BEST MATERIAL TO MAKE YOUR OWN KNIVES

[TC]

Great idea Pistolero, but my heart and soul lives and dies for the wild west guns.... the Paterson Colts, the Old Navies and the Mare's leg. I just hope XL is not reading these

TC

[essdee1972]

TCda, now you have started the tune of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" in my head!! I am sure it will be followed by the other "spaghetti western" tunes. Probably end up with the raindrops song from Butch Cassidy...........

There are guns, and there are GUNS! Remember the scene from "For a Few Dollars More", where Lee van Cleef is shooting at the running robber, and unrolls his saddle bags to reveal a veritable arsenal of Navy, Patersons, etc?

And now this thread has been well and truly hijacked...............!!!

[TC]

Essdee bro, I would have given my life for Lee Van Cleef's saddle full of guns.... Do you know a long time ago I actually got a .32 Smith and Wesson single action revolver with and 18 inch barrel and a removable butt stock..right here in Kolkata at J Biswas and Co... I would have bought it had the barrel not been badly damaged... My heart bled and bled for two days.

Yes, I love Westerns but my love for the Spagettis begin and end with Sergio Leone's films with Eastwood. I am more into films like High Noon, Alamo and Unforgiven...

Yes this thread has been honestly hijacked

TC

[seedha.admi]

If you want to go for a real premium category use CPM 154CM steel or AUS-10 or S30v steel or even damascus. If you want to go for a mid category use 440C steel or AUS-8 steel. If you want cheap material then go for 420 J2 steel or 440A/440B steel, also AUS-6. Found it on an internet site.
Thank you.

[essdee1972]

Dear Seedha...... these steels are for mass produced knives. Doubt whether you can get less than a few hundred kgs, if not a few tonnes , of these steels. Moreover, here in India, some of these steels are produced only on order, hence you need to make at least one run of a crucible furnace. A few tonnes wouldn't even begin to fill one of the monsters Tata has at Jamshedpur!

For making knives for your own, we were discussing files, hacksaw blades, etc.

[wingsoffires66]

Visit a metal trader as only he can give you options about what is available, if the trader is major they will have a wide variety of carbon iron,stainelss and some japani leftover stuff too .Only problem is you might not find the right thickness or size hence must use forging. The most wanted international beginner metal is the 1065 but I dont get the whole 10's series hence bother only about content percentage.
hope this helps.

[essdee1972]

Thanks, Wingsoffire. I just started my first propah knife with a leaf spring. Will post details, wish me luck! This is after making a coupla hacksaw blade knives in the last month or so. Of course, I did make hacksaw blade bowies long back, but that was with zero knowledge of anything but the shape!

[surajshuresh]

Best materiel to make your own knife depends on many factors.. 1st of all the availability of the steel in India... I would like to use some high end steel for my knifes... like cpm s35vn, cpm s30vn, elmax, n690 etc... its very hard to source such steel in the right quantity and size and if you get the wrong size trust me its a big wast...You need to get the same thickness of material of the knife which you intend to make like flats and sheets and cut how much you want from it... if you get thick material then its very hard to slice it you will be loosing lot of material which is not economical... I am in love with elmax and currently doing some knifes with it but i will not be able to finish it until next year. As of now i have only cut the outer shape of the knifes... Still grinding bevels, heat treating, handle making and finishing process to go... unfortunately i am in Sydney the knife blanks are in Bangalore... so i have to wait until i go back to Bangalore to get my hands on it...

[wingsoffires66]

I would conclude the best material to make a knife Easy, Economic and Fairly efficient IS THE PATA SPRING AND THE FILE/RASP for those who actually want to make one unless you have some good Precision HeatTreat options available . For dreaming purpose why narrow material choice to just steel? think of making one out of a diamond

@essdee
the pata steel is soft for a knife so I wont skip an HT as suggested around the forum. best of luck for your project.

[seedha.admi]

@essdee
LOL
I just thought to contribute to the post. I myself don't know much, all the information I posted was based on an internet site. I did it because I too was curious about it and wanted to see what the phenomenon is in the world.

[StormWerkz]

We use Maruti Suzuki springs for our Doa's
Keeps a keen edge and thick enough for bigger blades.
This is the one I take in the woods.

[pratik_mahale]

Yesterday went to Chor Bazar again & brought some broken pieces of saw blade for me & Essdee
Meeting Moin tomorrow will take some tips from him for making knifes out of this raw materials

[Adrian Mario Cooke]

Hi Panjak,
Saw blades and file blanks etc tend to rust and harder to finish as they have been hardened.The best bet is go to the steel shop and buy steel 410,420 or 316 the best.they come in flat strips of varying thickness and width.The dealer will sell by foot.Pick a piece that suits the knife blank you want to file out and then buy it.
Bring it home trace out the blank without having to remove much steel and file to shape.The rest of the making is a long process look up on the net (type in making knives with a hand file).
Take a look at the post i have made titled My hand made knives - made these with a bench and 1 b@$*@*d file and a couple of flat,round and triangle files. All smoothening done by hand worked with wet emmery from 180 up to 600.By the way b@$*@*d file is the name for the roughest file.this takes of metal fast.
It took me a month including the tempering and polishing again to make each knife.
rgds

[pratik_mahale]

Thanks for the info Adrian Mario Cooke

Hi Panjak,

By the way who is this Panjak

[kshitij]

Hi guys,
Was wondering why no one tends to use any of the non corrosive grades of steel like the 316, 420hc and 440c?
I guess both the 420hc and 440c hold their edge much better than most grades and can take a better beating too. Why then are the other grade of steels used in saw blanks considered over these?
Hope you guys take the time to clarify which out out of the following grades would make the best knife steel: 75CR1, SK5, 316, 420hc, 440c?