A How-to Guide for Making Boat Knives

Seeing as how I neglected this blog for so long, which I guess is a big no-no, I am going to post two in rapid succession, which I would assume is also a no-no. I am just full of no-nos lately.

But! Here it is.

A Guide on Making Your Very Own Boat Knife

I decided to post this because 

1. I made a boat knife.
2. Boat Knifes are super duper specialty. You ain't gonna come across them unless you're looking.
3. When you do come across them, they're expensive as crap.

So once again, here we go.

Kyle's Guide to Making a Halfway Decent Boat Knife

Halfway Decent, am I right?

Needed Supplies:

• One (1) Dolla dolla bill. The kind with George Washington's face on it.
• A hacksaw, with metal blade. (As in a blade designed to cut metal. Not just one made from metal.)
• Maybe a sharpie. It'd be a good idea in my opinion. But hey, your choice I guess.
• A Place to cut something with a hacksaw (I feel like I am giving away the whole article here.)
• A Grinder. This kind of grinder.
• Drill/Drill Press with a 1/4" or 1/6" drill bit. Whatever looks right.

Step One: Forget actually making the knife, what am I, a blacksmith? The answer is hell no, I am not a blacksmith. If you are a blacksmith, stop reading now. Mainly because the rest of this article may make you cry for your lost art.

What you are going to do my friend, is find a knife. Look in stores, or if you're cheap like me, look at garage sales. I picked up a knife for the super duper price of $1. You want the knife you buy to be larger than the size of the boat knife you want. Don't let it be a wimpy knife either, make sure it's pretty strong, not too flexible. Just because it costs one dolla dolla bill doesn't mean you get to be sloppy.

Step Two (Optional Perhaps?): Sharpie on this knife. See the Boat Knife within the Dolla Dolla Knife, and use your sharpie to bring out the inner beauty. By this I mean block out the length and shape of your knife, as so :

Notice I got impatient and started cutting before getting

the idea to write this article as a joke.

You see that rounded edge? That's what I sharpied. It's optional because if you're the best (around!) Then you could probably just cut and grind this knife out without the sharpie.

Step Three: From here, we get down to business. Line that hacksaw up with the longest part of your boat knife, and start sawing. Cut the rest of that stuff off. The goal is to cut off all of the blade that isn't straight. You don't want the blade to come to a point at all, because if it drops 100 feet to deck, that is really going to ruin someone's day. 

Hopefully that explains it pretty well. After you've cut off the part that comes to a point, we move on to step four.

Step Four: Use the grinder to  make the flat edge you have rounded like in that poorly drawn picture. Slowly grind out the rounded shape, making sure to stay safe in the process. If you need, get a friend to help out.

The toilet paper in the back has been made

fireproof and is not a hazard. Of course.

After grinding that out, congratulations, your pretty much done.

Step Five: Turn to the butt end of you knife, the wooden end (It is wooden, right?) and drill a hole. Its for your seine twine lanyard of course.

Your done.

Congratulations, go sharpen and enjoy the thing. You just saved over $100.

© Kyle Packer