Let me say to start i'm very very new to this building knife thing. I've never built one but would love to start. I want to start with just taking a knife blank and polishing it up and putting on a nice handle. I would like a a blank that will finish nice and sharping up nice. What kind of blank do I need to buy? What kind of steel? Grade? I would like a small skinner knife. What all tool will I need to get started to see if I will like this kind of thing? Thanks for all the help I know I came to the right place.

Buy a knife blade from Texas Knife Supply or Jantz. Then you can work on the guard and handle yourself. It's a good way to start.

how long is a piece of string ?????
what one man thinks is a 'Nice" sharpened steel for a blade another calls rubbish.

- steel type & grade depends on how much maintenance you are prepared to do on the blade between uses.
ie stainless requires less maintenance than plain carbon steels
But
both types have excellent grades to produce "nice' sharpness.
For a first foray into knife making I would suggest a middle of the road priced blade in a shape that takes your fancy in 440C stainless or AUS8 or 8A and see how you go .
I would not start with a high priced steel your your first attempt.
( I would pay a little extra if a cryo treatment blade is available in your selected blade shape as they give better sharpness & retain it longer than the same blade that has not been cryo treated in the hardening.

Tools.
- some files
- some sandpaper, 180 - 600 grit
- a dremel with a 60 grit sanding drum is handy for roughing handle shapes ( but you can do it all with files & sandpaper).
- some super glue or epoxy
- vice or clamps for gluing the handles to the blade.
- a wood finish oil if you choose a wood handle
( Tru Oil from your local gunshop will do a good job...........you may have some laying around from use on gunstocks.........any of the gunstock finishes will do a wooden knife handle)

If you are really happy with your construction when you have sanded it to 600grit & you want to really polish it up higher you can buy some finer sandpaper down to 1200 grit & polish more before you oil it.

You can buy complete kits from places like KitKnives
or bits & pieces that take your fancy, as individual handle scales & pins.

other sources I have used ( more than KitKnives) are:-
Jantz
&
Texas Knife Supply ( & I am in Oz downunda ).

When you have cut your teeth on your first construction you can think about choosing a more expensive blade to build now that you have confidence in what you are doing.

Better grade steels are D2 or S30V, to name just 2, but many others are favoured by different people.

There are a number of videos on YouTube showing basic knifemaking you can look at.

FWIW

FYI:

I have nine blade blanks put away any of which might meet your needs.

1. One Morseth (stamped) small drop point with guard affixed - never sharpened.

2. Eight laminated Brusletto (stamped) clip/drop point in shrink wrap. This shape strongly resembles that of a Morseth general purpose knife I owned. Blank is thicker than other Brusletto blanks. I had two of these blanks hardness tested: HRC 62 for center lamination. At the time I bought them I was informed the blanks had been intended for Steve Morseth. When he was unable to complete the transaction (out of business??), his order was warehoused for decades - having been forgotten - then factory finished, stamped, and packaged for sale.

If you have interest, PM/email me for details.

sorry it took me so long to get back work has been crazy. i've got just some basic tools. belt sanders, and a dremel tool. i can pick up a few more basic tools if i need to. what i really want to do is take a blade blank that is pretty much finished and put a handle on it and then polish the blade. i'm not interested in getting into heating and beating side right now. i got to see if it's something i would like to get into.

quote:

Originally posted by kacole:
sorry it took me so long to get back work has been crazy. i've got just some basic tools. belt sanders, and a dremel tool. i can pick up a few more basic tools if i need to. what i really want to do is take a blade blank that is pretty much finished and put a handle on it and then polish the blade. i'm not interested in getting into heating and beating side right now. i got to see if it's something i would like to get into.

Try knifekits.com. They might have something that will suit your needs.

I'd suggest you try a kitchen knife or two for starters. They're the easiest and don't cost much.
Jantz still has some of the old carbon steel Russel blades for a very good price.
Here's one I made for my camp box.

Liked it so much I made a couple for my kitchen.


As far as tools go. As stated above, files and sandpaper will get ya by, but a belt sander sure is nice. Just be carefull not to get the pins to hot as they'll burn the handle material.
A bench top drill press and buffing wheel's nice too but not mandatory.

Luck
Charlie

PS,,, the kitchen knives make great gifts too.

I have a hard time navigating this site so I had to start another post, but here's a nice little 440 skinner that's pretty easy for a novice like my self and didn't cost a fortune.

Ended up giving that one away so I started another with natural bone handle. It still has a ways to go but so far so good. Maybe I can keep this one.


PS, if you can get your hands on one of these swivel vises your life will be allot easier.
I got this one from Amazon but I see that Midway now carries em too.

The Blade Show is in Atlanta GA in two weeks. You can pick up every thing you need in one stop and see about every knife in the world.
Any you knfe nuts who get a chance; needs to make a day or a weekend there. Stop by and say hi at table 5-S.
Mike