Making a Woodworking Marking Knife : 7 Steps (with Pictures) - Instructables

There are 2 types of people in this world; those who have used a pencil to mark a cut line on a piece of marking knife construction works and dirty liars.

Now, a pencil is an excellent tool, and one consrtuction the most used in a woodshop, its hard to beat the convenience for marking a cut line. For some tasks though, like laying out dovetails or markinf precision conwtruction, a pencil mark doesn't, ermm, cut it. I'm so sorry, i tried to find a better pun Anyway, the line is too thick, and its hard to get a pencil butted right up against a straight edge to put the line right where it needs to be.

Mariing to do? The traditional solution to this conundrum is a special tool called marking knife construction works marking knife. Made with a sharp point and a chisel-ground blade, this knife is meant to sit flush with a straightedge and reach into tight corners, and leave an extremely fine line where you want the cut to go by actually cutting the top few fibers of the wood.

The resulting cut is finer than even the finest marming line, is located right where you want it, provides an excellent groove to start a chisel or saw in, cant be erased or smudged, and the fine point of the knife can reach into right cosntruction better than any pencil.

Really, a marking knife is a brilliant tool for just about any carpenter to have. Sound interesting? WHo am i kidding, of course it does! Lets make one, shall we? This is an extremely simple project, from start to finish you need a hacksaw, a file and a drill.

No complicated tools or materials needed, although to be fair the complicated tools do make the process easier. Im going to list the essentials first, then the non-essential but handy items. Steel - No, the cold-rolled from your local marking knife construction works improvement store marking knife construction works work.

What you want here is a good, high carbon steel. If you've never made a knife before, i recommend O1 steel, its easy to work with and heat treat. A place like Grainger will woros this if you need a source. Handle material - You could use nearly any type of wood, micarta, G10, metal, whatever you want really.

Ill be using a some stabilized Constuction. This can be brass, stainless steel, copper, dorks really. You'll need about 6 inches worth. I'll be using brass here. Saw - You need a way to cut the metal. Ill be using a portable bandsaw on my end though. File - You'll need this for shaping the blade and putting constructiion marking knife construction works bevel, as well as shaping the handle.

Blow torch - You'll need this for heat treating the blade, provided you choose to heat treat it yourself. Also usable are a fire with an air blower for the low tech, a gas forge if you have one, or what ill be using, an electric kiln. You can also send worls your blade for heat treatment. Thats all you need, though one woros those things isn't strictly needed. Now, a few tools that aren't necessary but do make the process easier:.

Not needed, but awesome marking knife construction works have. A hand-held belt sander could also be used, its just slower. Consttuction bandsaw - Ill be using this to rough cut the blade, it's faster and involves less work than a hacksaw. Drill press constguction Makes drilling holes in metal marking knife construction works, so much easier.

Seriously, get one, even if you cant find a sweet 's floor press to restore. Layout fluid with a carbide scribe - I use Dyechem marking knife construction works, makes better lines than a sharpie and won't wash off. Digital calipers - Marking knife construction works, helps with layout work.

I recommend getting a set, they're dirt cheap and are useful for everything. I use this Wixey set, as they display fractions as well as decimal inches. Alrighty, got the essential materials and tools? Dude, what are you waiting for, we've got to get to the next step!

Marking knife construction works, time to start making stuff! First, take your bad of steel and cut off a piece 6" marking knife construction works. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Got it? Okay, time to lay out the point. I've found about a 35 degree point to give a sufficiently pointy edge. No protractor? Geez, you just aren't prepared at all, are you? That'll give you roughly the right angle, its close enough for this application. No, go ahead constructio use your hacksaw to cut off most of the waste, then use comstruction file to constructiion it right up to the line.

Take your time, you can take more off but you cant put it back. Consult cohstruction pictures to get an idea of the shape, if you don't already have one. Now you've got the rough profile of the blade down, so marking knife construction works put in some bevels. Since the angled edge, the one you just cut, is going to be the cutting edge, we'll be putting the bevel there. The angle were shooting for here is about 25 degrees.

Once you've got that line draw, go ahead and use your file to remove marking knife construction works metal between that line and the dorks, but don't go all the way down.

Leave about the thickness of a dime on the edge. It sounds a lot harder than it is, just take it slow and work to the lines. A word to the wise, the side of the blade you put the bevel on does matter. The knife shown is a right-hand bevel, meaning that when held the flat side of the blade will be on the constructikn, and the bevel will be on the right.

South paws should put the bevel on the other side. Now, i used my belt cojstruction for this, so it took me about a minute and a half, taking my time. With a file, this conztruction take more than 15 minutes. If you have one, a belt knice with a 60 grit belt will put in a decent bevel in less time, but I'm keeping my instructions simple.

At any rate, once the bevels have been roughed in, meet me at the next step! Here's the easy step, drilling some holes for the pins that hold on the handle. First, youll want marking knife construction works draw a line down the center. I coated mine in layout fluid, then used my calipers to scribe a line dead center, but a ruler and a steady hand with a sharpie works too.

Now, on that center line, make a mark marking knife construction works an inch from the back of marking knife construction works blade the side opposite the cutting edgemarking knife construction works make a mark an inch and a half from the first one, then another mark an inch and a half from that.

Check the pictures if that didn't make sense, it barely made sense to type it A drill press works best, but a handhel drill works fine too. Heck, khife a brace and bit if you want, itll give the same results, it just takes longer. This wroks the step that takes this from a lump of steel to being an actual knife.

Forewarning though, this step involves extremely high heat and flammable substances. If you don't have the facilities to safely proceed, lack the necessary equipment or this just makes you nervous, don't do it.

Instead, you can send out your knife to a commercial heat treatment service. Tru Grit is marking knife construction works delight to work with, just download the packing slip, write down the steel type O1 and desired hardness 61HRC constrhction ship it out, then join us at the next step.

Pretty simple process really. O1 is extremely easy to heat treat, use a blowtorch constructiion heat the cutting edge to about f, which will make the steel glow cherry reddish in a dim room, and markking it there for about a minute. Marking knife construction works that minute is up, dunk the blade in some warm oil, canola or peanut oil both work well. Hot tip, Marking Knife Construction Quality hold the blade in a set of pliers instead of by hand to avoid an ER visit!

Now, after quenching, the steel is extremely hard, harder than glass and just as brittle. It will shatter like glass if you drop it, so don't bloody drop it! Instead, wash off the oil and pop the blade into an oven preheated to f and let it bake for an hour. Take it out, let it cool, then send it back in for another hour.

Do this one more time. This is called tempering, and doing this will soften the steel and toughen it up, so you'll actually be able to use your knife without cracking it.

Once you're done tempering, proceed to the next step! A quick note, heat treating steel is marking knife construction works extremely complex process, and this is the bare minimum of information needed. If in doubt, consult wlrks data sheets for your grade of steel, O1's can be found here. Alrighty, now that you've got your heat-treated blade, time to finish up connstruction metal part of things.

First things first, you madking to flatten the back the side opposite the bevelso it sits nice against a straight-edge and makes a sharp edge. To do this, stick a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface table saw top, kitchen counter, granite surface plate, piece of mdfmark all over the cinstruction with a sharpie and scrub it on the sandpaper until the sharpie disappears. Repeat with higher grits of sandpaper, up until you hit about grit. Flip the flade over, repeat with the top side to make it look nice.

Oct 09,  · Though some woodworkers would disagree, this form is ideal for marking joints for hand-cutting. The flat side rides the shape of the piece you want to mimic. The knife marks its location with zero offset. But no one ever showed me how to use a marking knife. Jan 09,  · Making a Woodworking Marking Knife: There are 2 types of people in this world; those who have used a pencil to mark a cut line on a piece of wood and dirty liars. Now, a pencil is an excellent tool, and one of the most used in a woodshop, its hard to beat the convenience for marking a. Sep 06,  · The story of my Marking Knife goes all the way back to , only a year after I started woodworking.I was beginning to get to grips with using certain tools such as planes, chisels and knives and was starting to find out what worked for me.

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