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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #1  
Old 03-02-2005, 09:23 PM
Fsawyer Fsawyer is offline
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Some Advice for Newbies.

I consider myself a Newbie although I've been making knives 3 yrs now... But I work for a Professional Sword and Knife maker. I sat down with the owner and talked to him about making knives and he said that he has been doing this for a long time and have been to thousands of knife shows. He said that he can see mistakes made in a knife just by holding and looking at it. These are mistakes that most New knife makers make. After he told me the list of mistakes I wanted to throw all my knives away. I went home and looked at my knives and saw many of the mistakes he talked about.

NOW--- MANY of these mistakes are arguably a matter of opinion. I know many of you may disagree with these.

Here is some of the most common mistakes.

1- Although you can't see it in a blade- The HEAT TREAT is the most important part of the process. Unless you really know what your doing it is best to have an expert heat treat for you. Heat treating is VERY tricky according to what steel you use. Stainless steels MUST be heat treated in an oven and unless you have a heat treating oven or kiln then you probably cannot heat treat stainless correctly. Steels like 1095, 1075, etc.. are very picky about the temperature that they need to be quenched. Too hot you ruin it, not hot enough and your not getting the right hardness. You must have the right recipe for the right steel.

2- Your Blade MUST me extremely straight.- ANY curvature, even the slightest can cause uneven grinding (which causes much of the next problem)

3- Most Amatures do not get their flats.. actually FLAT. If your flat grinding with a grind line then your making 2 flat areas- the top of the blade is flat and the actual bevel is flat. They must BOTH be perfectly FLAT. Many knives made by amatures can be held up and looked at with good lighting and see slight ripples or low spots where they didn't get their flats actually flat. Amatures hand sand their blades and basically smear out the low spots or ripples but don't actually get rid of them- They just make the blade smoother but it is still not really flat.

4- The thickness of your bevel must be uniformed. Good cutting geometry states that the blades cutting edge should be the same throughout the knife. Not thicker in one spot and thinner in others. Your Grind should be the same throughout the blade.
(unless you are purposely tapering it for a reason).

5- IF your trying to make a satin finish, which means your actually leaving fine grind marks in the blade they must be uniformed and ALL go the same direction.

6- Mirror finishing covers up blade problems but doesn't get rid of them. Anyone with any knowledge of good knifemaking can pick up a mirror polished knife and see the problems that were covered up.

7- Clean sharp straight lines is what sells knives today. People don't want to see muddy, washed out, or crooked lines.

8- As with just about any other type of product CONSISTANCY is important. Make EVERY knife you make the best knife you've ever made.


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  #2  
Old 03-03-2005, 05:11 AM
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hammerdownnow hammerdownnow is offline
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Well said. Thanks for posting that and sharing. glad things are going well for you.


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Old 03-03-2005, 08:30 AM
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rhrocker rhrocker is offline
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Amen. I enjoyed the post. I also like your avatar knife.


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Old 03-07-2005, 05:34 PM
hellfire hellfire is offline
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Just thinking out loud here, but to me the small mistakes are what makes a piece handmade. They're not supposed to look machine made. I'm not saying that we all shouldn't strive for perfection, but when something is handmade, there are going to be so called "human errors." I myself make so many it's hard to pick out any one goof. Thanks for letting me throw my 2 cents in.


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Old 03-07-2005, 07:39 PM
Carey Quinn Carey Quinn is offline
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Hellfire, I have to agree with that. I really enjoy the work of the masters and hope to move in that direction. At the same time, when I look at a knife and see a little difference in plunge grinds or a little wavyness in a blade flat, it just reinforces the fact that this knife is really "handmade".


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Old 03-08-2005, 09:09 AM
cactusforge cactusforge is offline
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Some one smarter and more experienced than me said that there are no perfect knives, I say some are more perfect than others. Gib


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  #7  
Old 03-08-2005, 10:38 AM
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SteveS SteveS is offline
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That's a great list of things to look for! Thanks a bunch. I don't ever think I'll get a perfect blade, but those are great areas to watch for.

Steve


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