FD Kingery
Well-Known Member
Sean and I have finished designing our knife and thought we would start a thread detailing how we got there and then use it as our WIP to document the builds. Like all knife designs we started with a conversation.
Sean - "This should be interesting. I've given it a little bit of thought but I haven't put anything down on paper yet. I suppose the first thing to do is to decide on a style. Such as a kitchen knife, Bowie, camp knife, etc. Do you have any preference there? The only one I'd rather not do, is a kitchen knife."
Fred - Hi Sean,
So lets get this started, I am ok with no kitchen knives. I admit that I gravitate toward bigger historical type blades, I like big knives. Seriously though, I like the idea of pushing the skill set limits since we tend to make what is comfortable and we think we can sell. You mentioned bowies and camp knives. I am adding a couple of pics that might be a good build, and still have room for individual expression. first is a smaller bowie similar to what I know as a Boy Scout Bowie (blade around 6" ish), then there is the old bird and trout, also a boy scout knife (this is one that I have tried before and is deceptively simple to get the proportions to feel right, blade around 4"), and last something I have thought would always make a good camp knife style and what we always called a watermelon knife, is the old hickory butcher blade, maybe give the handle some curves, add a bolster and keep the blade at or under 10" so it's not too big but still enough heft to chop and call it a camp knife. If you like any of these ideas or have another design that you would like to do let me know and I say we each do some sketches and see what we come up with and what we can incorporate into a single design.
Sean - "
I like the idea of the camp knife and I'm working on a few ideas. I will attempt to have at least one sketch up by tomorrow evening. I notice a few in the photo have an almost Nesmuk look to them. That could be interesting. I've never made anything larger than a 6 inch blade before. But I believe I could handle up to about 10" depending on other features.
I'm only a stock removal guy. I do have a small forge. But it's strictly for heat treating.
Do you have a preference between a hidden tang and a regular tang? I haven't done a hidden tang to date but it's a method I've been wanting to try. So if you would like to go that route I'm game.
Fred - "Just read your reply and thought I’d make a quick comment before the day gets off and running. As far as hidden tang vs full, why don’t we agree on the profile and general dimensions then we can leave the rest up to your choice. This way there is still room to try or not to different techniques. Also if you want to shorten the length just let me know 10” is a big knife we may want to go 8 or 9 let’s see where the design takes us.
Sean - "Sounds good. I think an 8 inch blade would be more doable for me.
I'm out and about this afternoon.
I'll have a profile based on that tonight "
Later that morning, I sent - A few quick sketches based on 2” wide, the blade about 9” with a handle about 5”. Could be made full tang with scales, hidden tang or thru tang with screw-on butt cap. Feel free to tweak and play with the lines. Let me know what you think
Sean -
I'm not entirely happy with my sketch. For one I'm showing a bolster with a hidden tang. Which doesn't make sense. So consider it two images in one. One of our cats kept pestering me and really slowed me down.
I don't know if you want to consider the fuller part of the design or not. I haven't done a fuller before. But considering the size of the knife I'm considering it.
Food for thought
Hi Sean
I finally got some time to sit down and work with the drawing you sent.
first; I imported it into Inkscape. then drew over your lines in red for the blade and blue for the handle. I decided to leave out the fuller, bolster and the tang, in my opinion these should be individual choices along with blade grind. Lets agree on the profile shape and leave the rest up to whim.
second; I smoothed some of the transitions, I lengthened the arc on the back of the peak, flattened the clip slightly and gave the tip a bit more belly to smooth the transition from the flat part of the cutting edge.
I had just hit print and was getting ready to send it along when I decided I wasn't happy with the 2 areas with the arrows, back to the drawing board, (we always say in drafting that if you want to see your mistakes just hit print) the first looks to me like a stress riser with the square corner so I added some curves, then there was the pointy part at the transition of the handle so that got curved, after several minutes of pushing the lines around I settled on the design below.
So far all of these are a 9" blade with 5" handle so for fun I reduced the blade to 8" and kept the 2" at the peak, then when I reduced to 7" it looked fat and I reduced the peak to 1.75". All said and done here they are, I actually think I like the 7" best.
What are your thoughts and comments? The attachment should print full size on 11 x 17 inch paper.
Sean - I like your changes and I'm in agreement that the 7 inch blade looks the best. From my standpoint I don't think any other changes are necessary.
Fred - Sounds good to me. I’m ready to get started.
And there you have it we started with some ideas, likes and dislikes, went through a couple of versions and ended up deciding on the 7" blade. Now to get started.
Sean - "This should be interesting. I've given it a little bit of thought but I haven't put anything down on paper yet. I suppose the first thing to do is to decide on a style. Such as a kitchen knife, Bowie, camp knife, etc. Do you have any preference there? The only one I'd rather not do, is a kitchen knife."
Fred - Hi Sean,
So lets get this started, I am ok with no kitchen knives. I admit that I gravitate toward bigger historical type blades, I like big knives. Seriously though, I like the idea of pushing the skill set limits since we tend to make what is comfortable and we think we can sell. You mentioned bowies and camp knives. I am adding a couple of pics that might be a good build, and still have room for individual expression. first is a smaller bowie similar to what I know as a Boy Scout Bowie (blade around 6" ish), then there is the old bird and trout, also a boy scout knife (this is one that I have tried before and is deceptively simple to get the proportions to feel right, blade around 4"), and last something I have thought would always make a good camp knife style and what we always called a watermelon knife, is the old hickory butcher blade, maybe give the handle some curves, add a bolster and keep the blade at or under 10" so it's not too big but still enough heft to chop and call it a camp knife. If you like any of these ideas or have another design that you would like to do let me know and I say we each do some sketches and see what we come up with and what we can incorporate into a single design.
Sean - "
I like the idea of the camp knife and I'm working on a few ideas. I will attempt to have at least one sketch up by tomorrow evening. I notice a few in the photo have an almost Nesmuk look to them. That could be interesting. I've never made anything larger than a 6 inch blade before. But I believe I could handle up to about 10" depending on other features.
I'm only a stock removal guy. I do have a small forge. But it's strictly for heat treating.
Do you have a preference between a hidden tang and a regular tang? I haven't done a hidden tang to date but it's a method I've been wanting to try. So if you would like to go that route I'm game.
Fred - "Just read your reply and thought I’d make a quick comment before the day gets off and running. As far as hidden tang vs full, why don’t we agree on the profile and general dimensions then we can leave the rest up to your choice. This way there is still room to try or not to different techniques. Also if you want to shorten the length just let me know 10” is a big knife we may want to go 8 or 9 let’s see where the design takes us.
Sean - "Sounds good. I think an 8 inch blade would be more doable for me.
I'm out and about this afternoon.
I'll have a profile based on that tonight "
Later that morning, I sent - A few quick sketches based on 2” wide, the blade about 9” with a handle about 5”. Could be made full tang with scales, hidden tang or thru tang with screw-on butt cap. Feel free to tweak and play with the lines. Let me know what you think
Sean -
I'm not entirely happy with my sketch. For one I'm showing a bolster with a hidden tang. Which doesn't make sense. So consider it two images in one. One of our cats kept pestering me and really slowed me down.
I don't know if you want to consider the fuller part of the design or not. I haven't done a fuller before. But considering the size of the knife I'm considering it.
Food for thought
Hi Sean
I finally got some time to sit down and work with the drawing you sent.
first; I imported it into Inkscape. then drew over your lines in red for the blade and blue for the handle. I decided to leave out the fuller, bolster and the tang, in my opinion these should be individual choices along with blade grind. Lets agree on the profile shape and leave the rest up to whim.
second; I smoothed some of the transitions, I lengthened the arc on the back of the peak, flattened the clip slightly and gave the tip a bit more belly to smooth the transition from the flat part of the cutting edge.
I had just hit print and was getting ready to send it along when I decided I wasn't happy with the 2 areas with the arrows, back to the drawing board, (we always say in drafting that if you want to see your mistakes just hit print) the first looks to me like a stress riser with the square corner so I added some curves, then there was the pointy part at the transition of the handle so that got curved, after several minutes of pushing the lines around I settled on the design below.
So far all of these are a 9" blade with 5" handle so for fun I reduced the blade to 8" and kept the 2" at the peak, then when I reduced to 7" it looked fat and I reduced the peak to 1.75". All said and done here they are, I actually think I like the 7" best.
What are your thoughts and comments? The attachment should print full size on 11 x 17 inch paper.
Sean - I like your changes and I'm in agreement that the 7 inch blade looks the best. From my standpoint I don't think any other changes are necessary.
Fred - Sounds good to me. I’m ready to get started.
And there you have it we started with some ideas, likes and dislikes, went through a couple of versions and ended up deciding on the 7" blade. Now to get started.
