[ecos]

im in the process of making a website in my spare time and one of the things i was going to add is a pictorial of how a knife is made. a few online friends have been asking to see it so i threw a basic copy of it on a geocities site for the time being. this is not my official site, just a way to show a few friends what i spend my days doing.

it shows most of the steps involved in making a japanese style wrapped handled knife. these are one of my most basic, but popular designs. more detailed knives will of course need many more steps.

so for those of you that havent been to a custom makers shop...heres a preview

EDITED TO REMOVE THE LINK. SORRY.

[Valkman]

Hmm, it says your site "has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later. "

I think more people would try making a knife if only they were shown 1) that it can be done with simple tools and 2) exactly what they need to do. A tutorial like that is fun, one turned me into a knifemaker, and it will give you a whole new appreciation of guys who do this for a living. :)

[ecos]

heh...thats what i get for using a free site, only allows 4.2mb of transfer an hour. one of these days i will actually finish the real site.

i agree Don. i would have gotten started sooner if i had known. i tried to keep it pretty basic just for that fact. all you need is a drill, belt sander, torch, sandpaper for the knife (and a heat gun for the sheath). actually you can just use a file instead of a sander but it takes much longer. i even used a small disposable $50 torch you can get at home depot instead of a fullsize. all it takes is a little basic knowledge, and lots of time.

[ziadel]

Etching brings out the hamon
line in the steel.

How do you have a hamon when you've just ground up some bar stock? I thought the hamon was formed from folding the steel?

[ecos]

a hamon line is just the point on differentially hardened steel where the hardened portion meets the unhardened portion. this can be achieved by stock removal. by heating just the edge up to critical temp and quenching, only the edge portion reaches a full hardness, and that results in a hamon. there are various other ways to do it too, coating the spine with clay to slow it while it cools is the traditional way, heating the whole blade but only quenching the edge is common today.

you may be thinking of the grain of the steel which is called hada. this is formed from folding the steel and somewhat resembles damascus.

[ecos]

oops double post because connection was acting funny...i dont see a delete button

[ziadel]

thanks for the clarification man...

I just found the mother load in terms of old ass dull files in my basement, how are these for making blades?

[ecos]

some files make excellent blades, some dont. (that helps doesnt it? lol) most of the older files were made out of simple high carbon steels, pretty similiar to what i used for these knives, but some files are only case hardened and the inside of the file is unhardenable steel. i made some files knive when i first started and i had good luck but now i just buy known knife steels. saves me the headcahes. im not sure which files are decent ones but you might want to search around these sites...im sure files have been discussed many times.

www.knifenetwork.com
www.bladeforums.com

also if anyone is interested in additional knifemaking tutorials/info this site has a bunch http://free.hostdepartment.com/g/gb6491/

if you want some cheap high carbon steel you can buy it in annealed barstock form from www.admiralsteel.com

im going to remove my link, i didnt realize how severe geocities bandwidth restrictions were and how much traffic it would recieve....in the last few hours it has turned away over 200 attempted views....im sure that is quite annoying for them. my apologies. i will be putting up a pretty basic site with more info and no bandwidth restrictions soon.

[LegendaryItaliano]

a hamon line is just the point on differentially hardened steel where the hardened portion meets the unhardened portion.....
......you may be thinking of the grain of the steel which is called hada. this is formed from folding the steel and somewhat resembles damascus.

Good information Ecos, I always enjoy seeing common misconceptions get corrected. You pretty much gave a basic over view but I would like to add a few things.
While differential hardening yields a hamon, it is not a simple proceedure, well not at first anyway. There are many factors involved such as the type of steel, the temperature before quench and the temperature of the water it is quenched. If any of these variables are not just right it usually ends in failure. Paricularly with japanese styled blades because they are so long and often times certain specs are expected by the customer such as curvature, steel type and hamon design. It is a process that takes a lot of steel, time and patience.

With that said lets move to hada as I think it is important to note a few things. While Ecos is correct in explaining hada being the result of folding steel, the purpose of the folding in ancient times was not hada as it is know today. Initially, folding steel was necessary to rid sword steel of impurities that would weaken the blade. Every time a blade is folded and hammered the steel becomes more homogenous. The result was a very strong blade with a bonus of a grain pattern in the steel. When this was realized smiths began folding their steel in different ways to make the hada beautiful as well as functional.
Today however, with steel in mass production already refined for purity, there is really no strength value in folding it, only asthetic value. In fact, the folding process is far more likely to yield a blade with problems that that of a mono steel.

Sorry for the rant:)