Since this thread is full of bad posting I'm just going to link the relevant blog entries from here at the top so they can be read without wading through the filth (there is some good discussion too).

Morel gets bored and makes a knife:
Part 1 - Assembly
Part 2 - Shaping & Sanding
Part 3 - Surface treatment and polish
Part 4 - I am a noob + jimping
Interlude - Outdoor pictures
Part 5 - Sheath basics
Part 6 - Sheath shaping
Part 7 - Sheath dying & stitching
Part 8 - Pics of finished knife

Morel gets bored and makes yet another knife:
Part 2.0 - Design and material choice
Part 2.1 - Handle making

Part 1 - Assembly
I used to do knife making as a hobby a bit when I still lived at my parents and had a barn etc to work in. now I live in DA BIG CITY so any kind of wood work etc is much harder and dirties up the apartment, so I havent been doing it. Today I said fuck da poleece and get back on the horse. since all the cool kids like chunky and bunk do blogs here is mine.

sadly I didnt think of this until I already got started so you miss all the excitement of prepping the parts, drilling and putting on tape to make me not cut my hands off on the blade etc so we start with final assembly here:


Got a special drill bit which you can see in this picture, you need to prep with a smaller drill, but it has a special non-sharpened tip so you dont fuck up the knife metal. Its used to drill the holes that can hold the handle slabs together with brass corby bolts and also to drill the hole for the brass tube to make the lanyard hole at the end.

the knife materials are: O1 steel blade (its a hard carbon steel. rusts easy but gets great edge which is pretty easy to sharpen and isnt brittle (other common steel for this is D2 which is brittle as hell and will shatter if abused (but otherwise boss mode and a little better rust resistant I think) and 1095 which is just better in every way than O1, but harder to get the initial edge on and to work on for smiths (non issues for me. but o1 was cheaper so who cares) next knife I might use VG-10 which is a favourite of mine, its hard to sharpen, but not impossible and keeps the edge for ages and cuts like a carbon steel while hardly ever rusting no matter how shitty you treat it. its expensive though. a blade will cost about 100$ made of that). The handles will be made from canvas micarta which is a laminate of cloth and epoxy and makes for pretty stuff once polished (example picture). to make it look n1 I also got a sort of thin bright red vulcanized fiber stuff (fuck knows it looks good anyway) to put close to the blade as a liner.

Step 1:
I worked over the blade tang with a file to make the surface rough so I can epoxy on the handles properly. it sits pretty solid with just the bolts, but who knows one day I might be in a tug of war with a giant snake or something, and you cant tighten the bolts ever again after polishing the handle so better safe than sorry:


Step 2:
Put glue on one slab at a time and I make sure to get it in the holes too to seal the bolts. I use a super hardcore epoxy. Its a 2 component glue that is mega strong but takes 24h to harden, but in this case that is good because it means if I fuck up I can remove the handle and try again during the first hour or so. I didnt get a picture of the gluing, but its pretyt straight forward (didnt want to get superglue on my phone k?). I use latex gloves here because getting this stuff on my fingers is gay as hell when you lose your skin etc.


Step 3:
lots of glue leak out and well, all over my gloves as I fiddle with the handles to screw in the bolts and hammer the lanyard tube through (sorry neighbors), so now I gotto get the excess off. I use MURDER CHEMICALS which, combined with the glue and the fact that I'm an idiot who havent opened the window makes me a bit high. its some sort of paint thinner chemical anyway. This works really well and the parts are shiny now. After this I put ON DA CLAMPS to make sure the handle gets on real tight and tighten bolts and wipe away even more extra glue:

nice and shiny metal now again and you can see the red liners

Next step after the 24h of hardening is cutting down the brass bolts and start work on the handle with files and sanding paper to shape it for its final shape. Will do that on saturday I think

those knives look retarded as hell knife collecting is a hobby of mine though, and I can also pretend its useful even though I only regularly use like 5% of the ones I own

also, if you want real retardation:


SHEIT TERRORISTS I BETTER SPEND 30s TO UNSCREW MY RETARDED DRILL SHAPED KNIFE SO I CAN STAB THEM

900$ will let you de-kernel apples like a fucking commando fighter

also pretty sure those spec ops guys DON'T appreciate the reference

this is how i roll

those are pretty nice, but fuck serrated blades. its impossible to sharpen. only use for it is if you cut rope all the time as a fisherman or something, or for a rescue blade which you wont really use except for emergencies and dont care about resharpening.

I roll this as a tool in my bag because it does the #1 necessary: wine cork screw. nobody ever has one and you always save da day for drinking:


also wow, didnt even know. thats pretty boss (but why show lame shit in the picture??)

inb4 Nroms gun thread

goddamn too true

make it happen. I love guns. been doing competition shooting for air rifles and 7.62 type stuff (field shooting? not sure what its called in english? you go between spots and have to hit targets at unspecified ranges up to 300m so its estimation as well as skill etc). been thinking of joining a pistol club because its much more casual and fun, and ammo is cheaper. the 7.62 rifle ammo cost so much

Part 2 - Shaping & Sanding

Was swedens national day today so I got to spend it running around looking for open shops that had the tools I need (fuck shop keepers taking the day off with everyone else). found all I needed except a dremel multi, so had to do more by hand than I planned, but will struggle with final polish step (might pick one up tomorrow along with some buffer for polish) anyways...

Glue had now hardened completely after 24h so I took it out of the clamps and started working. got a sweet little vice I can mount in the kitchen to hold stuff, and it has a little ball join so can be oriented. cheap and sweet.

First up is to file down the brass tubing/bolts to the level of the handle slabs:


after that is done I work with some different files to get the rough shape and remove any sharp angles (and top layer of micarta which is a bit abused and shitty):

sadly this scratches the steel quite a bit, but not sure what I could do about this. will try to polish using a precision polish disc or something when I'm completely done.

After files have done theirs I start working with sanding paper. I start on 80 grit, then go to 120, then 400, 400 under running water and finally 1200 grit under running water:


Surface is now pretty nice. I do an extra polish pass with a rough cloth, because I dont have proper tools for this yet, but it now feels really nice and smooth. The next step for tomorrow is to use oil and shellac (a polishing material secreted from indian bugs. yep) to fill the surface pores and get a nice deep shine to it. I'm hoping for something similar to when its wet which is n1. without this the surface is a bit boring, although many makers stop here because its still resistant to water etc and gives the best possible grip at this stage. I just want shiny though so will continue.


EDIT: forgot to mention this but it is important when sanding micarta to go slowly so there isn't a big heat buildup. If it gets too hot the micarta can miscolor. I had some problems with this around the bolts before I moved to wet 400 grit