The Process

At Alaska Blade Studio, we take great pride in the process we use to create the highest quality knives. We want to share with you what that process is so that you can better appreciate what you are getting when you purchase our knives. You are acquiring the best blade you can buy-a testament to the years we have spent perfecting the art of bladesmithing.

FORGING

  The first step in the creation of a blade is forging. Forging is the process of heating a piece of steel to about 1,500°F, at which point the steel enters a plastic state in which it is malleable enough to be shaped with a hammer. The forged blade does not have an advantage over the non-forged blade, but the benefit of forging is that the bladesmith can make efficient use of his steel and create blade shapes that could not otherwise be created using the stock removal, or cutting and grinding method of knifemaking.

FORGE WELDING

Forge welding, though not a part of the process for every knife, is worth mentioning because it is the process by which Damascus and other laminated steels are formed. You will notice that our forge welded blades come with a higher price point. This is because of the extensive work that is required to forge weld the laminated steel before the process of forging the blade ever begins. For an example of how forge welding takes place, lets look at the how a Damascus billet is made. First, two simple, high carbon steels are chosen, which have one significant difference between them. One steel contains 2% nickel, and the other does not. During our process of making Damascus, the steels are cut into 5inch long pieces, ground clean, and stacked into a billet by alternating the two steel types in the stack. Next, the billet is tacked together with a welder, a handle is attached and the billet is placed into our pre-heated, gas forge. Here, it will soak in the forge until it reaches welding temperature at about 2,000°F. Once the billet reaches welding temperature, it is removed from the forge and the layers are forcibly welded together by way of our MZ-75 power hammer. The total layer count of the completed billet is determined by the number of layers used at the beginning when the billet was first stacked and the number of times the smith decides to stretch out, cut, re-stack, and forge weld the billet. Forge welding damascus is only one of many different applications that forge welding can be used for, but at Alaska Blade Studio it is the most common use of the process.

HEAT TREATING

 Heat treating is the process by which life is breathed into the blade, making it a serviceable tool. At ABS we like to think of heat treating as a house which contains three rooms: annealing, hardening, and tempering.

 The first step is annealing. After a blade is forged to shape, the steel contains stress from being stretched, compressed and shaped with the power hammer and hand hammers. To remove this stress, the blade is heated near critical temperature and then placed in a bucket containing wood ash. We like to think of this process as being similar to a person soaking in a hot tub after a hard day's work to relax their tight, stiff muscles. The wood ash insulates the knife and allows it to cool slowly, relaxing the stress that resulted from the forging. 

 Next, is hardening. Hardening starts with turning off the lights in the shop, lighting the forge and adjusting it to a low setting. Because of the low forge temperature, the steel can be carefully controlled as its temperature slowly rises. The blade is placed in the forge, tang first, so that the tang helps to heat the blade. Once heated to a dull red, the knife is turned around and placed back in the forge, blade first. The smith needs to be on his game at this point, because the knife's success or failure comes down to this one part of the blade making process. Some people believe that heat treating by eye is not a satisfactory method for heat treating a knife, but this is not at all the case. Consistency of practice and years of experience will not fail the smith now. The temperature rises in the knife blade, starting at the tip and slowly working its way toward the tang. The smith carefully judges it with his highly calibrated eye and he knows exactly when the blade arrives at critical temperature. When the knife has fully austenized, he draws the blade from the forge and plunges it into a bath of warm oil, agitating it in a back and forth motion, drawing as much heat from the blade as quickly as possible. Now it's carefully removed from the quenching oil, inspected for the telltale signs of a fully hardened blade, wiped clean, and placed on the bench to continue cooling to full hardness.

The last step of the heat treating process is called tempering. Tempering is accomplished by reheating the blade very slowly, to a low temperature, so that it relaxes the hardened molecules ever so slightly, which results in a blade with exceptional hardness and edge retention, while removing any brittleness. Tempering can be accomplished using any number of methods for heating the blade, whether it is clamping the blade between two pieces of hot metal, using a small propane torch to heat the blade, or using some kind of an oven to heat the entire knife. At ABS, we use a small oven for heating our blades and monitor them closely during the tempering process to make sure that the steel receives the appropriate tempering required for the use of the knife.

GRINDING

  Grinding is such an essential part of making knives that it is not only an aspect of the shaping of the blades, but also the handles, the guards and even parts of our leather sheaths. The most difficult part of grinding is finish grinding the knife blade. At ABS, one hundred percent of our knives are ground freehand. What this means is, that none of our knives are ground using any kind of a jig or table to assist in the process, but only the steady hand and sure eye of the smith. Considering the purpose and use of each knife, the smith chooses either a flat grind or hollow grind for the blade. First, he selects a sharp, 36 grit belt and puts the knife on a weight loss program, removing much of the excess weight of the knife, defining the plunge lines and grinding the bevels down to a thin edge. Next, he moves on to a 120 grit belt and further refines the finish of the blade and adjusts the bevels to perfection. Last, he chooses a four hundred grit belt and makes the final, finishing passes on the blade and bevels. If it is a hollow ground knife, the process is now complete, but if it is a flat ground knife, it will continue on to the next step of the process, hand sanding. 

FINISHING

 Finishing the knife starts with etching the blade. Nearly all of the knives at Alaska Blade Studio are given an etched finish in ferric chloride. Etching a knife accomplishes three things. First, it gives a nice, hardworking finish to the knife so that the customer is not afraid to use it. Next, the slight, grey corrosion the etchant leaves behind helps to inhibit rust. Last, when we etch our blades, it gives us a window into the heat treating process that we accomplished in the knife. There is no hiding the heat treatment given to an etched blade.

After the blade has been etched, the next step is fitting up a handle. The options for materials used in making knife handles are almost limitless. At Alaska Blade Studio, we use some synthetic materials, but mostly we use durable, natural materials such as Alaskan moose antler, a wide variety of high quality hardwoods and various types of horn and bone. Whether the knife handle construction is full tang or hidden tang, the materials are carefully selected and fitted to perfection in order to prevent gapping between the materials. If the knife is a hidden tang construction, a guard must first be drilled, slotted and fitted to the blade of the knife before the handle is assembled.

 Following the fit up and gluing of the handle comes the handle shaping. The vast majority of this is performed on our 2x72 belt grinder, and then finished by hand with rotary tools and finally, moved to our knife vice for a hand-sanded finish. Once the handle has been given the adequate finish, the next and final step in finishing is the hot parafin wax dip. 

The way we accomplish our hot paraffin wax treatment is by submersing the entire knife into a crock pot full of liquid paraffin wax. The hot wax penetrates the handle, displacing the air and sealing off the pores in the handle material. It is also believed by some that the hot wax actually enter the pores of the steel and helps to prevent rust. Once the knife has been submerged in the liquid wax, removed and the excess wax wiped from the knife, the smith decides whether or not to shine the handle on the shop's buffer. 

SHEATH MAKING

Though sheath making is not directly an aspect of knife making, we find it important to include a section describing our sheath making process because sheaths are an integral part of the knife and the knife user experience. 

 The first step in making a leather sheath is to create a pattern. Every sheath we craft is custom fit to the individual knife, making for an exact knife fit and a great user experience.

 Once the paper pattern has been created, it is transferred to a side of 7 to 8 oz, vegetable tanned, premium, cowhide leather. After transferring the pattern to the leather and cutting out the shape of the sheath, the leather is wetted and an aesthetically pleasing grid pattern is hand-tooled into the sheath.

 Once the sheath has been tooled, it is dyed either black or deep brown and the belt loop is folded, glued and hand-stitched into place.

 Next, using the knife for reference, the sheath is folded like a taco and the welt is cut. The welt is a narrow strip of leather that is placed where the folded edges of the sheath meet. The welt is a very important part of the leather sheath because it prevents the sharp edge of the knife from cutting through the stitching. At Alaska Blade Studio we also craft the welts of our sheaths in such a way that they help to retain the knife in the sheath. After the welt has been cut out and glued into place, the sheath is closed up and sealed with glue. The newly mated edge of the sheath is then ground smooth on our 2x72 belt grinder and the sheath is prepared for stitching. 

 First, the edging tool creates an even line that borders the edge of the sheath, the ponce wheel follows this line, creating evenly spaced marks where the holes can be drilled for stitching. Now the sheath moves to the drill press, where the stitching holes are carefully drilled.

 The leather sheaths at Alaska Blade Studio are literally stitched by hand by our smith, with a length of heavy, waxed thread and a harness needle.

 The last and final step in making our custom leather sheaths is the hot paraffin wax dip. Much like the hot paraffin wax dip with our knives, our leather sheaths are submersed into our pot of hot wax, displacing the air in the leather and allowing wax to penetrate deep into the grain of the sheath. Not only does this give a nice finish to our sheaths, but it also waterproofs them and gives exceptional retention on our knives. 

SHARPENING

  The last step in creating a knife is sharpening. The first step we take in knife sharpening is to draw both sides of the edge of the knife across a fine grit, worn belt on our 2x72 grinder. The purpose for this is to produce a fine, wire edge along the entire length of the blade. This wire edge can be seen in good lighting and appears as a shiny, reflective line on one side of the blade, but cannot be seen on the other. This is a result of the steel edge being ground so fine, that a flap of steel protrudes and hangs from it. Though some believe that sharpening is only a straightening of this wire edge, the real trick to good sharpening is to remove this wire edge and expose the keen, solid edge beneath. We accomplish this by way of our buffer.

 First, we weaken the wire edge with a course grit compound on our stiff buffing wheel, then we move to our loose buffing wheel containing a fine compound, which we use to completely remove the wire edge and polish the remaining solid edge to a razor sharp finish.

  Now the handmade knife, it's no longer a blunt, esthetically pleasing object, but a high-performance, razor-sharp tool that is ready to provide an exceptional cutting experience to the end user.