How Long Does it Take to Make a Knife?
One of the most common questions I get at markets is “how long does it take to make a knife?” I always wish there was a simple answer. I usually say seven to eight hours spread over three days, but that’s only a rough guide.
What Affects the Time?
A few things influence how long a knife takes to build:
Larger blades naturally take longer. There’s more steel to grind, shape and sand.
Knives like the Fishing Companion and Pig Sticker have brass hardware, and brass always demands more precision and more time.
Outdoor knives such as the Bushman, Classic Hunter, Bird and Trout and Ultimate Hunter have polished blades. Getting that polish right takes one to two hours on its own.
Kitchen knives have hand-textured blades. I use a ballpein hammer and it takes patience (and energy) to get an even look.
Some handles are simple to shape, like the Bushman. Others are very sculpted and need a lot more hand-fitting. The Bird and Trout is a good example.
Handle materials behave differently. Most natural woods sand easily. Some synthetics show every tiny scratch, which means twice the sanding time.
Any knife that includes epoxy as part of the visual design takes longer. A good example is the Bird and Trout with its round paua shell inlay. The UV-resistant dome resin needs proper curing time and careful sanding. If epoxy overheats, it softens and you lose the clear finish.
Heat Treatment
We heat treat in batches of three or four blanks. Heating and quenching only takes about thirty minutes. The tempering, though, runs about four and a half hours. That includes two separate two-hour cycles at 200°C, with cooling, inspection and straightening in between if needed.
Handle Epoxy Curing
We glue our handles and pins with marine-grade West System epoxy. It’s extremely strong once cured but sensitive to heat early on. We give it two full days at about 20°C before any real shaping. Even then, it still needs a bit of care.
The Breakdown
Here’s a rough timing estimate for an average knife:
Blade shaping: 1 hour
Logo stamping and texturing: 0.5 hours
Heat treatment: 1 hour (within a 4.5 hour process)
Handle prep: 1 hour
Post-heat-treat blade prep: 1 hour
Epoxying: 0.5 hours (within a 2-day cure)
Handle shaping and sanding: 1 hour
Blade polish and final prep: 1 hour
Sharpening: 0.5 hours
Total: about 7.5 hours of actual hands-on work.
More decorative or complex knives can easily take twice that.
This is how it works in our workshop. Others may differ, especially makers who forge their blades from thick stock. Forging adds a lot more time to shaping the blank and the blade.
Hopefully this gives you a clearer picture. So next time someone asks how long it takes to make a craft knife, you can say you know a maker who puts in about a day’s work, spread over three days, to finish one knife.
