Do-it-yourself ways to make a kitchen knife

If you want to make a kitchen knife with your own hands, then this article is written specifically for you. Making knives is a slow, delicate, painstaking, multifaceted, sometimes disappointing process. Such a business will require skills in metalworking, woodworking and design. It will take a lot of patience, attention and a general level of preparation.

First you need to draw a future sirloin knife and circle the resulting shape on graph paper. Try to draw a knife in scale, that is, in real size. The fewer changes you need to make to the design, the better.

Now you need to decide how the handle will be attached to the blade of the knife. There are three common ways to help make a full, partial, or through knife.

The handle consists of two identical parts - these will be, for example, wooden parts. A partial way is when the blade of the knife continues into the shaft, which then hides the handle. Handle parts are superimposed on the shaft and secured. By the way, Japanese swords and sushi knives are made using this method.

A through knife is similar to a partial knife, but the continuation of its blade passes through the entire handle so that the handle can be fixed with a nut or a thread at the other end. Most knives with folding handles are made that way.

Choose the model that you like best and get to work.

Of course, it’s best to use stainless steel to create the blade. In addition, it will be more convenient for beginners to make a knife from a quick cut (steel).So, you will need a strip of metal ranging in size from 30 to 60 cm.

In addition to this, you will need pen material, such as wood, mycarta, bone, leather, cord, stone, gem, ivory or meteorite. Of course, it is best to use a tree for the first time. Wood is a unique, beautiful and fairly tough material. You will also need special rivets and epoxy to secure the handle. Or you can use a brass rod, having made special pins from it for fastening.

To do this, you will need the following tool.

• Hacksaw with multiple blades.
• Little Bulgarian.
• Drill with a set of drills.
• Files of various forms.
• Vise.
• Necessary protection - special glasses, gloves, jacket.

The algorithm of work consists of several points.

1. Cut the workpiece for the blade with a hacksaw for metal or grinder. If you have a thick piece of steel, use a hard hacksaw. Standard blades are recommended. If you cut the blade out of thin steel, the process will not take much time. You need to cut out the rectangle inside which the main shape of the blade will be located.
2. Cut the shape of the blade with the shank for the handle from the workpiece. This can be done with a grinder with a thin disk for metal.
3. File cuts with a vise. In order not to harm the metal with teak sponges, use wooden blocks for clamping. If there is a belt sander, then grinding can be entrusted to her. The metal will change color during its cutting and processing due to thermal changes occurring in the steel. This will not affect the strength of the knife.
4. Grinding edges. For this process, it is better to use a wheel with coarse sandpaper, so that you can carefully grind the slope to the middle of the steel. Grind the other edge the same way until it is even. In the process, you need to be patient and careful to prevent rough processing. Work with the edges evenly to get an even and regular shape.
5. We drill holes for rivets. Make sure you use a drill of the same diameter as the shaft or rivet that you plan to attach the handle to the blade. There can be any number of rivets, so decide on the required number.
6. We make the handle for the knife and attach it to the blade.

Before heat treatment of the blade you need to finish it. This is necessary to obtain a quality product in the end. To finish the blade, you will need:

• sandpaper from 60 to 220 mm (you can use a grinding wheel and a drill);
• grinding block (even when using a grinding wheel);
• files.

This is the easiest step. You need to start grinding the blade with the smallest sandpaper and go up to 220. The main thing is not to save, because then you will regret scratches that have not been removed on time.

Heat treatment of the blade is perhaps the most technically difficult part of the whole process. You can use a coal forge or a gas forge for forging metal.

The next step in hardening is to heat the knife to a lower temperature (about 400 degrees Celsius). Thanks to this, the knife will be less brittle, will maintain relative strength.

Now you need a tempering bath. Oil should be used for steel. Different types of steel require different quenching methods - quenching in oil, quenching in water, quenching by air.

You must completely immerse the blade in water until completely cooled. The second thing you need to harden the metal is a magnet. It will help determine the hardening temperature, at which point the steel becomes non-magnetic.

The sheet of paper on which your knife is shown must be attached to the wooden block and circled with a pencil. You only need to trace the handle, because it is precisely we that we will cut out, so that then we attach it to the blade. It is better to leave a margin around the shape of the pen a few centimeters. You should get two such mirrored parts of the handle, which you later attach to the blade on both sides.

After the shape of the future handle is obtained, use the band saw to cut the shape of your handle.

On the handle of the knife you need to do preliminary holesas mentioned above where you will insert your pins or rivets.

If your knife is riveted, you must drown the hole in the right depth. You can use a vernier caliper to determine the size of the rivet head, which is the size of the drilling hole.

Before proceeding with the epoxidation of your blade and handle, form and grind two identical elements of the handle.

Push the pins through the drilled holes to put the wood and metal in place. Now you can fasten the knife with epoxy. Apply epoxy to one half of the handle, and then connect it to the blade and the other half of the handle. As soon as all parts are connected, take the two clamps and tighten the handle of the knife. Allow the product to stand for at least 5 minutes.

In exactly the same way as described above, you can make homemade kitchen knives from a disc brake at home. Here you will also need to use a band saw, a grinder, a belt grinder and tools for assembling a knife.

Using a grinder or a band saw, cut the blade and give it the desired shape. Hot hot steel will have to be cooled, so you need to prepare a bath of water in advance.

Below, watch the video tutorial on how to make a kitchen knife with your own hands.