Hello I’m Jay and my son and I are interested in trying knife making. It’s been a longtime wish to try it and Ive currently amassing almost all the tools We’ll need and we’ve been doing all the research We can to begin to educate ourselves. Two current questions are where’s the best place to source 1084 steel blanks from in Alberta and does anyone have a good design for a natural gas forge to start with... Thank you!
Welcome aboard. I suppose for 1080 steel https://www.knifemaker.ca/ he used to be in Sundry but as I understand it he sold to a fellow in BC. Forges, a forge running on natural gas will not get hot enough for forging steel you have to use propane.
Welcome to the forum Jay. Steel out that way is where @FORGE mentioned. Another great Canadian supplier is maritimeknifesupply.ca great shipping even though they are on the east coast. Princess Auto has some stuff regarding forges, not sure if other members of the forum consider these expensive or not! I don’t forge I do stock removal so I cannot comment! https://www.princessauto.com/en/the-apprentice-1-burner-forge/product/PA0008933640 https://www.princessauto.com/en/the-master-3-burner-forge/product/PA0008933657 Cheers! Griff (Hope that doesn’t start getting confusing here haha!)
Hi Jay, Welcome to the forum and the craft! Are you looking to get some blades that are ready-made to put handles on? These you can buy at places like Jantz Supply, Knifekits.com and so on. My guess is that these we be shipping from the USA unless you can find a local maker that can make them up for you. If you want to do re-handles to get started you can find some used knives, disassemble them, polish them up and put new scales on and shape the handles. This is a great way to get into the craft. I'd recommend starting on a smaller full tang knife to go through the process. Goodwill and Salvation Army often have reasonable kitchen knives that are good candidates for an upgrade. If you want to cut and shape the blade from stock, Canadian Knifemaker Supply and Maritime Knife Supply offer 1084 bars. Maritime offers 1075 as well which makes a fine blade. 1/8" stock is good place to start. As @FORGE mentioned you'll want to use propane as it has twice as much energy as natural gas. As for the forge itself a simple firebrick and propane burner seems to be easiest way to get started. My very first forge was two insulated fire bricks and a swirl tip propane torch. This was adequate for basic heat treating of smaller knives. Google "two brick forge" and lots of examples come up. A more powerful burner you can construct from basic plumbing parts, a MIG welding tip, a valve and a regulator etc. For the forge proper some soft insulated fire bricks in the shape of a box is easy to construct. You can also use a tube or tank to get a rounded shape and line it with high temperature insulation blanket. Bricks and blankets are available online or through a pottery shop. For an example, I made my forge from an old compressor tank, some ceramic fibre blanket and lined it with furnace cement. Let us know how it going, Dan
If you're close to Edmonton or Calgary, metal super market carries a small selection of knife metals. they usually have 1084, 1095, and O1 in stock. https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/edmonton-south/
