I am working on a order and the customer wanted progressive pictures to see how a custom knife is made, I figured you all might like to see the steps as well. I actually Forged, ground and tempered and the finish is on his blade so Ill post photos of other knives to get the process up to speed of where his knife is at. In future if there is interest ill do a complete process of the same knife all the way through.
The first photo is a blade forged from round bar. In this instance a bowie blade I forged in coal where I was teaching a blade forging clinic. Generally I only forge in gas forges becuase they are cleaner on the steel and there is much less decarb but this was a demo and came out fine anyway
Next the blade is Annealed to soften it and then ground on a 2x72 belt grinder. Thephoto shows what they look like belt ground, Some people heat treat and sell at a machine finish including factory blades. I however go farther with a finish then that.
Next the blade goes back to the forge to be normalized to relieve stress in the blade caused by forging and grinding, its hardened in engineered quenchant oil and then the temper cycles after that which completes the heat treat. Where it looks like this.
The next step is to clean up the blade and all the oxidizing that happened during the heat treat, put the finish on ,in this case a working grade satin finish.
This bring us up to the knife ill now follow this thread through out, if there is interest of course.
Notice the grain of the finish is all going one way and in a even straight line from ricasso to tip, this is exstremely important to get right to be concidered a high end hand finish, And its easy to screw up.
Its a glaring mistake to have uneven finish lines or plunglines that dont match up. So there is a clue to some of you collectors out there who are just getting into custom knife collecting.
Next will be where its going to get tough becuase this blade is getting a wrought iron guard and end cap with copper spacers in the guard, whats known as a stacked guard. Real wrought iron is very difficult to work because it gums sander belts, files and mill bits up, plus to see the grain of the wrought iron it needs etched in acid which will dull the finish of the copper spacers, it will be interesting to see if I can pull it off and make the spacers still shine..
Very cool! Looks great so far! I've always had an interest in how knives are made. This just brings it out in the daylight a little more, if you know what I mean.
Looks like your the only one interested but ill continue anyway. Now factory knives are made much much different then custom knives and every good custom maker has thier ways of doing things. I do mine the way i do to get a certian result with the tools i have. I dont have a surface grinder or other 3000$ equipment, most all of my process is hand work. Other then a power hammer for breaking down the inch round stock into flat steel, then its handforged from there. And the 2x7 belt grinder. Those 2 items and a small mill for slotting gaurds is all the machine I use. I even buff by hand generally.
Factory knives are lazer or stamped out blade blanks, machine ground in one pass and heattreated on a converyor belt through a quick heat process a single time and then fit together. Then buffed and out the door, about that fast.
I'm interested and just saw the thread and clicked on it...Romey if every American took pride in there work as you do in your knife makeing, this country would return to the Glory it once enjoyed !!!!
I have a friend that crafts knives and it's apparent he could learn from you.
If it's not a hardship to you I would like to see a knife built from start to finish...A.H
I appreciate all your kind comments.
A.K.,
If it were up to me our great nation would be a very different place then what it is now. There would be more pride because there would be less free stuff given out.
I believe self respect and self worth is something one earns through accomplishing something, be it from work or education. For instance I know for a fact that the custom knife market could bear that I raise my prices, there are alot of lesser quality custom makers out there that charge as much or more. But I do not market to collectors though there are a few who take note of my work, I market to folks who appreciate quality and will also USE what they buy. In other words blue collar folks, folks who want the best but maybe cant afford a 1000$ knife (yes there are some at that price and well beyond) So I try to go the exstra mile at lesser price for folks like you and.. ME!!
We deserve to have quailty at lower prices. The very fact good folks like you all notice and appreciate that I go a bit further then other folks , thats my pay off. I certianly am not making custom knives for the money ,mcdonalds has better labor returns per hour of time then I make off some of these, but not many people walk out of Mcdonalds saying how great the burger was or the kid who made it.
Toolman,
I greatly appreciat the word of mouth. As for the project, I to am curious about how I will pull off the wrought iron stacked guard,hehe
Raven,
As much interest as most here have of one of mans oldest tools I figured many people would like to see how I make them. I wonder if I should stop this one here to start a more detailed start to end picture tutorial of same blade or continue with this one or both. What say you all completely up to you as I am posting this for your enjoyment.
Keep a light rein, a foot on each side and a far away look
R.
its really nice to see there are peeople still around who care about good old American quality like A.H. said...Romey you've really got a talent and look forward to seeing some more posts and pics of your trade
Thank you all for the compliments, i believe ill finish this blade up and just show the end result and start from very beginning to end of another knife with a step by step process so whole thing start to finish is same knife. But i will post a photo of this one when completed.
Regards.
