A Modern Guide to Knifemaking: Step-by-step instruction for forging your own knife from expert bladesmiths, including making your own handle, sheath and sharpening

by Laura Zerra

Overview

In A Modern Guide to Knifemaking, survivalist Laura Zerra, one of the stars of Naked and Afraid on the Discovery Channel, shares her essential knifemaking tips and tricks, including step-by-step instructions for both forging and stock removal.

We all use a knife pretty much every day, but for Zerra, her daily life often depends on the blade she takes with her into the wild. She's learned about what works and what doesn't, what steel will hold an edge, and what nuances in blade design will make or break a knife.

From design to sharpening, A Modern Guide to Knifemaking covers every step in the knifemaking process. To begin, you will consider what you want your knife to accomplish, develop a design, and make a prototype. Zerra takes you through choosing and buying steel for your knife and then teaches you to build your own forge. You will learn forging basics and then move on to forge the shape of your knife and make the blade tip. From there, you will cut the blade profile, grind in bevels to make the edge of the knife, heat treat and temper your blade, grind and polish it, and make a handle and sheath for it. You will also learn sharpening techniques to maintain the edge of your new knife.

Throughout, Zerra has included Pro-Tips from some of the leading knifemakers working today including Ken Onion, Kaila Cumings, and Mike Jones.

A Modern Guide to Knifemaking covers every detail of knifemaking so you can make yourself the perfect knife.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631595059
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	07/03/2018
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	259,762
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Laura Zerra is a primitive survival expert who has been practicing her craft in different ecosystems around the world for the past fifteen years. She is perhaps best known for her appearance on Discovery Channel’s Naked and Afraid and Naked and Afraid XL, completing survival challenges in Panama, the Peruvian Amazon, and Colombia. She spent a combined total of eighty-two days in the wilderness, relying on her knife as her sole survival tool.
 
Through her extensive time spent in these and countless other survival situations, Laura gained a deep appreciation for a good knife and an understanding of what elements truly work out in the field. She chose to master the art of knifemaking to not only create her own perfect knife, but also to experience surviving in the wild with a blade made by her own hand.
 
In addition to her survival experience, Laura has worked as a butcher, a taxidermist, and a farrier. Learning these crafts has further added to her knowledge, understanding, and love of knives.
 
Her belief that life is a continuous learning process drives her to constantly seek new experiences and push the edges of her comfort zone. A self-proclaimed nomad, Laura shares her experiences through speaking appearances and teaching. When not practicing the art of primitive survival or working in the shop, her hobbies include hunting, spearfishing, freediving, bow building, shed antler hunting, and learning new skills.
 
You can follow her adventures by visiting www.laurazerra.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Chapter 1 Tools of the Trade 13

Setting Up a Shop

Safety Equipment

Tools

Forging vs. Stock Removal Blacksmithing Tools

Building a Two-Brick Forge

Chapter 2 Designing a Knife 31

Knife Anatomy

Tang

Blade Profiles

Designing Your Knife

Making a Template

Chapter 3 Understanding Steel 45

What Is Steel?

Heat and Steel

Selecting Steel

Cutting out A Blank

Chapter 4 Blacksmithing 61

Heating The Steel

Making A Game Plan

Hammering

Moving Steel Making A Hot Cut

Knife Forging 101

Normalizing Annealing

Chapter 5 Grinding 79

Blade Profiling

Grinds

Blade Geometry

Learning to Grind Making A Scandinavian Grind

Chapter 6 Heat Treating and Finishing 95

Final Tooling of the Steel

Hardening Quenching

Hardening in a Pit Fire Tempering

Tempering 1080 Steel

Grinding the Surface

Polishing

Chapter 7 Making a Handle 113

Scale Materials

Pins

Handle Ergonomics

Making a Wooden Handle

Chapter 8 Making a Sheath 125

Sheath Styles

Sheath Materials

Leatherworking Tools

Making a Leather Sheath

Chapter 9 Sharpening and Knife Care 139

Sharpening Tools

Mechanics of Sharpening

Sharpening a Blade

Keeping an Edge

Glossary 152

Resources 154

Acknowledgments 156

About The Author 157

Index 158