6 Levels of Knife Making: Easy to Complex

I'm Chelsea Miller, I'm a knife maker,

and today I've been challenged

to make a knife in six levels of increasing complexity.

[energetic music]

So obviously there are so many sub-categories

of knives, depending on the knife maker's bent

towards tradition versus ingenuity.

Knives can become so complex, for example

making your own Damascus steel,

which is a process of forge welding

hundreds of pieces of steel together

before you even begin to shape the blade.

What I love about knives is that really,

the complexity level is endless,

you could keep going beyond just the basic steps needed,

so we're gonna focus on really the number of steps

to get to a highly functioning knife,

beyond any decoration you wanted to add to that later on.

So just remember, this is my personal take,

my personal unique style in the knives that I make,

and all of the materials that I use are repurposed.

Level one, wood knife.

The wood knife would be the most simple level,

because we're only working with one material,

which is the wood itself.

All you need to do is source the wood,

we'll trace out our desired shape in the piece of wood,

cut it out, sand it, and oil it,

so we're only using very few tools here.

Important things to remember when cutting out the shape

is to keep yourself protected,

so protecting your eyes, protecting your ears,

and making sure that your fingers

are always [laughs] outside the reach of the blade.

Leave yourself a little room, there's no adding material

once you've cut, so it's important to give yourself

a little bit of wiggle room, and cut it

a little bigger than you've traced.

I mean, really the worst thing that could happen

is either you cut into the shape

that you traced, or maybe you go too deep

when you're sanding it, in which case,

it's not really a big deal to just start over.

Most important thing when sanding

is not to remove too much material,

because again, you can't go back.

Start at a course grit and increase the tightness

of the grit, so you end up with

a very fine sanding of the knife.

This will keep the moisture out of your knife,

it'll keep a really nice, smooth finish

on the blade, and that's very important.

If you don't take the knife down

to a really fine, smooth finish,

it will be really uncomfortable in your hand,

it'll feel sorta hairy in your fingers,

also food will get stuck to it,

and the process of it being wet and then drying

will tend to dry out the knife a lot.

Also, wood loves oil, so if you apply

a mineral oil, maybe a little beeswax in there,

that'll help keep the moisture out of the material.

I like to just use my bare hands,

just get that oil right in there, into the grain,

rub it between your fingers afterwards.

For the next level, we're gonna stay

with a wood blade, and we're gonna

add a wood handle on top of that.

Level two, wood knife with handle.

So you'll start with a block of wood,

you'll trace your desired shape in the block of wood,

cut that out, and then, you're gonna take

another wood, lay that over your cut piece,

and trace a handle.

Make sure you leave a little extra space

so that you can cut it just a little bit bigger

than your original knife piece,

also, it's a good idea to examine the piece

that you'll be using for your handle,

and make sure that it's got something

going on, that it's got character.

Then you'll go through the process

of sanding your blade, sanding the wood handle,

and then you'll drill holes through the knife

and the handle pieces, glue them together,

pin them together, let them set,

and then you'll begin sanding both those materials

at the same time, 'til it's all smooth.

So when it comes to attaching the handle

to the wood blade, you wanna really make sure

that you've sanded each piece to fit,

so you don't have a big gap where you're gonna see

epoxy, you're gonna see the glue,

you wanna make sure it's really snug.

Keep applying that wood handle until it's perfect,

if it's got a little bump, you sand a little more,

test it, sand a little more, test it,

until you line it up perfectly, before you wanna glue it,

'cause again, there's no going back once you glue it.

So going into the next level, we're gonna

introduce metal into the equation.

Level three, metal butter knife.

So as opposed to make a wooden knife

with a wooden handle, now we've brought in

this other element, which is the metal.

And the difference in the metal is,

different machinery, you're gonna wanna protect yourself

in a different way, you don't wanna

be breathing in those metal fumes.

You're bringing in a whole new skillset

in working with a brand new material.

So to make a metal butter knife,

you will source the material, and what I like to use

are mechanic's rasps, so I'll find a rasp,

trace out the shape, and then I'm gonna use

a grinding stone to rough out that shape.

So much about working at the grinding stone

is about posture, if you're standing there

like I am for hours a day, you wanna make sure

that you're not overworking your body,

because it'll really start to take a toll,

you're using a lot of force.

I have to be very aware of keeping my elbows in,

keeping in a straight line, so that I've got

a lot of movement, and I'm not too rigid,

and then letting the material really guide me.

Unlike working with wood, where it wants

to take your lead, the metal really will control you.

Once I've ground out that shape,

I'll use a series of sanding belts

to bring it down to just the shape

and thickness that I like, then I'll drill holes

for a handle, pins, wood handle, glue it together,

clamp it, let it sit overnight,

and then starts the sanding process.

So the difference in sanding now this metal butter knife,

versus the wooden knife, is that you're gonna use

difference in pressure, the wood is very soft,

and the metal obviously is very hard,

so you need to use a lot more resistance.

In the final sanding of your knife,

which will be hand sanding, you wanna make sure

that you use separate pieces of sandpaper,

because say you're sanding the metal material,

and then you move to the handle,

you've then rubbed bits of metal particles

into your wood, which, if you are using

a very light colored wood, it'll just

get into the grain and look dirty,

so you wanna make sure that you separate

your sandpaper for the wood and your sandpaper

for the handle in the hand sanding process.

For the next level, we're adding

a lot of stages to this next knife.

Level four, paring knife.

The difference in making a paring knife

as opposed to a butter knife, is that now

we're using this knife to cut different materials.

We're thinking about how we need to cut vegetables,

or fruit, so we need to think about

the length of the blade, how it fits in our hand,

what kind of edge we want, and also

we wanna make sure that that blade is structurally sound,

so making sure that the molecular structure

is going to last a really long lifetime,

and hold an edge forever.

Well, maybe not forever, but. [laughs]

So as opposed to using the grinding stone

to create our shape for the paring knife

like we did with the metal butter knife,

we're gonna need to remove a lot more material this time,

so the best process that I like to use

is to heat it in the forge.

Forging is a process of heating your material,

and then hammering it out, spreading the material forward.

An important thing to remember when you're hammering,

keep your movements really close to the body,

so instead of having your arm way out here

and putting a lot of stress on your back,

your shoulder, your elbow, to keep it really tight.

It's like trying to do anything without using your core.

A lot of the techniques and the steps

that we'll be going through requires

a lot of really centered core strength.

So things to be aware of when you're forging

are the fact that you're working with

a very hot piece of metal, and you're working

with machinery that gets also very hot,

and as you're hammering, bits of that material

can fly off in multiple directions,

so you wanna make sure that you are protected against heat.

So I create a rough shape there,

then I move to the grinding stone

to rough out a more specific shape,

then move to the sanding belt,

bring it down to mostly the shape that I want,

we'll have to heat treat it.

Heat treating is a process of heating and cooling

your material to bring out the optimal characteristics.

When we put our paring knife into the forge,

we're heating it to a very extreme temperature,

and then manipulating it as it cools down.

So all the electrons in the material,

all the carbon, is scattering about the material.

So I like to use a heat treat oven,

it's a very controlled, preset temperature,

that way I can be sure that I've got

the optimal heat treating going on.

So the temperature at which you're going to heat treat

depends on the grade of steel that you're using.

The grade of steel that I use is repurposed

tool steel, which is 1095.

I will heat treat between 1475 and 1500 degrees.

I put it a little high, because every time

you open the door, the temperature will drop

about 100 degrees, so opening and closing

will change the temperature, I wanna let it sit

for at least five to 10 minutes

at 1500 degrees before I remove

the material and quench it into a warm oil.

Now one of the reasons I like to use my heat treat oven

is because it's very consistent.

When you're heat treating with a torch,

or in a forge, often times the rate of temperature

at different areas in the knife

can be different, and therefore, certain places

in your knife can be weaker or more brittle.

It's very important to avoid having a brittle edge,

because you'll never be able to keep it sharp,

and there's a possibility that you could break it

by bending it or applying too much force.

Then begin the process of building a handle.

Finding the wood, cutting the shape for the handle,

pinning and gluing it, and then again,

the process of sanding the handle

and sharpening and sanding the blade.

There are obviously many ways that you can go about

sharpening a knife, I prefer to use

a series of whetstones, of course

there's a big learning curve in whetstones,

it takes a lot of practice to get your angle right,

and the number one key is your angle.

It's a great satisfactory moment

when you've been working on your knife

and you can really see the progress you've made.

Besides that, I would recommend

something that sits on your countertop

and you slide it through with a moving belt.

Knife sharpeners I don't really love,

or really the on the go that you hold in one hand,

two pieces of tungsten just V'ed together

that you slide your knife through,

personally I prefer a whetstone.

When you're using a whetstone,

really the most important key is to maintain your angle.

Now, I'm so familiar with sharpening my own knives

that I can essentially freehand

on the belt sander, and then clean any of it up

on the whetstones to create the edge.

So if you're just starting out,

the best way is to set up a jig

on your sanding belt to the exact angle.

You place your knife in the jig, it's the same

every time, and then you get that

muscle memory of where that exact angle is.

Some people prefer to always use a jig,

then you just know, it's preset, you know your angle.

I like to be a little more loose in form,

makes me feel good when I'm free handing it

and I can see that I've done a good job,

so it's really a personal preference.

Now, going into the next level, we're adding on

a little more complexity here,

because we're gonna be using this knife

for another range of tasks.

So we need to be more mindful of how this knife

is gonna be balanced, the shape

in which you're gonna be using it for,

or whatever things you're gonna be cutting,

and also for the user themselves.

Level five, kitchen knife make from a pre-made blank.

So this knife really would be between a paring knife

and a chef knife, something that you would grab

in your kitchen for all those in between kind of tasks.

At this level, we're gonna be using

pre-cut materials, so we're gonna order

a pre-made blank, and then also a pre-made handle,

so often times you'll see these in starter kits.

You can order the pre-made blank,

it arrives already cut to the shape,

and with a pre-formed beveled edge,

so really we're cutting out our blank handle piece,

attaching it, and then just putting

an edge on that pre-beveled edge.

It's very important to know what kind of bevel

you're working with, what kind of bevel your knife has.

So a single bevel knife is a knife

that is completely straight all the way to the edge

on one side, and has a slight bevel

and the edge on the other side.

These are generally used in Korean and Japanese cooking,

where you're cutting raw fish, or you're creating

really long slices in vegetables,

and a double bevel knife is pretty much

for everything else in your kitchen,

far more common, where you have a bevel

and an angle on both sides of the knife,

that's much more useful when you're cutting meat,

or you're cutting large vegetables.

It's a little more versatile, and also

easier to sharpen and maintain in your kitchen.

On my knives I use a double bevel,

and the angle is about 17 to 20 degrees.

The main difference between this pre-made blank

and the paring knife that we just made

is that it's arriving many steps to your door

that we've already put in the work for.

So instead of sourcing your material,

you'll buy that material, instead of shaping it

on the grinding stone, or forging it in the forge,

it'll already arrive in the shape that you want.

Instead of applying that beveled edge,

it'll appear with a beveled edge on it,

instead of heat treating, it will arrive heat treated.

So the process that you'll begin at

will be fitting it to the handle.

So we'll cut out those wood handles,

attach it to the knife as we like,

and then glue, pin, sand, and sharpen that blade.

So the steps are reduced in making it,

but it's far more complex in your kitchen,

because you'll use it for many more tasks

than you would the paring knife.

It also has a much more substantial

blade, and a longer blade.

So the next and final level that we're gonna cover today,

will be the most complex, level six,

chef's knife from raw materials.

So in terms of sourcing raw materials

for this chef's knife, there are a lot of options

to choose from, you can choose types of steel

depending on the kind of things

that you wanna be cooking in your kitchen,

you could chose stainless steel for your blade,

it's a little bit different in the way

that you work with it, but generally

the process is the same, I prefer to use

high carbon steel, as it's got a lot more characteristics,

takes on a patina over time, the relationship

you have with your knife is much more involved

in oiling and drying the knife, you might find

that stainless steel is a little harder

to manipulate than high carbon steel,

really it's just about personal choice.

So in terms of cutting your raw material,

there are several ways you can go about it,

you could use an oxyacetylene torch,

you could use a water jet, my personal preference

is to use a plasma cutter, because it's a very thick

piece of material, so the plasma cutter

is the most efficient way I have found

to cut through a material that thick in a matter of seconds.

There aren't so many things that can go wrong

in this stage in terms of cutting out the shape,

'cause you can always fix those up later,

this is really the most rough part of the process.

You just wanna be obviously really aware of safety.

You're working with plasma, so obviously

you wanna make sure that you steer clear,

that your body is free of any falling debris,

so I use a piece of metal guarding the lower half

of my body, and also making sure

that you have a respirator, because the fumes

released are not so good for your health.

A key piece of safety gear are welding goggles,

because the flame of the plasma cutter

is bright enough to burn your retina.

You wanna make sure that you have mobility,

and you maintain an equal distance

between the material and the flame.

I have found that the best thing that works for me

is straddling a chair, and resting one arm

over the other, that way I have one arm

to stabilize the other as I cut.

If you were to veer away from that direct angle,

you may come off to one side, creating a lot

of slag, which means a lot of the material

is sort of folding back up on itself

and becoming very hard and crisp along the edge.

It also makes our next stage a lot longer,

where we're cleaning all of that up on the grinding stone.

Now the reason we don't use the forge

for this particular knife, is because

my particular chef's knife also inforporates

a grater on the side, which is leftover

from the original purpose of the tool,

so we're gonna use the grinding stone

as opposed to the forge, so that we keep that intact,

we keep that zester grater intact.

If we were to heat it in the forge and hammer it,

we would lose that texture altogether.

So second stage, at the grinding stone,

removing excess material.

Third step will be at the sanding belt,

sanding, bringing that knife down

to a finer shape, and then heat treating,

finding a handle from raw materials,

attaching the handle, gluing, pinning,

letting that cure, and then a process

of sanding, sharpening, and finishing.

So I think we've covered a lot today,

obviously we could continue on

with other levels of complexity,

but we're gonna stop at this level today,

we've outlined the fundamental steps

of creating a functional characteristic knife.

Thanks Wired! [laughs]