Handmade Knives by Brome McCreary
I am the soul author of my knives. I design, grind,
assemble, heat treat and construct the sheaths for all
my knives. That is not to say, however, that I don't
borrow ideas and concepts from other knives I have
seen or used. My Knives Annuals and back issues of
various cutlery magazines are very useful at
stimulating my creativity. Although I have never
taken a "knifemaking class" (let alone been to another
maker's shop) and some may say I am self-taught, I
feel I owe a great deal of what I know to the
knifemaking community. I learned from asking many
questions and reading a great deal of what other
makers have written. It is other maker's willingness
to take the time to explain things that has helped me
learn.
I prefer to make what I term "using knives" as I feel
a knife should be practical before anything else.
Although I am not unable to appreciate and truly enjoy
some of the beautiful work by makers that is far from
practical. I prefer not to make "combat" or
"fighting" knives or daggers and don't have the skills
or tools, yet, to make folders.
Knives are presented in reverse chronological order, so you can see how my style
and abilities have developed.
By exploring the galleries above you can see the knives I have made over the many
years I have dabbling in knifemaking as a hobby. I
still have a lot to learn, and hopefully a long way to
go. But I do think I can see how I have improved
(hopefully) both in craftsmanship and developing my
own style. I have included my early knives (if you
can call them that) to reiterate that we all have to
start somewhere. I have not set up a forging operation
yet, so almost all of my pieces have been stock
removal so far. I differentially heat treat all my
blades in a mixture of vegetable oil, hydraulic fluid,
and paraffin (thanks to Wayne Goddard), and use a
utilitarian brushed finish on my blades. I prefer to
use natural handle materials and am currently using
O-1 and lumber mill bandsaw blades steel (L-6?) for
my blades. I hope to start using 5160, 1095 and maybe
even some of the "stainless" steels like ATS-34 in the
future, though I prefer the carbon steels as I like to
do my own heat treating.
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