Making a knife from a Rockler or Woodcraft Knife kit

I’m considering teaching a class on making a knife from a Rockler or Woodcraft kit.

https://www.rockler.com/drop-point-knife-kit

The knives are on sale at Rocker right now, but the sale ends tomorrow.

The class would require you to purchase a kit and your scales. You can make your own scales, too from almost any wood. You can also use micarta. Or you can make them from acrylic or other materials like Corian. I’ve used a number of these materials. My suggestion is to start with wood.

I’ve taught the class at Rockler when I worked there. The Rockler kits are straight forward to make and assemble. The primary skills needed are the band saw, drill press and sander qualifications.
Here are a couple of videos describing the process:

The knife blade isn’t custom made but the rest of the knife would be. You could also modify the blade if you were so inclined but I think the blades are pretty nice as they are. You could also laser the scales or inlay them if you desired, but that will not be covered in the class.

You can make some beautiful knives this way. The class can easily be taught in a three hour period. A lot depends on class size, tool availability and functionality and scale making requirements as an example.
It could also depend upon whether need to resaw a larger blank, etc but generally speaking it is not difficult at all. Frankly, the most difficult part can be peening the pins. It is easy to crack the scale if you peen to hard.

Is anyone interested in such a class. You would obviously have to be qualified to use the tools in wood shop as a prerequisite.

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Do you have any recommendations on stuff to get with the knife kit so I can qualify for the $49+ free shipping?

I think the class would be a good way to get some experience with the woodshop’s bandsaw, drill press, and belt sanders.

@TSki has done some great classes on the sawstop, planer, and jointer, but we haven’t had anything focusing on those tools yet.

Hey Dan, if your class makes, we could discuss doing a partner class to make a custom knife sheath. This was in discussion years ago before pandemic and I’d still be willing to do the sheath portion. for anyone interested make note that its likely a 4 ish hour project class before dying the leather, but hopefully you’ll walk away with the skills to make a sheath for any single edge fixed blade knife going forward.

Rockler has a nice brick and mortar store in Frisco.

Dan

Hi Dan, I wouldn’t be able to make it tonight for the sale, so I’d have to do online shipping.

In addition to the knife kit I can recommend the following:

This sanding pack has strips of various grits which I use for lathe work but which could also be used for the knife handle:

https://www.rockler.com/woodturners-multi-roll-sanding-pack

Since I’m a big proponent of safety I recommend these glasses. They have ear protection, too and fit nicely over my prescription lenses.

https://www.rockler.com/readymax-soundshield-safety-glasses-fit-over-glasses-style

You might also want to buy some of this although you can probably get it cheaper elsewhere:

https://www.rockler.com/j-b-weld-clearweld-quick-setting-epoxy-syringe-85-oz