knife designs

Cameron Wilcox

Well-Known Member
these are two knife designs I have been working onto possibly be my first and second knives.

camp knife 1.jpg

this is the first. I have posted it once before but this is the very much edited version.


img001.jpg

this is the second. I haven't had time to put the dimensions on yet but they are 3 1/4 " ,blade 1 1/4" wide , 6 3/4" OAL, 1/8" thick blade, handle is 3/8" thick


any suggestions are appreciated. thanks.
 
Simple, yet effective! I'd definitely recommend cutting the designs out on some mild steel before you commit to making a blade out of them. This will give you a much better feel of what the knife will be like in hand. You may find out tha tyou need to enlarge the finger choils a little more to make the handles more comfortable. It's kind of hard to tell.
 
I have made some cardboard cutouts an I think they are comfortable(I have average size hands) but for someone with larger hands I might increase the size. but I am going to make the choil on the larger knife longer.
 
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I like both of them, and like your choice of 1/8 inch thick steel, alot of new makers tend to use thicker steel than is needed, and in turn they sacrafice cutting ability because of poor blade geometry.
Dale
 
I think new makers should use a thicker steel if they are hollow grinding. I've been reading about problems that they have grinding through the blade or making it too thin. Be sure that your grind lines aren't too far from the edge if you stick with the .125. I fully agree with using a mild steel to cut and grind a prototype. My dad always did that in furniture or what ever he was doing. This saved multitude of problems including money on wasted or ruined materials. Go slow. Don't rush. Enjoy the process. Learn your lessons the easy (cheap) way so you can afford to buy more steel, tools and materials!! AS for designs, check out other knifemakers sites. Look at their designs. Don't copy, but put what your eye likes up on the wall and then draw your own blade/handle. Then remove all the pictures of other knives and look at your drawing. Move a line just a little bit here or there. Cut this drawing out and trace it on another piece of paper. Move a line or two on drawing number 2. Let the creativity of your eye and mind provide the decisions. Make multiple paper patterns until you get what you like. Spray some 3M glue on to the back of your paper design and glue it to some hard cardboard (I use xray film) and then cut it out with scissors. Try it on mild steel and then on your knife steel. If you really want to get it on knife steel first, use leaf spring steel.. this of course opens a whole new can of worms but you get the idea.

enjoy
 
Oh, and if you prefer to use computer based drawing, try sketchup by google. It's free and is super! there are lots of tutorials on how to use it and boy is it powerful. I used it to design a cigar humidor in 3d and it was awesome
 
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