Wanted Homemade marking knives

[billw]

Could that be where you got the idea? Perhaps the secret manufacturer would send you a pm?

Yeah I remember seeing those. I think this was driven by the fact my current marking knife was a gift from my days at Leeds Art College, I honestly can't remember who it was who gave it to me, but I cherish it to this day - probably more so than anything I've bought from a brand name regardless of quality.

 

[gmercer_48083]

I like the Stanley knife that Paul Sellers uses.

 

[Bm101]

I've made a couple Bill. Problem is if I was going to sell them it just wouldn't make sense financially. (Secret Santa aside). You couldn't make the numbers work so the price becomes meaningless. By the time I buy some 3/4mm ground flat O1 stock, grind it, (belts), harden then temper and clean it all up, fuss about making it perfect because it's being paid for and post it I can't recompense that effort financially in any meaningful sense with what you could buy commercially. Anything I make would not look like those beautifully crafted wooden handled knives in SS 2021. So you'd be looking at a version of this: The Best Woodworking Marking Knife - The English Woodworker
This guy goes for the Axminster version Japanese Vee Point Marking Knife
but Workshop Heaven has a geat selection and you will know the heat treatment is right and hardnesses etc are correct.
https://www.workshopheaven.com/okeya-white-paper-kogatana-marking-knife.html
I know you are sick of people saying it Bill but if you have a hacksaw, bbq/hairdryer or plumbers torch, grinder and an oven in your kitchen it's a lovely little rabbit hole.

 

[NickDReed]

Ye Gods!

1. I don't want to make something
2. I want something that someone's put some craftsmanship into
3. I want three because then I'll have pretty much a lifetime supply and because I'm bound to lose, break, whatever at least one
4. Does anyone make them? Anyone?

ps those square designs look awful.

If you're anything like me you'll lose 3 in the first week. Play it safe at least four, one for each corner of the room.

 

[Beanwood]

I'm sort of with @billw on this (Or I would be if I had spare funds). I know my limitations, and I can definitely make something functional. But making something I'd enjoy using every time I picked it up, because it's beautifully sculpted, carries an edge, looks 'finished', as opposed to buying from a craftsman...... well that's a different matter.

 

[Jelly]

Swann-Morton of Sheffield, I reckon if they keep up their good work they could take over the field and be considered as the "go to" small sharp knife and blade maker across the entire globe.

I tended to find the standard size to be a bit flimsy, but a surgeon friend suggested using something from their Pathology or Orthopaedics ranges... I went with the PM40 handle (and associated blades) because it was cheap and extremely rigid for a scalpel, I'm entirely happy with it as a tool for any time I need something sharper and more dexterous than a Stanley knife.

For OP the PM8 handle might suit his desire for a well crafted object, as it really is a thing of beauty, fabulously well designed for both aesthetics and ergonomics, manufactured to a remarkable finish out of solid nickel alloy... Not cheap though.

 

[dannyr]

Yes - the Swann PM40 is good as a marking knife as well as a post-mortem knife.

Incidently a very interesting company - started many decades ago by a union man and woman disgruntled with the bosses and and later given by him to the workers - the executives almost all come from the shop-floor, the wages are not the highest but excellent pension, health, holiday, family education benefits - workers tend to stay.
They not only make the Swann-Morton product 100% here in UK, but also make blades of other brands at a nearby works and rescued a main US competitor a few years ago and currently make millions of blades a week making them more or less world no. 1 for surgical and a leader in craft blades. They also have a shop making the machines that make the blades and another sterilising them and other tools for hospitals etc.

 

[novocaine]

See, told you they stand a chance of doing alright.