Material for making knifes

[Oldman]

I have tried finding some carbon steel for making knifes and the only way I can find is to order the dang knife kits, until now. I tried all the welding shops around and they won't even order cardon for you.
I make them mainly to be doing something because I couldn't find any steel that would hold an edge.
My daughters boyfriend came up from the basement with one I had started and ask me, "what did you make this out of, a bed rail"???
I had never thought about using a bed rail until he ask me that. I use a 7 1/4" carbon tooth metal cutting blade in a skil saw to cut a lot of metal.
You can ruin a $60 blade trying to cut 4 or 5 peaces of bed rails.
You can't drill the dang stuff yet I never thought about using it for a knife.
I am not 100% sure that a bed rail is carbon steel but it sure makes a great knife that will hold an edge.
I pick bed rails all the time because they are some cheap angle iron for making things so I had a few downstairs and as soon as he ask me that, we went to work. He had already asked me to show him how to make them.
I used the 4 1/2" grinder with a thin abrasive cutting blade and made a nice 12" blade, butcher knife. I had to blow the holes for the handle with the torch, because as I said, most of the bed rails I have used, you can't drill them in the drill press. I have drilled them, but I had to sharpen the drill bit a few times before getting a single hole in it.
And it takes a lot of grinding to get the basic edge on it and even more time to put the keen edge on it, but once you get it, it stays better than any I have seen yet.
It takes me 3 to 4 hours, start to finish, to get a razor edge on them but they will slice a lot of ham and turkey before you need to touch them again.
And they will also ruin one of those sharping rods pretty fast too. I tried to used them and found out nothing short of a stone will sharpen them.
The best way to keep them sharp ( when you need to do so again) is to make a pair to start with and use each other to sharpen them.
Just thought some here would like to know the cheapest good metal for knives I know of. They are always free, :D.....
Oldman

[rAcErRicK]

Oldman, an old cracker I used to know made knives from old crosscut saws (the big ones, one or two man). They are very tough to cut out also, but they do hold an edge forever. It's a shame to ruin and old antique like a crosscut saw, but one saw will make an awful lot of blades. They are a bit thin, but very sturdy steel. I got a couple of blanks from him years ago and they are still going strong. :D

[Buck]

Oldman, an old cracker I used to know made knives from old crosscut saws (the big ones, one or two man). They are very tough to cut out also, but they do hold an edge forever. It's a shame to ruin and old antique like a crosscut saw, but one saw will make an awful lot of blades. They are a bit thin, but very sturdy steel. I got a couple of blanks from him years ago and they are still going strong. * :D

One can also make darn good knives from old car leaf springs. A spring takes
a forge but when done you'll have one heck of a knife if done right.

[Oldman]

Yea Rick. I know where there is 4 of them hanging on a wall of an old closed down store but the old man won't sell them. And I am like you, I wouldn't cut one up to make knives with if I could buy them, unless I got a load of them cheap. I would love to have a couple of them just to keep for "Just In Case" I need them later own.
I used to use the machine shop type electric hacksaw blades that were worn out but band saws are the thing now. I can't even find any blades for them now. I haven't really looked hard but there isn't in where I live.
Another good thing to use is circular saw blades. I have made a few little paring knifes from 7 1/4" blades on up to some hefty ones from 16" table saw blades.
And I have made some hook type skinning knifes from either 10 or 12" saw blades.
A 4 1/2" grinder with a thin cutting disc will cut them out fairly fast.
My daughters boyfriend just got me when he said "bed rail".
You can make a good size Bowie knife from the larger bed rails. And for some reason that's what I really like to make.
Well, I have to go take that dang carb off the tiller for the third time today. I am hoping some one here has given me a lead to the problem before I go back down.
Oldman.

[jim]

Some people use rail road spikes, and while it ain't the best, it's still a geed material. I think we can order D2 around here, and 1095 both of which is good.

Automotive leaf springs are good, but if the blade is very long, sometimes after a while, the blade will resume it's memory from initial mfg. and form a curve. One way to stop that would to heat and fold the leaf over on it's self end to end and weld in the forge.

I had no idea that bed frames were that tough! For drilling you could heat to cherry red and allow to cool then drill when it's annealed. Then retemper the metal.

[Oldman]

I got into working on a knife last night and stayed down there until nearly 3 am.
I have it ready to make the handle for it. I'll tell you a bed rail is some kind of hard metal. I ground and dunked over and over but I finally got a pretty good hollow ground blade 8 and about 3/8" long. I know it'll rust but it sure is pretty right now. And it's harder than any stainless blades I ever had.
Something else that someone may be interested in is the thin cutting blades made for a 4 1/2" grinder will polish a blade up to a mirror finish and it will put a pretty good edge on it. I'll finish it with a couple of stones but but that blade got it pretty sharp by it's self. I'll try to get a picture on here of it.
Oldman

[woodsman1031]

Oldman,

I would love to see some pictures of your knives. Do you grind your bevels with a belt sander or bench grinder?


Tommy