Homemade knife

[Andrew@Rockface]

Just wondering if anyone had attempted a homemade dive knife. I guess the problem is the type of steel. A popular steel for general DIY knife building is old power hacksaw blades (of which I have a few). You need to aneal the saw blade to reduce it's harness, shape, add an edge and then reharden by heating and emersing in (old engine) oil. Unfortunately I don't have a forge so I haven't had a go. Anyone else tried? And then there's corrosion

 

[sickbugs]

hooboy.. yea, i made my own dive knife, it was a thing of beauty, 4 inch blade, shaped like a dagger, but only sharpened on one side (i use the back of the knife as a thumbrest quite often, so i dont like double edged knives) a black and somewhat grey micarta handle, but stupidly, i fit it into a sheath i have laying around, using a somewhat fidgity clasping mechanism that i never fully trusted, and lost it on my 3rd dive... very dissapointing. i will however build another dive knife, one of my great passions in life is making knives.

saw blades are carbon steel, be prepared for a lot of rust if u go that route, and quench in new oil not old oil, old oil has a lot of impurities that can mess up a quench (bent blade, cracking sometimes, ect.) get some normal cooking oil from a supermarket, it works well

 

[Andrew@Rockface]

lost it on my 3rd dive... very dissapointing.

Damn!

saw blades are carbon steel, be prepared for a lot of rust if u go that route,

I know, that's why I wondered what sort of steel people would use. I'd never advocate making a dive knife from regular HSS, just pointed out that it was used in normal knife making. As I don't have a good heat source I tend to (carefully) reshape blades. Got a few nice ones from old chisels. They don't stand up to punishment but hold a lovely edge even if it doesn't last

and quench in new oil not old oil, old oil has a lot of impurities that can mess up a quench (bent blade, cracking sometimes, ect.) get some normal cooking oil from a supermarket, it works well

Didn't know that. I'd heard that old oil was better. Well, you learn something new every day

 

[sickbugs]

well if you have experience in reshaping blades, then your halfway there get one of those big bulky cheap stainless steel knives and use it as a blank, just make sure that your final idea will work on it, then start filing away... if you have access to a belt grinder, i envy you makes stuff like that a whole lot easier.

 

[Andrew@Rockface]

well if you have experience in reshaping blades, then your halfway there get one of those big bulky cheap stainless steel knives and use it as a blank, just make sure that your final idea will work on it, then start filing away... if you have access to a belt grinder, i envy you makes stuff like that a whole lot easier.

Got a small grinding wheel/honing wheel. Just have to be very careful I don't overheat the blade. Not easy but it seems to work ok. Back when my dad worked as a tool maker (chisels, screwdrivers etc) he was running a 6 foot grinding wheel! I saw it once - huge!