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How Can You Make Your Own Knife?

When you use a homemade knife around the house, you can feel a sense of satisfaction that does not come when you use a knife you bought at a department store. There are a number of ways to construct a knife, depending on the characteristics you want your knife to have. Some are exceptionally hard, which give a strong cutting edge while sacrificing toughness, and some can be softer and easier to sharpen. Treating a blade with heat and quenching oil ensures that it will have a proper hardness.

Things You'll Need

Safety goggles
Type 1095 steel
Jigsaw
Paraffin wax
Vice
Pencil
Coarse file
Medium file
Fine file
Charcoal grill
Tongs
Motor oil
1-inch x 1/2-inch x 4-inch piece of hard wood
Drill and drill bits
Epoxy
Sandpaper
Hand saw

Instructions

- 1
  Trace out the profile of your blade on a piece of 1095 steel with a pencil, and clamp it securely in a table vice. Make sure to give your blade a tang that will fit into the handle.
- 2
  Put on safety goggles and cut out the shape of the blade with a jigsaw. Lubricate the blade with paraffin wax regularly to prevent the blade from overheating.
- 3
  Adjust the blade in the vice so that you can easily file the edge. Start filing with a coarse file, making a bevel of 15 degrees on each side of the blade. Keep the bevel constant throughout the length of the blade on both sides, stepping down with the medium file and finally the fine file.
- 4
  Heat up a charcoal grill and place the blade into the coals once they are hot. When the blade turns glowing red, remove it from the coals with a set of tongs and dip it vertically into a can of motor oil to quench the steel. Make sure you dip the blade evenly so that the steel does not warp.
- 5
  Wipe the oil off, and immediately put it in an oven set to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. This step is called tempering the blade.
- 6
  Dry out the wooden handle by placing it in an oven at its lowest heat setting for two hours.
- 7
  Drill a hole in the center of the handle and cut a slot the length of the tang in the edge of the handle. Fill the drilled hole with epoxy and slide the tang in place. Use sandpaper and a hand saw to shape the handle to your liking.

Photography