Indians For Guns

Hi Knife-niks,

Great to discover fellow knife lovers. I've been lurking on this forum for some time now after a new-found enthusiasm for making knives.

Here are a couple of knives I made.

1) eight and half inch blade made from an old file:



Below is a closer look at the blade - the grind is mildly hollow. It was my first attempt at hollow grind and it shows in the rather amateurish "drop" at the ricasso. I completely messed it up I wanted to grind off the drop completely but decided to keep it as a souvenir of one's journey.





The tip:



I haven't made a sheath for this knife.

2) a more recent effort - a four and half inch double edged dagger. Made from a one inch chisel which I never got around to using. Since one surface of the chisel was already bevelled, I thought this was a good starting point for a small "diamond profile" double edged dagger.






I have a few more pics of other (mainly smaller) knives I made. Will post later.

In the meantime, here's a pic of work-in-progress five inch bushcraft:

Getting better every attempt. Good going mate. Mention the wood you used and detailed process.

Near the locality where I live (Amboli in Andheri West, Mumbai) there's a huge bunch of wood working workshops as well as lots of timber merchants. You get any wood, as long as it's teakwood. Sounds like a bad joke but they sell almost exclusively teakwood. So I use teakwood for the handles.

Process for handle: I usually use flat wood strips of 4 and 6 mm thickness, and one and a quarter inches wide. Usual length is 6 feet. I am freely mixing up measurement units, but that's how these products are still sold. Thickness is usually measured in mm while width and length are in imperial units.

For hidden tang knives I usually glue up three strips - 4 mm typically in the middle, 6 mm strips sandwiching it from both sides. To quicken the process I use rubber glue (Speb) to glue up these strips. Clamping follows for about an hour. The middle strip is cut out before gluing to accommodate the tang. A snug fit is desirable so that the blade and handle don't mate at the wrong angle during handle glue up. Two part epoxy used for gluing tang to handle. Here too, curing with clamping pressure is critical. Shaping the handle is usually done with a very rough wood file followed by medium-sized D files to smoothen the rough cut. Followed by lots and lots of sanding, right up to 400 grit. Final step is buffing on the wheels. I like linseed oil finish for the feel it gives in the hand, but sprayed lacquer beats it in the looks department.

For exposed tang knives the process of making the handle is similar. Add drilling pin holes, etc.

For grinding the blade, I use a combination of a small bench grinder and belt grinder. Actually it is one bench grinder one side of which I modded to accommodate a grinding belts. I used roller skate wheels for wheels and the belt size is custom width and length. I build my own belts from 6 inch x 48 inch belts. The stone wheel side of the grinder can also accommodate (by removing the stone wheel) felt buffing wheels borrowed from my angle grinder. I also extensively use finishing wheels. Then the usual buffing with brown, green and white compounds. If I still have the energy I use cotton wheel without any compound for last touch up.

Hope the above is not too boring a description:) If it is, let me know so that I'll keep things tidier in future posts.

I usually choose the steel so that I can avoid a full bore heat treatment. The only heat treatment I give to files is to temper it on kitchen gas till it turns deep blue. This softens the steel so that it is no longer brittle. This step is also essential to soften the tang. Otherwise it's really, really tough to drill the pin holes.
For chisel steel I don't even heat treat it as I feel it's already usable without fear of brittleness.

Meanwhile, some progress on the bushcraft knife:



Grinding and polishing done. Difficult to capture near-mirror finish on still camera, though it turned out quite nice on video. May be slight reworking required on the choil (make it deeper to make it more prominent). Also, does the belly seem a bit bulbous?

Need to work on the handle now. And may be a sheath later.

Pics of my other knives:

An 8 inch kitchen knife made from a thick, industrial grade hacksaw blade bought from a junk metal dealer. The wood is treated with linseed oil. The grind is a simple flat grind, rather steep. I didn't bother to convex grind it to keep sharpening simpler. This knife finds regular use. It needs to be wiped dry after each use or it starts rusting in spots. This is the biggest disadvantage of using non-stainless steel for kitchen knives.



A small kitchen knife made from yet another hacksaw blade. Handle is lacquered. Simple flat grind.



Below is my personal kitchen knife. It's got a very textured teakwood handle, which I kept as it is. Linseed oil used for treating the wood. Flat grind.



Lastly, here's a small hunting type knife made of hacksaw blade. Handle is oiled with linseed oil. Also flat grind.

Hi jls001,
There are many diy knife guys from Mumbai making some stunning knives, though all of them seem to be flying below the radar these days
Good to see some one reignite the diy knife section

That's good efforts!!
Did you grind/ file them all the way through or CNC had its share?
Keep going, who knows may be its Hattori in the making

Regards
Royal Singh

RoyalSingh wrote:That's good efforts!!
Did you grind/ file them all the way through or CNC had its share?
Keep going, who knows may be its Hattori in the making

Regards
Royal Singh

Thanks

I use a combination of stone wheel and belt grinder. For shaping the curved parts I use a regular hand-held drill with the appropriate dremel-type rotary tool bits. No CNC, but I wish I knew a CNC shop that is willing to take up small jobs like one or two knives.

I tried file once. Even made a jig to keep the angle consistent. But it was too slow and tedious.

Can you put up a pic of your grinder. Also what types of steel you use & where to buy it from

Welcome to the Mumbai knife makers gang! Do you HT any of the knives? I'll have to meet you sometime in Andheri, need some wood!

Kshitij, what say we set up a meet with jls001?

Gentleman if the CMG Mumbai Team is meeting up. I would love to join.

Im in the city and would like to take this opportunity to meet with you all in person.

Regards,
-P

There's a "Mumbai Knife-maker's gang" ??

I WANT IN!!!!!

Thats awesome.

These are some really nice knives? I've been thinking of attempting to make a knife out of an old file. Bought an angle grinder, should be fun. Files are made out of carbon steel right? and don't need to (heat it/temper?) it?

Files are hardened steel. You need to anneal them before using else the tools you are using will have to work harder. That is what I am told.