Knife making kit help.

Niels

Full Member
Mar 28, 2011
2,582
3
27
Netherlands
Get the bolster fitting perfectly. It's worth buying a set of needle files for this. It's important because if you get holes next to the blade it will fill up with blood and dirt and be a breeding place for bacteria. Good luck!:)
 
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Dark Horse Dave

Full Member
Apr 5, 2007
1,739
73
Surrey / South West London
A few tips:

I've made one of those. I used a workmate, an ordinary electric drill, some rasps & files. I found I needed to buy an extra long drill bit to drill out the handle block for the tang.

I didn't realise it at the time, but the bolster (the brass bit) on these kits is larger than it needs to be. You can file it down very easily though.

I soaked the handle overnight in a jam jar with 50/50 boiled linseed oil & white spirit, which gives a nice finish. The smell goes off after a day or two.
 

Viktor

Tenderfoot
Dec 27, 2011
65
0
Sweden
First as said before wrap the blade to protect it while working with it or you will scratch it.

Sins it's a kit I expect the brass bolster to be precut to fit. If its a millimetre or so off just force it down in place with a wooden hammer.
To fit the other pieces simply measure the tang width and draw out how much you need to drill out and get the power drill out, the hole don't need to be perfect but the close the better.
Would also recommending getting an extra drill bits while you buy them because those 3mm brake quite easily. ;P

Ones you drilled out get the rasp/file or small chisel to remove the material to get a square hole, the fitting should be good but don't panic if it isn't. Epoxy is your friend. ;)

Now simply epoxy the handle together, I would recommending building a "knife clamp" don't take more the 10-20 min but will be very useful if you decide to make more knifes.
Make sure that none of the pieces twitch while you clamp it down!

FUN PART! Grinding it to shape, get the rasp and start shaping your handle. When shape sanding, sanding, sanding and a bit more or sanding. Remember to clean the handle with a damp towel before you go up to each new sandpaper grid.

Now finishing. I like the smell of linseed oil so that's what I use. Two ways either you can dip it BUT! if there's any antler or bone you might not want to dip sins antler turns yellow by the oil which isn't nice looking.
So you can either dip it all the way to where the antler is or simply take a rag and use it to oil only the wood part of the handle and then simply keep applying more oil until the wood doesn't want to take in more.

For the leather sheath first wrap the blade and the handle in plastic to protect from the wet leather, then wet the leather form it around the knife and sew it together. (Search for more detailed on how to ; )

Wow this turned out be a long post. But I hope this helps you and I'm sorry if something is hard to understand because of my writing but was long sins I wrote so much in English. ;P
 

Albus Culter

Maker
Jan 14, 2013
1,379
1
West Yorkshire
One price of advice is to clean up the brass bolster before fitting it. It's easy to clean now. A sod/impossible once there is a blade sticking out the middle of it.
Have fun :)
 

brancho

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
3,799
745
56
Whitehaven Cumbria
Firstly My advice is to fit the bolster in THIS way and look at THIS tutorial

You tape the blade to protect youself more than the blade but the blade too. You can shorten the tang too BTW use a dremel cutting blade if you have one but a hacksaw will do it but dont expect to cut butter with afterwards.

Here is a knife I made aout of one these kits


P8080012 by alf.branch, on Flickr

Here is my first knife made from one of these kits.

Myfirstknife.jpg


To make sharp curves like the top and bottom use a sandpaper actiob like this


Shaping the knife top or bottom by alf.branch, on Flickr

To shape the side with a shallower curve use an action like this


Shaping the knife sides by alf.branch, on Flickr
 
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Paddytray

Settler
Jul 11, 2012
887
0
46
basingstoke
You've got an amazing response from others I see . Alot of that info is very handy for me also . Onlt tip I can give is britishblades forum for even more insight on good epoxy other tips or your next knife even . Good luck

Paddytray .;
 

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