I made my first handmade knife

I started out with 1/4" thick 01 toolsteel. Probably a bit thicker than necessary as it was a lot more work to cut and bevel.

I based my design on my Mora Clipper knife but with a different handle and blade size.

I decided not to use any power tools as I don't have any :)

The bimetal blade on the hacksaw cut through the steel pretty quickly.

The blank was then shaped with metal files.

I made up a "gough jig" to grind the bevel.

I really like the "scandi" type grind but as the steel was so thich I thought I might as well do a full grind.

This took a long time.

Many hours of intermittent filing later.

My file had one safe edge and one that cut so the plunge lines didn't turn out symmetrical.

After hand sanding. Its not in the pic but I bought a set of metal punches and punched my initial and the production number (B01).

I decided to make a "2 Brick Forge" to heat treat the blade. Shaping the brick absolutely killed my good half-round file :(

But it got the job done.

The forge was heated with a propane brazer.

I probably heated the blade too much (more orange than red) but it was difficult to control the heat and the blade heated up much faster than i thought it would.

Quenched in vegetable oil. I then tempered it for two one hour cycles in the oven at 200 degrees C

The hardened blade with my shoddy stamp work. The hand file skated of the blade nicely so its probably hardened ok. I think theres a bit of scale on the blade where I possibly heated it too much.

Pinned and glued the curly maple scales on with epoxy and clamped overnight.

I put masking tape on the blade to protect it and cut the brass pins down with a hacksaw.

The rough shape was cut out with a backsaw.

Filing and sanding the handle to shape.

I either used too much epoxy or clamped it too hard as the epoxy was real hard to remove.

The epoxy seems to have stained the wood, I had to file it down quite a bit to get rid of it.

Pre oiling and sharpening.

I sharpened the blade with the Lansky sharpening system. It is really easy to use and very effective.

I soaked the handle in boiled linseed oil.

Finished knife :)