Making My First Knife - Help

[Gcckoka]

Hello guys , today I found a broken blade of my Muela knife , so I thought why not make a scandi grind bushcraft knife so this was at the beginning and this is now :

so my questions are :
-What wood should I use for the handle?
-Does it need heattreating ? (if yes what oil should I use to put it in?)

 

[Laurentius]

What did you do to break it like that? I have broken the tip of a knife before now using it to pry, but never seen one break in the middle.

 

[nephilim]

Could be a poor steel? This would explain it snapping in the middle, especially if prying something open and the blade is deep into what it prying.

For a wood...I'd suggest birch, cherry, maple, walnut or oak...However you could get lots of leather strips and make a handle for it.

If you plan to heat treat it, a knife.maker.can correct me, but I've watched many on YouTube and peanut oil seems to be the oil of choice.

 

[Gcckoka]

It was 2 am , I was drunk and was practicing my knife throwing skills I was throwing at my log pile in my yard when I hit one which had a piece of iron on it so when it hit the metal as I think the other piece was harder so the knife broke on the thinnest part of the blade.
Tomorrow I am going back in the city so until that I have to drill two holes in it it you guys will tell me that it will need , I will heat treat it and find piece of wood for the handle , when I will get home in the city I will carve the handle sand it put it together , and sharpen on my stones.

 

[Gcckoka]

But I don't know How to attach the blade to the handle because the tang is 1/3 of the handle , any suggestions?

 

[Mesquite]

But I don't know How to attach the blade to the handle because the tang is 1/3 of the handle , any suggestions?

Drill a series of holes along the length of the handle, clean them out so the tang fits not too tightly but has a slight amount of play. You then fill the space with glue and push blade tang back in and clamp tightly

Alternatively get 2 pieces of wood, carve a rebate in one to take the blade tang then glue it all together.

 

[Gcckoka]

Drill a series of holes along the length of the handle, clean them out so the tang fits not too tightly but has a slight amount of play. You then fill the space with glue and push blade tang back in and clamp tightly

Alternatively get 2 pieces of wood, carve a rebate in one to take the blade tang then glue it all together.

What if I make several holes with a drill from the front on the wood in the size and deep of the tang then carve in shape of the tang so that the angles fit good then make 2 wholes and put pins or maybe just epoxy it in , I won't be batoning with this knife and stuff like that so I think epoxy will do great no? It will be a small carving knife.

 

[David LaFerney]

-Does it need heattreating ? (if yes what oil should I use to put it in?)

If you haven't heated it up above 400 F (more or less) in the process then you haven't changed the heat treat that it already had - in other words you don't need to heat treat it.

 

[Gcckoka]

If you haven't heated it up above 400 F (more or less) in the process then you haven't changed the heat treat that it already had - in other words you don't need to heat treat it.

I don't know how much I reached I just cut it with the hand saw

 

[Mesquite]

I don't know how much I reached I just cut it with the hand saw

If you managed to cut it down with an ordinary hacksaw then to be honest the metal isn't worth bothering with for a knife. Also, the fact that it broke into when you were throwing it is another good indicator of the poor quality of the blade. No half decent knife would have snapped like that.

Having said that, what you're doing is a useful exercise in how to make a knife and good practice for when you get a decent blade

 

[mick91]

You can bet your bottom dollar it's made of AUS-8 (moly-vanadium stainless) really popular material for Spanish knives. You'll get a usable knife out of it I would say. If you used a hand saw I wouldn't worry about the heat treat. Youd have noticed some discolouration of the steel if it had got up to temperatures like that. Epoxy and pins will work just fine too

 

[forrestdweller]

It was 2 am , I was drunk and was practicing my knife throwing skills

that sounds like a rather bad idea to me...

 

[Klenchblaize]

It was 2 am , I was drunk and was practicing my knife throwing skills .

BushMoot 20??

K

 

[Gcckoka]

I said the wrong word , it is not called hand saw it is this :
https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+hand+saw&client=opera&hs=Mi3&biw=1600&bih=790&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjYwYyllu3JAhVBCCwKHe62AKcQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BA%D0%B0&imgrc=hr0mcwJbEFyzyM%3A

Can you tell me what it's called ?

 

[David LaFerney]

I call it a 4" angle grinder - a powered hand tool.

It looks like you only ground on the tang - so even if you softened it a bit you didn't hurt it. If you reground the edge and weren't careful you might have over heated it enough to need redoing the heat treat.

You might just WANT to heat treat it, but be aware that amatuer heat treating of mystery steel is usually less than optimal. But it's also how you learn... So have fun with it.

 

[Robbi]

..........

 

[Gcckoka]

I call it a 4" angle grinder - a powered hand tool.

It looks like you only ground on the tang - so even if you softened it a bit you didn't hurt it. If you reground the edge and weren't careful you might have over heated it enough to need redoing the heat treat.

You might just WANT to heat treat it, but be aware that amatuer heat treating of mystery steel is usually less than optimal. But it's also how you learn... So have fun with it.

I also changed the hollow grind to scandi grind and when I was shortening and changing the shape of the tip I saw it was orange from heat now when I look at it , it has a little black dot next to the point but only on one side