Over the years spent hunting and fishing, and in the kitchen cooking fish and game, a good blade comes in handy for everything from filleting fish and butchering game, to preparing meals.
Knives come in all shapes and sizes, and making one from parts is rewarding, and not overly difficult. Your efforts will yield a handcrafted heirloom.
It doesn’t take a lot of specialized shop equipment to make a knife from parts, but if you want to make a blade from scratch, it can get complicated and expensive.
Several years ago I assembled a paring knife as my first knife making project, using hand tools.
Recently my son John crafted a beautiful drop point skinner with a handle made from tigerwood, an exotic hardwood native to the upland, neotropical forests of Mexico, Columbia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil.
His knife, made from 440c stainless steel, has a total length of 8 inches, with a blade length of 3 1/2 inches. It is pinned to its handles with mosiac pins, and John used a 4-inch belt sander, Dremel tool, and sandpaper to contour and smooth the handle.
The paring knife I still use in the kitchen has a 7-inch total length, with a 3 1/4-inch blade. That size paring knife is ideal for cutting up onions, celery, small potatoes, carrots, and venison chunks for stew, or slicing venison summer sausage and blocks of pepper cheese when snacking.
My paring knife has a stainless steel blade. Stainless steel holds it edge longer and resists staining, but is much harder to sharpen.
Carbon steel blades are “softer,” so they may not hold their edge as long, but they can be made razor sharp with very little effort, using a quality sharpener.
Blade steel is a matter of personal choice. That’s part of the enjoyment of making a knife. You can build it from any parts you like, so it’s custom to your tastes.
My paring knife has a handle made from locally-sourced curly maple, stained dark brown. The shiny stainless steel blade is accented by three 1/8-inch steel pins. I used finish nails for this project. They work fine and are cheaper than 1/8-inch pins (steel, brass or German silver), typically sold in 12-inch lengths.
Buy parts online
Blades of all shapes and sizes, and other supplies are available online from a number of knife supply companies, and on e-Bay. Last time I searched knife making supplies on e-Bay there were over 800 offerings.
One of the top knife making websites is Texas Knifemaker’s Supply, click here www.texasknife.com.
They offer a large number of blades of all styles, handle material (scales), finger guards (bolsters), epoxy, and rod stock (pins).
Fillet knives are a good choice for an angler’s first knife making project. Choose a flexible stainless fillet blade about 12 inches in overall length, with about a 7-inch blade.
Care of wooden-handled knives
Knives with wooden handles should never be cleaned in a dishwasher.
They must be washed by hand with warm, soapy water, then thoroughly dried. After a washing or two, apply a light coat of food grade mineral oil to protect and preserve the wood’s finish.
Howard Products, click here www.howardproducts.com sells food grade mineral oil that is ideal for preserving butcher blocks, cutting boards, wooden bowls and knives with handles made from hardwoods.
Tools needed for knife assembly
Some of the tools needed to make knives from parts include:
• Saw, to cut the knife handle outline on handle material, either a hand saw, jig saw or band saw.
Place the blade on the knife scale and trace the outline of its handle with a pencil, making sure to draw tiny circles on the wood where the scales would be drilled for the pins.
• Drill, needed to drill holes through the knife’s handle material for the pins.
• Clamps, needed to secure the handle material to the blade after the epoxy has been spread.
Use a quality two-part epoxy. Mix it up and spread it on the inside of the scales. Push the pins through one scale, the blade and then out the other scale. Attach the clamps firmly and allow the epoxy to dry for 24 hours.
• Files and sandpaper, needed to contour and smooth the final surfaces of the knife’s handle.
Another option is a using drum sander mandrel on a drill, a belt sander or Dremel tool to contour and smooth the knife handle.
Wrap the blade in masking, or blue painter’s tape, and secure it in a padded bench vise. This protects the blade and enables you to finish the final profile of the knife handle.
Now that you’ve made a knife from parts, it probably won’t be your last.
It’s likely there’s a hunter or angler on your holiday shopping list. You can make a special gift that will be treasured for years.