In this part of the tutorial we work on the blade by shaping it, profiling it, beveling it and drilling the holes in it.

Use hand tools, or power tools to rough cut that blade out of the blank of steel. If you have a bandsaw that would be great. I predominantly used a hacksaw.

Get it close to the lines leaving a little bit of extra.

Here is a look at the hacksaw cutting that I did. You can do some curving with the hacksaw. just cut away pieces to eventually get it cut all the way around.

Now we want to get the shape of the knife to its final shape. A belt sander is great for this. Use any tools you have available. You can do all of this work with a file if need be. It just takes a while.

This shot shows me using a file. It is really good for the sharp corners in the knife. Get this knife to its final shape.

Other tools you can use are a one inch belt sander and even a dremel tool.

Now we should drill the three holes in the blade. Two are for the handle and the third hole is the large finger hole. The finger hole is 1 inch in diameter and the smaller holes are one quarter inch.

Use the paper template to mark where the two handle holes should go. I left them blank but make them something like this. You hit those locations with a center punch then you can drill them out.

To mark the location of the center hole I cut a one inch circle of paper. This way I could move it around and get it nicely centered before marking it with a center punch for drilling.

This is a center punch. You put it right on the spot then rap it with a hammer.

Let's Continue with the tutorial

The Wonder of Knifemaking

Master smith Wayne Goddard is an icon in the field of knife making. As a full-time maker, teacher and writer, Goddard works as hard to teach knife making skills as he does to acquire them. His affiliation with BLADE Magazine has brought new and interesting information, tips and tricks to thousands of would-be knife makers. Other popular titles from Goddard include The Wonder of Knifemaking (2000) and $50 Knife Shop (2001 and 2006).

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