Want to create a unique knife? Do you need a wood cutter or a sharp blade for hunting? To make a good product yourself is more than real. The main thing is to have the skill to work with metal and know what you want.
Making a knife: where to start?
First, prepare all the necessary parts and tools, fold them in one place. Decide which material you will use. If you need a sharp and durable product - make a knife from a saw.
Take the blank. A saw blade for wood or metal is best suited for this purpose. As a material for the manufacture of the handle for the blade, use wood (any, as you wish), textolite, plexiglass.
What tools will be needed in the process of making a knife?
To get started and make a knife from a metal saw, you will need:
- file;
- electric sharpener ;
- electric drill;
- marker;
- ruler;
- sandpaper;
- paste for polishing surfaces;
- copper or aluminum for rivets.
How to make a blank?
We'll figure out how to make a knife out of a saw. Prepare a metal blade for making the blade. Draw on it a blank of the future tool, using a marker for these purposes.
Remember that a knife is considered a melee weapon if the length of the blade exceeds 2/3 of the total length of the product. If you incorrectly construct a knife from a saw and regard it as an edged weapon - wait for the punishment.
Having outlined the contour of the future product, take up the undercut form. It is important to draw the shape so that the cutting part of the future product is located in the area of the teeth of the saw. Because of the wiring of the saw, if you make butts in this place, you will have to do additional work to grind the bulge.
Things to consider when getting started
Do not start to grind a knife without training. Take a regular piece of metal and try to process it. To spoil a piece of iron is not so scary as to lose a good workpiece. You must not only regulate the pressure when turning, but also monitor the temperature so as not to overheat the iron. High temperature not only spoils the look of metal. Even if it does not change outwardly, its structure can seriously suffer: the metal will become much softer and more fragile. A circular saw blade made of low-quality metal will have to be sharpened more often.
To check if the iron has started to overheat, drip a couple of drops of water on the workpiece. If it immediately evaporates, rather cool the workpiece for the future blade. To avoid possible troubles associated with overheating of the metal, put a container of water near the machine and periodically cool the future knife from the saw.
Work with the workpiece
Having formed the basis of the future knife, proceed to the most important and difficult stage of work - the removal of descents. The descent is the surface on the knife, gradually tapering towards the blade. The purpose of the knife directly determines the angle and width of the slopes. Therefore, choose the average value if you want to get a universal knife from a saw.
Before starting work on the machine, draw the expected descents on a metal sheet using a marker. Grind gently, slowly, so as not to spoil the future knife. It is recommended, as in the previous step, to practice on a spare part. The slopes should be symmetrical and lie at the same angle on both sides. In this case, the blade must be undercut: leave a margin of about 0.25 mm.
To hone the blade, use sandpaper. For such purposes, sandpaper 8-10 hardness numbers are best suited. Sharpening a knife from a saw for metal is better on a wooden bar. To prepare an impromptu sharpener, take a bar and glue sandpaper to it.
Using a large emery cloth, you will give the blade the necessary sharpness, and taking a smaller one, polish the metal blade completely.
At the final stage of processing, polish the blade. Pull the same wooden block with felt or leather, rub with GOI paste and polish until you achieve the desired effect.
How to make a knife handle
The easiest way is to glue a handle from two cut and prepared pieces of wood or plexiglass. Making it much easier than fixing it on the tail of a knife. Naturally, you can choose a simple option and wind the handle with electrical tape, but why try so hard to eventually spoil the aesthetic appearance of the knife?
And here comes the most crucial stage of work. Since you have to drill in the shank of the knife, the blade can easily burst. Therefore, be vigilant and careful.
Steel is a hard, but at the same time brittle material. With a uniform distribution of pressure, when the saw is in operation, it is almost impossible to break it. But with spot drilling, the pressure increases, and the metal can easily crack. Therefore, it is better to drill a hole at low speeds and do not forget to add oil to the drilling site. In this case, a screwdriver is an ideal tool to achieve the goal, since it has less revolutions, and the possibility of breakage of the part is not so high.
After completing the previous step and making holes in the handle, drill the same in the halves of the handle. Make a copper or aluminum rivet. For insurance, you can glue the area where the rivet will be with glue, but it is better if you have epoxy.
Is it possible to simplify the process?
Masters say that a hole can be made without using drilling tools. The blade with the shank is covered with a layer of varnish. Where there should be a hole, you need to clean the surface of varnish. You should place the knife from the saw on the tree in the electrolyte solution and lower the wire with the negative charge into the container with the workpiece, and connect the positive wire to the power source, which can be used as a normal battery.
As a result of such an impact, a hole in the metal will turn out, although it will not be perfectly round, but it will not work out to damage the blade in this way.
Other part processing methods
If for some reason you cannot make a knife from a saw for metal , there is no necessary material - replace it. For the manufacture of a blade, a car spring is well suited, the metal of which is softer than that of a saw. To process such a workpiece, you will not have to use a sharpener, but you will need a metal saw to cut the shape of the blade. Since the metal is easier to process, the edges of the workpiece can be adjusted with a file. It will take longer to work on the manufacture of a knife in this way, because each processing step includes manual work.
Making a knife from a saw is a laborious process, but the result is worth it. Having made a knife from a saw with your own hands, you will get a high-quality and unique blade.