Making Knives

I make a lot of different things. One of my favorite things to do is build, create, or put things together. I especially like to make weapons, knives, and other dangerously awesome items. I have made blowguns, knives, a hatchet, PVC bow and arrow, slingshots, staffs, pens, pencils, a bullet pen, stone knives, crossbow, and plenty of other things that I can't remember at the moment.

Lately I have been trying to make knives. To make a knife requires a lot of tools, tools for metalwork and for woodwork. You need grinders, files, sandpaper, saws, wood finisher, drills, stain, a forge, and lots of other things. I'll give you a quick rundown of what it takes to make a knife.

1. You must find your metal. It must be a certain kind, width, and size. If it is too thin, it will be flimsy and will not cut or work well. It cannot be aluminum, copper, or brass, because they do not take an edge well.
2. Draw out your design, and outline it on the metal.
3. Grind out the shape of the knife.
4. Polish/sand the blade. Make it shiny.
5. Grind out the edge of the blade, it must be a certain angle, so that it can be sharpened.
6. Make the handle scales.
7. Drill holes for the pins on the knife and the wood scales. It must be perfect, as a fraction of an inch off means that the handle will not fit together correctly.
8. Sand the scales and fit them to the blade.
9. Harden the blade. This requires heating it to extreme temperatures in a forge, quenching it in oil, and then leaving in an oven for a few hours.
10. Re-polish the blade.
11. Cut and polish the pins.
12. Put everything together, and hope it fits.
13. If all goes well, and everything fits right, carefully glue the handle scales to the blade with epoxy.
14. Cure for 24 hours.
15. Grind/Sand the pins flush with the wood.
16. Sand the handle scales.
17. Stain and finish the handle.
18. Sharpen the knife.

Wow. Knifemaking takes a lot of work.

So, after buying numerous tools and doing hours of research, I have finally made a few knives. This is the best I have made so far. The metal didn't shine up well, and I didn't harden the blade (The steel I used was already pretty hard). I made plenty of mistakes, and it took me a couple of weeks, but I finally finished it the other day.