Knife #8 WIP - For the Lamb Boys

All right... pins are staying as they are.

Made some more progress on this knife today... and can now touch on some steps that I skipped with knife 8a earlier in this thread. Since the photos in my last post, I used a 40-grit belt on my flat platen to thin down the scales a bit. I use a set of caliper to make sure both sides match. In the photo below I have touched the handle to my 8-inch wheel to begin contouring. It's really all about "feeling" the handle as I grind this part. I adjust my grooves to where these start to feel "right" in my hand.



Next I begin the process of rounding with the 45-degree angle you see below. This was done with a 80-grit belt on my 8-inch wheel.



Then I start "blending". For this, I will use my 8-inch wheel, my 1.25" small wheel (pictured) and my 0.75" small wheel. Usually I am using 120-grit AO belts for this work. Slowly, this is starting to look more like a knife handle.



I will also use the shoe-shine method with strips of shop-roll to add a more natural radius to the handle.



Then comes the hand sanding... lots of hand sanding. I will hand sand from 100-grit up to (on this knife) 800-grit. On some knives I will take hand sanding up to 2000-grit... but on this knife I plan to try something a bit different with the finish on the fittings, so 800 should be enough.

I think the next photos should be of the finished knife. After that, only one more of this batch to go. I am really loving this design. I hope the boys like them too.

Whoa doggy... I tried something new (for me) with these fittings... and I REALLY like it on this knife. Hint: the blade kind of smells like a hotdog.



Erin

Mustard?

amcardon said:

Mustard?

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2thumbs

Knife #8b Finished

The second knife in this series is complete.

Everything is the same as the first one except:

• I used stabilized amboyna for the handle on this one,
• I ground a clip on this one,
• I left the blade dark after the FeCl etch,
• and I did a nice mustard patina on the guard, tang and spine of the blade (as well as the handle pins).

I REALLY like this one. What do y'all think?

Looks great Erin, love the lines and fit.
Well done.

Wow, I really like these two.........can't wait to see the last!!

Thanks for the great WIP

Beautiful knife, Erin. Anybody would be proud to own that!

Thanks folks. Glad you like it. I also am excited to see how the third one turns out.

Oh WOW!! That looks awesome. Love the rake blade on it. Everything just flows together great. Well done!! 2thumbs

Yes this one is even better than the first one.
Talk about pressure, now you have to step it up a notch.

Just a quick pic so y'all know that I haven't forgotten the third one.



Now I need to hit up Boss for a 4/0 taper pin reamer for these 3/32" pins.

Erin

My goodness, these are just insanely beautiful knives! I have truly enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you for taking the time to document it for us!

jstalljon said:

My goodness, these are just insanely beautiful knives! I have truly enjoyed this tutorial. Thank you for taking the time to document it for us!

Click to expand...

Thanks Bro...
I had to order a 4/0 taper pin reamer from Boss before I could attach the guard. It showed up earlier this week, so I should be able to put some more time on this one over the weekend. In the meantime, I have been playing around with my first hidden-tang knife project. 2thumbs

I'll be interesting to see which one gets finished first.

Erin

Knife #8c Finished

The third and final knife in this series is finished.

Basically the same as the other two with the following exceptions:

• I did not use copper or mosaic pins in the guard. This guard consists of 1080 sandwiched between layers of 416 stainless, w/ 416ss pins. I think there will start to be more contrast in the guard as it ages.
• I used bone for the first time... stabilized giraffe bone to be exact.
• I used a shield for the first time. It didn't end up being lined up with the two pins... but I think it looks good anyway.
• I used some red spacer material behind the guard. This is my first time using spacer material. I think it works on this knife.
• I only sanded to the blade to 1200 grit and did not do a ferric etch. I left the hamon subtle... but it is still visible in the right light.

So do you think Dave will like it?

Erin

If he doesn't he's crazy! I like the extra touches, like the red liners. I know liners are used by a lot of makers, and are sometimes overused, but I really like the subtle red line that adds a little extra character. I also like that you went with natural bone instead of dyed, I think it would have looked weird with the knife design. Sheath looks excellent as well, an overall fantastic package there! Any chance of a closeup of the guard?

Yep, I agree. The wee touch of red sets it off nicely. Great job!

amcardon said:

If he doesn't he's crazy! I like the extra touches, like the red liners. I know liners are used by a lot of makers, and are sometimes overused, but I really like the subtle red line that adds a little extra character. I also like that you went with natural bone instead of dyed, I think it would have looked weird with the knife design. Sheath looks excellent as well, an overall fantastic package there!

Click to expand...

Thanks brother. When I pictured this knife in my mind, I really imagined it with white elephant ivory. Since I couldn't afford that , I had to come up with something else. The first option that came to mind was synthetic ivory... I even bought some from Masecraft. While it looks really nice, I knew that Dave would really appreciate the use of natural materials. So I had to come up with something white and dense (similar to elephant ivory) but within my budget. I checked into hippo tusk, but couldn't find any available at the time. Finally I found Giraffebone.com on the net. They were great to deal with, and their stabilized giraffe bone is awesome. 2thumbs The only problem when dealing with giraffe bone is dealing with the porous marrow... as you'll see in the photo below.

amcardon said:

Any chance of a closeup of the guard?

Click to expand...

As you can see, some of the steel dust from shaping the guard ended up in the pores of the bone marrow.cry me a river 1 It used to look much worse, but I was able to get most of it out with a toothbrush and a waterpik. Once I had cleaned it out best I could, I filled the pores with epoxy mixed with bone dust.

Erin

Just a final post to wrap this thread up.

We had the opportunity to spend last week on Lake Powell with my in-laws... and I still haven't got my land-legs back. We had a great time, and I was finally able to deliver these knives to Steve, Dave & Josh. I wish we had taken a group shot while we were still on the house-boat... but alas, we were having too much fun for much photography. However, the boys did take this iphone photo at the hotel once we got back on land.

They were told to look intimidating... I think that they missed the mark slightly.

Great work, Erin, it looks as if you have three very happy recipients. When I lived in AZ I used to spend a lot of time on Lake Powell and still miss it very much. I had the good fortune to see a Guinness World Record set there in 1985. A guy left out of the headwaters of the lake on a slalom ski and skiied non-stop to Wahweap Marina on the south end. I think Guinness credited him with around 175 miles but he actually switched ropes with another boat and continued to ski around Antelope Island until he had racked up an estimated 232 miles and fell down. Late that evening he was still out bustin' moves on the dance floor at the Lodge when we pooped out and went to bed.