Check it out --I made this at work during break today--a knife

Stainless is fine. non-stainless is better but more hassle.
Care to give us an sae or usn number?

>>1221495
304L?

Are you gonna put a handle on it, or just gonna leave it as is? Also does it hold a decent edge?

>difficult to shapen, should have stopped the edge before the handle
>ridiculous grip
>blade is thin next to the fulcrum
>no slight drop point
shit design / 10
>

>>1221545
Wipe off the sausage juice when you're done and it should be fine. 304 is vulnerable to concentrated salt, as it would experience if processed meat juices are allowed to dry on it.

Also, since it won't hold an edge well, it won't "bite" into the things you're cutting like a sharp knife would. A stainless sausage knife would probably work better if you grind small serrations into the blade, so that the points will pierce the skin of the sausage, making it easier for the relatively dull blade to open it up from that point.

Do you want a prison shank instead of a decent knife? Because that's just a prison shank.

Use at least 1075 steel, grind the blade, drill the holes for the handle, heat to cherry red, try to stick a magnet to the blade, if it doesn't stick to it, then immediatley plunge the blade into a jug of cooking oil. After cooling put the hardened blade into a toaster oven. 350 degrees for four hours should work. Let cool again. Sand off the black shit, use alcohol to clean the residual bullshit off, smear some system 3 epoxy on the interior of the handle, attach the handle with some corby bolts, shape the handle, clean the handle, wipe the handle with some tru-oil or good linseed oil, sharpen the blade, and be proud that you made an actual knife.

If you want to have a stainless knife then buy a bar of something like CPM154, do everything prior to the heat treat, and send the blade to a professional heat treating service, then finish it.

If you're going to do it, do it well enough to be proud of.

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I make shitty knife too. Its welding steel so I know I'm just wasting my time. I have a chunk of 1075 but I want to get more good at general shaping and geometry before using it. The guard turned out terrible of course, I need a vice for my drill press. This is a true prison shank.

I was thinking of cutting a piece of old hammer handle for the grip, just drilling a hole in it, shaping and then fill it with epoxy and stick the tang in. It will be awful. But I'm having fun dicking in the shed.

>>1222622
I'd say that's not terrible. Not great, but not terrible. Keep it up.

The epoxy will be good enough unless you're planning on really wailing on the knife.

I'm trying to upload a picture of a couple of examples of knives made like what you're talking about but they keep coming in over the maximum size.

Anyway, when you get to the point where you're comfortable with the wood working portion try out some kingwood and ringed gidgee. Both make outstanding handles and are beautiful too.

As far as the guards i still hand file them. It's the only way i can get an accurate fit.

>>1222641
Thanks, I've made one previously that's even a bigger monstrosity. I think once this one is finished I'll start the one with real high carbon steel and buy real handle material. If you can figure out that picture i'd be interested to see, are they your knives?

Also do you have any recommendations where to buy my materials? I was thinking newjerseysteelbaron.com

>>1222649
Yeah, my knives. NJSB is good. Just depends on what you want to buy. If you want plain carbon steel there may be cheaper places but NJSB does cater to knife guys.

As far as handle materials for G10 and stuff i stick with Jantz. There stuff has always been good. For wood it depends on what I'm looking for. Don't buy ringed gidgee from the US. Buy it from timber joint in Australia. The shipping costs suck but the actual costs of the wood is low and the quality is top notch and usually they throw in some extra scales or decent blocks for free if you order a couple different things.

Bad dogs burl source is pretty decent for burls but they don't always have exotic woods. As their name implies they more about good burls.

Arizona Ironwood LLC has the best selection of ironwood and ironwood burl that i can think of.

Kingwood you can get a lot of places. If you have a decent saw you can get really good deals on places like ebay. A lot of luthiers buy them in bigger pieces for guitar making so you can buy a good sized piece for a decent price and cut it up yourself.

(Ben) Greenberg Woods used to have a really good selection for really good prices but i don't know if he's in the game anymore.

For english/turkish walnut, which if you find the right pieces makes a really fucking beautiful knife handle, look at turkishwalnut.net. Huge selection.

These places sell wood that if done right adds a premium to your knives. People can overlook little gaps in your guards and tiny wobbles in your grinds if you use pretty wood. You can also tack on an extra $100 to the price when you get good enough to start selling them.

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>>1222622
A few things when you're making knives by hand and starting out is to get bevels even, a knife jig like the one here- mark the centreline of the stock with a drill bit (same width as the stock) and cut down at a steep angle (30-40degrees) leaving about 1mm so it wont overheat during hardening. From there you can hog out the rest by adjusting the file angle, if you're a wiz with an angle grinder+flap disk that works well or belt sander/linisher
Thing with even bevels is that is also minimises the risk of warping on thinner blades when they hit the oil, cheat mode there is to get a couple of strips of aluminium flat bar once it gets out of the quench, put the blade in the middle and crush it up in the bench vice and/or g-clamps. Most of the 1075-1085 steels are a low risk of turning into bananas if you've done a thermocycle on them prior to heat treat. Stuff like 1095 and 15N20 seems to 'need' a thermocycle to minimise the risk of turning into a boomerang.

304SS makes quite good guards and bolsters, I like it because it matches some of my tool steels when polished, but working with it to a mirror polish will kill your soul as its just hard fucking work.
Brass, Nickel Silver and the like is much easier to live with and work on. Handles, I get a lot of use out of G10, F4 and the like as is relatively cheap, makes good liners and easy to work if a bit stinky, plus it glues up well with epoxy's. Avoid 5min epoxy's and just go for the longer cure stuff
Thin superglue is also your friend.

Wood, stuff like Hickory, Oak, various gum trees and so on makes tough as fuck handles
This is kind of invaluable for working out its properties and idea of how to work it-
http://www.wood-database.com/

Abrasives, get used to buying bags of the shit and its a major outlay.
60 through to 180 is your basic removal grits, 240-320-600 for truing up and cleaning, 800-1000-1200 for polishing
Use them in order, a mineral oil or WD40 + gloves will get good results