Making a knife step by step instructions. The simplest high-quality do-it-yourself knife

Given the huge selection of not only knives, but all tools, anyone will have a question - why? Why mess around, rivet, hew, sharpen, if you can buy a ready-made tool? But faced with how to make a knife from a file, you will learn many interesting nuances of processing and hardening and try them out in practice.

Making a knife from a file - preparation

The very process of making a knife from a file is extremely informative, because, in fact, a file is an ordinary steel billet just for such cases! And if you also find Soviet tools that were made from homogeneous U10 carbon steel, then the result of your labors may later surprise you!

In addition to the file-blank itself, you will need:

• brass rivets;
• ferric chloride for etching;
• epoxy resin;
• vise;
• magnet;
• sandpaper of different grain sizes;
• Bulgarian;
• grinder;
• handle material (wood, leather, metal);
• and a lot of healthy enthusiasm!

How to make a knife from a file - firing a workpiece

The first thing you will have to do is fire the file. The ideal option is to hold the workpiece for 4-6 hours in a burning stove or oven and let it cool with it. But you can get by with an ordinary gas stove - but this is more of a way out than a recommendation. The essence of firing is clear - let the steel be calcined at a temperature of 600-700 ° C and cool slowly. By and large, you only need to burn the part that will be the blade itself, so if you are still forced to use a gas stove, keep this in mind.

The stove gives a low temperature, so some tricks are needed, namely, the construction of a heat shield. This is much easier to do than it sounds - you just need to build a small hill of nuts or bolts above the file, on which a metal plate is placed. As a result, the temperature from the combustion of the gas will go into the air to a lesser extent and heat the file more.

It is very important to sprinkle the heated area with regular kitchen salt. This is a kind of indicator - if it melts during the process, then you succeeded, if it does not melt, then the temperature was insufficient, and you need to repeat the process. When heated under the plate, the workpiece should have an even color of hot metal, which is important to hold for at least three to four hours.

After the main firing, the temperature should be reduced gradually - first we reduce the burning force by a quarter, after half an hour we fasten it, and so on until it cools completely. All this is done for a reason, and this nuance should not be ignored - the steel that has cooled sharply will simply crumble.

Shaping, quenching and tempering is an important sequence!

In the workshop, holding the workpiece in a vise, we cut off and cut off unnecessary pieces, or we grind it on a coarse-grained abrasive disc, giving the file a completely different shape - the shape of the future knife. If the knife is decorated with wood or other overlay plates, do not forget to drill holes for rivets in the handle or cut a groove with a grinder.

Hardening is the next step after shaping. Many make a big mistake, focusing on the degree of hardening by the glow of the heated metal, however, only an ordinary magnet can show the real picture - if the hot metal does not react to its presence in any way, then the hardening has been brought to the desired degree. The future blade should be heated evenly, with the exception of the handle area, it is worth warming up only a small area of ​​​​3-4 cm at the base of the blade. To do this, it is best to use a burner that gives a higher temperature.

Prepare also a container with water in which you will cool the metal. When you reach a uniform glow of the metal, and the magnet stops responding to it, warm up the workpiece for a few more minutes, and then abruptly dip it into the water - everything is like in a movie! If the process has been followed in all its subtleties, the metal will be able to scratch the glass - this is the best sign of good hardening.

But due to the high internal pressure, hardened steel tends to break, crack and crumble during sharpening, so tempering is necessary - a process by which internal stress is removed with a slight decrease in metal hardness.

This is exactly what drills for metal do! There is absolutely nothing complicated in the process itself - you just need to put the workpiece in the oven and bake it for an hour and a half at a temperature of about 200 ° C. The workpiece should cool with the oven!

Finishing the blade and handle - how to do it right?

After all these manipulations, you can proceed to the finishing of the blade. You can use all available tools that are designed for grinding: sandpaper, metal brushes, felt, vulcanite wheels, etc. You should not be zealous - there is still a process of etching ahead. Your task is to give the blade smoothness, to bring its surface into a neat appearance.

Before etching, you can attach pads to the handle from the material we have planned, or wrap the metal with a strip of leather, it's a matter of taste. In the first case, finishing should be carried out after etching, but leather can be wrapped already at this stage. You will need at least a half-meter solid piece. To get started, do a simple winding to see how the knife will look in this design, whether the length of the skin is long enough, how the knife will feel in the hand. If everything suits you, unwind the handle and apply special leather glue to the back of the leather strip, carefully wrap the handle, this time trying with all your might.

A wooden handle will take longer to process. The holes for the rivets should be filled with epoxy, then fasten the handle with rivets and clamp in a vice until the resin has completely cooled.. Two rivets will suffice. When the resin hardens, you can give the pen a shape, but do not rush with the final processing. First - etching! If there is a radio store nearby, you can buy ferric chloride there, in which the blade is etched to a gray, matte tint.

The film that forms on the blade will protect it from corrosion, so try not to remove it. If ferric chloride is too rare for you, pickling can be done with improvised means: vinegar, lemon juice, or even ground raw potatoes! It is very important to clean the blades of any type of contamination, because when etching, even your fingerprints can appear on it, and then you have to peel off the oxide film and start all over again.

Blade sharpening - that's the finish!

When the etching comes to an end, the epoxy will also harden. So it's time to start finishing the handle and sharpening the blade. If the handle is wooden, it must be given its final shape, sanded and waxed. When the handle is completely ready, you can proceed to the most important step - sharpening! It is best to do this by hand with an ordinary hand grindstone, as you can prevent the metal from overheating. For editing, use a kitchen musat - the so-called round notched rod, which often comes with kitchen knives.

A properly made knife will cut perfectly, plus everyone can sharpen it even on an ordinary stone, but at least on the bottom of a mug! In addition, it will not be a pity to use such a tool in the workshop, to do all the work from which ordinary knives quickly wear down and become dull. It is possible that you will enjoy doing this process again and again - in this case, you will always have a worthy gift for your friends at hand!

At the word knife, a person presents two pictures. A housewife cutting vegetables for salad with a kitchen tool, and a hunter making his way through the thicket, with a bladed weapon handle sticking out of his belt from a scabbard. Melee weapons have always been of interest to men. Author's knives of the masters of production fascinate with their appearance, attract with a silent force that is felt in every bend of steel.

The price of weapons ranges from 7 to 22 thousand rubles. Below we will tell you how to make a knife at home.

History of development from stone to modern

Man first began to use a knife immediately after he stopped walking on all fours and began to get food with improvised means. The tools that people began to use for hunting and farming were fragments of bones or stone. The first ones were much easier to make, due to the fragility of the animal's bone, but such products became blunt unusually quickly, and not all components of the skeleton were suitable for the role of a sharp instrument.

To make a knife out of stone, primitive man had to make a lot of effort. However, the laboriousness of the process paid off with relative strength, the possibility of sharpening the tip of a stone blade. Another advantage of a stone knife over a bone knife was the durability of the tool. Bone weapons were fragile, often broke during hunting, so this type gradually passed into economic use and construction.

During the time of human mastery of metalworking, edged weapons began to be made from bronze and copper. They significantly surpassed stone specimens in terms of durability. The blades were made from a single piece of metal. Swords, daggers, knives of those times became an indispensable weapon of the warriors of the Roman Empire, with the help of which the troops conquered new territories.

The Iron Age is the age of experiments and new technologies. Knives acquired different shapes and lengths; at this time, a sickle-shaped blade and a wavy blade were invented. In Russia in those days, edged weapons were included in the nobility and merchant paraphernalia. The Vikings use wood in the manufacture of sword handles so that steel frozen in the cold does not burn the hand.

In the Middle Ages, people began to use steel in the manufacture of swords - an alloy of iron and carbon. These times were considered bloody, history knows many large-scale wars and battles. As a result, the emphasis in forges was not on quality, but on quantity. And in comparison with ancient times, the characteristics of the models of edged weapons of the Middle Ages were much inferior to the ancient prototypes.

Although historians cite the daggers of medieval Arabs as an example. Some of the daggers of the Arab sheikhs that have come down to our times have retained their cutting properties, despite the past centuries.

During the renaissance era, the experience of blacksmiths, passed down from generation to generation, along with the new technologies of the time, result in cutting products made of steel of fairly high quality. But just at that time, firearms began to be used in battles, and interest in blades began to fade away.

During the Industrial Revolution, the production of edged weapons becomes massive, moving from handicraft to factory production.

At factories, the manufacturability of the process reduces costs, which means that the product becomes cheaper and is already available to almost everyone. Folding knives and world-famous centers for their production soon appeared - Russian Zlatoust, English Sheffield, German Solingen and Swedish Exilstun.

Components

At first glance, everything is quite simple, however, the composition of the knife includes many elements. The handle and blade are the two main components. The tip, or toe of the blade is called its front point. The blade (cutting edge) is the sharpened side, it is made smooth, sometimes closer to the sawtooth handle.

There are knives where the sawtooth component is located on the butt. The butt is the opposite side of the blade. Descents are called planes, tapering to the sharpened part of the blade. The part that is attached to the handle and not sharpened is the heel of the blade.

The stalk is that part of it that a person wraps his hand around when handling. A baffle, or any other barrier, is mounted in front of the handle, created in order to protect the hand from slipping onto the sharpened part of the blade. The handle is attached to the tail of the blade.
Various materials are used for manufacturing.

The easiest way is to take scraps of stainless steel. It does not matter what this fragment was before, a pan, a pipe or furniture.

Everything will do. However, do not expect that such a blade will retain cutting qualities for a long time, most likely, you will have to sharpen it after any work.

High-speed steel, which is used in the manufacture of hacksaws and saws, gives the blade good cutting properties, while maintaining sharpening for a long time. However, a significant disadvantage of this raw material is fragility and susceptibility to rust.

A good product will come from blades for planes. The material is first heated to a hot temperature, and after cooling in air, it is shaped with a hacksaw and turned with a file, or on abrasive wheels. At the end of manufacturing, edged weapons are hardened in water or oil. The disadvantage is the same - they rust very quickly.

But after each work, it is enough to wipe it well, lubricate it with a special lubricant, and it will serve you faithfully for more than a dozen years, keeping both its qualities and its appearance unchanged.

It is easy to make a cutting product from an ordinary file; this does not require the use of complex tools. The file is heated, cooled in air, and the workpiece is processed with another file. Sandpaper or other abrasive removes excess elements from the surface.

In order to get a quality knife at the output, the correct temperature treatment and turning is necessary. Then it needs to be tempered again. It is possible to harden not the entire knife, but only its cutting edge, but this is somewhat more difficult, of course.

If you need a small (pen) knife, a piece of a hacksaw blade will do, you just need to sharpen it and make a handle, some just wrap it with electrical tape. Not very aesthetically pleasing, but quickly and in case of loss it is not a pity.

How comfortable it is to use a knife depends on the design of the handle, and therefore this element is not inferior in importance to the blade. If the product is a souvenir, the handle is decorative. Cording the tail section is an easy way to make a handle. This winding is used mainly on tactical and throwing knives.

Other manufacturers use bones and animal horns or wood to create a knife handle. To do this, use a pear, oak, walnut, ash, maple and apple. Another good resource is birch bark. After processing, the handle becomes corrugated and it is pleasant to touch it. And when using it, it sits securely in the palm of your hand, without slipping, even if the handle is stained with animal blood or fish scales.

Leather sheaths are versatile and reliable, because the knife is held in them by friction, which allows you not to be afraid to lose the tool even during active physical exertion. Sheaths woven from dense lace are also widely used.

But they are more suitable for throwing, they are heavy, and usually blunt, except for the toe, of course. The lace cannot provide sufficient friction force, and their use for weapons with a thinner blade than tactical ones is not recommended.

Knife making process

Making a knife at home does not require special skills and expensive equipment. You should start by preparing a product template. The Internet is full of various stencils, download the one you like and print it. If you wish, you can connect your imagination and draw a sketch of the sample yourself. When the drawing is ready, cut it out and glue it onto a piece of metal. Or simply trace around the outline with a waterproof marker.

The most difficult thing is to cut out a sample of the future knife. For comfortable work, a metal cutting machine is perfect. If there is none, then use a hacksaw, but then get ready for a very laborious process and be patient.

Drill holes in the tail of the workpiece, they are for the pins that will hold the handle structure. For beauty, some craftsmen drill several holes, each of which corresponds to the thickness of the selected pins. In order for the handle to fit firmly to the shank, at least two holes must be drilled.

After working with a file, remove the irregularities and roughness from the workpiece after the drill, and also sand the rough edges. On a grinding machine, you can bring the workpiece to perfect condition. Do not allow excessive overheating of the future knife. And do not forget to wear a respirator and goggles when performing work that will protect against metal dust.

Responsibly approach the formation of bevels. Because the cutting qualities and future ease of sharpening depend on the angle at which sharpening will be carried out. If you want the workpiece to cut well, make the blade thin. If this product is for cutting (machete, for example), then a thick one is more suitable. Don't go overboard with subtlety.

Otherwise, when heated, the blade will overheat, hardening may not work. Bevels are best formed by hand. To do this correctly, first draw a line of bevels, and then, focusing on it, start grinding the metal on a grinder.

Heat steel will make it elastic. Depending on the type of steel, its hardening temperature is selected. Use a magnet to tell you when to stop heating. When it stops being attracted to the metal, it means that the workpiece has heated up enough and it should already be cooled.

Usually cooled in oil, rarely in air or water. It all depends on the grade of steel that you have taken for your product. But this is your knife, you can experiment if the brand is unknown.

After the steel has cooled, place the product in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and leave to warm for one hour. The knife should cool down with it, it is impossible to pull it out ahead of time. Polish the metal of the product to a mirror finish, having previously cleaned the multiple impurities that will appear after the steel is quenched in oil.

Drill holes in the halves of the handle prepared in advance, corresponding in size to the holes in the shank. Install them, clamp them in a vise, and drive in the pins. Go back to the grinder. This time the work will take place with the handle. Set the shape that will be comfortable when using.

After the machine, go over the handle with sandpaper to remove burrs and small bumps.

The method of making a knife is given for theoretical familiarization. Article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation No. 223 part 3 prohibits the creation and use of home-made products falling under the term "cold weapons". This can be punished with imprisonment of up to two years. It is advisable to read this article, because not all knives are punished.

As you can see, it is not so difficult to make a knife with your own hands at home. You will spend time with benefit and try yourself as a master in the production of edged weapons or just a household item.

Especially if you have the opportunity to use good equipment when creating a product. Perhaps you will discover a talent for this art.

But do not forget about criminal liability and use only within the framework of Russian law. A little patience, care and pedantry will help in the production of a quality knife that will last for many years.

Video

I decided to make a knife with my own hands with a total length of 290 mm. I will tell about the progress of work, the nuances of manufacturing, as well as difficulties in the process of work in this article.

I have long been interested in the topic of making knives with my own hands. On the site of the craftsmen, this topic is widely disclosed: and. So I decided to lay out my work step by step, maybe someone will come in handy.

Sketch, do-it-yourself knife drawing

And so the manufacture of the knife began with a sketch and discussion of the shape of the knife.

Manufacturing process

The necessary workpiece was not at hand, I had to order a friend who specializes in this area. I recommend not to take everything in a row, for example, a file, a hacksaw blade, as steels are very difficult to heat treat.

Having outlined the contour of the future knife on the workpiece, we roughly file the workpiece with a grinder.

Further, more precisely along the marked kennel, we process it with a file or needle file. Those who will do this with a grinder, do not forget about cooling with water so that there is no steel tempering.

We produce metal hardening. This can be done both in a muffle furnace and in a conventional stove or fire. Cool in water.

After sanding, this is how it looks like.

For sharpening the wedge made a fixture. Smooth and even bevels were obtained.

We make a knife handle with our own hands

The hardest part is over. Next, we make the handle of the knife. To do this, I took: epoxy, red plastic, micarda for the handle, a drill, a carbon rod for pins, a clamp.

I cut the micarda plate in half, then I cut out the plastic on the spacers. Having collected it in a sandwich, squeezing it with a clamp, I drill through it in three places.

Parts are ready for assembly.

We mix the components of the epoxy resin. Degrease all parts of the surfaces to be glued with alcohol or vodka.

For reliability and better gluing of parts, I scratch the surface.

Apply glue evenly.

We glue all the details of the knife handle.

Clamp in a vise, remove the remaining glue.

Here's what a do-it-yourself knife handle turned out to be.

We begin to grind the handle with a tape with a large grit.

The next steps were sanding with sandpaper: 80, 100, 150, 220, 320, 500, 600. And we put on the desired shape.

Next, we sharpen, in my case with a diamond stone, the result is excellent!

DIY knife sheath

I got very tough skin.

I soak the skin, it became soft and supple. I wrap the knife with a film and fit it with leather. After drying, the skin will again pull together hard, take the form of a knife.

Instruction

Instruction:
In order to make a knife, you need a steel plate. An automobile spring of steel grade 5160 is perfect for this role. The main thing is not to use used material. Decide to take a spring - take it. The length of the plate depends on the length of the desired blade length for the future knife. A convenient length is 10 centimeters, but everyone decides for himself. It is important to remember that the length of the handle should be at least ¾ of the length of the blade.
Based on this, do the calculations. Blade, plus ¾ for the handle - get the length of the plate for the knife and do not forget a small "seam allowance".

In addition, you will need a block of wood. The best candidate for this role is oak. It will be safer to buy this part in a carpentry store. So you will be sure that the shaft will not fall apart in your hand, and will not give unexpected cracks.

You will also need a copper rod with a diameter of up to 0.5 centimeters. He will attach the shaft to the blade. Therefore, the task of its selection is so responsible.
As for tools, in order to make a knife, you will need an electric drill, hacksaws, a primitive rack, a saw and epoxy.

The manufacturing process is not complicated, but painstaking. But you've decided to make a knife, so go ahead. On the steel plate, draw the outline of the knife with a marker. Draw wider than desired, as turning will take its toll. Then, with an electric drill, make as many holes as possible along this contour. Do not forget to drill a few holes in the future handle. The width of these holes should not significantly exceed the width of the copper rod, keep this in mind when choosing a drill. Use the saw to “release” the knife from the plate. This workpiece must be processed with a hacksaw and a file, remove all irregularities and smooth out the shape.

Next, screw the knife to the rack by the handle and start slowly making a blade for the blade. It is best to grind the blade with a file. This is the main, longest and most responsible part of the work. The work on the blade can take a lot of time, but there is no hurry. When the blade is ready, the stage of hardening the knife begins. The knife must be brought to a purple color in the fire. Sufficiently hot metal should not be attracted by a magnet and this is an indicator for you. After the knife has “reached”, it must be dipped in oil and kept in it until the fire goes out and the smoke disappears. Then you can cool with water.

After the blade is ready, you need to proceed to the handle. It is necessary to make two wooden linings from a wooden block. You need to drive copper rods into one, grease the overlay with epoxy, put on the knife handle and fix the structure with the second overlay also pre-lubricated with epoxy. For adhesion strength, you can put under the press. When the knife feels ready, you should remove the ends of the copper rods, and process the cut with sandpaper.

Making a knife is a rather laborious and at the same time interesting process, as a result of which you will get an original and functional product that can impress even experienced craftsmen (if you approach this work responsibly and wisely). Only high-quality carbon steel tools should be used as the main material for work. A Soviet-made file will become an excellent basis for a homemade knife - it will allow you to make a product of the highest quality that will delight you for many years.

Preparatory stage

As already mentioned, we use an old Soviet file as a “canvas” for “creativity”. Why the Soviet one? Yes, because in Soviet times tools were made of very high quality steel, with good carbon distribution, which makes them more resistant to damage compared to Chinese "contemporaries".

Advice. Checking the quality of steel is very simple: run a file over the emery and follow the nature of the flying sparks. Short beams indicate that you have high-carbon steel in front of you, long ones - hardened.

First of all, we prepare a sketch of the future product. The shape of the blade and handle will depend solely on your wishes. Choose the size and shape that best fits your hand.

Annealing and hardening

Since any file (even Chinese-made) consists of hardened steel, and we have to work with it, it is necessary to soften the metal, that is, anneal it. Annealing is a type of heat treatment in which the metal is heated and then gradually cooled.

Since steel requires a fairly high temperature to heat, which is difficult to achieve with a conventional gas stove, it is better to work in a special workshop. Consider the annealing process in detail:

1. We kindle coal (ordinary firewood is quite suitable) and put our working base into it. As a container for annealing, you can use any metal vessel, even a "stub" from a tank or barrel. Blowing can significantly speed up the heating process.
2. The annealing process lasts until the file is no longer magnetized, so you should definitely have a magnet handy. The signal of optimal heating will be the red color of the steel. At the same time, make sure that the heating occurs evenly.
3. After the desired temperature has been reached, continue firing for five minutes, then stop blowing and leave the file in the coals until it cools completely.

We transfer the pre-prepared sketch to the workpiece in any of the possible ways. Then we clamp the file in a vise and cut out the desired shape.

Advice. To make cutting easier, apply a little oil to the surface of the file. This technique will allow you to evenly saw off all unnecessary and do it as evenly as possible.

After we have received a draft version of the knife, we need to give it a normal look - we grind the edges of the product with another file. If there is a grinder or emery, you will save yourself a couple of hours.

Let's start creating slopes. It is worth noting only one point: with a decrease in the sharpening angle, the cutting properties of the product increase significantly, but the strength will “suffer” greatly.

After we have decided on the angle of the descents, it is necessary to select the boundaries of the descents. To determine their optimal height, we use the formula: b=t/2tana, where b is the desired unknown, t is the height of the blade, and is the angle of descent.

Now you can start removing the slopes. At this stage, it is best to use emery or grinder.

Hardening is the final stage of preparatory work. We will implement it in the simplest way possible. The re-hardening and abrupt cooling of the blade is very similar to the annealing process. We heat the blade until it is demagnetized, again keep it on fire for another five minutes and then immerse the knife in the used oil. We leave to cool.

Vacation and finishing of the product

After the product has been hardened, it becomes very brittle. To remedy the situation, you need to take a vacation. It is a heat treatment in which the metal is heated to a low temperature and slowly cools. In order not to complicate an already difficult task for ourselves, we will carry out this process as simply as possible: we put the knife for a couple of hours in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and leave it to gradually cool down.

We make a bolster blank from the remains of a file of a suitable shape. We use all the means at hand in order to accurately fit it to our workpiece.

Let's start making the handle. The process of creating it is as follows:

1. We need a bar of quality wood. We drill two parallel holes in it.
2. We fix the bar in a fixed position. Dilute epoxy with hardener. Lubricate the shank of the knife with the resulting mixture and push the bolster all the way.
3. Re-lubricate the shank and pour the mixture into the bar, then put it on the handle. Leave for 48 hours until completely dry.
4. We proceed to the final grinding of the wooden handle of the knife with a file and sandpaper. Finally, dip the pen into the oil.

The process of making a knife from a circular saw with your own hands

Since the process of creating a knife from a saw is almost identical to working with a rough base from a file, in order not to repeat ourselves, we will consider it based on differences in tool processing.

Creating a sketch and making a rough stock

We model the desired product and transfer the idea to a sheet of paper, and then to a circular saw. We cut the workpiece using a rotary tool with a reinforced nozzle. With a grinder, we clean the contours of the cut out shape. Then you can go sanding to eliminate rust and scratches.

Set the required angle with a small clamp, then slowly pull the knife from the top to the edge. Repeat the movement on the other side of the knife. After that, you can walk with a knife blade along the grinder fixed in an inverted position at an angle of 20 degrees.

Knife hardening and finishing

After the completed auxiliary stages, the most responsible remains - hardening. This time we will use a home stove. We turn on one of the burners to the maximum and heat the blade, raising the temperature to 800 degrees with a blowtorch. After demagnetizing the metal, hold it on fire for a couple of minutes and dip it in oil.

We wipe the remaining oil from the blade and place it in the oven for a couple of hours. Then turn it off and let it cool down.

We make a handle and attach it to the knife in the way presented in the previous version. Now it remains only to “bring to mind” our product. We clean the handle of the knife with a grinding wheel. We eliminate scratches from the blade: felt cloth and black polishing paste will help us with this.

We close the handle with insulating tape and proceed to the final processing of the blade: polish it with white paste and add shine with brown. Using a belt sander with a fine-grained nozzle or a leather sharpener, polish the cutting edge of the blade. Then cover the handle in tung oil and leave to dry.

The material is coming to an end, and now you have an idea of ​​​​how and how difficult it is to make a knife at home. Follow the instructions provided in the article, and you will be able to make a worthy example of metal perfection.

How to make a knife from a file: video