red's first file knife

[redmegalord]

alright, after all my talking and boasting that im going to start my first project soon, i believe i finally have all my materials and my process memorized.

first, my materials: two mill bastard files, a grinder of unknown make and model with a rough side and a fine side (medium work will be done with my file, im starting from scratch so i bought two, one to make into a knife another to.. well, file i guess lol) 1 x 4 - 12" app grade lumber (dont know much about this either, the only identifying mark is the phrase 'weathershield premium wood' on the bar code and the abovementioned measurements, its to be expected i suppose, as it was purchased from a scrap bin at home depot) a rather dubious looking weber grill (might put the body below ground, for safety since im fairly certain the legs are broken) a bag of kingsford competition charcoal briquettes, and three separate whetstones with different degrees of coarseness for the finer work.

now, my process: first i anneal the file in the charcoal, heat it until red hot and let cool very slowly. next, i use the grinder and file to shape the knife body and remove all excess metal, form the bevel and get as sharp as i can make it, then polish as best i can so that i am better able to see the colors of the heated metal. next, before hardening, drill holes in tang for handle material to be attached via pins inserted through the holes. now for rehardening, which is accomplished by bringing the annealed file back up to red hot temperature and quickly quenching it in motor oil or (as may be the case for me, as i might not be able to acquire the motor oil) lukewarm water wwith salt added (one cup of salt per gallon of water). next comes tempering, which from my understanding needs to be done as soon as possible due to chemical and structural stresses within the blade which may cause it to spontaneously crack or break; at this point ive researched several different theories, feel free to correct me on any point ive made or am going to make during this entire tutorial, any kind of criticism is openly welcomed and encouraged: tempering can be done by holding a gas or propane torch to the spine of the blade until the entire spine becomes red hot then you either a: let it cool slowly or b: quench it again, i was never able to figure out for sure which is the correct method. anyways another way to temper your blade is to preheat your oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit and place the blade directly on oven rack and let sit for one hour, allow to return to room temperature at its own pace (im not sure how this gives the flexible spine and hard edge that we want, i was never able to contact the person who wrote that guide but theoretically his knives are being used in different scenarios)

finishing steps: clean, polish and sharpen your blade. attach handle material and insert pins,, use epoxy between the blade and material if you wish but personally im not going to, thats just my choice and is not intended as a recommendation or suggestion, lord knows ive stalked the forums long enough scrounging up alll the information i can. you guys know worlds more than i do, i cant wait to show you all my first handmade bushcraft/survival knife no matter how good or bad it turns out, wish me luck!! :)

a couple notes: obviously im from america, in case nobody could tell, i say this as a matter of etiquette as this is a u.k based site so in case one person or another isnt familiar with our system of measurement, im sure you can find a reliable table online somewhere.
i know this post may seem unnecessarily long or perhaps not detailed enough, but given the amount of trouble ive had in understanding the entire process even with all the help ive received i dont feel at all ashamed of the questions ive asked or the points ive made, no progress is made until someone asks a question :) my point is that id like to write a guide from my point of view, to bring the craft to a wider number of people because i know that if even i can make all the dots connect in my head, anybody can.
im thinking of using this post as a template for my guide, this is why criticism is so openly welcome in my case, because i still have a lot to learn and if i can revise my guide then anybody who may read it will benefit.

i believe that about sums it up so thanks again to everybody whos helped me out and answered my questions, i cant wait to start tomorrow, which in my case will be december 1st 2010 :)

[Martin]

Hey Red, looks like you've really done your homework on this. Don't forget to let us see the finished product when it's done.

Martin

[redmegalord]

Hey Red, looks like you've really done your homework on this. Don't forget to let us see the finished product when it's done.

Martin

thank you i will certainly try, but since i dont have an actual camera the pictures will probably come from my cellular, meaning a huge tradeoff in quality.

additional note: i forgot to mention above, but i do have an excellent vice and grips, and all the proper safety equipment (goggles, gloves, ear plugs etc etc.. i feel this is enough, perhaps minus the plugs as the noise wont bother me as much personally due to my scarred drums, but if anyone feels this is inadequate please let me know, if i do actually write the guide i dont want people reading it and then proceeding without the right gear) as well as a place to work in.

[Bambii]

Awesome, cant wait to see the finished knife!!

[Tony1948]

Magnet dont forget the magnet red youve got bring it up to temp so the magnet dosnot stick

[CanadianMike]

Some tips for you:

1: Charcoal briquettes don't work too well, lump charcoal works great! Especially if you use a charcoal chimney, once it gets going you can make steel bright orange within a couple minutes.

2: Go to the local gardening place and buy a big bag of vermiculite (sp?), it's a light weight material that is a great insulator. Get a box, metal, and fill it with the stuff. Once your file is bright red, and you are sure the entire region of your file has been heated sufficently, pull it out and bury in the vermiculite, leave overnight or something. This will give you the softest anneal, if you just let the file sit in open air after heating up, you'll normalize it, which will be tougher to shape and grind.

3: You'll likely find the grinder to not work too well, invest in a 1" x 30" belt sander, it'll take metal away a LOT faster with less heat.

Looking forward to seeing what you can come up with for your first knife. Get the camera out and take pics of the steps you are going through, your first will only exist once.

[redmegalord]

i do have a magnet, its a small extendable one but a magnet nonetheless. my personal total investment so far i just a little over twenty u.s.d, since some of the tools have been loaned to me its not as high ass it otherwise would be.

btw i posted this on the other blade related sites where im a member in order t get the most amount of feedback, and a guy on bladeforums said it would take me weeks to make my first knife correctly, i cant see it taking more than two, probably less. here is the link http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8947404#post8947404

i posted on two more sites if anybody would like the links, so far you guys have been by far the most encouraging, this is definitely my favorite place to be for knives and knife related subjects :)

[CanadianMike]

Heck, if you have the time, tools and materials available to you right now, you can have a full blown knife made in a single weekend! Lol, maybe including making a sheath for it. I think the fastest I've made a decent knife was a few days, but that's working evenings (I have a full time day job) and part of a weekend.

He IS right though about your tenth making you want to hide your first, here's my first knife:

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs672.snc4/61285_436586189206_510619206_4848501_5448772_n.jpg

And here are my 12th and 13ths knives (made as a pair):

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs968.snc4/76121_469709314206_510619206_5393836_8124721_n.jpg

[Bambii]

Heck, if you have the time, tools and materials available to you right now, you can have a full blown knife made in a single weekend! Lol, maybe including making a sheath for it. I think the fastest I've made a decent knife was a few days, but that's working evenings (I have a full time day job) and part of a weekend.

I made my file knife in a weekend, wasnt too hard. It takes a while to take the teeth of it.

[CanadianMike]

Ya, if you choose to take them off. Hehe, I've seen some gorgeous knives guys have made where the left the file teeth on the sides of the blades, really adds a nice (but messy) look to them.

BTW, my first pick, that's a knife made from a file, was early on in my knifemaking to see if I could do it well or botch it badly. Worked out pretty well, is small but is a decent little neck knife. This was before I got my sander, so most work was done on grinder over the course of a few days back in late August when I started this new hobby.

[Tony1948]

You cant see it that well, but my profile pitcher is my first file knife i didant rush macking it,i think it took about four weeks with the sheath. As soon as i learn how to post photos ill put the rest on hear

[redmegalord]

alright guys, my file is annealed and currently im letting it cool. first thing, i found an actual camera before i started and i took a few pictures, unfortunately for some reason my laptop wont read the sd card but im not sure how to fix this so ill just go back to using my phone tomorrow. also, my magnet broke lol i was testing the file (im still not entirely certain if its uniformly annealed, as it broke pretty early on) when whatever was holding the magnet in place got to hot and let the magnet itself drop into the coals.

[redmegalord]

my first update: the annealing is all done, and today (december 2nd 2010) i finished all the grinding work, as well as the shaping. all thats really left is to drill the pin holes then harden and temper. the drilling is proving more difficult than at first was anticipated, the only drill that i have here has a dead battery that i cant charge so im drilling the pin holes with a ratcheting screwdriver and a drill bit. i have two holes drilled this way, ill do the last one tomorrow. the pins fit nice and tight, im happy how its turning out. my pictures arent too good, but my edge is sharp enough to cut paper easily. think i may need to widen the bevel though. three more pictures are on the way.

[redmegalord]

i havent taken very many pictures of my process, i was using a camera but i found out a little too late that i cant upload the pictures i took. since i cant fix this ill take lots of pictures of the finished product.

[Bambii]

Looks like your making good progress!

Do you know what your going to handle the knife with?

[Tony1948]

Well done so far Red

[CanadianMike]

Looking good! Bevel looks fine, although you might want to raise it more where the edge meets the handle. Aside from that............

BTW, clever way to drill the holes. Lol

[redmegalord]

im probably going to use pressure treated pine, its all i have right now. i thought about going up into the hills just up my street to see if i could find any decent lumber, but after a couple minutes of looking i decided that the trees there arent suitable for my needs, i dont even know what kind of trees they are.

thank you tony

what do you mean by 'you might want to raise it more where the edge meets the handle'? not to toot my own horn but i thought it was kinda clever to, but its the only way i can drill the holes, ive got blisters on my palms now from it lol takes me about half an hour to drill one hole. as of right now i havent gone back out to finish since i just woke up, but im gonna head out as soon as i post.

also since i ran out of charcoal annealing the blade in the first place, and since i cant have an actual fire, im going to use an electric stovetop to reheat my blade, then a propane torch to temper it if all goes well. if not then im not sure how ill temper, probably use the stove again and just lay it on the spine. after tempering should i quench? i know greenpete did it in water but from what ive read so far thats not the best method to use.

[CanadianMike]

im probably going to use pressure treated pine, its all i have right now. i thought about going up into the hills just up my street to see if i could find any decent lumber, but after a couple minutes of looking i decided that the trees there arent suitable for my needs, i dont even know what kind of trees they are.

thank you tony

what do you mean by 'you might want to raise it more where the edge meets the handle'? not to toot my own horn but i thought it was kinda clever to, but its the only way i can drill the holes, ive got blisters on my palms now from it lol takes me about half an hour to drill one hole. as of right now i havent gone back out to finish since i just woke up, but im gonna head out as soon as i post.

also since i ran out of charcoal annealing the blade in the first place, and since i cant have an actual fire, im going to use an electric stovetop to reheat my blade, then a propane torch to temper it if all goes well. if not then im not sure how ill temper, probably use the stove again and just lay it on the spine. after tempering should i quench? i know greenpete did it in water but from what ive read so far thats not the best method to use.

Am sure you can find some better wood than pressure treated, check local stores, look for a small wooden cutting board, or other means of a dry wood supply. One of the dollar store chains I have around here stocks small bamboo cutting boards, about 3/8" thick, I had been considering making a knife handle out of that at some point. Maybe when I make a small machete in the next little while (I am only set up to harden and temper small blades up to 6", so I'm at a loss for how to temper a 12" blade myself).

Regarding what I said about the bevel, over all it looks good but thins out (tapers off in width) near where the bevel meets the handle, as in it becomes shallower. In my mind you'll likely not get a very good edge there and using that part to cut with will be difficult.

See if you can get lump hardwood charcoal, it works WAY better than the briquettes you were using (they burn slower yet much hotter, and when you are done just pour water on to put them out, let them dry and you can use them again later). And either buy or make a 'charcoal chimney', it's very much the same (except bigger) as what's known as a hobo stove around here, as the coals heat up, they draw air from underneath and get hotter, eventually you get a hot enough area you can make steel turn bright orange. All I've used over the past dozen knives I've made has been this, I just put the blade in point down and watch as it heats up, then quench in oil. Once you've quenched it, clean off the oil (if you used that), and put in a toaster oven (or your regular oven) for around 375-400F and let sit an hour, pull out and let cool. You can add a few more temper treatments if you want (I've recently learned that 3 temper treatments actually makes the blades quite tough and file like, without being brittle). Using the stove top and trying to temper with the propane torch won't work out very well for you since you won't have consistant heating along the blade.

BTW, I thought tempering was the whole process of making steel hard, took a while but I now know what the real words are, hardening is heating to red hot then quenching (freezes the steel molecules in a certain hard state) and tempering is heating at a lower temperature to reduce some of the stresses that occured while heat treating.

[redmegalord]

Am sure you can find some better wood than pressure treated, check local stores, look for a small wooden cutting board, or other means of a dry wood supply. One of the dollar store chains I have around here stocks small bamboo cutting boards, about 3/8" thick, I had been considering making a knife handle out of that at some point. Maybe when I make a small machete in the next little while (I am only set up to harden and temper small blades up to 6", so I'm at a loss for how to temper a 12" blade myself).

Regarding what I said about the bevel, over all it looks good but thins out (tapers off in width) near where the bevel meets the handle, as in it becomes shallower. In my mind you'll likely not get a very good edge there and using that part to cut with will be difficult.

See if you can get lump hardwood charcoal, it works WAY better than the briquettes you were using (they burn slower yet much hotter, and when you are done just pour water on to put them out, let them dry and you can use them again later). And either buy or make a 'charcoal chimney', it's very much the same (except bigger) as what's known as a hobo stove around here, as the coals heat up, they draw air from underneath and get hotter, eventually you get a hot enough area you can make steel turn bright orange. All I've used over the past dozen knives I've made has been this, I just put the blade in point down and watch as it heats up, then quench in oil. Once you've quenched it, clean off the oil (if you used that), and put in a toaster oven (or your regular oven) for around 375-400F and let sit an hour, pull out and let cool. You can add a few more temper treatments if you want (I've recently learned that 3 temper treatments actually makes the blades quite tough and file like, without being brittle). Using the stove top and trying to temper with the propane torch won't work out very well for you since you won't have consistant heating along the blade.

BTW, I thought tempering was the whole process of making steel hard, took a while but I now know what the real words are, hardening is heating to red hot then quenching (freezes the steel molecules in a certain hard state) and tempering is heating at a lower temperature to reduce some of the stresses that occured while heat treating.

thanks you for the advice about the handle, so far for me personally thats been the hardest part by far. i spent all day yesterday (december 3rd) working exclusively on a handle, with nothing to show for it.

when it comes to the hardening process ill see what i can do differently, but im already having to improvise a lot of this so i have to work with what ive got.

[CanadianMike]

Well, you are improvising quite well from what I've seen, so keep it up, always good to see what other ways might work.

Try out this though if you can get more charcoal, get a big can, like a coffee can, punch holes in the bottom and lower sides, fill with charcoal and light it up. That should work better for you, and still is improvising around what you have.

[redmegalord]

thanks, the continuing support from the forum is actually really helpful.

ill try that, i actually have a little left but not enough to go to the scale i did before, so this might work better.

[CanadianMike]

No problem, I've been there in the same place back in the summer with my first couple knives, was extremely limited for tools and knowledge, so did what I could with what I had. The beauty thing about using a can/hobo stove/charcoal chimney is it takes a lot less coal to get the maximum amount of heat.

[WoodTroll]

I found this simple knife making tutorial the other day. Don't know if this helps at all?

http://www.ukblades.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=545

[redmegalord]

i wonder if a paint can might work better? i ask purely as a matter of convenience, since i have no empty or even close to empty coffee tins, but an abundance of paint cans.

also i found this great link for a forge made of a coffee can, might be a project worth checking out once the appropriate research is done and the funds secured :) if anybody does try this, please let us know how it works and post pictures if you can.

http://www.zoellerforge.com/coffee.html

[redmegalord]

some things came up so it took me longer than expected, but its done. my first file knife. all i need to do is clean it up, sharpen it some more and attach a handle then ill be ready to go. itll take awhile to upload the pictures i took but ill get them up in time. i quenched in clean motor oil, then i tempered in an electric oven at 400 degrees fahrenheit for an hour, then let it cool to room temperature at its own pace. i was able to handle it about twenty minutes out of the oven.

thanks for all the support guys, cant wait to show you the finished product :)

[redmegalord]

heres the first of 12 pictures, i went trough and selected these as the best out of the pictures i took. more pictures to follow, and possibly a video.

[redmegalord]

heres the next set of pictures, obviously theres two pictures of the red hot blade (i thought it looked really pretty cool lol) and one each of the blade right after quenching and then after i cleaned it up a little. and then the one where its on my arm is after i tempered it.

[redmegalord]

evidently i cant upload videos so heres a closeup of the top and bottom halves of the blade.

specifications: length, eight inches; width at the butt, seven eighths of an inch; thickness, one eighth of an inch; weight, i dont know yet but it feels really quite light to me.

somebody suggested i make a handle out of a cutting board so ill try that and see how it works.

im still trying to make pins out of these big black nails i found, they look like standard framing nails but i really dont know what kind they are, ill post a picture later.

[CanadianMike]

Looks good, I see the charcoal can idea worked well for you. I suggested the cutting board, but anything else around that is flat, dry, about 3/8-1/2" would work very well. You are considering big black nails to make pins from, do they fit your holes?

Edit: Since you don't have the handles on yet, run the blade through two more temper cycles in the oven (same one hour @400F) to get a better temper, is something I tried (read it's almost mandatory as well) a few blades ago and I REALLY like the outcome. Previously I'd only temper once, but found the knives to feel a bit on the soft side when honing, but the triple temper makes it feel much better, almost a ping when you tap it on something hard.

[redmegalord]

Looks good, I see the charcoal can idea worked well for you. I suggested the cutting board, but anything else around that is flat, dry, about 3/8-1/2" would work very well. You are considering big black nails to make pins from, do they fit your holes?

Edit: Since you don't have the handles on yet, run the blade through two more temper cycles in the oven (same one hour @400F) to get a better temper, is something I tried (read it's almost mandatory as well) a few blades ago and I REALLY like the outcome. Previously I'd only temper once, but found the knives to feel a bit on the soft side when honing, but the triple temper makes it feel much better, almost a ping when you tap it on something hard.

it did, very well. i put the blade in early but once the coals really started going it worked like a dream. as for the nails, i cut the head and tip off but they dont fit unless i run them on the grinder a couple times. i dont like how they look after that but its what ive got so itll have to do.

ill do that today, but my question is how does tempering in the oven give the hard edge/soft spine combination that we want? i just dont understand how that works if your heating the whole thing.

[CanadianMike]

Good stuff, I figured it'd be better for you considering it looked like you had to use a lot of charcoal just to anneal the file in the first place.

Tip on making the nails smaller, if you can get your drill working again or just buy a cheap one, you can use that to spin the metal against a file/grinder/coarse sandpaper to gradually reduce it's diameter. I call that "The Poor Man's Lathe".

The differential hardening you are talking about actually is done during the hardening/quenching phase. Both involve the technique known as edge quenching, you cool off only the edge in water first, put in for a couple seconds, pull out for a couple, put back in again, then submerge the rest of the blade to cool it. So when your metal is very hot, the edge 'freezes' in that state, and while you are focusing on the edge, the spine and handle drops to a lower temperature in the air, then the grain gets frozen like that. Tempering just let's the steel crystalization to relax, as it's known to be in a high stress state. So if you differentially harden the blade, the hard edge will become less brittle, and the rest of the knife won't change so much.

Hope that's semi-clear, it's a slow brain day for me at work. Hehe

[redmegalord]

alright i finished with the last two temper cycles and i have to admit, its looking good. i still have to clean it up and put a handle on it, plus get it sharp but for now im really done :) pictures forthcoming.

[CanadianMike]

Cool. Did you notice any difference in the steel after a few temper cycles vs. just one? I did the first time, and still notice it now, becomes like glass in look and feel from my experience.

[redmegalord]

i didnt actually, it still feels about the same to me, possibly a little smoother but thats the only difference i noticed personally.

im already planning another project now that i know what the entire process involves, id like to make something a little bigger perhaps but we'll see, change is on the horizon so ill be even more restricted (paradoxically though, ill have a bit more freedom) which means ill just have to improvise more :)

[Bambii]

Looks like its going really well!

Cant wait for pictures, im like a kid at christmas :D

[CanadianMike]

i didnt actually, it still feels about the same to me, possibly a little smoother but thats the only difference i noticed personally.

im already planning another project now that i know what the entire process involves, id like to make something a little bigger perhaps but we'll see, change is on the horizon so ill be even more restricted (paradoxically though, ill have a bit more freedom) which means ill just have to improvise more :)

The smoothness is the big thing I noticed, it came out feeling like glass and had a more noticable hard metal feel to it than previous knives I made.

[redmegalord]

yeah i can definitely tell. also the metal now has a goldish colored tint to it, possible a light bronze, im not sure exactly what color it is but its certainly not the same as it was.

[CanadianMike]

Yellow to straw colour, means your oven was set to between 420F and 450F (according to my new book, the $50 Knife Shop, well worth buying!). It's an oxide that forms, am sure you can sand it off.

[redmegalord]

i actually really liked the color, but it all came off after sharpening. other than the sharpening (its not quite shaving sharp, but it easily passes a paper test) i spent most of the day trying to make a handle, to no avail. this makes the second day where ive spent more than eight hours working exclusively on the handle.

closeups of my blade before sharpening, with the oxide still on, and one of the nails i cut down to make my pins.

[CanadianMike]

What steps are you taking to make the handle? I was able to do the first part of making a new handle for a friend's chef knife last night, I must have spent an hour on it, all that's left is shaping it to the tang, shaping it to the hand, then applying a finish. Sounds like you are maybe doing something wrong and making a lot of mistakes if it takes you so long just to get a couple peices of wood on the handle.

[redmegalord]

i dont even know, i still havent gotten the cutting board. the wood i was using before kept falling apart, and the wood im using now is petrified or something its almost impossible to shape. ill figure it out given time, but i dont have much woodworking experience so alot is new to me.

[CanadianMike]

Well, once you get something useable and flat, here are some tips: Line up where you want the handle to begin in reference to your blade. Then trace around the tang onto the wood, flip the knife over and do the same for the other handle. Cut out roughly, then set up the blade on the handle piece, clamp on place and drill your hole through one of the tang holes. Use another drill bit of the same size to pin the slab there, make sure your wood is lined up still at the front, drill the second hole. Do the same for the other side, then put the handle slabs together, pin with drill bits (or you pins, whichever) and shape the front as you like and test fit onto your blade. If you are happy with that, you can epoxy the insides of the slabs, put on and immediately pound your pins through. Clamp and let dry, then move onto shaping the wood and metal together. After that you shape to your hand, finish, enjoy. Is my approach anyways and it works well enough for me.

[redmegalord]

Well, once you get something useable and flat, here are some tips: Line up where you want the handle to begin in reference to your blade. Then trace around the tang onto the wood, flip the knife over and do the same for the other handle. Cut out roughly, then set up the blade on the handle piece, clamp on place and drill your hole through one of the tang holes. Use another drill bit of the same size to pin the slab there, make sure your wood is lined up still at the front, drill the second hole. Do the same for the other side, then put the handle slabs together, pin with drill bits (or you pins, whichever) and shape the front as you like and test fit onto your blade. If you are happy with that, you can epoxy the insides of the slabs, put on and immediately pound your pins through. Clamp and let dry, then move onto shaping the wood and metal together. After that you shape to your hand, finish, enjoy. Is my approach anyways and it works well enough for me.

thats exactly what i did, still didnt work. i bought the cutting board (bamboo) it fell apart literally fell apart as i sanded it. ive got a handle on it now from a board i found in the back of the garage, but im too tired to shape it anymore.

[CanadianMike]

Hey, sand it down when you get the time and plywood would look cool. :)

[redmegalord]

im going to whenever i get the chance, but im using a wood file in lieu of an actual sander, i dont even have sandpaper despite how cheap it is. im also thinking about making new pins, the ones i have now are beat to hell and back.

[Tony1948]

RED ,looking at your photos the wood you have looks like wot we in UK cool plywood, it is layard stucke together if it not A1 ply it will fool to bits

[redmegalord]

RED ,looking at your photos the wood you have looks like wot we in UK cool plywood, it is layard stucke together if it not A1 ply it will fool to bits

i am well aware of that fact, its called plywood here in the U.S as well. i know about its properties, the handle is what it is, 'it' being the best i could do with what i have. thanks for your input.

[Tony1948]

The handle, apart from the blade is the most important part, take your time to look for a nice bit of wood.In skips and flee markets,iv used ends of old wood doors if you can oak teek or pine

[redmegalord]

ill try but im almost out of time so i dont suppose itll matter much longer. i took the handle down quite aways, and i cut the pins almost in half to fit the new handle. its pretty loose, id still rather make new pins so itll fit better. anyways i wrapped some thick green cord tight around the handle until i can actually do something with it. ill get some pictures in the morning.

[jbrown14]

If I may interject a suggestion here: I've made a few knives from scrap materials, and tried to do the best I could when it comes to handle material. One good source of free hardwood, sometimes even exotic woods, is old shipping pallets. When I was younger, I worked in a plant, packing nails and screws; loading and unloading trucks, and while there, I managed to find one pallet that had a piece of mahogany, and one with zebrawood.

If you know of a grocery store, or even a bulk, club-type store nearby, check out by their shipping dock if you can. You may need to check with someone to make sure it's ok to scavenge there. Bring a hammer and/or a pry-bar, and a pocketknife. Check the hardness of the board by trying to whittle a small piece off the corner. The harder it is to carve, the harder the wood is. You should be able to get some good wood that way.

Looks like you've got your other bases covered well. Nice job so far.

[redmegalord]

alright hey guys its red, im back. ive been here in texas for the last few days relaxing and catching up with my fiance. ive been gone for five months working in illinois, so this time together has meant a lot to us. we're doing great, i couldnt have hoped for a more warm and welcoming homecoming.

as for my knife i went with a cordwrap in the end, i used a slight variation on the classic diamond pattern and its worked out beautifully so far. my fiance has a really nice camera so ill see if shed be willing to get it out and photograph my knife in action :) ill see yall real soon!

[CanadianMike]

Yay, it's done! Looking forward to the pics and what you sorted out for a handle with the cord wrapping. Bring it on buddy!

[jbrown14]

Cord wrap, very nice. Usually very cool looking and supremely functional. Heckuvalot easier to replace if it gets dinged up too.

[redmegalord]

alright guys i know i keep promising and failing to deliver, but i when youve got a girl as beautiful as mine you cant help but cringe at the thought of doing anything but being with her :) ive been away for five months so this time has been really special, oh well if your viewing this its to see my knife, not read about my love life. so here it is, i dont know if the picture quality is any better than my cellphone as i was unable to preview the pictures, but i will assume that it is since she used her professional camera to take the pictures in a decidedly unprofessional location (the bathroom counter lol) as i was sharpening it on the whetstone you see in the picture. im thinking about messing with the handle a little later on, definitely considering changing the underlayer. either way ill continue to use the pattern, as it works well for me so i consider it a winner. 312311310309308

[redmegalord]

believe me folks, its very sharp, it passed every test i put it through (including chopping, batoning, piercing, digging etc etc) oh and i trimmed my beard since that picture of us was taken. perhaps more pictures (of the knife, not us... well maybe a few ;) lol) to come later. maybe some pictures in the wilderness, she and i both love being outdoors, and since she takes a lot of pictures outside it wouldnt be a problem to get some of the knife doing what it does best.

[redmegalord]

also, please let me know if theres anything specifically youd like to know about the knife (weight, length etc etc)