Hello everyone, I am new to the knifemaking world, I am at the moment making a Both swords and knives, but I want to make a sword using purely hand held tools, such as files etc.

I realise that this is going to be a long arduous job, but it is something I want to do, any help on hand cutting and finishing techniques would be most welcome.

I am also making a Scramasax, and even though I am in England, and visit the British library regularly I am finding it most difficult to find pictures or drawings of these ancient weapons, any advice on sources would be appreciated.

I found this Forum through knifemaker Terry Primos who's knives are true works of art, Thanks Terry.

My website can be found at www.frankdoc.in2home.co.uk

Best Regards
Frank

First, Frank, welcome to the CKD. Glad to have you with us.

If I were going to make a long blade with files and hand tools, the first thing I would do is build a fixture to hold the steel securely in a vise so it could be worked without jumping all over the place. I would recommend a hardwood board of about the width of the stock you are using, and about the length of the blade you are making. You can clamp the board in a bench vise, and c-clamp the steel to the board. By moving the clamps around as needed, you can draw-file the steel to the desired shape, and finish with sanding blocks and wet-or-dry paper.

If you really are brand new to knifemaking, I would recommend reading "How to Make Knives" by Barney and Loveless- it deals very well with the steps involved in making a blade with nothing but hand tools. Let us know how you progress!

Hey Frank. Welcome to the forums, and thank you verymuch for the compliment. Glad you came on over.

Our own Max Burnett posted a very nice tool he made for draw filing blades. He calls it a filing station. Here's a pic of Max's filing station:

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1189412&a=8761231&p=48513058&Sequence=0&res=high

There is a thread in the Neo-Tribal Outpost forum about this filing station. The Neo-Tribal gang can help you a lot with using and making hand tools for creating blades. Here's a link to that particular thread:

Max Burnett's Filing Station (http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm23.showMessage?topicI D=166.topic)

Oh yeah, while I was over there looking for the filing station thread, I found another one where they were discussing Scramasaxes. I didn't read the whole thread, but there was also a link to a website about Scramasaxes. Here's the link to the thread in the Neo-Tribal forum:

Question about Scramasax (http://pub42.ezboard.com/fcustomknifedirectoryforumfrm23.showMessage?topicI D=179.topic)

Thanks for the replies chaps,
All the advice given is very useful, I especially like the look of the hand filing device, a very serious piece of equipment, as well as the advice on how to manage a long blade.

The thread on the Seax was very good reading, and offered some good thinking points.



Best Regards
Frank

Glad to see some folks I knew at Atlanta, Max and Jeff came by and made me feel less conspicous. Max it was a pleasure to work with you at Old Washington. It is nice to see work, out of the mold ,so to speak. If you make it to the hammer-in in oct. I can show you how to put in those nice swooping curves on your riccasso by hand. Your filing fixture is one high- tech looking device! It would take an ole' okie a week to figure out how to work it! :) take care mike