First Knife Build!!!

ichorus412 · June 20, 2020, 2:50am

Made my first knife today. Got a cheap Kabar-type knife from harbor freight a while back and used the grip and stuff from it, and used the full tang blade as a template. I used 11gauge 2"x12" mild steel plate and made a quick homemade forge to temper it. Going to try to make a Coffee can forge this weekend with cat litter. im actually delighted how it turned out. and sorry, I forgot to take pics of the blade before I blued it.

LonewolfMcQuade · June 20, 2020, 2:58am

Very cool!!

Robert · June 20, 2020, 11:05am

Sarge4206th · June 20, 2020, 11:06am

Damn that’s sexy

ichorus412 · June 20, 2020, 1:31pm

Thanks guys! Yea @Robert, it’s all downhill from here hahahahaha

SteelPinger · June 20, 2020, 2:20pm

Nice! You could be on that TV show.

EQuinn · June 20, 2020, 4:22pm

That’s a nice looking knife. So question for ya: What’s the difference between mild steel and high carbon? I thought that knives had to be high carbon so the edge could hardened. I know nothing about it though. Just what I’ve been told by knife salesmen and watching Forged in Fire.

ichorus412 · June 21, 2020, 5:22am

@EQuinn honestly I have no clue lol. I just wanted to get the basics down the first time and go through the motions. I have a buddy that gets me any type of metal from his job and he had previously given me this piece of steel and another identical piece of stainless. He told me that if I temper it right, the mild steel would be stronger than the stainless. I’m going to do more research before I do my next one, just had to get the initial tryout out of the way lmao

EQuinn · June 21, 2020, 4:59pm

Well that’s a damn nice looking tryout. Nice job.

DTA13 · June 21, 2021, 4:52pm

By no means am I an expert but from what I understand you can make a knife out of any kind of metal. High carbon when it is hardened and tempered right is going to allow for you to keep an edge longer without having to sharpen or reshape the edge. With mild steal you can sharpen it but its going to be more prone to fold over, glint, etc. That is the reason for the high carbon steel. Also though in forging you have to balance even the hardness level though because if your grain structure gets too large it will become brittle and then it is prone to chipping, breaking etc. That is why you temper the steel after you harden it. Thats usually something that gets skipped on forge in fire as they have other people come in and temper the knives. Which i also know makes some of the smiths angry because they want to do it themselves.