Handmade Knife Without a Forge

I wanted to make my own knife but did not have a forge. By being careful not to heat the steel too much I was able to convert a rusted old pair of shears into a camping knife.

With a cold chisel and hammer remove the wooden handle and separate the two blades.

I downloaded the above template from the internet and, with a permanent marker, drew around the template to get the rough shape. Use the marker to also sketch the outline of the blade as a guide for later on.

In order not to over heat the steel and make it brittle use files to shape the blade. This task took me about a week to complete.

Finally I got to use power tools!

By attaching the sander upside down in the vice I was able to use the wet and dry to sand out the marks and pits in the blade.

I had a log of cherry that I kept when we chopped down the tree in the garden.

Cut the log into a cube ready for turning into the handle.

Once the log was cut into a cube cut a 1/4 inch rectangle of from the side.

Cut the rectangle again along in the middle to produce two rectangles of roughly the length of the tang (handle).

The only thing I brought for this knife was a brass rod.

Drill two holes in the tang (handle) of the blade the same diameter or slightly smaller than the brass rod and cut two 1 inch sections of the brass rod.

Using the tang as a guide drill two holes in each section of wood

Place glue on each side of the blade handle and hammer the 1 inch brass rod section through.

Attach the other side of the handle making sure the brass rod sections are clear of the wood by a couple of millimeters

I've attached plastic tape to the bottom of the blade to protect it while filing.

Using a rough file shape the handle and smooth down the brass rod sections. Keep going with finer and finer files before finally using sand paper.

I used olive oil on the wooded handle to complete the process