryer or similar to the black iron and voila one homemade forge.

[Arklatex]

That's pretty slick Infidel. I remember seeing a guy on you tube that had a homemade forge. If I remember correctly he used an old turbo with a hand crank welded to it as his bellows. The rest was as yall described. I'd love to try it myself but I got enough projects on the table as it is! Maybe one day...

[Dwight55]

Maybe try a regular old charcoal fire. That is how the Europeans did it for centuries before the industrial revolution.

My plan to experiment with it is to take an old brake drum from an old pickup truck and make a grate for the bottom and fill it with Kingsford and rig up some kind of bellows through the center hole.

Dig around on Youtube, . . . at least one guy I saw, . . . rigged up a hair dryer with a vane to vary the amount he got, . . . seemed to work pretty good, . . . hair dryers are $2 or $3 at the yard sale.

Personally, . . . I bought a hand crank bellows on Ebay, . . . about $70, . . . just have not got it together yet.

May God bless,
Dwight

[rice paddy daddy]

Maybe try a regular old charcoal fire. That is how the Europeans did it for centuries before the industrial revolution.

My plan to experiment with it is to take an old brake drum from an old pickup truck and make a grate for the bottom and fill it with Kingsford and rig up some kind of bellows through the center hole.

The Backwoodsman Magazine has run how-to articles on that before, now that you mention it.
I've saved all my back issues going back almost 25 years, I have to get them down out of the barn loft.
http://www.backwoodsmanmag.com/
Anyone serious about the Old Ways, woods running, primitive weapons, Mountain Man lore, survival, and so much more needs to subscribe to this one of a kind magazine.

[Infidel]

RPD you're like a one man advertising force for Backwoodsman. Charlie should give you a big discount on your subscription. I'm glad you mentioned it to me, it's a great magazine.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/Coal%20Forge/First%20burn%20with%20coal_zpszz7uo38i.jpg (http://s1214.photobucket.com/user/stu925/media/Coal%20Forge/First%20burn%20with%20coal_zpszz7uo38i.jpg.html)
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc492/stu925/Coal%20Forge/Forge_2_zpsvfk7ikmj.jpg (http://s1214.photobucket.com/user/stu925/media/Coal%20Forge/Forge_2_zpsvfk7ikmj.jpg.html)
These pictures were before I added the fire brick.
You can build a forge from just about anything, I used and old propane grill, some fire brick and black iron pipe. Added a hair dryer for the air supply and it works like a champ. There's a facebook group called blacksmithing for beginners if anyone here is interested, there's a wealth of info there. I'm currently about 1/2 way done making a framing slick from an old leaf spring. The slick should end up about 3-3 1/2" wide, well that's my goal anyway. I need to find some time to get back out to the forge though. A forge will be a pretty handy thing to have around if the S ever does HTF, it will give you the ability to make tools. If you've got a hammer and something to hit steel on you can make almost anything you need. Check out some of Dave Canterbury's videos on youtube too he's got a pretty good section on blacksmithing and he doesn't come at it from a pro perspective which is handy. Joey van der steeg (TechnicusJoe) is a hell of a smith too and does some very informative videos. Really though the best way to learn is to just get out there and start tinkering and see what you can do. Start with tapers and rounding square stock, do some bends and scrolls and see how the metal reacts to what you do. There's some great books out there but I'm not really a learn by reading guy, I want to put my hands on it so I can see what's happening.

[hawgrider]

Making a Knife from Fish Hooks.

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2016/01/13/video-forge-knife-old-fish-hooks/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHmyOEMVJuM