Glossary of Common Knife Making Terms

To help you in your understanding as you browse through all the knives, accessories and gift items on crazycrow.com, we offer this glossary of common knife making terms. If there is a particular word, phrase or anything that you don't understand here, please feel free to contact us and we'll try to explain what we can. If you feel that a term is not accurately or fully defined, we welcome your thoughts as well!.

Blade: That portion of the knife used primarily for cutting

Bolster: Piece of metal added to the handle above the guard for strength and decoration.

Epoxy: a bonding agent composed of polymide or amino resin to which is added a hardening agent which causes a chemical reaction to occur.

Guard: In knife design, a synonymous term for hilt. That portion which forms a platform for the users hand between the handle and the blade.

Micarta: A synthetic handle material developed by wood laminates, linen or paper combining with a phenolic resin.

Pakkawood: Multiple layers of maple or birch veneers that have been impregnated with resin and color and then bonded under high heat and pressure to from one piece.

Pins: Short pieces of malleable metal (usually brass or copper) used to join knife parts, especially scales to tangs.

Pommel: A piece of soft metal, usually curved, and affixed to the upper portion of the tang. Pommels are generally thought of as being larger and more prominent than butt plates or caps.

Ricasso: The unsharpened portion of the blade immediately below the hilt.

Rivets: "Cutlers Rivets" - A special-purpose two-piece rivet widely used for joining scale handles to tangs.

Scales: Known also as slabs, these relatively thin pieces of wood, stag, horn or synthetic material are pinned or riveted to the tang in full tang construction.

Stag: Antler material from any member of the deer family.

Tang: That portion of the knife that extends into or through the handle.

Temper: The process of reheating hardened steel to a desired temperature, below its critical temperature point, primarily to impart toughness.

Knife Making Supply for Frontier & Mountain Man Knives & Sheaths Knife Making Supply & Hardware: Knife Kits, Knife Sheath Kits, Knife Blades, Handle Material Make your own authentic frontier knife with knife making supply and kits from Crazy Crow. We have spent years researching our Bowie Knife Kit and other quality Mountain Man knife kits and knife sheath kits. Everything you need to make a great looking knife for mountain man rendezvous use, or everyday use at home. Knife making kits include illustrated knife making instruction.

Knife Kits Green River Knife Kits include: Patch Knife Kit, Hunter Knife Kit, Dadley Knife Kit, Buffalo Skinner Knife Kit & Ripper Knife Kit; Other kits include: Rocky Mountain Drop Point Knife, Classic Bowie Knife, Norwegian Style Knife Blade, Flint/Obsidian Knife Kit, Antler Handle Patch Knife Kit, Scottish Dirk Kit, Beaver Tail Dagger Kit Knife Sheath Kits Knife Sheath Kits include: Crow Knife Sheath Kit, Crow Knife Sheath Kit (with knife), Eastern Neck Knife Sheath Kit, Parfleche Knife Sheath Kit

Knife Blades Blade Styles include: Green River Blades, Norwegian Laminated Steel Blades, Damascus Steel Blades, Hand-Forged Carbon Steel Blades, Norwegian-Styled Solingen Blades, Swedish Laminated Blades, Solingen Scale Tang Blades, Solingen Woodsman & Throwing Blades, Solingen Stainless Blades, Japanese Custom 6A Stainless Steel Knife Blades Knife Making Handle Supply Knife handle material includes: American Stag, Polished Horn, Rosewood, Bone Imitation Stag, Horn Imitation Stag, Micarta Scales, Curly Maple, Black Walnut, Bleached Bone, Jigged Bone Scales

Knifemaking Hardware: Guards, Rivets, Pommels, etc Includes: Brass Bar Stock, Rods for Cutler’s Pins, Bowie Guards, Guards, Brass Knife Guard, Cast Pommels , Turned Pommels, Cutler’s Compression Style Brass Rivets, Brass Tang Nuts, Loveless Type Rivets, Corby Style Rivets