# Making Marking Knives



## KGroenke (Aug 1, 2015)

I have been on LJ for a long time, but spend most of my forum time over on "the creek" so please let me know if this post is out-of-bounds.

I have embarked on an adventure of making marking knives. This started as a simple desire to buy one of the knives that Matt Estlea makes and Jonathan Katz-Moses recommends. Matt has over 5000 people on his wait list and his knives are nearly impossible to get so I decided to make my own as many others have. The first one was made really crudely, "machining" brass with a dremel on a midi lathe. I liked the result so much that I decided to make a batch as gifts for friends and also as an excuse to buy a little Unimat metal lathe/mill. That turned into making more in order to pay for the Unimat. A pen turner friend told me turners would go crazy for a turn-your-own-handle kit so now I've going down the rabbit hole of increasingly large batch production, maybe. So far it has been a fun design exercise and it's great hearing from people who are loving the knives.

I appreciate any feedback you have, cheers!


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

Very nice those are beautiful.


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## GR8HUNTER (Jun 13, 2016)

all of them are very beautiful *GREAT JOB :<))*


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

I thought Matt recommended the Swann Morton knife he used?


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## KGroenke (Aug 1, 2015)

@SMP - This knife uses the same replaceable Swann-Morton blade that Matt Estlea's knives use. The larger variety of x-acto style blades fit into and are held firmly in my knife and probably Matt's too.


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

The funny thing is after going to your site and following the links, i was literally looking at your knives and kits on your Etsy site a couple days ago. Think I even had one in my cart. Lol. Those are great looking!. I especially like the one with the flat sides on the right. I still have a Czeckedge kit i haven't made so need to order a completed one for my next dovetail chest


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Those are dandy gizmos, I want one. I use Swann Morton blades and made my own handle but it needs a metal insert like that.


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## HokieKen (Apr 14, 2015)

Now mix up all that Brass and Cocobolo swarf and cast some handle blanks 

A good design indeed. If you're looking for suggestions, in your shoes I might offer a "cheaper" kit (quotes because I have no idea what you're charging for this kit…) that has just the outer sleeve turned, bored, cross-drilled and tapped with the setscrew. The user could then turn a tenon on the handle that the sleeve fits over and slot the wood tenon and drill a clearance hole for the setscrew. I've made marking knives this way O1 blades that I ground. In my case though, it was all epoxied together and the blade is permanent, not replaceable.


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## pottz (Sep 15, 2015)

your knives are very beautifully made.


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## therealSteveN (Oct 29, 2016)

Just throwing it out there that Taylor Tools sells some of the Swann Morton blades for those of you who like to roll your own stuff,

I prefer the other knives he sells, shown on the same page. I like the Mikov Unhandled Dual Bevel Marking Knife Kit with Finger Indents 0.100" Thick Blade.

They are much heavier, and will never bend, unless you put them in a vise and twisted. Their bevels get right down to a skinny line, but they have mass to back it up, and I like the heft, rather than the flyweight. Plus making knife scales is kinda fun.


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## Foghorn (Jan 30, 2020)

Beautiful knives Kevin. I've made some and I've bought some. Here are some of them. They all seem to come in handy.!


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## KGroenke (Aug 1, 2015)

I've made over 300 of these hardware bits now and nearly 100 handles. It's been a great covid distraction, though I really should get cracking on a patio chair project that is ready to move from prototyping. At this point I'm trying to make an alternate handle shape for every 5 of the stock shape that I make.


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