We love reality television.
Like many other people, we stumbled across the show Forged in Fire and after watching a few seasons, I decided that I "think" I want to make a knife. Many people have gotten to this point and made a BIG mistake:
"I now need to go to the store and buy everything that they are using on the show."
I don't encourage you to do that for three reasons:
That stuff is very expensive.
You might not like making knives.
You don't really need all of that to get started.
When I decided to make my first knife, I took the following steps:
I watched a lot of You Tube videos on making knives FOR beginners.
I made a list of all the things that I absolutely needed to make a knife.
I purchased the things that I needed to get started.
When I made my first knife, this is what I used:
a) a piece of high carbon steel that I ordered on Amazon
b) a block of hard wood for the handle
c) a brass rod for making pins
d) epoxy for attaching the blade to the handle
e) clamps to hold the blade to the handle while the epoxy was drying
f) a drill and a drill bit that can drill through steel (same size as brass rod)
g) charcoal
h) A foot long steel pipe (non-galvanized)
i) a pump to blow up air mattress
j) peanut oil (and a container to quench my blade) I bought an ammo can.
k) a set of pliers
l) an angle grinder (cutting blade/grinding blade/sanding discs)
m) a small vice
n) a black sharpie
o) sand paper (different grits)
4. I made a knife.
5. Since then, I have made upgrades, and at some point you will want to get an anvil to pound on some high carbon steel lawn mower blades, etc. But, you can start here.
And to be honest, my first knife is still my favorite. My next blog, I will share "how I made my first knife."