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Below are various resources I have curated during my journey from curiosity to a full-on obsession with the craft of making knives. I hope you find them helpful as well. This is NOT a comprehensive list, just tidbits I personally found the most insightful and valuable while starting out.
Gathering Materials
Gathering Materials
Knifemaking requires three primary materials: blade steel, handle material, and abrasives. Below are the suppliers I tend to use for all my needs.
Alpha Knife Supply - blade steel and synthetic handle materials (quick and reasonable shipping). My go-to for knife steels like AEB-L and 80CrV2, plus G10, Micarta sheets, pin stock, and liner materials. AKS offers a lot of information on their steel description pages, though sometimes a bit heavy-handed on advisories on the “right way” to handle heat treatment (IMO).
Jantz Knifemaking Supply - exotic handle materials, pin stock, tooling (good selection)
Admiral Steel LLC - forging steels and some annealed tool steel and stainless (good for bulk)
Phoenix Abrasives - wide selection of different abrasive types, grades, grits, and desired applications (ships fast). I’m starting to use Phoenix more and more. They have a decent selection of Trizac belts and a somewhat confusing array of ceramics. I’m trying out their “Red Ripper” line and might even compare it with Combat Abrasives at some point. Based only on my personal experiences, I would avoid their “economy” offering of ceramics since they seem to perform only marginally better than their AO counterparts.
Combat Abrasives - solid selection of no-nonsense belt abrasives and adhesives designed for knifemakers (good for bulk orders, especially for rugged ceramic belts). My preferred source for rapid stock removal belts such as the 36-grit ceramic shredders. The only downside is: you gotta buy in bulk.
Benchmark Abrasives - belt, paper, roll, and disc abrasives plus a selection of PPE. Their "Safety Sunday" posts on Instagram are a hoot.
Bell Forest Products - my first stop for natural wood products. I started ordering their thin stock in various species to start getting a feel for different woods. They also offer book-matched knife scales as well. Their selection is vast and pricing is decent. I've always had a great experience with this company.
Learning the Process
Learning the Process
The internet is littered with countless tutorials, how-tos, and demonstrations of the knifemaking process. From profiling, bevelling, heat treatment, handles, and finishing, the guides and video channels below were instrumental in helping me to grasp and understand what it takes to make a functional cutting tool.
Cheap first knife tutorial - this was my first stop on the Interwebs when learning about how to build my first knife. Please note this post is no longer available so I have linked to a saved copy.
Walter Sorrels - Walter is arguably one of the most well-known knifemakers on Youtube. Walter breaks down the steps of knifemaking in easy-to-understand lessons and also elaborates on tooling, grinder selection, grinding techniques, bladesmithing, toolmaking, and swordsmithing.
"Make a Knife with Simple Tools" video
Simple Little Life - Jeremy’s channel has inspired me to find clever solutions to the many problems faced by knifemakers of all skill levels.
Outdoors55 - follow Alex’s journey from filing and sanding knives in his shed to building up more sophisticated techniques. Also a must if you want to learn about free-hand knife sharpening!
DIYeasycrafts - I'll let the channel speak for itself. However if I had to contribute a thought to this channel and why I feel it is helpful for new knifemakers it would be, "you cannot know what you are capable of building unless you dive in and try."
"Knife Making Tutorial" Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 videos
Neels van den Berg - check out his Bladesmithing 101 and Knifemaking Tips playlists.
Ekim Knives - helped build my confidence in the art of free-hand grinding. Check out his "How to Make a Knife" Part 1 video (with a complete playlist on the right side)
Seek out other Knife Makers
Seek out other Knife Makers
How many other knifemakers are there in your state … or maybe even in your town?
Indie Knives - map of knifemakers worldwide with tips on getting the word out about your knifemaking business. Yes, you can find me on there, too.
BladeForums - the place for discussions about all things knife related
Upgrading Your Tools
Upgrading Your Tools
Not everything in the knifemaker’s shop comes from the local hardware store. These folks after specialty tools and accessories specific to those who live for black fingers, blue tape, and red ve for black fingers, blue tape, and red steel.
Origin Blade Maker - affordable and solid knifemaking grinders and accessories made in Oregon! I have owned two of their grinders and highly recommend them if you are looking to move onto an entry-level or mid-range 2x72.
Soul Ceramics - when you are ready to invest in an electric oven for heat treating and tempering, check these guys out. I did and not a single regret. I’ll likely buy my next oven from them as well.
Daryl Belnap - grinder accessories and ceramic platen liners for exceptional platen surface heat resistance
Berg Knifemaking - clever accessories that can up your knifemaking game. I have (and really love) their 2x72 tilting table.
Never-ending Thirst for Knowledge
Never-ending Thirst for Knowledge
The key to successful knifemaking is to never stop learning. It is as true with knives as it is with life itself.
Knife Steel Nerds - Dr. Larrin Thomas dives into the dynamics of successful heat treatment techniques for effective knives. His book “Knife Engineering” is a must for any knifemaker’s library.
Kevin Cashen - a good first step into the world of knife steels and some of the terminology and concepts used throughout the knifemaking process.
Some of my favorite tools and materials
Some of my favorite tools and materials
PPE is crucial. Severed fingers, lost eyes, and damaged lungs don’t grow back. I consider myself careful, attentive, and diligent. That being said, I have been sliced, poked, burned, and scarred. Not from the knives, but from the tools, materials, and even dust (yes DUST). Before you begin, get the following: a bunch of cheap safety glasses, a 3M respirator and set of replacement filters, and some leather gloves. I'll explain why.
Safety glasses: get a bunch and put them all over the place. I put a pair next my drill press, bandsaw, grinder, and so on. When they get scratched or cracked, toss them out. The more accessible your PPE is, the more you'll want to use it. Go to Amazon and get a 12- or 24-pack. Your local Dollar Tree might have them as well.
Respirator: Knifemaking, even by hand, generates a lot of metal, wood, and fibrous dust. Quenching through burnt, polymerized oil into the air. The dust gets on your face, in your eyes, on your hands, clothes, work surfaces, and just everywhere. You cannot avoid it. Your nose traps a percentage of that dust. The rest ends up in your sinuses, pathways, and lungs. Once it's past your nose, it only comes out by force, if at all. Put on a $#%@ respirator. Not a paper mask, a respirator. It's $25 on Amazon. Change the filters if they start to look grimy.
Leather gloves: Whether you're working with a forge or an oven, you will be in close proximity to glowing hot metal. A pair of cheap welding gloves work well to ensure you don't get careless and wreck your hands when moving a 1500F chunk of metal from place to place.
I use digital calipers and angle meters countless times each day for setup, calibration, marking, and more. The cheap ones are great. I’m making knives, not interplanetary space probes.
West System GFlex epoxy provides excellent performance for bonding knife scales. Rough up mating surfaces and clean them thoroughly. With a few extra flow-through holes in the tang, your scales will hold fast for years. The slow set time gives you lots of time to mount and clean up.
If you are short on tools and don’t want to do a lot of filing, a 1x30 sander is an excellent starting point. At $50 you can’t go wrong. Faster than a file and 1/20th the cost of a basic 2x72. If you have a basic set of files, a 1x30, and an assortment of sandpaper, you are in great shape. My first twenty or so knives were made using a 1x30 (pictured above).
Small machinist tools such as 1-2-3 blocks and squares will help you quickly check and verify flatness, squareness, and parallel dimensions. Again, you don’t need anything expensive.
Kannt twist clamps are pricey but change how you use clamps. I have a couple of 1-inch and 2-inch sizes and I will buy more soon.
Feathering Disc Adhesive will allow you to quickly mount, dismount, and remount sandpaper and other coverings to any surface. Think of this stuff as liquid tape. Put it on the back of your sandpaper, let it dry (or hit it on low with a heat gun) and now your sandpaper is adhesive-backed.
Buy as much blue tape as you can. I use the wide rolls to mask off workspaces to mix epoxy or to protect knife surfaces from abrasion. The narrower tape is helpful for quickly protecting blades from glue or debris (and from finding your fingers). Supergluing blue tape back-to-back gives you handy temporary mounting tape.
I buy a lot of tools from Harbor Freight. My drill press, 1x30, punches, buffer, vibration tumbler, hammers, bandsaw, tooling stands, calipers, vises, and heat guns are all HFT.
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