Making a country knife can be a beautiful thing. It brings back some traditional skills that have been all but lost with time.
If you can find a hand saw that's 25 years old or older it will contain high-carbon steel that is just right for making a great country knife. It will sharpen well and hold an edge for a long time.
If you scrounge around in junk shops or antique stores you should come across old hand saws. Just don't try and buy the nicer ones, they'll cost you. Look for old saws with broken handles and a little rust on the blade. At most, these should only run you a couple of bucks.
When you get home, you can get some fine grit sandpaper and clean it up a bit. Take the handle off and throw it away if it's broken.
Decide on a shape for your knife. Our country knife will have the steel run all the way through the handle for extra strength, so allow for that in your layout. Put the pattern on the steel with a felt marker.
Our saw steel was both hardened and tempered for strength. You don't want to lose those qualities by over-heating it with a torch, so devise a more mechanical means to cut out your knife blank.
After cutting it out, work on it with a bench grinder or belt sander to eliminate any imperfections from the removal process. This should only take a few minutes.
You will now need to anneal (soften) the steel in three spots in the handle area to be able to drill holes for rivets. Locate your holes and use a small propane torch to heat just the spots until they are cherry red, then let air cool.
In case you're wondering, this heating is localized to the small rivet areas of the handle and will not affect the strength of the blade.
To get perfectly aligned holes in the two wooden handle slabs, put one under the knife blank in its proper location and drill. Flip the two pieces and place the other slab under the knife and line it up. Now drill down through the upper slab and knife blank. Voila! Perfectly aligned rivet holes.
Rivets are easy to make from brass or copper stock or you can buy them from a knife maker supply house. Go ahead and insert them into the holes now.
Put the country knife on a hard surface like a vise and peen the rivets ends over until they tightly grip all three pieces together.
After cleaning up the handle with a belt sander, go back to your grinder or belt sander and begin the sharpening process. Work slowly and deliberately with a very light touch.
Use a fine grit belt on the sander or an aluminum oxide wheel on the grinder if you have one. Watch out for heat build-up. You could ruin the steel quickly.
If you see the steel turn dark blue in color during this process, that's a sign that the it got over heated and is now worthless as a knife. It will never keep an edge no matter what you do.
Keep a can of water next to the machine to cool the metal every couple of passes. Keep a steady hand to set the angle of the bevel which would be good at around fifteen degrees on each side.
Practice, practice, practice. You must practice to get good at country knife making. But once you get it, you'll have it for the rest of your life.
If you can find a hand saw that's 25 years old or older it will contain high-carbon steel that is just right for making a great country knife. It will sharpen well and hold an edge for a long time.
If you scrounge around in junk shops or antique stores you should come across old hand saws. Just don't try and buy the nicer ones, they'll cost you. Look for old saws with broken handles and a little rust on the blade. At most, these should only run you a couple of bucks.
When you get home, you can get some fine grit sandpaper and clean it up a bit. Take the handle off and throw it away if it's broken.
Decide on a shape for your knife. Our country knife will have the steel run all the way through the handle for extra strength, so allow for that in your layout. Put the pattern on the steel with a felt marker.
Our saw steel was both hardened and tempered for strength. You don't want to lose those qualities by over-heating it with a torch, so devise a more mechanical means to cut out your knife blank.
After cutting it out, work on it with a bench grinder or belt sander to eliminate any imperfections from the removal process. This should only take a few minutes.
You will now need to anneal (soften) the steel in three spots in the handle area to be able to drill holes for rivets. Locate your holes and use a small propane torch to heat just the spots until they are cherry red, then let air cool.
In case you're wondering, this heating is localized to the small rivet areas of the handle and will not affect the strength of the blade.
To get perfectly aligned holes in the two wooden handle slabs, put one under the knife blank in its proper location and drill. Flip the two pieces and place the other slab under the knife and line it up. Now drill down through the upper slab and knife blank. Voila! Perfectly aligned rivet holes.
Rivets are easy to make from brass or copper stock or you can buy them from a knife maker supply house. Go ahead and insert them into the holes now.
Put the country knife on a hard surface like a vise and peen the rivets ends over until they tightly grip all three pieces together.
After cleaning up the handle with a belt sander, go back to your grinder or belt sander and begin the sharpening process. Work slowly and deliberately with a very light touch.
Use a fine grit belt on the sander or an aluminum oxide wheel on the grinder if you have one. Watch out for heat build-up. You could ruin the steel quickly.
If you see the steel turn dark blue in color during this process, that's a sign that the it got over heated and is now worthless as a knife. It will never keep an edge no matter what you do.
Keep a can of water next to the machine to cool the metal every couple of passes. Keep a steady hand to set the angle of the bevel which would be good at around fifteen degrees on each side.
Practice, practice, practice. You must practice to get good at country knife making. But once you get it, you'll have it for the rest of your life.
About the Author:
It's a lot of fun and fascinating to make a country knife and now you can master it too! Just go to http://www.how-to-make-a-knife.com and learn it all! It's a fun hobby and a great way to make gifts or even a little extra do-re-mi!
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