This tutorial is part of an upcoming publication on knifemaking. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

This tutorial teaches you how to make a narrow tang knife. ABS Matersmith, Kevin Harvey, created both the knife and the tutorial to promote the ‘2019 Non-guild Members Competition’ of the Knifemakers’ Guild of Southern Africa. This tutorial is part of an upcoming publication on knifemaking. Please visit www.heavinfoge.co.za for info on the bladesmithing and Damascus making courses we offer as well as our knives and Damascus rings that are for sale. TERMS OF USE You are free to Share (to copy, distribute and transmit the work) for non-commercial purposes and as long as you credit and link to or reference the original version specified by the author or licensor and not alter, transform, or build upon their work.

PHOTO DESCRIPTIONS Note: There are as many ways to make a knife as there are types of knives. Your method will be determined by materials being used, your equipment and skill level. I hope you do find the information useful. If you do have a smarter way

• f doing something, please share it.

Pic 1. Before you dive into the making of the “Veld Knife”, consider ordering some drills from your tooling supplier. Toolquip/Allied are one such supplier or Knife Machines, Tools and Supplies (KMTS) are agents of theirs. You will need a “Long Series” drill in 4mm to drill the deep hole in your wood block. Pic .38, 39. You will also need a Tungsten carbide or cobalt drill to drill the hole through the wood (Pic 69, 70) into the tang and out the other side (after gluing up the handle, (Pic 56 to 59). I would recommend the tungsten carbide drill, especially for knives made from stainless knife steel, as the tang will be hardened. Forged, carbon steel knives will have their tangs either un-hardened, or differentially tempered, (Pic 14) and the cobalt drill should be fine. Regular high speed drills are usually not up to the task. The drill should suit your pin size. Caution: these drills can break easily – perhaps

• rder two.

Also photographed is a self-made “tang rasp”. This was made from knife steel and heat treated. You rasp the wood until your tang fits into the rectangular slot with a little clearance all around. (Pic. 40 – 43).

• Pic. 2 – 4

Make two templates from the paper design, making sure it was printed to scale. One for the steel part only, the other for the whole knife. Transfer the design to the steel, and cut and grind it out. If forging, use it as reference while forging your knife. Making the template out of thin sheet metal will prevent your plastic

• ne melting. Don’t do as I do: do as I say. Here I have a

sequence of steps where I have forged a blade from Silver Steel round bar, going from round, to flat bar, then to the blade and tang.

• Pic. 5 & 6

Showing all the parts used to make the knife. Blade steel, handle material, pin, guard material and decorative spacers.

• Pic. 7 -11

Stop! If you don’t have a tang filing guide, make one now! It is simply made by welding two longer flat bars of mild steel with a short one between them. This is used to align your file in line with the scribe line indicating where your shoulders go, and also to help keep your file horizontal/square. It is important that there are no sharp corners at the point where the tang joins the ricasso at the shoulders. That would create a “stress riser” making it a weak point. It is beneficial to have a tiny radius at all “square” corners. Sanding these corners to say 220# before heat treatment, can also help reduce the risk of cracks forming in this area during hardening. If you choose to mill the shoulders, it is wiser to clamp the blade flat (horizontally), and mill with the sides of a small diameter cutter to give the small radius in the corners of the shoulders, than to stand the blade upright and mill with the bottom of the cutter giving weak, sharp corners.

• Pic. 11

Rough grind your bevels, staying well away from your lay-out lines. Then heat treat the blade correctly. (Not shown). Some stock removers prefer to do all their grinding after heat treatment. That is O.K. too.

Pic.12 Be sure that the tang thickness tapers to the end of the

• tang. The guard needs to later be

fitted over this tang. Any small amount of taper is good.

• Pic. 13

Go through all your post- heat treat grinding

• sequences. I finish my ricasso first, using a disc sander, then

proceed to the bevels. By doing it this way round, you keep your blade grind symmetrical. It does not change or ruin your “run-outs” as it would if you did it the other way round. Make sense? Notice how the grind does not line up with the edge of the choil. You might be tempted to try and sneak the grind up to the corner position. Don’t. Especially if your grinds look good at this

• stage. Rather move the choil forward a little – much easier to

get right. You might want to allow for this when you profile the blade by making the ricasso a bit “shorter”.

• Pic. 14

Both stainless and high carbon steel blades will benefit from a differential temper. Heat the tang to where the darkest colour blue appears for stainless steels and heat further to sky-blue/grey for plain high carbon steel blades. The tang is now not only tougher but softer to drill too. Win –win. Don’t let too much colour change occur in the

• ricasso. Consider the ricasso as the temperature transition zone. No

colour change on the bevels or edge area. Use a small nozzle gas torch with a soft, slightly reducing (not too much oxygen) flame or a plumber’s gas torch. Prevent the heat spreading too far by holding the blade in a wet cloth, or standing the blade, tang upwards, in a tin of water. You can now hand polish the blade, giving it the finish you desire.

• Pic. 15 6mm guard material is laid out

for drilling, slightly under size holes. Allow for a little filing to get a perfect fit. The decorative spacer material of your choice is also prepared in the same way.

• Pic. 16

The ricasso is 4mm thick on this knife, so I drill, say, 3mm. Make sure all the holes are in a perfectly straight line. If one is a little out of alignment you may end up with a small hemisphere of hole left behind after the guard is fitted.

• Pic. 17 & 18

Depending on your equipment, file or mill out the webs between the holes. Even if milling, I like to machine about 0.2mm under size, and file the slot open a little bigger on the wood side of the guard. This trick will also work on filed

• slots. The guard should NOT slip loosely all the way

up to the shoulders. This will enable the guard to be driven with force the last little bit up to the shoulders, and the fit will be very close and tight. See Pic. 20 & 21.

• Pic. 19 Carefully file the “mouth” of the slot

wider to fit the radiuses at the shoulders. A better view is in Pic. 28.

• Pic. 20

Another tool to make! Sorry. Don’t worry, once you have made these gadgets, you will never need to again – ever. This is a “guard punch and bash plate”. It is simply a water pipe that I have welded a plug on one end, so that it doesn’t mushroom over too soon. Mine is slightly squashed into an

• val, but it need not be. The bash plate is one of a set that

you can make all together now, or over time as you need

• them. They are 5 or 6mm mild steel with a slot made to fit

loosely over the tang, up against the rear face of the guard. This protects the guard itself being “bashed” upon.

Pic.21 Driving the guard into place with the guard punch and bash plate. Good firm blows should do it, but if the guard doesn’t go up to the shoulders without you beating the hell out of it, bouncing tools

• ff the work bench, then remove the guard (Pic. 23)

and carefully look inside the slot to see where it is

• interfering. File a little more. This step hardly ever

fits properly first time. Be patient and get it right. This is one of the favorite places for those that know how to evaluate knives to evaluate the quality of the work.

• Pic. 22

Now here is a quick trick to make every guard fit perfectly! Give both the left and right side of the guard a good few thumps with a large hammer. The hammer face should not be too domed, and the anvil (or substitute surface) should be smooth. Hold the assembly up to a good light to see if it needs a whack or two more. You will get some wrinkling of the guard on the front and rear faces. This is as a result of the deformation, and is a price to pay for tightening up the fit. Clean up on the disc sander later. Pic. 31.

• Pic. 23 Use a piece of leather with a slot

in it, to place on top of the jaws of the vice, when you need to knock the guard

• ff the tang with a small hammer. This

will prevent you marring the front face of the guard.

• Pic. 24 -26

Lay out the shape of your guard’s profile. Here two different size ellipses are used for the top and bottom

• curves. Lay out carefully, as you will be

grinding to the line. Position the top edge of the guard just a little higher than the spine

• f the knife. You can work it flush later if you

wish to.

• Pic. 27 The design of this knife calls for

the front edge of the guard (other side

• f your index finger) to have a small
• curve. Here it is roughed in. It will be

blended later as in Pic. 31.

• Pic. 28 Close-up of the slot and how it was

filed to fit the curves at the tang shoulders. Also notice how the shoulder face is forced into the guard on the spine side (top) of the

• slot. When the punch is used again,

concentrate a bit on the choil side. Then you will have full contact between the guard and the shoulders, and have no gaps.

Pic.29 &30Use a circle stencil that doesn’t cost much, (Ha ha.) to lay out the curve for the finger guard. Imagine extending the curve into the wood. Don’t remove too much

• material. The deepest part of the finger curve should lie in

line with the underside of the choil. Besides wanting the flow of the design to look correct, when shaping the handle, you don’t want to break into the tang cavity. Ouch – Start the wood over!! We try to do as much shaping (within limits) as possible at this stage, because, have you noticed how hot the guard gets when grinding? If all this heat were generated once the wood was glued on, it wouldn’t be glued much longer!

• Pic. 31 Flatten both faces on the disc.

Blend in the curve on the front face from Pic. 27. Polish with finer grits (front face only) on the disc.

• Pic. 32

Starting to look good.

• Pic. 33 Hand sand the final grits up to

say 1500# or 2000# but DON’T buff it

• yet. The buff will round the sharp

corners of the slot, and once it is fitted to the knife, will cast a shadow and look like a gap – even if there isn’t one.

• Pic. 34 & 35 File the slots in the

decorative spacers. Deburr them too. Burrs will cause gaps in the fit-up. Flatten thin metallic spacers if you are using them. They should not be buckled.

• Pic. 36

Now we start to prepare the wood block for its slot to accept the tang. Orientate the wood to take best advantage of the wood grain, including character you want and avoiding cracks, flaws and less exciting areas of wood grain. Lay out the template on the wood and position the tang neatly in the middle

• f the shape. The wood I have chosen is African Wattle burl

(Peltophorum Africanum) Note: These pencil lines are just guide lines, and are temporary. What I mean is that once the hole has been drilled and rasped into the wood, its actual position may have changed a little. Mark the tang hole a little deeper than needed. You don’t want the tang to bottom out.

• Pic. 37 Transfer the dimension of the tang

around to the end of the block. Also draw a center line.

• Pic. 38 & 39

Set up the 4mm long series drill in the drill press. Clamp the wood in a drill press vice, with one side of the tang in line with the drill. Drill the hole to the required depth. You can put a bit of masking tape on the drill to indicate when you have reached depth. Take it easy. Stop regularly to clear the shavings from the drill bit. Oily woods are particularly prone to gumming up the drill, especially as the hole gets deeper. A gummed up drill will start to smoke, and the heat can cause the wood to crack. Also a gummy drill will prefer to follow the direction of the wood grain instead of drilling straight. Let’s not go there! Clean the drill

• ften. I have a sharpened brass rod to use as a pick.

Line up the other edge with the drill and repeat with the other hole.

• Pic. 40 -45 Long series drill in 4mm size and tang rasps are used

to rasp out the hole in the wood until the steel tang fits neatly into it, with a little clearance all around. The hole should be a little deeper than the tang is long, so that there is no chance that the tang will touch bottom when all is clamped up. It is not good form to simply drill a round hole into which a rectangular tang

• fits. Yes, I know that with some of today’s modern epoxies, this

might be OK. But what will it be like 50 years from now? The rasp in Pic. 44 is a mini rasp that I bought in a set from a jewelers supply store, called a wax rasp, used for making wax moulds for

• castings. You can make your own by slowly grinding down a

coarse file to size, without overheating it.

• Pic. 46 & 47Mark out the front face of the wood

and carefully grind it down until you get a perfect fit against the guard. Ensure the guard is properly in position against the shoulders when doing this. Don’t only focus on the fit along the “long” dimension. Also check across the “short” dimension. Do this fit check without the decorative spacers in place.

• Pic. 48 – 50 Erase the temporary

lay out lines. Re-draw them in their correct positions, by lining up the template over the blade.

• Pic. 51

You may grind in a few notches in the tang to increase the grip of the epoxy. Be careful of their position in relation to the hole that will be later drilled for the pin. They should also not be too deep or so many, so as to weaken the tang strength. Be sure to roughen up the tang with a rough belt to remove any traces or heat treat

• il and fire scale, also to increase the glue grip. I could

argue that if you use a quality epoxy the notches are superfluous, especially since there is a pin holding everything together.

• Pic. 52 & 53 Clamping option 1. A wood workers clamp that is long enough

works great. Do a trial fit up to make sure everything goes together as it should before you mix the glue. Make an aluminium or strong plastic block for the tip of the knife to bear down on. There is a hole drilled in it so that the force is not directly on the tip. Hard wood blocks or brittle plastic should not be used. They may work for a bit, but are going to break when you turn your back on it one day releasing the clamping pressure, and the knife will fall to the floor! How do I know this? Notice there is a slight angled point on the very top end of the wood block. This is to focus the downward pressure in line with the tang. If the pressure is out of line, the wood and knife assembly will kink out of alignment, and you will find glue gaps once you start to shape your wood. One only has to exert moderate, positive pressure. If all the fits are good everything will be

• OK. A bad fit won’t be fixed with extra clamping force.

• Pic. 54 a-c Clamping option 2. This one you will need to make if

you don’t have a long wood workers clamp. It is not difficult to

• make. I have used tough wood with leather to line the wooden

jaws, to give it grip against the knife and give it a slightly padded cushion against the blade. 6mm thread bar and nuts with washers complete the gadget. I have used a piece of flat bar to clamp down

• n the wood when the nuts are tightened. Don’t over-do the nuts.

One has immense strength using a spanner. One only has to exert moderate, positive pressure. If all the fits are good everything will be OK. A bad fit won’t be fixed with extra clamping force. Make sure you pull up in line with the tang, for reasons explained just above.

• Pic. 55 & 56 I have successfully used “ABE

Epidermix 372” for years. It is a slow curing epoxy, giving you time to “get your ducks in a row”. A fast curing epoxy forces you to rush the assembly and clamping procedure. You will

• nly be able to continue working on the knife

the next day (earliest).

Pic 57 & 58 Once the clamp is tightened up, clean off ALL the glue that has oozed out. I said ALL!! Go as far as wiping down with acetone on a tissue. You don’t want any hard glue left on the blade later. It can be a bugger to remove when it has cured. Concentrate your efforts in the corner where the guard and blade meet.

• Pic. 59 Band saw (hacksaw) the excess

wood away. You will hopefully not have made your tang cavity too large that you break into this glue filled pocket when the wood is removed. Remain on the safe side of the line.

• Pic. 60 Either tape your blade securely with

masking tape, or, as shown, make a paper and tape, removable sleeve, to protect your fingers from cuts, and to save the blade from getting any scuffs while you are working on the handle. Bladesmiths may have ground their blade with a convex edge that is already sharp at this stage, so cuts are a real risk.

• Pic. 61 – 64

Profile the wood carefully to the lay out line. Check your progress regularly as you go. Once the wood is gone, it’s gone! Remember, the flow of the design requires that the underside of the handle where your index finger lies, be in the same horizontal plane as the lower edge of the

• ricasso. Don’t radius the guard and index finger area too

deep, else you will break into the tang hole! Use hand files of different radii or various size mini-wheels

• n your grinder. Mini-wheels should be run at a slower

speed, both for the sake of the bearings and so as not to burn the wood.

• Pic. 65 – 67

Using a gadget to transfer the centre height of the blade round the handle to get a centre line around which to sculpt the wood. A proper height gauge is ideal, (I don’t

• wn one), or a simple adjustable pencil holder will work fine.

Mark the line first one side then the other. This way you compensate for any error in height adjustment or the fact that my blade has a distal taper. The true center is between these

• lines. It is important to mark the center because the drill may

not have drilled perfectly down the center of the block of

• wood. Raise the blade sufficiently up off the marking table

that the under-side of the handle is clear of the table, else it will be pushed out of line.

• Pic. 68 &69

Mark the position for drilling the hole for the pin. This is in the vertical centre of the wood, not necessarily the centre of the tang! You obviously do want to drill into the tang, but since you can’t see the tang, center of it, is unimportant. Be sure to drill the hole while the wood is still in block form (before it is sculpted), so that it lays flat on the drill press

• table. It will also be wise to lightly clamp the wood in a drill press vice, to prevent the knife spinning and injuring

yourself if the drill grabs. It will also keep the knife steadier with less vibration. This is a good thing since you may be using a tungsten carbide (or cobalt) drill which needs to be handled carefully. Work with sharp drills and remember that you want to have done a differential temper on the tang. It’s a bit late now if you didn’t. Where you following my instructions? I hope all goes well. You don’t want a drill to snap off in the tang. Possible solution: Try to carefully remove the broken drill without hurting the wood. If you successfully removed the broken “bits” of drill bit, try to determine why it broke. Too much force, especially on exit from the tang? Blunt drill? The knife moved? Carefully exit the bottom side of the tang that the drill doesn’t grab and snap. You might be forced to carefully measure the drilling position from the other side of the handle and “back drill”. This doesn’t always work and may just break the drill again if the two holes don’t line up

• exactly. You might try up sizing the pin and its hole?

By now you have realized that the biggest challenge is to get a simple hole drilled cleanly through the tang! The wood is easy! The moral of the story is either DON’T HARDEN THE TANG or PROPERLY DIFFERENTIALLY TEMPER THE TANG and DRILL WITH A GOOD DRILL BIT. Wow, that took some typing. I should have just said, “drill the pin hole”,

• Pic. 70 & 71

Rough form the “barrel” shape in the handle to start the “palm swell”. I sometimes joke and call this the “dinosaur” style handle. “Thin on one end, much thicker in the middle and thin again on the other end.” From a Monty Python skit! Notice how it is symmetrical about the center line in pic. 71.

• Pic. 72 & 73

Begin by removing the

• corners. What you do on one side, do on the
• ther. This way you maintain symmetry.

Then you remove the corners of the new

• corners. Slowly approaching the handle form

that you like. Work carefully – Don’t over-do

• it. You can do a lot of fine tuning with a hand

file later.

• Pic. 74

Do a dry, trial fit, and cut the pin to length before you mix the epoxy. If need be, lightly spin the pin (it’s easier while the pin is still in rod form) against a fine belt, slowly removing diameter until the pin just slides into the hole. It should not need more than the lightest tap from a small

• hammer. Measure the handle thickness, and add about 1,5 to 2

times your pin diameter, and make your pin this length. Lightly chamfer the ends of the pin. Don’t grind the pin end to a cone! I use Pratley Quickset Clear mixed in equal parts to glue the pin in position. It becomes firm in 5 to 10 minutes, and is ready to work with, in say 20 min. Be sure to mix thoroughly.

• Pic. 75 & 76

Fill the hole with epoxy and insert the pin, tapping it into position, sticking out equally on both sides. Supporting the under-side on a solid surface, lightly peen the pin, turning it over and rotating it around, so as to get a neat round

• head. It does not need to be hammered flush with the wood, but

it does need to mushroom and expand to fill the hole fully. Hard and brittle materials need to be riveted cautiously, so as not to crack the handle material. Wipe off the excess glue. Don’t try to rivet a pin that is too long. It bends over to one side

• f the hole and takes too much hammering to expand and often

pieces crack off due to the pin’s head work hardening.

• Pic. 77 – 79

Using a 150mm, 1/2- round file, shape and blend the grip to your taste, and according to the requirements. Get the shape as close as possible to perfect, paying close attention to symmetry. This is not a big bulky knife, and the grip proportions must suit the overall knife. Blend all corners so that the result is a pleasing oval. I like smooth flowing curves for work knives, since they are most comfortable in the hand. Sometimes

• n combat knives and other knives where directional indexing is important I might opt

for a handle which is more angular, at the expense of comfort for time consuming work. I have made myself a most useful “handle shaping swivel vice”. I cannot take credit for its design, having seen it years ago, probably in a knife magazine (pre-internet). That’s how long I have had them and not a knife goes made without me using it. I have them in three different sizes, to fit almost any knife. Study the couple of photos in this sequence for varying views. Make one (or 3), it’s not difficult, you will use it often. Don’t be tempted to clamp the tang in the swivel vice to polish the blade. A naked blade poking

• ut into fresh air is an accident waiting to happen!

• Pic. 80 – 82

Hand sand the handle. Start with the “shoe-shine” technique using around 180# using canvass backed abrasive. Either use old belt- grinder belts, or, as I prefer, to order 180# “J-flex” in 300mm wide on a roll of 1 or 2 meters at a time. You can easily tear strips off the roll in pieces as narrow or wide as you like. The canvass is designed to tear in one direction, and be strong in the other. This method works wonders in blending corners and angles off your

• handle. Be cautious where the softer wood meets the harder guard material. The paper will eat a dip if you

are not careful. Using a formed stick as a backing, will help prevent this. My sticks have a flat and a rounded

• surface. Some sticks are plain hard wood while others are covered in sheath leather to give them “give”.

Work your way from 180# to 400#, ending with 1200#, depending on the material. You will end up using small rubbing blocks of “rubber” conveyor belt. This flexes and conforms to the shape

• f the handle.

Over sanding is a real problem. People are afraid of leaving scratches behind so they sand and sand and sand! This causes the wood to disappear at a faster rate than the harder pin and guard material, leaving them

• proud. Using a firm stick in this area helps prevent this too. Never drive the paper with your bear thumbs.

The paper is too unsupported by your squishy, meaty fingers. Always use a stick, padded or not, or use the rubber block. When you think you are done, “feel” the knife from all over, with your eyes closed. You will easily feel any irregularities that don’t flow. I call this the “Blind Man Test”.

• Pic. 83 -84

Now you need to seal the wood from water and give it a nice

• finish. Here you have lots of products to choose from. “Woodoc 10” is a

polyurethane and dries hard and fast. As long as your treatment is soaking in, keep applying. Even dip and soak for a while for the first coat. The oils take a lot longer to apply properly, but can give wonderful results if you are

• patient. They must be allowed to dry between coats, and be rubbed down

with 0000 (very fine) steel wool. Gunstock oil treatments might never be finished, requiring thin coats every few months, forever! Most of my forged knives get this type of treatment simply because it is traditional for the period style knives. Some very dense materials can simply be sanded real fine and buffed. Sealing then buffing might be an option.

• Wow. Decisions, decisions!

• Pic. 85 – 87

Various detail shots showing handle from various angles for

• shaping. Notice the smooth, oval and

palm swell, contouring.

• Pic. 87 – 92 Sheath making. This knife needs a sheath to make it fully
• functional. The competition requires a sheath, made by yourself, to be
• submitted. Any style sheath is accepted, but it must firstly be practical,

and also good looking. I enjoy leatherwork. A lot of knifemakers don’t, saying, “I am a knife maker, not a leather worker. If I wanted to be a leather worker, I would be a hippie, making sandals!” Unfortunately it shows in their work. I won’t go into great detail about leather work – there is another whole book to be written! I have often been asked about sheaths with “upholstered” inlayed panels. I hope these photos give enough insight into the multi-layered construction required. You don’t need to make a sheath like this one. Let’s see what you come up with!

• Pic. 93 – 94 The completed project! Don’t forget

to sharpen it! I hope that the photo sequence has helped, and that you have found the gadgets and workshop tricks useful. Good luck. The competition judges look forward to receiving your entry.