Wood carving is very labor intensive. Unless you are into very large projects, it takes a while to butcher up very much wood. My problem was that I am a tool fool. I like to have one of everything. In this hobby, that can get very expensive. Also, the standard stuff sometimes just wouldn't do what I want to do. So, since I like to dabble, knife making was a natural progression after I started carving.
Knives are pretty simple things. Basically, it's just a piece of wood with something sharp in one end. I'm not trying to tell all you wood butchers and carving craftsmen how to construct a piece of wood for the handle. If you need help in that regard, I would refer you to the Summer 2001 issue of Wood Carving Illustrated, page 42, for an excellent article by John Mignone. He discusses woods, glues, and procedures for making knives with ready made blades. Roger Schroeder took great pictures of the process and various handle configurations and it should provide plenty of ideas and information for making your own knife handles.
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Source of Materials: Cheep and readily available materials that can be used to make knife blades quickly and easily without the use of heat treating. |
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Making your first blade: Procedures for forming a blade without loosing its hardness. |
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Shaping Tools: Simple cheap tools you can make. Also, simple procedures, blade shapes, and gouges. |
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Sharpening: Techniques for sharpening. |