The letters I get are mostly spam or bills. I thought that I would enjoy it a bit more if I could open it with a nice letter opener. I had a small piece of steel and decided I will try my hand at working with metal and make a letter opener.

Here is the video of the making of a letter opener (or a classy shank):

I learned a bit during the process as this was my first time working with steel. I don’t think that I needed to harden and temper blade as it is only a letter opener – but I wanted to learn how to do it as I have more blade making projects in mind (I will however make a better devil forge in the future for these kinds of projects).

The letter opener is by no means perfect. I needed to change the design halfway through making it as the edges of the holes I enlarged was very uneven and ugly. I decided to make an inlay with epoxy. I found that, as with woodworking, most of the time spend was sanding.

I am however happy with the final product and enjoyed the process of making it.

R