Bill Menees's Blog

 

It’s been a long time since I posted anything about knifemaking.  I’ve basically given it up for now in favor of running.  Someday I’d like to get back into knifemaking, but I want to get some better supplies before I do (e.g., a Bader bench grinder and some ATS-34 steel).

I made my last knife in July of 2007, but I never got around to posting about it until today.  It’s the only knife I’ve made with bolsters, and they were interesting to work with.  They made sanding the handle more challenging because I didn’t want to scuff up the bolsters.  I wish I’d had thicker metal to make the bolsters out of though.  The handle feels too thin in the front, but I had to sand the wood down to line up with the bolsters.

This knife turned out ok, but I kind of stopped mid-stream on it.  It’s been two years, so I can’t remember why.  But this knife was just for practice anyway.  It’s not made out of knife-grade steel, and I never even put an edge on it.  The pictures above were taken in the shop on a paper towel, so they’re not very good.  The blade actually has a swedge (a non-sharpened false edge) on top, but it’s difficult to see in the pictures.

Material: Random stainless steel with walnut handles and 1/8" steel pins.
Blade Length: 3 7/8"
Overall Length: 8 1/8"
Made: July, 2007

Labels: Knifemaking

I've finished my first knife this year. I started running in February, so a lot of my free time has been spent doing that. But Amy and Aaron were out of town for a night a couple of weeks ago, so I took the opportunity to start a new knife.

I started a 15" Bowie knife back in January, but it was very hard to work on. It's so big I can't really work on it evenly with my sander or buffer. So I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with it. Finally, I just stuck it on a shelf as a project for another day.

So I started fresh and decided to make a small knife this time. The first day I met with Bob (my knife mentor) he told me that making smaller knives was easier anyway because the bigger they are, the more room you have to screw up. That's certainly true. I intentionally kept this knife small, and it seemed easy to work with the whole time. My failed Bowie knife was a tedious disaster by comparison.

This is a full tang knife where I filled in the gaps between the handle slabs using thin oak strips. I originally planned to put a cord wrap on the handle, but the curved shape made that awkward. The wrap kept slipping off the end, so I gave up on it. Straight handles or handles with ends work better for cord wraps.

The sheath is the first leather work I've ever done. It's very amateurish, but it could be worse. I used some leather supplies that my father-in-law had as a kid, so they're probably 45 years old or more. The nicest piece was 4oz leather, and I only had plastic lace. Mostly I prefer woodworking, so I may go back to making wooden sheaths on future knifes. But we'll see. If I had 8-9oz leather and some basic tools for working with it, I'm sure I could do better.

My conclusion after finishing this knife is that I really need to get some better supplies if I want to start making better knives. At a minimum, I need to get sanding belts finer than 120 grit, I need to get some good knife steel (ATS-34), and I need a basic leather working kit. This art really is hard. I'm in awe of what traditional knife makers could do without any power tools or carefully manufactured supplies.

Material: Random stainless steel with oak handles and 1/8" steel pins. 4oz leather sheath.
Blade Length: 4 7/8"
Overall Length: 9 1/8"
Started: June 11, 2007
Finished: June 24, 2007

Labels: Knifemaking

Knife #7 is finished. I started it on Monday and finished it today (Friday). So it's my fastest project, and I think it's my best home project so far.

It's my first steel knife with filework, and that turned out ok. Unfortunately, when I epoxied the handles on, the file work filled unevenly. So some of the notches have epoxy in them, and some don't. That's a little ugly, but it's a practice knife after all. I made this with Home Depot steel, and I didn't bother heat treating it. I just cut the long scrap off the end of the steel bar shown in the Knife #6 pics, and I started shaping it to look like a knife.

The handle and sheath are made from walnut lumber scraps that my dad got from a friend. It's a relatively easy wood to work with, and it looks nice. It's a lot easier to work with than oak or cocobolo.

The thong hole would look better with brass tubing in it, but I don't have any. I need to get some. Overall the knife would look better if I had some finer grit sanding belts. I need to get those too. The blade is a simple flat grind since that's all I can do with my belt sander.

I put the belt loop on the back of the sheath as high up as I could because the knife is so top-heavy. It still tips over though unless you put it on a stiff, wide belt.

Material: Random stainless steel with walnut handles and 1/8" brass pins. Walnut sheath.
Blade Length: 4 1/2"
Overall Length: 10 3/4"
Started: December 18, 2006
Finished: December 22, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

I finished knife #6 this weekend. The pics were shot on my workbench, and the lighting isn't very good. It's really tough to take good knife pictures.

This was an experimental knife made with some 1/8" stainless steel I got from Home Depot. It's not knife-quality steel, but it's good enough to practice on. It cost $12 for 4 feet of 2" wide by 1/8" thick steel, so I've got a lot to play around with for very little cost. That much knife-quality steel would cost at least $50. Of course, you get what you pay for. Now I have a decent looking knife that will never hold an edge. :-(

The handles are made from the cocobolo wood that I got from Amy's grandfather. I wanted to try it out, but now I wish I hadn't wasted it on a practice knife. I have lots more left, but great wood shouldn't be wasted on practice knives. It's a beautiful wood, and it's incredibly dense! Its dust is also toxic, which makes it especially fun to work with. :-)

I made the sheath from two 1/4" pieces of oak that I carved out and then glued together. After it set up, I did the final shaping on my belt sander. Then I tried to apply a really dark "Antique Walnut" stain that would have been a close match to the cocobolo wood's color. Unfortunately, the stain wouldn't penetrate the oak. I tried it on some pine, and it darkened up nicely. But the oak was stubborn, and it didn't darken even with two coats of stain on it. Maybe my stain is old and worn out (I got it in 1999), or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing. I'm going to go by the Unfinished Furniture store and ask them how they stain oak. I didn't think it would be that difficult, but I've only done natural or light stains on oak before.

This knife was a good learning experience, but I wish I'd used better steel and heat treated it, so I'd actually have a useful knife. I mostly just feel bad about wasting the cocobolo. Other than that, I'm kind of pleased with how this knife turned out. There's still plenty of room for improvement though.

Material: Random stainless steel with cocobolo handles with 1/8" brass pins. Oak sheath.
Blade Length: 4 3/4"
Overall Length: 9 3/4"
Started: October 1, 2006
Finished: November 12, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

I finished knife #5 today. I wrapped it a few days ago, and I polished and sharpened it today. I learned a lot making this knife. I now know more of what I can and can't do with the tools I have. Most of the limitations of my tools affect the blade appearance (e.g., no hollow grinding, no mirror polish), but I can at least make some interesting knives with what I have. It's just slow going.

This knife is a stripped-down tanto with no menuki, fuchi, habaki, etc. It has no temper line (hamon), and it uses a full tang because that was easy and strong. Basically, everything is as simple as I could make it on this knife while still applying a lot of the principles I've learned in my recent studies. One day I hope to be able to make traditional Japanese-style katanas, but this is just a small step toward that.

The wrap is all done with 1/2" black "leather-like" strap that I got at Joann's Fabrics. I didn't want to use real leather since this is the first knife I've made with a wrapped handle like this. The faux leather feels fine, but next time I'll try to find some that's 1/4" or 3/8" wide.

For the finish on the oak I used Minwax's Pecan Polyshades to apply the stain and polyurethane sealer at the same time. I applied two coats per the product directions, but I applied it with a paper towel instead of a brush. It took several days to dry to a hard, non-tacky finish, so I don't know if I'd mess with Polyshades again. The final finish is ok though.

Material: D-2 steel with oak handles (tsuka) and scabbard (saya)
Blade Length: 6 3/4"
Overall Length: 12 1/4"
Started: September 1, 2006
Finished: September 30, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

I was on vacation this week, so I did some more work on knife #5. I've got the guard and handles on, and I've made the wooden sheath. I've also put some stain and polyurethane sealer on the oak.

Now, I have to do a lot of polishing work to get off the glue and the scratches that were introduced while assembling the guard and handle. Then I'm going to wrap the handle "katana-style" (i.e., tsukamaki) and possibly put a decorative wrap or knot (sageo) on the sheath.

Labels: Knifemaking

Over the Labor Day weekend, I started on knife #5. I recently watched an awesome video on making katanas, and now I'm extremely fired up to make one. Unfortunately, I don't yet have all the equipment or skills to make such a large blade, so I decided to make a "small" tanto knife instead.

The picture at the top is a 12 inch bar of D-2 tool steel that this knife started from. Notice that the top edge of the bar is beveled. That's because this steel has already led a long and productive life as a wood planer blade. Unfortunately, that also means that it is work hardened, which makes it a little more difficult to work with than new steel. But it's what I have, so it's what I'm using. For more info on D-2 steel see Engnath's Steels Used By Knife Makers.

The picture at the bottom is the 12 inch tanto blade after it has been profiled and rough ground. Since I only have a 1x30 belt sander, I can't hollow grind the blade. So it is flat ground, which makes it a little ugly. It still has plenty of scratches, so now I'm working through various phases of hand sanding to get those out. I sure miss Bob's belt sander and buffer.

I've also started a guard (tsuba), but I haven't finished or polished it yet. I plan to round off each corner with a 1/2" radius, and then I'll blacken it with some gun bluing (why isn't it called gun blackening?) That will make it look cooler.

I plan to use oak for the handle slabs, and then I'll wrap it with the traditional katana wrap (ito). Then I'll make a scabbard (saya) from the oak too. (For help with the terms see the Visual Guide to Japanese Sword Terminology.)

I hope this will turn out well. I'm leaving out a ton of small details found on traditional katanas and tantos, but it should still be a cool knife. Or at least it will be good practice for the next one.

Labels: Knifemaking

This is a cheesed-together panoramic shot of my workshop in the garage. It's not much to look at today, but it's coming together slowly and surely. Last weekend I built the new workbench on the right, and I'm going to mount some of my tools on it soon. I need to get some lights installed over it first though.

Now what I really need is a metal-cutting bandsaw, a good 2x72 belt sander, and a buffer. I've got a line on some of those, but in the meantime I'm doing everything with my 1x30 sander, files, and hand sanding and polishing. It makes me REALLY appreciate when I get to work on Bob's high-end tools.

Labels: Knifemaking

A few days ago my wife's grandfather gave me some cool new knifemaking supplies. He sent me three antlers, some oak, some cocobolo, and some koa wood. This should make some interesting handles.

He and my father-in-law have also graciously offered to give me several other tools and supplies that I need for knifemaking. They both have huge, well-stocked workshops, so I'll benefit from their spares. I'm a lucky and grateful guy.

The box in the background is a grandfather clock kit, which ironically enough also came from Amy's grandfather. I hope to put that together soon with my son Aaron.

Labels: Knifemaking

I found these two early photos of knife #4, and I thought I'd post them so everyone could see what a real knife-in-progress looks like. These were taken about 3 weeks before I finished the knife.

The handle slabs had been epoxied on, and the epoxy got on the blade and just about everywhere else. The left side had been partially shaped up, and I'd barely started on the right side.

They say all's well that ends well, but this one was an ugly duckling for part of its life. For me, it's fun to look at now that it's finished.

Labels: Knifemaking

This is the final version of Menees Knife #4. I included two left views of the knife to show the way different lighting angles affect the appearance. It's really hard to take great looking knife pictures. They never quite capture the coolness of seeing the knife in person.

I finished this knife today at Bob's. I did a little more belt grinding to remove some of the scratches on the tang, and I did a lot of buffing with the green and white compounds. Several times after "finishing" the buffing I noticed some other scratches, and I had to go back to the belt sander to get them out. Then it was back to the buffer for more green and then more white compound.

It turned out to be a pretty nice first knife, and I'm extremely grateful for all of Bob's help. It's a way better knife thanks to his mentoring than it would have been if I'd just started grinding away at stuff. I learned a lot making this one, and I can probably make the next knife quicker and better. However, I'll be back in my shop with just my tools, which aren't nearly as cool as Bob's, so that will work against my "quicker and better" goal.

Bob made the sheath for this knife, and as he worked he explained the entire sheath-making process to me while I took notes. He did the whole thing in about an hour, and it would have gone faster if I hadn't kept stopping him to ask so many questions. For my next knife I'll make my own sheath, and we'll see how it goes. Bob gave me lots of tips on completing the fit and finish of a sheath so it will look very professional with only a little bit of extra work.

Bob sent me home with some D-2 tool steel to work on, so I hope to start on another knife soon. My knifemaking hobby will have to slow down in September for some martial arts stuff, and I also have to finish my book: The Road To Shodan. After that I'll be diving back into knifemaking head first!

Material: ATS-34 steel with cherry Dymondwood handles
Blade Length: 4 1/8"
Overall Length: 8 3/4"
Started: July 9, 2006
Finished: August 20, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

Someone recently referred me to http://www.technicalvideorental.com/. They rent videos on knifemaking plus lots of other topics (e.g., aircraft piloting, woodworking, casting). Most rentals are $10-$15, which is a lot cheaper than buying the videos.

I haven't rented anything from them yet, but I'll be trying them out soon. They have a cool looking video on making katanas and a couple of videos about hollow grinding knives, which as I said earlier is hard.

Labels: Knifemaking

I've continued to work on my fourth knife. I've shaped up the right side using files and sandpaper (120, 240, and 400 grit), and I've matched it to the left side using a contour gauge as closely as I can. Doing this by hand (vs. machine) takes a non-trivial amount of time.

When I took it out in the sunlight to shoot the pictures, I noticed a few more tiny scratches that I'll have to sand out tonight. I'm going back to Bob's this weekend, and I'll see what he thinks of my work.

In case you're wondering, the blue masking tape on the blade is to protect it from scratches by files, sandpaper, 4-year boys, etc.

Stats so far:

Material: ATS-34 steel with cherry Dymondwood handles
Blade Length: 4 1/8"
Overall Length: 8 3/4"
Started: July 9, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

This is a preview of my fourth knife. I'm making it with the help of Bob Levine, the Tennessee state mentor for the Knifemaker's Guild. This knife is still a work in progress. Notice that the right-side handle hasn't been shaped yet. Final clean up and polishing hasn't been done, and it's not sharpened.

I made the blade when I visited Bob on July 9th, and we got it all the way through heat treating. I went back on July 30th to polish it and put on the handles. I'm currently working on shaping it up before I go back to Bob's again. He lives an hour and a half away, so I can't visit him as often as I'd like. Next time I go, we'll finish up the knife and make a sheath. I'll post more info here when it's done.

Thoughts so far:

Hollow grinding is hard. Well, making it look good and staying in the groove is hard. The rest of the knifemaking process has been much easier by comparison.

Stats so far:

Material: ATS-34 steel with cherry Dymondwood handles
Started: July 9, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

This is my first knife that I think is really cool. I got some oak at Lowe’s, and it makes for much harder blades. It’s a little too porous, but it’s beautiful, cheap, and hard, so I’m working with it.

The blade shape is basically a rip-off of the main blades on Gil Hibben’s “Alien” fantasy knife. The handle shape is a rip-off of one I saw on a tactical knife in Blade magazine. I shaped the blade with my rotary wizard and belt sander. The rotary wizard is a must for the hook and the concave curves on the top of the blade.

I did the “filework” on this blade using a woodcarving chisel. I started with a triangle file, but the oak kept splintering. So I ended up just using a straight-bladed chisel to push in on either side of my marks, and the divots come out nice and clean.

I used Super Glue to put on the handles, and I used a drill press to drill 1/16th holes through the entire handle. Then I tapped nails through, clipped them off, and filed them down. After that I used the rotary wizard (mounted in the vise now) to shape the handle contours.

This knife has plenty of imperfections, but it’s way better than my first two knives. I think it looks cool. I wish the “thumb rest” on top of the handle came up a little farther. It would be more comfortable that way, and it could use some cool looking straight file marks to improve the grip. But since I only had 1¼” oak for the blade, I couldn’t make it go up any higher. If I ever make this knife in steel (which I’d like to), I need to start with 1½” bar stock.

Also, I’d like to round the handle off a little more, but since I only had ¼” poplar handle slabs, I didn’t want to take too much off. The grip would feel too thin. If I had 3/8” slabs to start with I could do more rounding off. Currently, the handle is a little blocky given the rest of the curves on the knife.

Material: 1¼”x ¼” Oak blade and 1¼”x ¼” Poplar handles
Blade Length: 5 7/8”
Overall Length: 11”
Started: July 15, 2006
Finished: July 23, 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

After making my first knife I got in touch with Bob Levine the TN state mentor for the Knifemaker’s Guild. I set up an appointment to go work with him for a day, and he told me there was nothing wrong with making wood knives until I got the equipment to make steel knives. He said he occasionally made and sold wood knives, and he later showed me some of them.

I’ve always loved swords and daggers, so I started making a dagger. Bob told me that double-edged knives are harder to make, and he was right. I cut the blade out with my scroll saw and shaped it with my rotary wizard. It was uneven and a little ugly.

I decided to put a guard on this one, so I cut the tang down and made an elliptical guard to fit it. I drilled the guard hole out, and then used an Xacto knife to shave it out to a square slot. It made a really tight fit. The guard was still little ugly, so I did some filework on it. That made it more interesting and slightly less ugly. I wish I’d planned ahead better and done the filework before I put the guard on. The file left some dings on the blade.
For handles I used two pieces of pine the same width as the tang. I used “Liquid Nails” to glue them on, and I didn’t pin them. Instead I took some old twine and did a very tight handle wrap using the instructions I found at http://runningdogknife.homestead.com/cordwrap.html. To keep the wrap from sliding off the butt end, I made a pommel using a wood screw and several washers. It isn’t pretty, but it works.

Update: In mid-July 2006, I got a belt sander, and I used that to smooth out some of the wavy spots on the blade. It’s still not a very pretty knife, but at least it’s less ugly.

Material: 1”x ¼” Pine
Blade Length: 7 ¾”
Overall Length: 12 7/8”
Started: Early July 2006
Finished: Mid July 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

This is the first knife I ever made. I’d been reading about knife making, and my father-in-law gave me a new scroll saw. I grabbed some pine strip and drew a knife blade on it. I used the scroll saw to cut the lines (instead of saving the lines), and then I went to work with my Black and Decker rotary wizard. I sanded everything with the rotary wizard, and I was holding both the tool and knife in my hands.

I used a cutting disc on the tool to carve out the saw teeth on the back of the blade. I didn’t mark them first, so they’re not spaced evenly. And I was still holding both pieces in my hands, which made for imprecise work.

I used a rectangular file to do the file work on the tang because that’s the only file I had at the time. It didn’t turn out too badly, but I had to go over each file mark with sandpaper to get off the splinters.

I used the same pine strip to make two handle slabs. I super glued them on and then drove two nails through it. Unfortunately one nail chipped the far side handle pretty bad. After I used the rotary wizard to carve the finger grips, I added on some non-slip decking strips to make very gritty handles. It looks ok, and it covers up the chipped pinout. The grit may sound painful, but it actually doesn’t feel too bad. Unfortunately, a little grit comes off each time I pick it up. :-(

Update: In mid-July 2006 I got a small 1”x30” belt sander, and I ran that back over the blade edge to smooth out some of the uneven spots created by hand sanding with the rotary wizard. That made it look a little nicer, but not much nicer. This knife is pretty in a way… far away.

Material: 1”x ¼” Pine
Blade Length: 5”
Overall Length: 9 3/16”
Started: Late June 2006
Finished: Mid July 2006

Labels: Knifemaking

I've created this blog for a few reasons:

• I'm a programmer, and I have several CharityWare apps available on http://www.menees.com/. When I update any of them, I can use this blog to notify anyone that cares.
• I'm a martial artist, and I'm writing a book called The Road To Shodan: A Guide To Reaching First Degree Black Belt. I'm going to self-publish it sometime later this year using lulu.com, and I plan to communicate publically about the book through this blog.
• I'm a beginning knifemaker, and I'll be publishing photos of my knives and stories of my workshop experiences. Hopefully I can get feedback from a wide group of people here.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, please subscribe to my feed. If you'd like to know a little more about me, you can see my short biography at http://www.conradjoneskarate.com/.

Labels: Knifemaking, Martial Arts, Software