PVC Knife

Hi all in this instructable I will explain how I made this knife using only waste PVC pipes.

After a recent renovation work in our house I was left with lots of PVC pipe pieces,they were too short and different sized so it was not possible to use these pieces again.My only option was to throw them away,But PVC is a harmful type of plastic so i didn't just throw it but kept it for making something with it.As soon as I saw this contest i decided it was time to make something with it.

first thing that came into my mind was to make a knife since I have tried to make a sword once.I was not very successful with that build but it was an experience and now I was confident enough to make a knife because its shorter than a sword and it require much less material.

Sorry there are some photos missing because I forgot to take them or I was not able to take it since i was working alone and i need to do it before the PVC cooled

PVC - Black Diameter and length doesn't matter

PVC- White Diameter and length doesn't matter

use same thickness

PVC Cement- Normal transparent type

Hack Saw

Sand paper 80grit,100grit

Metal File

Drill With 2mm,10mm bits

Screw and Screw Driver

Clamps

First step in making the knife was to draw a design.I googled some knife designs before drawing one myself.You can take printouts of a design if you like a particular one.I combined multiple design's to make a new design.While selecting your design make sure you can complete the project with the tools you have,go for something simple if you dont have any power tools. I did change my some parts of my design in later steps so consider the design as a reference for it's scale..

Here I used two types of PVC,Black PVC and white PVC. Black is normaly used for electrical work and it's very thin compared to white PVC Which is used for plumbing work.Length of pipes is not a problem since we will be using it to make flat PVC sheets before using.If possible use same pipes with same thickness, this will reduce your sanding time

Next step is to make the pipes into flat sheets to do this first select suitably sized pipes use the drawing as a reference for this.Draw a straight line on the PVC pipenusing a pencil and cut along that line using a hacksaw.Don't cut the PVC in to two piece's because we will heat it and open the pipe to make flat PVC sheet.To heat the PVC first add some sand in a pot and heat it with gas stove.Once the sand is hot enough, place the pipe on top of the sand and rotate the pipe slowly to heat all the side evenly.After ten to fifteen seconds you can feel the PVC becoming soft.Once the pipe is soft enough place it on any flat surface like a flore tile or plywood and use another plywood to press the PVC flat.You don't need to put your whole strength on it hold it down just to keep the PVC flat and keep it like that for ten seconds and remove the PVC piece.Put the PVC sheet in cold water to harden it back to its strength. Repeat this process until you have all required pieces. It's ok if there are burned marks on them because we can easily sand it smooth later.

Next we need to make a guard and for that we need to cut three differently sized flat pieces as shown in above picture(2nd pic)Biggest piece is 10cm long and 3 cm wide second one is 9cm long and 3cm wide and the third one is 5×3cm.To put the guard through the handle first drill couple of holes in the piece and use a file to remove the remaining part don't make the holes too big make it a tight fit.bottom part of the guard is slightly longer than the top and the reason is later to bend the bottom tip slightly backward.make holes in all three pieces. Before adding the guard on the knife I made the handle as thick as the blade so to do this I cut two more pieces as same as the guard and glued it on both sides. After it's dried add all guard pieces from big to small and glue them while it's on the knife because it's angled compared to the knife so it's better to glue them while its on the knife glue it and tightly clamp it till dried. To bend the bottom part of pommel make a small cut in the back side of the bottom section(pic 8)and heat it over a candle flame for five seconds and bend it backwards. Hold it for ten seconds and use cold water to cool it down. I used a file and sand paper to shape the guard. I didn't spent too much time cleaning it because my plan is to later covering this part in black PVC so it's not important to make it smooth and clean.Once it's finished glue the two handle pieces on the handle as in above picture . Before gluing,sand both handle piece and handle using 80 grit sandpaper to make it flat.Glue and clamp it for twenty minutes before shaping it.I used a 10mm drill bit with 80 grit sandpaper rolled on it to shape the handle.I dont know how to explain shaping of the handle I just sanded some part of itband hold the handle to feel if it was good,if there was anything wrong i sand that down until I felt its comfortable to hold. Other way to do this is to draw the curve pattern on the handle and sand it to shape but whatever way you feel better, you can go for it

I wanted to make the knife only using PVC so I made the handle also with PVC,but not with a single solid piece.I used multiple(14 white and 18 black)smaller pieces to make the knife handle. I used both black and white PVC for this.Cut the flattened PVC to 2.5 ×2.5 cm size.Black PVC is only half the thickness of white so I took more black pieces.After all pieces are cut.Stack these pieces one over other in any order random order then use PVC cement to glue each pieces use clamp's to hold them all tightly together leave it for atleast twenty minute to dry. After that cut the block into two pieces along it's length so that we can attach each pieces on both sides of the handle but dont attach this now because then it will be impossible to add the guard on the knife.

Pommel or butt is the last part of the handle what i ended up making was diffrent from the orginal design.Draw the design of pommel on a PVC Sheet and cut it using a hacksaw.Sand the edges with 80 grit sand paper.I used screw to connect the pommel on the handle.Fix the pommel at the back end of the handle I made the middle piece of the handle shorter than the other so that i can fix the pommel in there. Once the pommel is fixed on the place drill a hole using 2mm bit and put a screw through it,cut the extra length of screw using hacksaw. File the remaining part of screw with a file to make it smooth. If the screw is not flat with the handle it will be hard to cover the pommel with black PVC in next step.Finaly a lanyard hole is made on top of the pommel using a 2 mm drill bit(last pic)

Next step is to cover the guard and pommel with black PVC.To do this cut the black PVC in the rough shape of the pommel heat the piece until it really flexible press and hold it on the pommel for ten seconds. It will leave an imprint on the piece and cut the remaining part.This way it will be a good fit on the pommel.do this for both sides of pommel.Glue these pieces on the pommel using PVC cement.Next do the same for the guard but it was a bit more hard to do. To cover the whole guard I ended up cutting 6 pieces all of them are differently shaped.The best way to cover the guard is to first cover the sides of the guard using a thin sheet of PVC.Glue the middle part of it using pvc cement(3rd pic)once it's dried heat the remaining section of it and cover it around the guard after cooling glue it on securely.Doing this way you can easily cover all sides of guard quickly, if there are any gapes cut black piece in similar shape and glue it there.

Finally its time to sharpen the blade, i used a round metal file for this. I am not a knife maker and this is the first time I ever made something like a knife.So to sharp this I first marked the area where I will be removing material and shaded those area using a pencile so that when I start removing material I can easily find the areas where the file reached.First I used a drill with sandpaper tied to its bit to remove as much material as possible. Then used a file for more precise sharpening. With the file even though its hard and time consuming it gives more controlled and precise action.for finishing touch i used sandpaper also.

A small piece of black PVC was cut and glued on the top of the blade part as shown in picture its just ther for look no other purpose.
One thing i forgot to do was making a choil it's the small section on the blade near the blade handle.I used a round file to make the choil(pic 2)use the file to remove material from the starting section of the blade, its only 0.5cm deep.Then I sanded the whole knife with 80 grit sandpaper and then with 100 grit.Sharp side of the blade was sanded with 220grit also this made it more sharp and smooth.But one problem I had was the sharp side was not very evident because there was no any clear change between sharp part and remaining part of the blade.To solve this I painted the blade completely,Here I didn't use normal paint,a single drop of ink from a ball point pen was added to about 10ml PVC cement and mixed it very well.Then used it as a paint and applied this all over the blade except the handle.Painted the sharp section also.After twenty minute used a sharp Razer Blade to remove the paint from the sharp section. This way the sharp area became more visible.
Finaly the handle is sanded with 80,100 grit sandpaper and added a coating of PVC cement once dried the knife becomes more shiny and smooth.

This knife can only be used as a show piece, its not sharp enough to cut paper but the blade can cut a carrot or similar things easily, but don't use it to cut your food items. Consider this as a learning experience before making an orginal knife. You can understand the processes involved in original knife making, parts of a knife, tools required etc. Try making something similar and have Fun.