How to make a round handle on a knife. Homemade knife handle with your own hands

We are not always satisfied with the quality of the purchased instrument. Sometimes the most best option- make what you need yourself.

The knife is an object that has become firmly established in our lives. There are many photo instructions on how to make it. Definitely, this is a labor-intensive process and not everyone can make a good blade at home. But made with your own hands, it will delight you with its quality for many years.

Tools

Selecting from the available equipment what is needed to make a knife is not so easy. Some tools will have to be purchased or rented additionally. However, a lot depends on the technology.

To make a knife by hand forging we will need the following:

Large and small hammer;
Bake;
Coal;
Blacksmith's tongs;
File;
Pliers;
Sandpaper;
Adjustable wrench;
Grinding- grinding machine;
Anvil;
Bulgarian.

Metal selection

Before moving on to detailed instructions on how to properly make a knife, it is important to carefully select the material from which it will be made, taking into account all the necessary technical characteristics:

Wear resistance (resistance to abrasion and deformation; depends directly on hardness);
Ability to withstand high temperatures;
Strength (maintaining integrity when a certain external load is applied);
Viscosity (the ability to hold its shape without deformation or destruction during use);
Hardness (the ability to resist the penetration of foreign materials into its own structure).

Sketch

Before you make a knife at home, you need to have an idea of what it will look like, what to make a handle and sheath for it from, and what size it will be.

A preliminary sketch is drawn on paper, and then a labor-intensive work process begins, which takes place in several stages: making a knife blade with your own hands, a handle and a sheath with grinding and turning to the required parameters.

Blade making

The work technology will depend on what kind of workpiece is used for the knife. Can be purchased at hardware store a sheet of metal (plate) of a certain thickness and cut a blank according to the sketch. Temper the metal in a furnace. Then process it with a file or on a grinding machine.

It will be much easier when the blank for the future knife is made from:

Old braid;
Lawn mower blade;
Double-sided file;
Drills of suitable diameter.

It is important that the workpiece is thicker than the final blade obtained after processing.

Knife handle

What you can make a knife handle from is limited only by your own imagination.

Ancient craftsmen sought to make their blades a model of perfection, using all the available material at hand. Original ideas knife handles using whatever is at hand change over time.

Currently, a knife handle can be made from the following materials:

Plastic;
Plexiglas;
Tree;
Ceramics;
Ebonite;
Quartz glass;
Bronze;
Silver;
Ivory;
Gold;
Textolite;
Deer antlers.

Methods used in the manufacture of knife handles

After making the blade, it is important to carefully connect it to the handle so that it subsequently sits firmly and does not dangle or fall out.

There are the following methods widely used in the process of making knife handles:

On rivets;
Fixation with a hairpin;
Hot attachment of the blade to the body of the handle;
Use of bolts, pins and nuts;
End riveting.

File knife

Let's take a step-by-step look at the process of making a blade and handle from simple material, which can be found at hand. From a two-edged file.

We preheat the metal in the furnace;
We give the workpiece the desired shape according to the drawing. We use a blacksmith's hammer, then a sharpener. Ultimately, two clearly distinguishable zones should form - for the handle and the blade itself;
We perform rough (rough) sharpening of the knife for a razor or blade type knife;
We make handles from any material. Cut it to the size of your own hand.
We bring it to the desired shape on a grinding machine;
We dock the handle with a metal blank (with rivets);
We grind and polish the knife (with sandpaper or a grinding machine with the necessary attachments);
We perform final sharpening of the blade;
We use velvet cloth or polish to give the knife its final finished look.

Making a scabbard

After the knife is made, a sheath is made according to its dimensions or a cover is sewn together. For this, you can use various materials - plastic, leather, wood.

In the design of the sheath, it is necessary to provide for the outflow of moisture and guides for the blade, and the sheath itself must be made so that the blade can move in and out freely without jamming or any inconvenience.

Thus, making a knife is an entire art, to which in ancient times they devoted their entire lives, achieving the best quality blades and chopping properties. Such knives were successfully used both at the feast and on the battlefield, and each specimen was a model of perfection.

Photos of homemade knives

A hunting knife is essential for every hunter. First of all, it is used for finishing and butchering prey, but besides this it remains faithful assistant in a variety of hunting situations. Now on sale you can find huge amount a variety of models and modifications of blades. But despite this, the need to make your own knife may arise. This usually happens due to the inability to buy the blade you need, either to replace a lost or broken one you love, or one you saw from friends and liked, or the knife you need is not on sale.

Making a knife from a 9HF saw

In this article we will not focus on the shape and design of the blade, the type and width of the sharpening, etc. We believe that finished project or we already have a sample and will focus on the production itself.

Homemade hunting knife In order for it to meet the basic requirements for such blades, it is recommended to make it from high-carbon alloy steels. For example:

9HF– tool alloy steel, used for the manufacture of frame, band and circular saws, punches, trimming dies and a number of other tools. Usually saw blades are used as blanks;
R6M5– high-speed alloy steel of high strength. It is used to make many types cutting tool, drills, saw blades, the latter can be used to make a workpiece;
65G– spring steel, with high wear resistance, can be blued and blackened. They make springs, springs, gears, etc. In addition to sheets, rear springs of trucks are used for blanks. Considered one of the cheapest knife materials;
X12, R3M3F2 and a number of others are also suitable.

The material for the workpiece can be taken from the above products, although now on the Internet you can order a plate for the workpiece from almost any steel. As a recommendation, take a canvas pendulum saw for metal, the usual dimensions are 400x30 mm, thickness 2 mm, rough surface, color black or gray.
If you want to make a homemade knife at home, in addition to the material for the workpiece, we will need:

Corner grinder(Bulgarian)
Wheels for it, cutting wheels for alloy steel, for example inox A54S BF, sharpening and grinding.
Drill or drilling machine
Vise
Pobedite and other special drills
Files and diamond files
Emery machine (very desirable).

The knife making process will be as follows:

The handle of the knife can be wound using paracord or made of wood; in the latter case, we drill holes in the handle according to a template, according to a sample or drawing. Holes are drilled using special drills with accompanying cooling using oil. It is more convenient to do this on a drilling machine.

To simplify the process, holes are drilled first with small diameter drills and then gradually drilled out to the desired size.

Handle

Knives are decorated with different handles. The choice of material for their manufacture depends on the purposes for which the knife is intended, ease of use and personal preferences of the owner. Below are two ways to make a knife handle at home.

Wrapping the handle with paracord in a few minutes

Using a paracord cord as a knife handle is not only easier and faster, but also more practical. You will always have a couple of meters of cord with you, which can be used for a variety of purposes when surviving in extreme situations.

For the winding we need:

cord, 2 – 2.5 m;
thick adhesive tape or electrical tape;
lighter or matches;
scissors;
gloves;
screwdriver.

Before you start winding the cord, decide whether you need a lanyard loop and if so, where it will be, on the side of the blade near the stop or at the end of the handle. If it is available, in addition to the ability to hang the knife, in the first case you can insert your thumb into it to make it more convenient and secure to hold the knife, in the second, you can use it to remove the knife from the sheath, etc.

Paracord is wound in the following order:

We wet the cord, and it stretches better, and when it dries, it will sit more solidly on the knife.
We seal the knife blade with tape or tape to avoid accidental cuts or cutting the cord. It is better to perform all operations with gloves.
We press one end of the cord on the head of the handle so that 10 cm remains free.
We form a loop from the cord, laid along the handle so that the top of the loop protrudes a couple of centimeters beyond the cord winding area.
Then holding the knife in your left hand and pressing both ends of the loop with your thumb, right hand We begin to wind the cord around the handle, starting from its head.
We make the winding tight, turn to turn, do not tighten it too much, keep in mind that the cord will still shrink after drying.
Having brought the winding all the way to the blade, we thread the remaining end of the cord into the protruding part of the loop.
We cut off the excess cord, leaving about 3–5 cm, and burn the end of the cord.
After this, pulling the free end of the cord from the side of the handle head, we pull the loop under the winding until the end threaded into it is hidden under the winding. Avoid pulling the loop completely out, otherwise the entire winding will unravel.

Winding is complete. With this option of winding, we will not have a loop for a lanyard. If we want to form it, the winding is somewhat more complicated. Initially, two loops are placed on the handle on both sides of the knife.

To form a loop for a lanyard on the head of a knife, the end of the cord is pressed onto the head of the handle and one loop is pulled to the blade, then the cord is thrown over the head and a second loop is placed on the other side. The winding starts from the head of the knife. Having finished the winding, the remaining end is threaded through both loops near the blade and pulled under the winding by the loop in the headband, thereby forming it.

So that the loop is near the stop, we do the same thing, but on the contrary, we start laying and winding from the stop, and pull the loop there to tighten the clamped end under the winding.

Making an overhead handle as an alternative to paracord

If you are a classicist and want to make a regular handle, use wood for this purpose. It is more accessible, easier to work with, the wooden handle is more pleasant to the touch, does not get cold, slips less in the hand, and if processed correctly, does not absorb moisture. The handle of a knife can be made of oak, beech, maple, birch, walnut or mahogany. In order not to waste time and effort on preparing and drying wood, there are two simple ways get her. The first is parquet, you can buy it in a special store, where, by the way, expensive varieties sold by the piece. Second - old furniture, in the attic, in the garage, at the dacha, with friends, you can always find unnecessary household rubbish and use it.
For the handle you need two dies if you have a hand standard size, then 10 - 15 mm thick, this is with a margin for processing, so that the thickness of the future handle is about 20 mm. The length of the workpieces is 150 - 200 mm, so that there is room for fixing them during initial processing.

In addition to the tree, we will need:

dowels made of aluminum, copper, brass, iron according to the number of holes and the corresponding diameter;
drill with drills or drilling machine;
drills according to the number of holes in the handle of the same diameter;
a sharpening or grinding machine, it can be replaced by a wood file and a lot, a lot of time;
jigsaw or manual jigsaw, or see the previous paragraph;
an engraving machine or a file with a needle file;
sandpaper of different numbers down to the finest;
epoxy based adhesive;
linseed oil;
thick adhesive tape or electrical tape;
vice, clamp.

We make the handle as follows:

Before starting work, wrap the knife blade with tape or tape to avoid accidental cuts.
The first step is drilling. Place the knife blank on wooden die, press it with a clamp or, at worst, wrap it with tape and drill holes. To make the hole neat, first drill with a thin drill, and then drill out to the desired diameter. After the first hole has been drilled, we insert a key or a drill of the same diameter into it, this is done to fix it so that the die does not move. Let's move on to the next hole.
We drill the second die in the same way.
After drilling, we assemble the dies on a knife, using keys or drills, to make sure that all the holes match.
Then, attaching the dies one by one to the knife using dowels or drills and a clamp, we outline the contour of the handle along the contour of the knife. It is advisable to mark the handle with a slight indentation, 1 - 2 mm, for subsequent processing.
After marking, we cut out the handle with a jigsaw or grind it on a grinding wheel; in extreme cases, the file is in your hands.
Preparing the dowels. To make the homemade knife look aesthetically pleasing, we will not rivet the dowels, but glue them in. To do this, use an engraving machine or a file to make chaotic cuts on the keys, in which the glue will harden and set. At the ends of the keys we remove an inclined chamfer at 450.
Since after gluing it will be inconvenient to process the cheeks of the stop, we finally process and polish them using sandpaper.
Carefully sand the handle halves with inside so that they fit tightly when gluing to the plane of the knife shank.
Before gluing, we make a final test assembly.
We carry out the gluing itself according to the instructions for the glue. The assembly procedure is as follows: lubricate the inside of one half, insert dowels coated with glue into it, put a knife on them, and then the lubricated second half.
We clamp the assembled handle in a vice and remove the excess squeezed out glue. Leave the clamped handle for a day.
After the glue has hardened, using files, emery, a grinding wheel, and so on, we finally shape, grind and sand the handle of the knife.
When the handle is completely polished, it's time to soak. The best way to saturate wood is linseed oil. You can buy it in a store for artists, they breed it oil paints.
The handle is kept in oil for three days to a week. The process can be speeded up by boiling the handle in oil for a couple of hours, but you must strictly monitor the temperature, otherwise the glue may leak.
Then the handle should dry at natural temperature for about a month, during which time the oil will polymerize and the wood will harden and become impervious to moisture.
After drying, the handle is finally polished with a soft cloth.

Sharpening for beginners

Before we talk about sharpening a hunting knife, we need to remind you that homemade knives made from the metals recommended in the article, they are very difficult and take a long time to sharpen, since the alloy steels used have high hardness. This must be remembered when using a knife for purposes other than its intended purpose.

Now about the sharpening itself. IN living conditions knives are sharpened on special sharpening stones. Such stones are ceramic (the cheapest and most common), diamond, natural and Japanese sea stones. The principle of sharpening on them is approximately the same, so in the future, by default, we will talk about the most common ceramic sharpening stone.
In order to sharpen a knife efficiently, it is advisable to have either two sharpening stones of different grain sizes, or, what happens more often, a sharpening stone whose sides have different grain sizes. For ease of sharpening, the size, or rather the length, of the stone should be greater than the length of the knife blade.

It is advisable to sharpen a knife with both hands, so it is advisable to place the sharpening stone on a separate board, securing it either in a hole specially cut for this purpose, or using six nails driven into the sides.
Sharpening the knife begins on the roughest stone. At this stage, the whetstone does not need to be wetted. We place the stone on the table arbitrarily, the main thing is that it is convenient for you to sharpen on it.

The entire sharpening process consists of giving the edge of the blade an acute angular shape. When doing this, you need to remember a few basic rules:

need to pick up optimal angle sharpening the knife and sticking to it throughout the entire process;
the knife is driven across the stone with the blade forward, as if cutting off a thin layer from it;
in one movement you need to sweep the entire edge of the blade for uniform sharpening;
the edge of the blade should always be perpendicular to the direction of movement;
each next time the blade must be turned over and held with the other side so as not to displace the center of the blade chamfer;
movements should be smooth, without pressure;
It is better to sharpen both sides with a unidirectional movement, either towards yourself or away from yourself, since moving the hand away from you is always worse and weaker than moving it towards yourself.

Now regarding the sharpening angle. It can be from 450 to 300, in the first case the knife will hold an edge longer, in the second it will be sharper. It is better to sharpen a hunting knife exactly at 300, this is not difficult to achieve, just when sharpening, move the knife as if you were cutting a thin slice of butter or cheese.

After you have turned the initial sharpness and brought out the angle of the blade edge, you can move on to a stone of lesser dispersion. It is advisable to periodically moisten it with water so that the edge of the blade glides better and metal dust does not clog the pores.
Finally sharpen the blade to a mirror shine and razor sharp, you can straighten it on an old leather belt with GOI paste. Main feature editing with GOI paste is that the knife is directed in the opposite direction to the blade, i.e. butt forward.

Making a sheath (case) from leather

One of necessary accessories The sheath is the hunting knife. They are needed to protect the blade from dulling, and everything around from cuts and damage to things.

You can make a homemade sheath yourself at home, from a small piece of leather about 3 mm thick.

For this, in addition to the skin, you will need:

scissors;
a sheet of thick paper for a template;
pen;
an awl (a sharpened nail or nails can replace it);
small nails and a hammer;
universal glue;
fork;
paraffin candle;
fine sandpaper or grinder;
nylon thread and one or two large needles;
pliers;
snap clasp;
wax or cream.

The procedure for making the cover will be as follows:

Making a template. Applying the knife blade to a sheet of paper, trace it along the contour.
Then around this contour with a centimeter indent we draw another contour, it will be the main one. Cut out the template along the outer contour. Separately, we cut out a T-shaped part for the fastener, the width of the harness is about 20 mm, and we measure the length of the harness along the handle of the knife.
Mark the details on the skin. Having attached the template to the leather, we outline the part for one side of the sheath, then, moving the template to the side by 5 - 8 mm, we outline only one side to get a part for half of the insert.
Then, turning the template over, we repeat the steps, outlining the second side and the second half of the insert. We apply and outline the T-shaped part of the fastener.
We take scissors and carefully cut out all the details from the leather.
Applying it to the knife, we try on all the details to see if they match.
We rub the ends of the insert on the clasp with paraffin candles, and then sand them using sandpaper.
We apply the fastener to one half, and using an awl and nails we mark and punch holes for the thread, in two rows.
We sew the fastener; the thread can be pre-lubricated with paraffin.
For ease of subsequent stitching, we glue the parts together. We cut out a part from the template along the contour of the blade itself. We place this part on the half of the sheath and coat it with glue so that the glue does not come out beyond the inserts. Glue according to the instructions on the tube. Lubricate and glue the inserts.
At the tip of the sheath, between the inserts, we cut a groove for ventilation.
Glue the other half. We place the sheath under the press for a while for high-quality gluing.
We check how the knife fits and sits.
Use sandpaper to sand the edges of the sheath.
Using a fork, running two prongs along the edge of the sheath, outline the outline for stitching. Use a fork to mark the holes for the thread.
If you want, you can get fancy by cutting a thread groove into the face of the scabbard so that it is flush with the leather. In this case, it will then need to be polished with wax or cream in the same color as the scabbard.
Punch holes for the thread with an awl.
We sew the cover. You can sew with one thread, or with two threads, threading them through the holes one at a time.
Attach the button clasp.
We finally grind and polish the scabbard with wax or cream.

The scabbard is ready.

In order to make a homemade handle you need:
* Knife blade, this homemade product uses hardened steel ShKh-15
* Mahogany and oak
* Copper rod or aluminum for rivets
* Vacuum drying oil, wax
* Jigsaw
* Manual router with copy cutter
* Clamps
* Wood glue
* Plywood

That's all the materials and tools that are needed to create this handle.
Now you can begin step-by-step assembly.
Step one.
First you need to make a template according to which the knife handle will be made.

After this, we make a sketch of the future handle on 8 mm thick plywood and draw the junction of two types of wood. Using a jigsaw, we cut the plywood at the joint; this is our template, according to which the main parts of the handle will be made.

When working with power tools, be careful and remember to individual means protection like glasses and gloves.
Step two.
Now the template can be used for its intended purpose, we apply the top one to the mahogany, the bottom one to the oak blank, after which we make markings.

Before cutting, make a reserve of about two centimeters in the length of each workpiece for further processing.

Step three.
Armed with a jigsaw, we cut out the part according to the template with a 2mm indentation.

We secure the workpiece with the template using screws, after which we fasten everything to the table. Now it’s up to the router, with its help you need to accurately adjust the dimensions of the workpiece with the template, a copy cutter will help with this. Manual router We make a carbon copy of the surface, as on the template, in the end you should get an even cut without scoring, which directly depends on the quality of the cutter.

Step four.
After all the parts are ready, we move on to gluing them, for this we need wood glue. We coat the parts and press them with clamps until the glue dries completely.

Step five.
From the glued blanks we cut out the shape of a handle; you will need two of these, since they will be on both sides. We attach this handle to the knife blade using aluminum rivets, which we install in the holes on the handle and then rivet with a hammer. The finishing touch is to coat the wood with drying oil or other protective components, such as oil.

How to make a hunting knife with your own hands? More than one man who is interested in hunting has asked this question.

Every self-respecting hunter should have a hunting knife in his arsenal. During the hunting process, many situations arise in which a knife is simply necessary: from sharpening various kinds of pegs to cutting up prey.

These days there are a great variety of stores for hunters and fishermen, where you can buy any kind of knives for money. However, mass-produced knives do not differ in durability and quality. A more expensive option is to order a hunting dagger from a famous craftsman. In this case, you can get a fairly high-quality blade. But only homemade hunting knives can bring the greatest pride and satisfaction. After all, in the process you can adjust the knife according to your desire and taste. Making hunting knives is a rather complex process and requires thorough preparation.

Characteristics of a hunting knife

In order to make a hunting knife, you need to figure out how it differs from other types.

So, in addition to performing regular cuts, it must cope with the following tasks:

finish off a wounded animal;
skin;
cut up the carcass.

Based on this, we can highlight characteristic features designs:

Straight butt for a powerful blow during finishing. For finishing, a separate blade with a central tip is often used; it is also called a hunting dagger.
Blade length 100-150 mm.
Use of harder steel grades.
Handle made of wood, birch bark or non-slip artificial materials, with moderate relief. It should be comfortable for cutting towards and away from you, as well as piercing movements.
Lack of additional devices in the design.

So, how to make a hunting knife?

Steel selection

Before you begin directly forging, you need to decide on the material from which the hunting knife will be made.

When choosing steel, one uses its five main properties:

Hardness. The ability of steel to resist deformation. Hardness is measured using the Rockwell scale, which ranges from 20 to 67 HRC.
Wear resistance. Metal resistance to wear. Directly related to the hardness of the steel used.
Strength. Preserving the integrity of the blade during impacts and other damaging factors.
Plastic. Absorption and dissipation of kinetic energy during impacts, cuts and bends.
Red fastness. An indicator of the resistance of steel when exposed to temperature. The temperature of forging and hardening of steel depends on this indicator. Hard steel grades are the most red-resistant (more than 900 °C).

All properties are closely interconnected. The predominance of one of the indicators leads to a decrease in the quality of the material as a whole. The severity of a particular property is caused by alloyed additives and elements present in the metal.

Depending on the presence of certain alloying elements, the steel receives the appropriate marking. For example, grade U9 - carbon 0.9%, grade X12MF - contains 1.2% molybdenum and vanadium.

Of the most suitable steels for the manufacture of a hunting blade, two grades of steel can be noted that are most widespread:

ХВ5- diamond, alloy carbon steel with high performance in hardness (up to 70 HRC) and excellent cutting properties. The metal contains chromium and tungsten, which add strength. But with prolonged contact with water and dampness, corrosion spots may appear, so a knife made of this steel requires careful care.
Х12МВ- stamped steel, tool steel, hardness up to 60 HRC. The composition includes: chromium - increases resistance to corrosion; molybdenum - makes steel more viscous; vanadium - increases heat resistance.

Recently, powder steel has become popular, for example, ELMAX (Sweden). The steel is quite wear-resistant and tough, and also has anti-corrosion protection. Products made from it hold an edge for a long time.

Damask steel - has exceptional hardness and elasticity, and is not subject to corrosion. Damask steel has a pronounced pattern, which is imparted by carbon steel. The damask steel blade easily copes with mechanical and thermal loads. The best hunting knives are made from damask steel.

Damascus steel is not inferior to damask steel in all respects, but requires protection from moisture and dampness. The Damascus blade has a unique pattern and holds an edge perfectly, but it must always be wiped after use and periodically lubricated with special oil.

Blade forging

Tools

We've sorted out the material, now we should talk about necessary tools and the forging itself.

For forging you will need:

hammer up to 1 kg and hammer 4-6 kg;
blacksmith tongs, you can use pliers with the insulation removed;
adjustable wrench;
vice;
an anvil or a homemade device for an anvil;
grinder;
welding machine;
sharpening machine;
a forge furnace or hearth, pressurized using bellows or a fan.

Before starting work experienced craftsmen It is advised to draw sketches of hunting knives, which can be made if one or another material is available. After choosing a suitable sketch, forging begins.

Forging stages

The forging process consists of several main stages, it is necessary:

Light the furnace and heat the metal to a certain temperature (depending on the steel used).
Design and forge the shank. The workpiece is subsequently held by it.
Formation of the future knife nose. At this stage, the future shape of the hunting knife is acquired.
Forging the blade using minimal allowances. At this stage, the metal should be gradually forged without changing the thickness of the workpiece.

Making the handle

Making knife handles is creative process, justified by their practical use. The handle should be durable, comfortable and practical. At the moment, there are plenty of materials from which you can make a knife handle with your own hands. You can create various combinations materials and apply various techniques manufacturing, the main thing is that the handle of the knife with your own hands meets the individual requirements and characteristics of the owner.

Material selection

The most elegant, comfortable and most importantly - durable - are handles made from animal horns. Another advantage of this material- it lends itself well to processing.

The handle made of wood or ebonite may be damaged if dropped. The metal handle is strong and reliable, but not practical due to freezing at low temperatures.

The most suitable and available material The handle is made from fiberglass impregnated with epoxy (epoxy resin) and laid in several layers. The material is light, durable and not affected by temperature. Also wide application received textolite. However, to make a PCB handle, it is necessary to use a solid block, because when several pieces are glued together, the strength of the product is lost.

Step-by-step production

It should be noted that before making a knife as a whole, it is necessary to initially select the type of handle: applied or inlaid, since the shank of the workpiece for the handle is formed at earlier stages.

Making a knife handle is divided into several stages:

Make a sketch. Draw the outline of the blade and tang on paper, and apply a drawing of the future handle on top.
Measure the length and width of future overlays or “cheeks”. If the handle is inlaid, determine the number and thickness of the component elements.
Make a bolster and end cap from brass (aluminum).
If the handle is inlaid, drill holes for the shank in the component elements. If the handle is applied, drill holes for metal wads in the shank, then alternately in both blanks for the handles.
Put on and glue with epoxy resin pads or set tools, tightly compress or wrap the handle blank on all sides to more securely fix the handle on the shank.
Finishing the handle with a file or other grinding tool. (Produced after the resin has completely dried).
Sanding the handle. Giving the handle a perfect smoothness and shape.

Making a scabbard

Sheaths are an integral part of quality hunting knives. They are designed to keep the blade from external negative impacts, and also allow you to keep a hunting dagger always at hand. A knife for everyday use should be equipped with a collapsible sheath for easy cleaning. The sheath for a hunting knife can be made of leather and wood. Everyone chooses for themselves how to make a knife sheath.

Wooden scabbard

Necessary:

Cut a suitable piece of wood into two halves. If the handle is made of wood, then it is best to use a block of the same type of wood.
Draw on each half the outline of the corresponding side of the blade.
Make a recess according to the outline in the two halves of the sheath to the thickness of the blade. You should slowly adjust the recesses so that the sheath fits tightly in the future.
Glue the halves strictly along the edges of the recesses. A moderate coat of epoxy should be applied to prevent penetration into the blade recess. If necessary, pre-sand the surfaces to be glued for a tighter fit. You can also fasten the halves together with decorative screws.
Give final shapes using a file or Dremel and sand.

Leather scabbard

You will need:

Make a mockup out of paper and tape.
Transfer the pattern to the leather and cut, leaving a seam margin of approximately 7-10 mm.
Soak the skin in water room temperature for 20-30 minutes.
Cut out a thin plastic liner.
Protect the blade with masking tape.
Wrap the knife in the soaked cut leather. Fix the necessary bends (you can use regular clothespins).
Make a pendant (trench) and form a hole in its loop. Cut a strip of leather and fold it in half, this will be the pendant.
After the leather has dried, glue the pendant and sew it to the sheath.
Glue in the plastic liner.
Make an expansion wedge for the top of the sheath.
Sew the sheath by first making symmetrical holes.
Soak the sheath and place the blade in it, then place it under a press to give the final shape.
After drying, you can impregnate the leather with shoe wax or special impregnations.

Making a knife from a file

As you know, a good blade made of excellent steel can cost a lot of money. In such cases, the question arises: how to make a knife with your own hands from scrap materials? An old, unnecessary file will come to the rescue, from which you can make a hunting knife with your own hands.

Tools and materials

Making a hunting knife with your own hands from a file must begin with the selection of the starting material, or simply a “blank”. It is best if it is a Soviet file, since at that time they were made of very high quality steel. The shape of the file should be flat, rectangular, or better yet diamond-shaped, about 30-40 mm wide.

It is necessary to decide what the handle of the future knife will be made of and prepare materials for it. In addition, you will also need:

epoxy resin;
brass or aluminum rivets;
vice;
sharpening machine;
sander;
sandpaper of different grain sizes;
magnet (necessary for hardening);
ferric chloride (for etching).

Step by step instructions

First of all, to make a knife with your own hands from a file, draw sketch future knife.
Annealing. We heat the workpiece to approximately 700 degrees. When you have to make a knife with your own hands at home, you can use a gas stove. To determine heating, use a large table salt, pour it onto the heated area, when it starts to melt, it means the heating is sufficient. After the metal has acquired an even color, it is necessary to keep it in this state for 4 hours. Then the metal should cool slowly.
Blade formation. We cut off all the excess with a grinder and shape the future blade. Next, using circles of different grain sizes, they form a trigger on the knife with their own hands, a butt, and a shank for attaching the handle.
We produce hardening and product release.
Grinding and polishing the knife to the finished state. We use sandpaper, gradually reducing its grain size, and for polishing we use a felt wheel and Goya paste.
Attaching the handle and bring it to the final state by grinding and sanding.
Etching. Important stage, which is necessary to prevent rust on the blade.

Additional accessories

Such devices most often include a trench and a sharpener, as well as secret holes in the back of the knife and pockets on the sheath.

Trenchik

A special loop for attaching the sheath to a belt. When making a trench coat, they use various materials: rope, cord, strip of leather. Making a sheath with your own hands allows you to make a trench coat from any available material.

The trench coat can be glued, sewn, attached with a screw from the inside of the sheath, the main thing is to make a loop with a margin for any belt width. The length must be selected individually.

Sharpener

A small, fine-grained block of stone used for sharpening a knife. The sharpener is attached to the sheath and is necessary when using the blade for a long time.

Pockets

Making a knife and a sheath with your own hands allows you to fully equip it to your taste. But it is worth carefully considering the necessity, and most importantly, the practicality of this or that pocket.

When making handles for knives, some craftsmen leave a cavity in the back, into which small objects can also be placed.

How to harden steel at home

In fact, steel hardening can be done not only in a forge. It is quite possible to build a small stove on fresh air or make do gas stove. It is only necessary to create conditions to retain the maximum amount of heat near the knife. For this, heat shields are used, or, more simply put, metal plates.

The metal must be heated until it acquires a uniform bright red color. On the edge of the blade, the metal is thinner, so it heats up more strongly and can have almost white. A magnet will help determine the optimal degree of heat. If the magnet stops reacting to metal, it needs to be cooled. It is necessary to cool it sharply, take it with pincers or pliers and dip it in a bucket of water, and some craftsmen advise dipping it in used machine oil.

After the hardening process, the metal remains “stressed” and there is a danger of crumbling. In order to prevent this, metal tempering is carried out. Place the knife in an oven heated to 200 degrees and leave for 2 hours, then turn off the oven and let the metal cool along with the oven.

Making a knife with your own hands is quite a labor-intensive task. Even using ready-made drawings for making knives and detailed instructions, on the way to success you can spoil more than one workpiece, get more than one callus, get more than one cut. But you shouldn’t stop there, because everyone can make a blade with their own hands.

The independent manufacturing process gives rise to a special attitude towards your blade and makes you appreciate the work put into it.

Video

Watch the video on how to make a hunting knife from a drill with your own hands.

And just for those who like to visit the site in search of interesting and useful things. Sometimes it happens that what the manufacturer offers us may not always be suitable everyday use, so you often have to use your imagination and make everything yourself, and even if you do it yourself, you will be confident in your production. This article also has the meaning of remaking a finished one, so we smoothly move on to assembly.

As usual, any homemade product requires material and what we want to change, in in this case it will be a knife. In order to assemble a knife handle, the author explains that necessary, This:
*Birch bark.
*The knife itself is without a handle.
*Clamping vice on studs with wings.
*A grinder with a medium grain grinding wheel.
*Glue.

When all the assembly materials are ready, you can begin assembly.
First of all, the author took pieces of wood 5-6mm thick on both sides and carved holes in them that fit into the steel handle of the knife.

Then, according to the size of these pieces of wood, it is necessary to cut out a sufficient number of birch bark squares and approximately measure whether they are enough for the length of the handle.

When required quantity cut - move on to the next step.
We make a hole in each square of birch bark; it’s up to you to decide how to make it; for a better hole, you can use a wood drill, which is slightly larger in diameter than the sleeve on the knife. We repeat this process with all the other elements of our future handle.

When all the birch bark is placed on the handles, we lightly press them together, and then soak each one with glue and let it sit for a couple of tens of minutes.

When the glue has set slightly, you can use a vice with pins to press the entire structure, having first removed it from the knife.

For further processing, you need to let the glue dry completely and when you are sure that the glue has dried, start sanding and shaping. To make grinding more convenient, you need to put our pressed birch bark back on the knife handle and, having equipped the grinder with a grinding wheel, begin processing.

Attention! All work with an angle grinder must be carried out with extreme caution and safety precautions must be observed. To begin, use a grinder to give the handle a square shape.

Then we grind it to an oval shape that fits comfortably in the hand.

Ultimately, the author gives the handle a shiny look by polishing.