The wooden templates of knives

The wooden templates of fixed knives.

The use of wooden files is one of the things that I think is useful for a maker for several reasons that we are going to read in the post.

The template is simply a piece of wood 4-5 mm thick with the shape of the knife you want to make.

Usually you paste the detailed drawing and perform the contouring giving the shape of the knife but having the drawing glued you also have the tracing of the bevel to be performed, the proportions and where to perform the holes for the pins, Loveless Pin, Mosaic Pin, Corby Bolt, etc.

It is a method widely used by many makers who keep hanging the templates of knives made both to perform others, and to remember the evolution of a knife, etc.

Sometimes it is also better to make steel or aluminum templates, but clearly the cheapest solution is to use wood, and it is also convenient to write on it if you want to leave directions.

It is a choice whether or not to make the templates, sometimes it can also be useful when you design the knives yourself without copying them from the internet or other famous makers and you want to see the proportion and maybe make some adjustments directly on the template.

This type of post for some expert makers may seem trivial but for those who start making knives it is absolutely not because it is better to make a mistake and redo it than to contour a steel knife and realize that it has a really horrendous shape, without proportions, risking to throw steel, “waste” time (even if to learn it never is) especially when you do not yet have professional equipment such as the belt sander or even hand tools such as the file are used to shape the knife.

The wooden template allows you to get an idea of the proportion and shape of the royal knife and has many advantages:

• It’s quick to model
• Allows you to evaluate its proportion and shape three-dimensionally
• It remains the template to redo the same knife in the future
• It’s cheap

Contouring wood with a sander is something very quick and allows you to immediately evaluate the proportion of the shape you have made with a very low cost compared to contouring the steel and realizing that something is wrong and start trying where possible some curve in the hope of giving it an aesthetic or functional sense.

Personally, I think it is a very useful working method that helps to fix even better the idea of what you want to achieve.

In addition, you can number and date the rhyme and keep it in your laboratory to be able to make new replicas.

Some makers build the dimes of knives that run several times with cheap steels to use them to draw on the steel bar, this is a possibility that you have to evaluate.

Use plywood or layered wood.

The wooden templates of the askable knives

You can also make wooden templates of knives that can be asked even if I believe that the precision of the mechanisms is not verifiable, but also in this case some fundamental checks such as the proportion of the knife open and closed, ergonomics, etc. can be verified and it is better to discover first with a wooden prototype than after hours of work on steel but still it is a choice.

Very useful for studying kinematics (read this book if you have the chance) on a support surface where you can make checks but when needed instead of wood it is better to use other materials such as cheap steel.

The templates made with the 3D printer

Today there are also 3D printers that give great possibilities such as creating hybrids mixed with plastic and metal to allow fundamental checks that help you save time.

Personally using the 3D Cad I do not have much difficulty in verifying the kinematics in virtual before making a prototype but if you do not have these skills and possibilities then the wooden templates are a method that can help you whether it is a fixed knife or a folding knife.

The advantage of the 3D printer is that you allow yourself to really have the three-dimensionality of the knife as well as the shape as a contour, so it goes even further as a detail.

It clearly requires having a 3D printer but today there are cheap ones, it costs little to make the prototype, you have many materials available and you can really push yourself to verify the project really in detail maybe while you are making other knives and the printer works for you by printing the details that make up the knife.

Ps. The fundamental thing like everything is to know what you are doing

Wooden knives

Perhaps someone inspired by this method has decided to go beyond the wooden templates of knives by creating working wooden knives of kitchen knives.

Here are some examples of wooden knives:

Conclusions

My advice is to use this method because it allows you to immediately analyze the quality of the design of the knife you want to build, as design, as ergonomics, etc.

In some cases I also use them to understand and study how to do some steps and avoid throwing knives and although it is not the same as doing it on steel allows you to understand what you are doing.

To do this I often those the wood to see what happens!

It is not free but it is much cheaper than steel bars.

In addition, the template remains and you can use it to redo the same model of knife.

Are You Experience?!

Andrea

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