The simplest high-quality knife with your own hands. DIY hunting knife

Knives have become firmly established not only among housewives, but also among people engaged in extreme leisure activities and active species recreation: fishing, tourism, hunting, etc. Of course, today you can buy knives highest quality with the most varied shapes of the blade and handle, but all of them cannot replace a knife made by yourself. We’ll talk about what types of knives there are and how to make them yourself in our article.

Types of knives

There is a whole branched classification table of knives based on their functional focus.

Among them are:

Requirements for knives

A good knife should not only have an attractive appearance, but also meet certain requirements. Firstly, the knife must maintain its sharpness over a long period of use for its intended purpose.
Secondly, the blade must be stiff.

Thirdly, the knife should lie comfortably and tightly in your hands so as not to cause calluses or slip out of your hands during use.
Fourthly, the length of the knife blade must match or slightly exceed the cutting area, which will make using such a knife safe.
Fifthly, it is best to store the knife in a case or sheath. A knife sheath, as well as a knife sheath, can also be made with your own hands.

Hardening metal at home

Let us dwell in more detail on how to make a knife with your own hands. There are several options for making knives, the main ones being cold and hot forging.

The second method is traditional, but technically it is more difficult to implement, so we will focus on the first.
The material for making a knife can be an old garden tool, springs, a file, etc. A knife from a spring is made using the same technology as a knife from a file, and a knife from an old garden tool, so we will consider in detail the algorithm for making a knife from one material. Let it be a file.

Before you start making a knife, make sure you have everything you need for this. You will need a file directly (or scissors), a hammer, a drill with a metal drill, a knife sharpening machine (you can use). We've stocked up on everything we need, then let's get to work.
First of all, it is necessary to harden the metal from which the knife will be made. To do this, you need to preheat the oven (or flood the oven) to a temperature of 500...650 degrees and place the metal there for 5-6 hours. After this, without removing the workpiece from the oven (oven), allow it to cool.

Hardening has been done, it is necessary to temper the metal so that it is not brittle. To do this, bring the same oven to a temperature of about 200 degrees and place it there hardened metal for 1...1.5 hours. The workpiece should cool there.

Making a knife from a file

Have you hardened the metal? Let's start making the knife. Everything is simple here:

As you can see, the process of making a knife with your own hands is not that complicated and is accessible to everyone.

Every hunter understands that without special knife you can’t do without it - you can use it to split a splinter for a fire, repair equipment, and process prey. Thus, this device is truly universal. And you can make it this way yourself to your taste.

Materials and tools:
1. Emery stone.
2. Diamond needle file.
3. Drill.
4. Drills.
5. Files.
6. Abrasive bars.
7. Current rectifier.
8. Soldering iron.
9. Grinding wheel.
10. Metal for a knife. It is advisable to choose high-speed tool steel.
11. Wood for making a handle.
12. Rivets.
13. Brass or bronze plate.

Operating procedure:
Any work begins with a drawing. Moreover, in this case, you will need two drawings - the knife itself and a separate blade with a shank.

Now you can carefully cut out the blade layout. The basis for the layout is paper as strong as possible. This item is applied to the hacksaw material and outlined as clearly as possible.

The workpiece is placed on an emery machine and ground along the contour. It is important to remember that the transition point from the blade to the shank should be semicircular - this will help increase the strength of the product. Before grinding, it is recommended to prepare a container with water into which you should dip the metal more often - thereby reducing the risk of overheating.

It is quite difficult to make correct holes for rivets on alloy steel. At this stage, you can contact specialists. However, if you have a current rectifier at hand, the procedure can be quite successful using electrolysis.

The next stage is just as difficult as making the holes for the rivets. Making blade triggers is not always possible right away, so it is recommended to practice on some unnecessary materials. Concave slopes are easiest to remove using sandpaper, but with a flat wedge everything is much more difficult. It is advisable to start with slightly curved lens-shaped slopes. The main requirement for them is the same width, angle, simultaneous and clear completion. We should not forget about the fragility of the overheated blade, periodically cooling it in cold water.

To improve the through cut of the product and eliminate the risk of corrosion, you need to grind and polish. To do this, take a rough stone that can grind off all the irregularities. The slopes, as well as the cutting edge, are leveled using a suitable block. After this, a vulcanite disk should be installed on the emery. An alternative is a felt circle treated with abrasive paste.

To make a sleeve you will need a brass plate 3-5 mm thick, from which an oval is cut. When calculating the dimensions of the oval, proceed from the parameters of the knife itself. The bushing will look best in the form of a stop that protrudes above the handle by more than 5 mm. Don't forget about the hole for the shank. You can solder the sleeve to the base of the blade by soldering and grinding off the tin deposits with a needle file.

Now you can start making a handle from the wood you like. The shape is chosen according to personal taste. It is fastened to the shank using rivets. After this the tree is processed protective composition and is left to dry.

The final stage– engraving, decorations, sheath sewing. All these procedures are carried out based solely on preferences, as well as the purpose of the knife.

Experts say that often the shape, size, and quality of factory-made hunting knives leave much to be desired. In the same time homemade item can last much longer and more efficiently, becoming, moreover, an object of pride.

The knife has long been the main weapon for humans. After all, people have neither fangs nor claws to defend themselves - the blade became their replacement. Initially it was made of stone, but humanity moved forward, and knives also improved. Steel appeared, and then they learned how to make various grades of it, thanks to which it became possible to give products different properties. A knife is still indispensable for humans. Here we will study in detail the question of how to make a knife with your own hands so that it meets all the owner’s requirements.

A good blade is especially necessary for people involved in extreme sports far from civilization, as well as foresters, rangers, fishermen - that is, all those whose activities or hobbies are related to wildlife. If something unexpected happens in such conditions, then a durable and convenient knife, when used skillfully, can save a life. The most important thing is that it is convenient to use the blade various jobs. For example, cutting fish, cutting wood, and also defending yourself when attacked by an animal. Nowadays there are many different variations of knives on sale, but in most cases their quality is very poor. There is nothing left but to make a knife with your own hands at home. Only then will it be possible to know that the blade will definitely not fail and will be able to fulfill all the obligations assigned to it.

What is the easiest way to make a knife?

Depending on the material and manufacturing technology, blade is different from blade to blade. The simplest way- make a knife using the method cold forging. The material can be various garden tools: shovels, hoes, saws - there are a lot of options. This material is quite pliable, and a knife made of this steel does not become dull for quite a long time.

Manufacturing process

When thinking about how to make a knife with your own hands at home, the first thing you need to do is acquire tools. We will need:

• Hacksaw for metal.
• Files: one large, and the rest are smaller.
• It is not necessary to have a vice, but with them the process will be more convenient and faster.
• Sandpaper.
• Drill.
• Hammer.
• An anvil or piece of rail.

We take a broken or unnecessary garden tool and draw a sketch of the future knife on it. Then we begin to create this form. To do this, you can use a drill: drill many holes according to the shape of the workpiece, then break off the excess and smooth the surface. If the shape of the knife is simple, then we immediately begin sawing with a hacksaw. To do this, it is easier and more convenient to clamp the material in a vice - this way it will hold tightly without jumping out. When the shape is cut, it needs to be finished with a file. Where it is necessary to remove a lot of metal, use a large file, and then process it with a smaller one. So, the knife blank is ready, let’s move on to understanding how to make a knife with your own hands.

Secondary processing

In order for the cutting edge of the blade to hold its edge well, it must be riveted. This is called the cold forging method because, without heating the metal, it is simply riveted. garden tools It is made of carbon steel, but can be riveted. On a rail or anvil, we rivet the workpiece in the place where its cutting edge will be. During this process, the shape of the blade may bend slightly because the metal is deformed, compressing on one side and expanding on the other. However, such deformation is insignificant and almost does not change

Final processing of the knife

After the cutting edge is riveted, the knife is ground - this is required in order to remove bumps from impacts. Some people like to see these marks on their knife and leave them. But here everyone has their own preferences regarding how to make a knife with their own hands and what its appearance will be. However, from a practical point of view, it is better to make the blade smooth so that all dirt can be easily wiped off its surface. After all, moisture can be trapped between the dents, which will lead to corrosion, and this is undesirable. Also when cutting hardwood It is better that the blade passes well through the fibers and does not cling to them.

Hot forging method

To make a serious knife, the blade of which could cut nails, you need more difficult process processing. To begin with, select suitable material. You need steel with a high carbon content. What you can find at home are files, drills, car springs, and spring steel. You can make it with your own hands from this material, which will be much better than those offered in stores.

Hot forging process

To do this, you need a furnace in which you can heat the metal very hot. It can be built from red brick, coated with clay and heated with coal, providing a strong air flow so that the temperature is higher. Once the iron is hot, you can begin forging. And then - shape the workpiece until the blade takes the required shape.

Knife hardening process

Blacksmiths spend a long time learning to determine by the color of hot metal when it is time to harden it by immersing it in water or oil. However, for the average person there is one universal method. When the steel is hot, you need to bring a magnet to it: if it is attracted to the blade, then it should be further heated, and if not, then you need to immerse it in water or oil to harden it. Knowing the basics of how to make a knife with your own hands, you can improvise various models edged weapons.

An excellent knife can be made from a drill. It is heated and, clamped in a vice, untwisted. After an even rectangle is obtained, the blade is given the desired appearance. You can make it yourself from this material excellent quality. After the workpiece has acquired the shape of a blade, it is hardened, as described above.

How to do it yourself?

To make such a weapon, it is not necessary to have good steel. After all, if you take material with a high percentage of carbon, then if you throw unsuccessfully, the knife may break. Therefore, softer steel is quite suitable, but with a thickness of 5 mm. This is necessary so that, firstly, the blade has sufficient weight, and secondly, it does not bend. It is easy to make using the cold forging method, after which you just need to sand it so that the surface becomes smooth.

However, you need to remember that the center of gravity should be strictly in the center or shifted more toward the blade. The process of making such a knife is quite easy, on the one hand, but, on the other hand, it is quite painstaking due to the fact that it is necessary to center the knife. The handle can be made lighter by drilling it.

Switchblades

They are quite convenient for the city because they take up little space and are very convenient, but with prolonged use their mechanism can become clogged and work poorly. It is not very convenient to constantly use such a knife when working, but if there is no alternative, then short term exploitation it can become a great assistant. To make a switchblade with your own hands, you need to choose a reliable mechanism in which the blade will not become loose. It is better to give preference to a model in which the blade pops out from the side. After all, as practice shows, if the blade is well tightened and equipped with bearings, it will not come loose for a long time. But in knives with frontal blade ejection, blade play is inevitable and only increases during operation. It's more of a stylish toy than a tool.

This article discussed all the ways to make a knife with your own hands. Of course, this is a rather labor-intensive process that requires considerable effort, and in some cases even technical devices. However, the result is worth it and the item will last for many years.

A knife is a thing that we use every day, and we notice that we cannot always please with the quality of purchased knives. We suggest making a knife with your own hands, this is not an easy task, but the result will delight us long years. Your own knife is more than just a knife.

How to make a knife at home?

This is an activity for real men who like to spend a few hours of their time in the workshop and work with their hands. And first, let's choose the material from which we will make the knife blade. The choice fell on X12MF steel; we needed a small piece.

Let's start making our knife!

1. On a prepared piece of steel we draw a model of the future knife. At this stage, you can not be very precise and draw everything by hand. After that, we take a grinder, put on protective equipment (glasses and earplugs) and begin cutting out the workpiece.

2. From our piece of steel, we received two blanks:

3. The next stage of processing - we need to work on the contours using a sharpener.

4. After the contours are ready, we grind a chamfer on the blade. Next we process the blade on the motor with sandpaper on the nozzle.

This is what we get as a result:

5. Now the knife must be hardened. We send the blade into the oven, then into the oil, and then back into the oven. We must achieve a good result, and it is approximately 60 Rockwell units on a hardness tester. After these procedures, we return to the circle with sandpaper, remove the scale, and slightly trim the cutting edge. At this stage, you should cool the blade very often. We start with high-grit sandpaper and finish with 120-grit sandpaper. This is what we get:

6. We refine the blade with finer and finer sandpaper, starting from 240 to 400.

Now the blade is ready for further manual processing!

7. Let's take a cylindrical lap, and sandpaper different sizes, and water.

8. We clamp the blade in a vice and begin to process the surface, making movements across the direction of the previous processing. Water removes chips well and cools the blade.

We start grinding with 500 and finish with 2000. Here is our result.

9. The next step- the blade will be polished. To do this, you will need diamond paste with a grain size of 3/2 microns, which we apply to the blade and then process it on a feta wheel.

10. Then use 1/0 paste, use another pad, and finally polishing paste on a muslin pad.

11. The wedge is ready. All that remains is to make a handle for it. First of all, take a brass strip and drill several holes in it.

12. Using a file, we remove the jumpers and adjust the workpiece slot to the size.

13 . Lubricate the workpieces with cyanoacrylate glue and glue them to the tail of the knife, then we can clamp them in cleats.

14. When the glue has dried, we can begin further work. Let's take a piece of wood from which we will make the handle. We drill a hole in it for the tail.

How to make a homemade knife? Homemade knives made by forging are especially popular. If a material such as alloy steel was used in production, the knife acquires special value. Forging a knife with your own hands is the most labor-intensive option for making a product. The most durable and high-quality blades are created using forging, serve for decades and retain their qualities unchanged. However, forging requires a lot of knowledge and experience from the master. You will need a good knowledge of the properties of metals, which will allow you to make a homemade knife of high quality and beautiful.

A homemade knife can be made by forging it from steel.

Making a forged knife

Besides professional tool, you can use improvised means for forging if they seem convenient. In order to forge a knife, you will need:

Tools for hand forging.

• big hammer;
• small hammer;
• blacksmith's tongs;
• pliers;
• adjustable wrench;
• vice;
• anvil;
• Bulgarian;
• welding machine;
• grinder;
• grinding machine;
• sandpaper;
• file;
• coal;
• bake.

It should be remembered that ordinary hearths (especially fires) will not provide the temperature necessary for forging steel. To do this, the workpieces will have to be heated for too long, which can lead to deformation and burnout of the material. The furnace must be made of thick-walled metal, and a pipe must be connected to it, through which a constant supply of air will be established. The air can be supplied by an old vacuum cleaner or a fan. The fuel must be chosen taking into account the fact that it should burn for a long time and not go out from the air flow, so coal is a good choice.

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Choosing steel for a knife

For a high-quality knife, you need to choose the right metal and process it.

Strength characteristics and cutting qualities depend on the selected metal. In order to choose the right metal, you need to know what characteristics it has. The main properties of steel are strength, hardness, wear resistance, toughness and red resistance.

Hardness measures the steel's ability to resist penetration by harder material. Hard types of steel from which homemade knives are made can successfully resist deformation. There is a Rockwell scale for measuring hardness: steel should have values ​​from 20 to 67 HRC.

Wear resistance - resistance to wear during operation of the material. This indicator directly depends on the hardness of the steel.

Strength is usually tested by bending or with strong blows. It is characterized by the ability to maintain integrity under the influence of external forces.

Plasticity is the ability to absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy of an impact without collapsing or deforming.

In order to properly forge a knife, you need a sketch.

Red fastness - resistance to high temperatures. If the homemade product remains with the same strength characteristics during heating and after it, this indicates that the material has red resistance. This indicator determines at what temperature steel can be forged. Hard grades of steel are the most red-resistant; their forging temperature is around 900° C. The melting point for such steels ranges from 1450 to 1520° C.

All properties have become interconnected and must be combined with each other, since an increase in one indicator necessarily leads to a deterioration in another. The properties of steel depend on the silicon, carbon, tungsten, cobalt, nickel and molybdenum it contains, as well as other alloying elements and additives. In order to find out exactly what steel composition is present in a particular item from which it is planned to be manufactured homemade knife, you need to have a complete grade of steel and alloys on hand. It indicates detailed compositions steels and their characteristics.

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Sketch for knife design

A knife can be considered a simple object, since it consists of a handle and a blade. But to make a high-quality knife, a number of parameters must nevertheless be observed, since the functionality of the tool depends on them. Experienced craftsmen can do without blanks and preliminary sketches, but for a beginner it is important to create an initial template.

The shape and dimensions of the template depend on how you plan to use the finished knife. For complex shapes you will need a file and long work for straightening and smoothing each planned protrusion. Hunting knives have simple shapes, and designer products are difficult to manufacture, but non-functional. Beginners can be advised to start with small pocket knives (they are also called mushroom knives). It should also be remembered that knives can, based on the results of an examination, be recognized as edged weapons, the possession and manufacture of which requires a license. Taking this into account, it is advisable to make do with the production of small samples.

The drawing is made on thick paper; it is recommended to make both the entire image and the handle and blade with the shank separately. The model is cut out to be held in front of your eyes or placed on the blade before using a file for sharpening.

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How to forge a knife from a drill?

Knives can be made from drills or wrenches.

Many drills use alloy steel, which makes them popular for forging various types of knives. This type of steel is wear-resistant, durable and easy to sharpen; a file will help correct minor imperfections. When choosing a drill for forging, you need to remember that drills big size Only the tip is made of alloy steel, and the shank is made of ordinary steel. Before forging, be sure to check what kind of steel it is and remember the boundaries. Determining the boundaries can be done using a file or drill, grinding along the entire length with a special machine. When turning, sparks from ordinary steel come out in a large sheaf and have a yellow-orange color. On alloy steel there are much fewer sparks, and their shade is closer to the red spectrum. This procedure helps determine which part of the drill to make the blade from and which to make the shank from.

A fire is lit in the oven. When it flares up, turn on the blower and wait for the coals to flare up at a sufficient temperature. Then the drill must be placed in the fire. This procedure is performed using pliers. The drill is positioned in such a way that there is a blank for the blade in the fire, and the shank serves as a handle.

The metal heated to the required temperature is removed from the fire and beaten until required thickness.

It is difficult to determine whether the metal has heated up sufficiently without appropriate experience. An error can damage the drill. Before forging a knife from a drill, you can practice on rebar, memorizing the color of the metal that is best for forged. But if the work is done on a sunny day, the color of the metal will not help, since the metal will remain dark in appearance.

The drill, heated to the required temperature, is immediately removed from the furnace, and the bottom of the shank is clamped in a vice. Using an adjustable wrench, firmly clamp the top of the drill and straighten it, unwinding it in a circular motion counterclockwise. This must be done as quickly as possible so that the metal does not have time to cool. A drill that begins to cool will easily break. Unwinding may not work the first time, in this case the drill is placed in the crucible again and the operation is repeated required quantity once. An untwisted drill looks like a strip of metal with relatively smooth edges.

The following operations are performed with a hammer, rolling out the metal of the drill to the required thickness. The hot iron is struck with a heavy hammer until its thickness is 4-5 mm. The color of the workpiece must be continuously monitored during the process, and as soon as the metal has turned cherry, it is returned to the furnace. Excessive heat can create scale, which can be easily removed with a file. A workpiece that is not hot enough can easily be broken with a hammer blow.

After the knife is forged, it is sharpened grindstone or machine.

Working with the blade is the most difficult part of forging. Curving an edge while maintaining thickness can be considered jewelry work that requires experience and dexterity. The blows must be directed so that the tip is rounded, stretching out strongly, but very carefully. At the same time, you need to ensure that the blade remains smooth and straight.

An equally difficult step is to forge the cutting edge. Take a light hammer (if possible with a rounded head). Start by striking from the middle of the blade to gently drive the metal down towards the cutting edge. The blows must be applied, calculating your strength, not forgetting to monitor the color of the workpiece.

The shank is forged next to the blade and point. There is much less work with it than with a blade and point. Shank having drills round shape, heats up and is flattened by strong blows of a large hammer. The handle of the knife is worked out according to the sketch, and may have different kind, thickness and width.

When forging is complete, the metal must cool. After this, they begin to refine and polish.

All production stages are very important, as they prevent corrosion and improve the cutting properties of the metal.

Here you will need a file and a grinder. All irregularities and sagging must be removed, and therefore a file will most likely not be useful for the work of a novice craftsman. If you need to remove a lot of waste, a grinding machine will handle it faster. Sometimes, to achieve a perfectly smooth and even surface, you have to remove up to 2 mm of steel; the knife becomes much thinner and lighter. Sharpening is performed at the same stage.

The knife is polished with a special felt wheel and a special abrasive is applied to it. The knife is tested by cutting rope and planing timber. Sharpening, if necessary, is adjusted.