Handmade custom knives and artisans tools, and sheath for your knife. Handmade wallets, belts and other products from leather.
Knive and tools making, handy product from leaher.
JL’s Crafts focuses on the creation and repair of unique products from natural materials such as forged metal, leather and all types of wood or other materials for handles. Each of the custom knives, sheath or wallets is made to the highest standards of craftsmanship. My range of custom knives includes designs for specialist activities such as culinary, hunting, bush-craft, survival and wilderness skills to name but a few. Other smaller products may include crafts from leather such as sheaths for knives, guns, wallets, belts, bullet cases, ID or credit card holders and so on.
JL's Crafts - Vrchlabí, Czech republic
Short introduce
Handcrafted knives
Blades of knives (no matter on construction and dimension) is possible sort on two groups according to technology of production.
First possibility is blade grind from flat semi-finished product.
Second possibility is blade forged to rough shapes and next grind into final form.
I make blades with both ways according to requests on properties and visage. Each way have own positives and negatives, with connected pitfalls.
With blacksmithing way is possible make Damascus steel from steels with different properties, but in this time this is not my way, a I leave it for craftsmans with better experience and equipment.
Leathercraft
For production from leather are mainly used natural bovine leather, 1-4 mm thickness. For coloring is used special colors for leather and surface is treated with professional product, which gived product typical visage and impregnating properties.
Stitching is mainly hand, with right saddler's stitch, which guarantees better strength and durability of stitch than machine stitching. Machine stitching is used only in case, where is not needed so high quality or is hand stitching without efficiency.
Hand tools
Not only for knivemaking and for saddlery crafts is needed much of tools, which is not possible standardly buy, or price of this very specialized tools is very high. So production of special tools for woodworking, leathercrafts or for metalworking, is unthinking part of this work. Now I mean special carving knives, spoon chisels, saddler’s awls, special saddler’s knives, as round knives, skiving knives, etc.
Repairs and others
To production of knives and tools is connected also sharpening, renovation and repairing of knives, tools, cases. Sometime is possible tool or knife rescue and leave him old soul and function, but sometime it is unfortunately not possible. In any cases are for rescue always used steps, adequate to size of damage and price of tool or knife, what in many cases brings changing some old parts for new parts.
In this case, this work is not restoration work of historical artefacts.
Me used materials for production of blades are mainly tools steels or steels very similar. Basically is steels possible classify for example as steels corrosion resistant and no corrosion resistant (sometimes named as carbon steels).
From carbon steel is possible mark for example steel 1.2510 (marked also as 19314, O1, 100MnCrW4), 1.7102 (54SiCr6), 1.2003 (75Cr1). Sometime can go into production also some old spring or bearing, but here is no possibility set directly how steel was for production used. For bearing it is for example steel 1.2067 (L3). In any case, this steels have relative similar processing a final properties for production of quality tool.
From corrosion resistant steel is possible mark eg. Steels N690 from Boehler (it’s better equivalent for 440C and relative comparable to Japanese VG10) which have very good ratio of quality vs. price. Or little bit worse 1.4116 (Ak5Mo). Next is profusely used 1.2379 which is knowed as D2, this high carbon steel have very big content of chromium and is possible mark it also for almost corrosion resistant.
Above-mentioned list of steels is only small selection of steel which is possible use for blades for knife making. Next is possible use also steels with cosmic parameters produced with powder metallurgy. Between this type is possible choose eg. RWL 34, Vanadis, Elmax and maybe the best steel of todays ZDP-189. This steels have really almost incredibly mechanical properties.
As far as other materials eg. for production of handles, in this case I most like use wood from Czech fruit trees. As cherry or plum which have distinctive drawing. Surface of this wood is treated with special oils, which finally structure of wood make stronger and close surface for better resistance to humidity and dirt. Of course is possible also use other hard woods, including exotics woods. For handles is possible use also other materials, as antlers, bones, different plastics and composites as eg. G10, Micarta. And also stabilized wood, which is with mainly part of properties better, than natural wood.