Hello Everyone, Thanks for the invite. I just started getting into making knives and look forward to some of the knowledge you may wish to pass on. I have most of the tools needed to start making knives and recently built a 2x72 belt grinder (Just need to hook the motor up). If any of you have some words of wisdom I am all ears on places in Canada to get handle materials, metals that are descent to start out with, and any other advice you may have. Cheers Chet
Welcome Chet! Knifemaker.ca is a good place to start if you do not want to bring stuff up fromthe states. I have been getting a ton of cool stuff off instagram handle suppliers, really nice stuff, but I’m getting nailed on shipping and import fees! If that doesn’t bother you...I love these guys (U.S based) through eBay http://www.ebaystores.com/Maker-Material-Supply They are awesome to deal with! As for steels, 1084 seems to be the consensus for forging or even stock removal to begin with. If you want to just drive to pick steel up and you are just doing stock removal, you couldn’t go wrong with grabbing some precision ground flat stock of 01 from Metal Super Markets. O1 is good for a first knife that you can make and keep for yourself. Even though you can heat treat O1 rudimentary with a homemade forge, to cherry red and plunge into canola oil...making more and heat treating them this way to take other people’s money is probably not the best practice. O1 needs to be properly treated when you’re ready to sell knives imo (some may not agree). Sorry I had a laugh too, being an 80’s kid I always remember Bill Paxton as Chet in the movie Weird Science...not to worry your *haircut looks fine! Hope you have a great time here on the forum, Cheers Griff (*I understand, next to nobody will get that movie reference!)
Welcome to the forum. I think Griff covered the basics of where to get knife steel -- for some reason we don't have as many options as other countries. For handle material, you can also haunt some of your local lumber yards. They sometimes have small caches of exotic stuff for wood turners. For anything else, just ask. Someone here will have an answer, or be able to point you in the right direction.
Hi Chet, Welcome! This forum has a section for Canadian suppliers. http://www.canadianknifemaker.ca/index.php?forums/canadian-suppliers.44/ If I come across something useful I like to post there. Dan
Lol, I remember the movie, not saying I’m old but was around when it came out...lol. Thanks for the information, definitely look forward to any advice and tips to help me along the way
Thanks for the information, I was able to get some stabilized wood from a guy in BC, and when I was picking up metal for my belt grinder build I was given some A2 to try out.
