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The forge

The forge is just a car wheel with three legs welded to it and a tube welded into the hole in the middle of the wheel to feed the air in.
The air is forced in with a car interior blower running off a car battery.
There is a 6mm mild steel plate in the bottom drilled with plenty of 10mm holes to stop the coals falling trough and to diffuse the air flow.
The coal could be charcoal you would use on a B.B.Q.
Next time I use it I will take some more pictures and put them here so you can see more of how it was made.

Polishing

If you want to polish your blade to make it nice and shinny then now’s the time to do it before the handle goes on and gets in the way of the polishing process.
It’s worth bearing in mind that a dull finish can be desirable, as the glare from a highly polished knife when working on a project on a sunny day can be severe and make working with it very difficult. (by chance I recently heard of someone becoming temporarily blind from the glare of a clothes iron they were using, indoors!)
On the other hand in a survival situation it could be used for signaling or just as a regular mirror, the choice is yours.

Handles

Just a small section on the handle construction as I feel this to be within the scope of anyone trying their hand at knife making and therefore doesn’t need much explanation.

I use a slab of about 3/8th” on each side of the blade for the handle. Just about any wood will work but fruit woods are very nice.

I drive rivets I make from brass bar (bought from ironmongers or even B&Q!) through holes of the same size as the bar. (I use 6mm) I find that the grip between the brass bar and the handle material holds well enough but you can pein the rivets and or glue the handle in place.

Oak has tannic acid in it and when green or wet can cause quite severe corrosion of the blade so be careful if you use oak.

Toxic woods should be used with care, like laburnum and yew. Yew handles can be very attractive though and don’t necessarily pose a problem.

I hope this page gets some people going, and some more very personal and cherished knives are made.

If you want to see some knives made by those that have come over for me to help, click here. And remember, let me know how you get on!