Rich Hale Posted July 1, 2011 Share Posted July 1, 2011 Welcome to about the easiest most helpful site you might find if you are getting into knife making, Long ago information about how to start was carefully guarded by those folks in the know. A few hints might help you get more out of this sight in a shorter period of time. What is your experience as far as working metal and what tools do you have at hand? Forged or stock removal or a bit of both,,What have you done? Keep in mind that there have been questions asked at most levels for many years on this site. Might help if you can at least look through the questions asked recently and see if they provide anything useful. You will see the term sticky refered to many times. Start here http://www.iforgeiron.com/forum/143-knife-making-class-100-series/ go over the classes about knives. Folks have spent a lot of time to record those notes and if you can find your answer there it will be more complete than anyone is likely to reply as a short answer to a question you post in this forum. If you have looked through what I have noted above and still are stuck. post a pic and or a good description of the problem including a general location of where you live. We do not care about streets and exacts, mid state etc is fine. Many times someone may be in your area and offer you some one on one help. It is tough to get a good start from just reading material or imagining what to do next. Pay close attention to the reading material suggested often on here. Flipping open a shop copy is way better than posing a question on here and seeing when it is answered and by whom. Any one can ask and anyone can answer. You will see as time goes on what that means. Have fun, We enjoy watching new follks develop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 Dont get upset if we dont jump in to answer your previously simple questions in the forum or chat as we get asked the same things over and over again, If you feel your time is too important that you cant read older posts for yourself, dont get upset if we feel our time is also of value. We do want to help, but at times we all get upset that people ignore what has already been written here about the subject. Please read what has been posted before posting questions. The stickys are detailed, often asked topics. Plus there are PINNED topics that have been tagged to stay at the top for easy location, and of course many pages of questions and really good answers. After reading, then post questions and you should get help. A general question of " What steel should I use for this" isnt going to get as many good detailed answers as asking, " I have 1084 I want to use for a kitchen knife, Is there anything I need to know before using this steel" will get you very detailed answers that can make your project turn out better, and tells the rest of us you have tried to learn something on your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abcd Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Rich and Steve I just found this post and more y'all have wrote thank you both for everything y'all do and the hard work y'all do to help newbies like me it does not go unnoticed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
braselforge Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 are you able to sell knives on here? and if so what thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 are you able to sell knives on here? and if so what thread Read the Terms of Service for the forum, and talk to the site Owner, Glenn Conner about advertizing rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
art vandelay Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 i would like to start but there are so many different steels for so many different jobs. is there a metal that is easy to heat treat while also being fairly cheap? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Welcome aboard Art glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many Iforge folk live within visiting distance. Have you at least read THIS thread? What you need to do to get started was repeated a couple times right here. I'm afraid the world class bladesmiths who frequent the forum are about tired of hand feeding kids who can't be bothered to read the thousands of pages of OUTSTANDING bladesmithing lore already archived here in the section so named. However I WILL answer your first really REALLY poor question but just this once. No there isn't a steel with those properties. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Cochran Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Define 'easy' and 'fairly cheap.' 1084 is a steel I see recommended most for beginners but as Frosty said, it's all covered here all you have to do is look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Take a coil spring with few miles on it and cut it down two or 3 places giving you a bunch of "(" pieces all of the same alloy to practice forging and heat treating on. If you were in the USA I would suggest checking out a place that does raising or lowering as they will sometimes take a brand new vehicle and trash the current springs on it for ones associated with the raising oe lowering. Old springs may have micro cracking in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 fair warning, If you post photo of a section of beat up flat bar with an edge cut into one side, dont get too upset if you are told its not really a knife or sword, If you cant see the difference between a knife and scrap then you are not ready to make and sell knives. (we had this happen before) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson f Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 so i was making my first knife and learned a great lesson if your going to eat lunch don't leave the knife in the fire it will not be usable when you come back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted May 15, 2019 Share Posted May 15, 2019 A lot of us have switched to propane so we can set a consistent temperature and minimize the number of blades burned up due to a few moments of inattention. It's still not good to leave blades in the forge above critical temperature for extended periods of time, but at least they aren't ruined that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson f Posted May 16, 2019 Share Posted May 16, 2019 true but for the moment that's a little more pricey than i'd like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kook1111 Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Made my first knife in1993. Made my wife a kitchen knife out of a saw blade; apple wood handle. She still uses it all the time. I made me a coal forge from a trailer brake drum, exhaust pipe from an old Ford, and a hair dryer for the blower. Works great for my little operation. I make all kinds of blades for family an friends. Thank you for the info and for the warm welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HondoWalker Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 I guess you could call me a new knifemaker. I made my first knife 30+ years ago when I was 14. My dad made knives and he showed me how to do it. I made a few simple knives out of old saw blades but they were for use as tools and met their fate long ago. 3 years ago I got a small cheap lathe and learned to make bowls. I made hundreds of them. I've only sold around 20 of them. Last summer I was watching Forged in Fire and got to wondering if I could still make knives. My dad did stock removal. He would grind a knife to perfection. I'm not so good at it because I've had strokes take away my ability to be precise with my hands. And my short term memory is useless too. But hey it wouldn't be fun if it weren't hard. So far I made a forge from a donut tire rim, an exhaust pipe from an Audi, some pieces of cinder blocks and cement with an old hair blower my wife donated. It works ok but it's a tad too small. I've forged 7 knives and a drawknife so far. Remembering what to do next is difficult at times. I've had to go to a smaller hammer because I can't really do fine control with my hands. A lot of it is no different than if I had my eyes shut while doing it. It's easier with a smaller hammer. But I think I'm getting better at it. Finally had someone want to buy a knife from me but I have no idea what to charge. My dad charged $300 back in 1985 for his knives. I looked up what an equal price would be given inflation. I kept getting around $1,000 as a current equivalent. I've got 18 hours in this latest knife. I know I can't even hope to get that much for a knife. Not even with copper added to it. What do you guys charge? I have a picture of most of what I've made so far.I'd say all of them were more practice than anything else. This latest one I'm working on seems far better than the others, Even though it's handle is too small. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad J. Posted March 23, 2021 Share Posted March 23, 2021 Hey Hondo, it's all practice. I started by charging 150 for mine, though my chef's knife was 225. It all comes down to what someone is willing to pay. What kind of steel are you using? How's the finish? Is it comfortable to use? All those questions come into play but if you at least try to recover costs for fuel and materials you can keep the hobby going. Keep it up, challenges keep us going more than anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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