Hand Made Knives

Every knife begins as a bar of high carbon steel; my favorite types are 1084, 80CRV2 and 15N20. I use a propane fueled forge to heat my steel to about 1500+/- degrees so that I can shape the metal on my anvil.  Once my pre-form shape is done, I anneal the steel to soften it and make it easier to fine tune on the grinder.

I then refine the profile on the belt grinder and drill pin holes for the handle. I heat the steel back up and normalize it to shrink the grain structure and reduce stress.  After that, I quench it in specialized oil to harden the knife.  It then gets cleaned and tempered in an oven for multiple 2 hour cycles to take out the brittleness. 

I then go back to the grinder for clean up and finishing the bevels.  Next, I prepare the handle material by rough shaping it on the band saw and sander.  The scales get epoxied on and cure overnight.  Then I can contour the handle, hand sand up to 1000 grit and apply wax. I put the final edge on the blade using wet stones and a leather strop.