May 21 - Making a Knife

So, for those of you who have been following along at home….Saturday was to be the big field test for the Remington.  Unfortunately this was the one #@!@ weekend that the range I use ended up being closed for annual repairs.  So…we have to put it off till Memorial Day.

In the meantime….what to do?

What the hell….let’s make a knife!

The three most basic equipment necessities of hunting are 1) a firearm (or bow) 2) some form of glassing instrument…preferable binoculars,…and 3) a good knife.

Now…a “good” knife usually costs upwards of a couple of hundred bucks.  Why pay for one when we can be a total badass and make one ourselves?....(Besides it is the one way we can be assured that “Made in China” won’t be stamped on it.)

So…where to start?

Well…first lets talk about steel.

Steel comes in a variety of carbon densities.  The more carbon the “harder” the steel.  A really good blade that will keep its edge, needs to be made out of a higher carbon concentration steel.  Now, we could go to a metal shop and buy a blank of high carbon steel for 50 or 60 bucks, or we could keep the badass persona and recycle something to get the steel we need.  A couple of  items that most people have that we could use are an old file, or a circular saw blade.  The semi-adventurous can go to a junk yard and take the spring steel from an old junker car.  For me though, I like to scavenge for true junk…..rail road parts!

Our business…(the real business that actually gives me a paycheck) uses the rail road for deliveries.  You would be amazed at the amount of junk that those cars shake off as they make they way down the track.  Some of that junk winds up outside our warehouse yard…(especially after we are serviced by the rail road)…and some of it is pure gold.

Take this for instance:

This is a spring that goes on the wheel housing of a rail road hopper car.  The fact that it was just lying on the track outside my office is a little terrifying….but we won’t dwell on that.   Spring steel is high carbon, and extremely valuable.  This baby, once cut up and straightened will be able to produce a number of knives, tools, and other stuff that I just gotta have,.... but don’t want to pay for.

So…the first thing we need to do is cut off a chunk and turn on the forge .

My garage is also my blacksmith shop…well, actually it hasn’t really been a garage for years.  The Forge is a Chile forge, that runs on propane.  This forge will heat the metal up to just shy of 2000 degrees which will be necessary to straighten it out. 

 This is my Chile Forge right after I turned it on.  That red glow is hot,...but surprisingly the heat stays in the forge pretty well.

Heating the steel causes the molecules to move away from one another thus making the metal malleable.  Hammering the hot metal on an anvile allows us to move it around and shape it into the bar stock we need to shape out a hunting knife.

 So...here the small chunk of spring has been heated, and straightened out...still too thick though...it will need to be hammered into a flat bar next.

 This is my anvil.  It is about 130 years old and has moved from owner to owner around the planet.  It was born in Europe, and somehow made it to New Jersey then eventually to me.  

Now…I’m putting all sorts of importance on the value of high carbon steel….and don’t misunderstand me,... it is important.  However, I need to relate an experience I had in Africa:

 My Zulu tracker was preparing to skin a zebra I had shot.  I watched as he reached into his bag and took out a triangular piece of sheet metal that had duct tape on one end for a handle.  He ran it over a pebble he carried in his pocket to sharpen the “blade”, then began to skin the zebra.  He did his job with such speed and agility it was like watching a friggen performance art piece.  The point is, we hunters in the west DEMAND the best high carbon steel blades with walnut or hickory handles, blah blah blah.  This guy in Africa was using a scrap piece a lunch box and was just fine.  It is all a matter of perspective!