Small child's knife

During the Hantverksläger 2022 I was master of the blacksmith workshop. One of the apprentices was Kevin. He wanted to create a knife of his own. Kevin was 10 years old, but had the patience to create a proper knife with smithing, grinding, normalization, hardening and tempering and all.

Unfortunately we had no time to create neighter a handle nor a sheath for the knife at camp. When we got home his mom asked me if I could create a handle for the knife so I did, and a sheath for it as well.

The blade creation

The blade was formed in these steps, only using hammers, bellows, tongs, a file, and the anvil:

1. Cutting away a piece of the flat iron at about 30 degree angle at the end of it
2. Hammering an edge while watching the tip curl up to flatten
3. Thinning out the inner part of the blade forming the pin/tong of the blade - to be fastening the handle
4. Cutting away excess material
5. Cutting off the material
6. Filing the knife in form
7. Normalizing the blade
8. Hardening the blade
9. Polishing the surface of the blade for tempering
10. Tempering the blade
11. Sharpening the blade

Handle creation

A piece of birch tree lying around was used.

Steps for handle:

1. Sawing the piece smaller.
2. Drilling two holes for the tap/pin/tong of the blade - with an angle between the holes to make it tighter
3. Filing the handle hole in shape for the blade
4. Hammering the blade in place
5. Forming the rest of the handle
6. Treating the surface of the wood

For this knife I opted for a hole at the end of the handle. The knife was for a ten year old person so it needed to be a relatively small handle. For this to work with the sheath format I was aiming for I hade to greate something to pull the knife from the sheath. To re-inforce the loop hole of the handle I used a piece of darker hard wood I had access to.

Sheath

For the sheath I used a piece of thick leather I had in store. The leather is actually a bit thick for this, but my other option was a very thin leather. This leather was about three millimeter thick goat skin and very light in color.

The sheath making process consist of these steps:

1. Wetting the leather
2. Wrapping the knife in plastic
3. Wrapping the wet leather around the knife
4. Clamping the leather tight to dry
5. Decorating the leather while wet
6. Attaching belt loops
7. Sewing the sheath togehter with waxed linen thread (using an awl to make holes)
8. Cutting away excess leather
9. Treating the leather with fat for protection

Lessons learned

• Ten year olds can make their own knives
• Use strong eyewear when decorating leather
• If the blade leaves a gap the the handle, pull it loose again and keep working rather than leaving it (I was short on time in the workshop)
• Try to always have a leather of good thickness in store
• Re-inforce all loops from now on. It's beautiful and makes a better solution.
• Use something to bolster the clamps when forming the leather to soften the marks/dents.