Small game skinner WIP

I just thought I'd share some pics of my current project. A small game skinner that I designed. I hunt Mountain curs on coon an squirrel and thought I'd make a knife I could use hunting. This will be the first knife I hopefully finish. I don't have a sander so this will be done with basic tools, and forged from spring steel. My goal here is to just finally complete a knife, and have a functional hunter, and hopefully learn.

The sketch and template of the knife, blade is 3" and handle just over 3".




The template and spring steel I started with. The spring steel is pretty thick so I took a guess at the size to start out with before forging.




I guessed a little on the large size. Here is the as forged knife (I am using a coal forge I built myself). As you can see its larger than my template so I had to do a little trimming.




Here is the knife after doing the initial rough shaping with angle grinder and files. Not quite an exact match, but pretty close. I left the blade a little long. I figured I can always take more off later if desired.




I'll post more as I go. Comments or critiques welcomed.

i use handtool side grinder files so on it,s slow but you,ll get there .look,s like you on the right path.

Eddie,
You are off to a great start. I started with files and paper. You can do it.

Laurence

www.rhinoknives.com

Lookin good Eddie. Remember, where there is the will, there is a way. I think most of us started the obsession with little to no power tools to work with. I can personally testify that though power tools make the work quicker, they make the mistakes quicker to make as well.

Be surety keep in contact with me. If you make it down to a meeting, I'll send you home with a care package.

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Here is where I am now. I am about ready to start heat treating. Most of the profiling done, still have a bit more refinement to do. I'm not going for a defined bevel with this knife. I did try to define the ricasso. I still have to file the choil notch. I am also trying to figure out what to do about pinning. I drilled a couple of 1/4" holes, but think I am going to use a pair of smaller 3/32 pins instead. Just planning to put Oak handles on. I know its not the best, but the price was right and it was available locally. Again, this is a learning exercise, if I don’t like the final knife, I’ll just make another.

and Murph, no worries about me keeping in touch : ) .

BTW - sorry for the pic quality, I'm discovering shiny metal is easy to photo graph...

Eddie,
Looking GOOD Bro',
Glad to see you jumped into the group with both feet! This knife is looking great! Make sure you keep it, in the years to come, as your skill grows,you will want to look back at that knife, that way you will be able to see your progress, I did that, and my wife even commented about the differences in my first to the last one I made for her. So KEEP IT! No matter if you don't like it, or you make another one just like it!

Make dang sure you enjoy this group, your in the best company in the world! Rex

Well I just about finished it up today. Normalized a couple of times, canola oil quench and toaster oven temper. Then the fun began, filing, filing and more filing. Its not a mirror finish by any means, but the blade was completely done with files. Then hand sanding 1/2 thick oak handles. I did use a flap disc in the angle grinder and a sanding drum in the dremel on the handles. I thought they turned out pretty well considering they were the first I have done.

I'm ready to finish the handle and sharpen the blade. Next, a sheath. That will be another first for me.



In the spirit of knife dogs, I snapped a pic of my helper for the day, our German Shepherd Sasha.

I have discovered taking good pics isn't very easy, here's about the best I've gotten, I took it outside on an overcast day.