Knife Give Away for Monday March 8 (Preview)

murphda2

Super Moderator and KD Blade Show Boss
Next week I will be giving away a knife. I hope whoever wins it will push it to its limits and give constructive critisim about the quality of my work.

The knife I'll be giving away will be made of 1/8" 1095 and has been diffirentially heat treated by me with a clay coated spine. The blade length is approximately 2" and an overall length of approximately 5.5" with a hollow chisel grind. The handle slabs will be made of tan G-10 with black fiber liners and stainless thong tube. If I can find the right pin material size tomorrow, it will be carbon fiber. The knife will have a kydex neck sheath.

Here is a photo of two of the blades. I will be giving away whichever I feel has the best fit and finish when complete. This photo was taken after I completed the initial grinding.

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I have to agree, this is the coolest knife forum on the net. I don't think me giving away a knife has anything to do with that though. It's the coolest because of the calibre of members we have and thier willingness to help and support thier fellow Knife Dogs. This is just a small way for me to do something to show my appreciation for everything that everyone has done for me.

If I happen to screw these up in the process, I will still be giving away a knife. I have a back up production knife of sound quality I'll give up if I fail.
 
This is mighty good of you my friend,I look forward for the chance to win one of your knives.

God bless,Keith
 
Ha. Your gonna have to break it in half before I want a production knife over one of these. No joke.
Looks good so far. Can't wait to see it finished.
 
They are nice Murph...BUT...how do we get in on it? Nothing like a sharp pointy stimulous package to get the knife community going. Can't wait to see the knife with scales on. It sure does look like the perfect little edc knife.

Pat
 
Thank you for the compliments gentlemen. I just hope they look good when I get them complete. My intent on this and a few other designs I'm sketching up is to design a new "tactical utility" knife. In my adventures for Uncle Sam I've used various knives but I'm finding that smaller blades are more usefull on a day to day basis.

Like most other infantry soldiers in the military, I love having a solid built combat knife. Prior to my first tour to Iraq I had the opportunity to meet Jim Crowell who was kind enough to put me at the top of his list and make a knife for me for my tour. The bare bones bowie has served me very well. If nothing else, it deterred alot of possible problems while on foot patrol of some of the uglier areas of Baghdad. Most Iraqis are intimidated by large knives (at least they were in '04).

During my last deployment to Iraq I found that my bowie was a bit cumbersome and kind of got in my way more than anything, but I still wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. I designed a new combat knife which I asked Jim to make for me. He was kind enough to get me on his list and I recieved the blade sometime later. I'm sure both knives will accompany me on my future deployment to Afghanistan (time line yet to be set in stone).

I find that in my current position most of my fixed blades are just too large for me to carry on a day to day basis. Though I wear full battle rattle everyday we conduct training lanes, it just doesn't look right for an instructor to carry a combat knife. Not to mention that I really have no need for a combat blade on the training lanes.

The average soldier has no real need for a combat knife of 5"+. But it is my opinion that every soldier could benefit from having a small utility blade that could be carried conveniently on either a neck lanyard or Molle Lok mounted on body armor. I'm going to keep playing with designs until I come up with what I feel will be the perfect utility design. The good news is that I'm going to have to test the designs and do something with the ones I decide "just aren't right". I guess this is where Monday Night Madness will come into play. I can't use all of them and the more I can get into the hands of others, the more opinions I can get from everyday knife users and enthusiasts.

My ultimate goal is to come up with a design that can be an economical tactical utility custom that any soldier could and would purchase, carry, and use. My desire is to be able to make the design at the least amount possible and maintain quality. Once I get the design I feel is best, I'll try my hand at a stainless steel (most likely CPM 154 Cm). For now I will continue to work with carbon stock in order to keep my costs down while I continue to learn.
 
Murph,

Thanks for your service !!!!!!

A noble goal in your design criteria. Praktical Taktical , Affordable and Efficient !

I agree with Shankmaker also. I'd MUCH prefer to win a slighly imperfect Murph than a stinky ole dusty factory blade, LOL. I don't recall reading if your Makers Mark prepared or not ? If not it's probably time to get there.

-Josh
 
I need to get a stencil and etcher. Rock did me right on the stencil design it looks really good. It's basically the same as my avatar, but in black and white. I'm just not sure if it will be able to be sized for a blade this size. I guess I could always mark on the flat side of the blade with the stencil size of my choice.

Thank you for your appreciation Josh. I have one of the best jobs in the world, even though I've been known to complain when I get hit with the back to back to back 18 hr days. I love training soldiers and shareing the lessons I've learned.
 
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