All About Pocket Knives

You see a lot of people (especially beginning knifemakers) making knives out of horseshoes. Like railroad spikes (another common material for entry-level knifemaking), I wonder if the steel horseshoes are made out of is even suitable for knives. I think they may be a little soft for the job. But, I also have a hoof pick a blacksmith friend of mine made using a horseshoe, and it seems to be better steel than the cheap pick I had back when I started riding horses as a kid. And, I would presume somewhat wear-resistant steel was chosen to make the things out of in the first place.

I am still wanting to make a knife myself. But, I've chosen to buy a blade stock of known steel, so that I fully understand the hardening, heat-treat, and quench guidelines. But, my great-Granddad made a large number of knives out of saw blades (both sawmill circular blades and crosscut), and those things are tough as can be, and easy to sharpen.

I think you are not taking into account how the steel is heat treated after it is made into a knife blade. Your statement that you buy steel bar stock of known quality is a good one, that way you have a product of known quality that can be worked according to the manufacturers instructions. You have to understand that knife makers who use steels of unknown origin and unknown quality have a certain failure rate that may be unacceptable to you and me. In other words, they may spend many hours making a blade that does not have acceptable qualities and ends up being discarded.

I have seen and owned knives made from files, and from automobile leaf springs. I have a knife my father made years ago from a power hacksaw blade (a machine shop saw, not a hand-held DeWalt or similar). As OC mentioned a lot depends on how well the steel is tempered after the blade has been made. Horseshoe steel is soft enough to be readily shaped using a forge or even cold hammered, which probably explains why a novice maker would use it. Not sure how it performs after tempering but I’d be a skeptic until proven otherwise.

Ken

I made this at the Knife Maker Co-Op which, back in 2011, was located in a reassembled log cabin in the parking lot of Smoky Mountain Knife Works. Anyone know if it's still there or in existence? I see these knives for sale in the SMKW catalogues sometimes, they're not expensive.

Horseshoes are really easy to work with. But in my experience they’re a low carbon steel. I have one and it’ll get sharp, but I don’t think it would hold an edge for long.

Colonel26 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:34 pm Horseshoes are really easy to work with. But in my experience they’re a low carbon steel. I have one and it’ll get sharp, but I don’t think it would hold an edge for long.

We added stovepipe carbon while forging this one. Not sure how effective it was but, being a greenhorn, it seemed logical to me.