He built the knife in the middle using this stuff.
This guy decided to make a video showing that you don’t have to spend a pile of money and have a bunch of fancy tools to make a knife. And while we know that’s true — after all, the American Indians made plenty of sharp stuff without sanders and drills — it’s cool to see that mindset of using commonly-available tools and materials transformed to the reality of today’s environment of plentiful cheap tools.
To that end, he bought tools and materials from Harbor Freight Tools for $101 and change, to show that if you have a table or some other sort of work area, you too can make a knife.
The most questionable thing he does is chop a small dolly up to make the handle scales. This seems wasteful, but as he observes, you don’t have to throw away the rest of it.
For the blade, he uses a hunk he cuts from a circular-saw blade — also from Harbor Freight. Heat treatment is done in small fires built in his gravel driveway, along with a toaster oven.
He did have to hit the grocery store and drop $5 on other stuff… he had a hard time finding vegetable oil at Harbor Freight.
All in all, this shows how you can make a fairly decent knife without a bunch of fancy stuff… heck, most of us probably have everything we need out in the shed or garage. And it’s never a bad time to make something by hand… especially a useful tool that you can show off to your pals.
Enjoy.