Knives by Jean

One day I got a bee in my bonnet, and took myself off to our local Metal Yard.

A very happy (and filthy) hour later, I can home with a large handful of files, and in three lots, stuck them in our woodburning stove, heated them till they were glowing bright red like the coals they lay on, and then fished them out and stuck them into a bucket full of old wood ash.

By the next morning, they were cold enough to touch, and so my story of knifemaking began.

I found I needed a way of shaping the metal, and my grinding wheel, while ok, didn't really do what I wanted it to do. So I bought a Rexxon 1" belt grinder from a DIY store.

Then came the second grinding wheel which now runs my buffing wheels on pigtails, some metal files, loads of abrasive belts from John Tonwsend (on BB), with DIY grinder tables, angle grinding jigs and rudimentary other tooling.

A lot of fun and learning later, my JBT1 was born: of an old file, red liners, brass pins and magnolia scales. Beautiful beautiful wood, and what a joy to stamp my initials onto the handle when I'd finished. It snuggled into my hand, made as a carver (for carving walking stick shafts) and now resides in the collection of Fil Schiannini who says the heat treat seems fine.

Yes, I've been bitten, and in time I hope to offer my own made knives (and possibly others' knives) here for sale, so keep checking back, as this page will be changing every so often.