Here's my latest one (my 7th knife) -the followup to my competition Bowie

RickA

RickA

Well-Known Member
Hey Everyone

A belated Happy New Year to you all, hope 2014 is an awesome year for everyone on the forum.

After my success with my club competition Bowie (http://knifedogs.com/showthread.php?34604-Club-Competition-Bowie) my colleagues asked me if I would make a hunting knife for our boss, who was made redundant due to a company restructuring exercise. I said I would be happy to, and started some planning (beginning with a bit of research on the forums).

After my previous thread on advice for a hunting knife I spent some time drawing up some ideas. I decided to cut and grind 2 of my own design and 2 based on a Loveless Dropped hunter template I found online (which turned out to be a bit inaccurate - the blade is 1/3" too short and the tang shape is slightly wrong). I cut out four blanks (all Bohler N690) - 2x 3.2mm and 2x 5mm, I profile ground the blanks before hollow grinding, added some filework to the back of the blade and then took them in for hardening.

I decided to make the knife for my boss based on my own design, using the 5mm N690 blank and adding 316 stainless bolsters and Desert Ironwood scales with thin red formica liners. I order some Desert Ironwood from a local supplier but due to the time of year and the shop moving premises I only received it after Christmas. I finally knuckled down on Boxing day and started getting it together.

I finished it last weekend. You will see that the bolsters are partially "stippled" - this was a "rescue job". Initially my bolsters were to be mirror polished, I profiled, shaped and mirror polished the front faces of the bolsters, however after peening the pins and grinding the bolsters (everything looked good) until I proceeded to start shaping the bottom of the bolsters - at which point half of one one of the pins became visible (just less than half the circumference) - either it wasn't peened properly or the pin material had a dent / scratch). Unfortunately the pin was on the curved area at the bottom of the bolster - so drilling it out and redoing it would have been a problem - so I ended up masking off the bolster, and stippling it with a 3mm Tungsten carbide ball burr in a Dremel - followed by a brass brush wheel and then a light buffing to smooth and shine the low areas of the stippling - before finishing off with 800# water paper hand rubbed). The front faces of the bolsters are still mirrored.

One thing I did this time and will certainly do in future, which I haven't done before was to create a hardwood blank of the handle/bolster area and shape it into the desired handle shape first - before I started shaping the actual handle, to ensure I got a very comfortable fit and no sharp / hard edges to cause pain / discomfort with use.

I took the knife up country on Wednesday to present it to him, unfortunately he wasn't there the past couple of days so my colleagues said that they would hand it to him today, after I had returned home. I'm waiting to hear what he thought of it.

The last photo is of the knife in the presentation wood box I delivered it in. I'm not sure how viable it is to do this with every knife (unless I take up box making myself), but it is definitely a very nice way to present the knife as a gift. I have a friend who uses similar boxes with his makers logo laser engraved on the box lid. I did manage to have a stamp made of my makers logo for my sheaths, which you can see on the picture of the back of the sheath.

Please let me know what you think? The details are as follows

10cm / 4" fileworked hollowground blade of 5mm N690 @ 60Rc
316 Stainless bolsters, pins and lanyard tube
Arizona Desert Ironwood scales with red formica liners


Hunter-LeonW-2.jpg Hunter-LeonW-10.jpg Hunter-LeonW-3.jpg Hunter-LeonW-1.jpg Hunter-LeonW-6.jpg Hunter-LeonW-5.jpg Hunter-LeonW-4.jpg


Hunter-LeonW-7.jpg Hunter-LeonW-8.jpg Hunter-LeonW-1-2.jpg
 
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Rick,
Your rescue job is what I refer to a a DM, That's Design Modification!:big grin: That's how many great things come into being if people are honest about it! Also there was a bit of variation in the Late Bob Loveless's knives or any hand made knife for that matter. Also there are plenty of fine hunters that don't have a tapered tang.

I think you did great, its a very handsome knife & sheath and I encourage you to make more!
 
Very most excellent!!!!! You have a great future in knife making. Great workmanship, and a great save for a problem. I find that totally incredible for a beginner. That is better work than many pro's I've seen. Go for the gold man, it's there waiting for you.
 
Hi Guys

@Laurence - thanks for the compliment, I like your description DM -Design Modification, I'll remember that. I was thinking of doing a tapered tang, but decided that I would rather practice a few times first, rather than mess up a knife which I was making as a gift. I lightened the tang by drilling lots of holes.

@LRB - thanks for the compliments, I appreciate it. We have a saying in South Africa "n boer maak n plan" - loosely translated it means "a farmer will make a plan". This referred to the Afrikaans farmers ability to solve a problem, usually without the correct tools or hardware, using some ingenuity. The stippling was how I "made a plan"
 
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A question for the long time makers

Something I discovered while I was hand sanding the blade with soapy water and waterpaper. Paper towels / tissues & roller towel can be abrasive, something you wouldn't ordinarily think given how soft they feel to the skin. Much to my frustration I couldn't understand how the blade, which was clean and free of scratches after finishing the sanding and rinsing, all of a sudden had tiny scratches after drying it off with a paper towel (I'm not sure, but I don't believe it had anything to do with sanding grit left on the blade, as I only started wiping down with the paper towel after first flushing the sanding grit off the blade with lots of water.)

After a few repetitions, with the same problem occurring, I realized that the problem must be the paper towels / tissues. I tried again using a non abrasive micro fiber cloth after which there were no more scratches - so this certainly seems to indicate that the paper towels were the cause.

??
 
Now you're just showing off :)

You have incredible talent to be pulling off a piece of art like that for your 7th one. You have a very bright future with knives. Beautiful knife. And I really like your design modification too.
 
Hi Steven

Thanks for the compliment, i've been looking at your WIP's and your progress for a while and you have SERIOUS talent yourself. I was happy and inspired after winning our club competition with my Bowie in December and a friend who is a long time maker said - "don't stop or slow down - keep on going, finishing one will inspire you to finish another " and you will learn and improve with each one.

I'm very thankful to God that I inherited my father's talent for working with his hands. Unfortunately my grinding is still not nearly as consistent as yours from what I have seen in your WIP's. I can usually keep a nicely centered edge with a smooth lead in, but I still struggle with getting a neat sweeping transition from the vertical plunge line (ricasso area) to the horizontal grind line along the blade (if that makes sense). Unfortunately over the past 12-18 months I haven't had a lot of time for knifemaking, except for a couple of weekends a month, my day job (working for one of the Silicon Valley IT giants) - has kept me far too busy, and as I have discovered consistent grinding is impossible unless you do it regularly. Unfortunately my workshop is a little inconvenient to use during the week in the evenings, it's inside our garage,and I share the space with two cars and a motorcycle, In order to work I need to move cars out into the street to have space. I am planning on building a new workshop in the backyard, but will only be able to do so once I have the budget. I like the layout of your shop and might just use some ideas from yours.

At the time I ground this blade, I ground 3 others (1 of the same pattern and 2 of a Loveless Dropped hunter pattern). I am now working on two of these other three. Before starting the grinding I practiced using about 10 double ended 5mm thick wood blanks to get the feel again (as recommended by a friend who is a long time maker). One thing I did which seems to have helped me immensely this time (not sure why) was to remove the workrest and grind freehand, and I managed to keep fairly neat grind lines on all four blades.

Something which I do these days, which was originally done and subsequently recommended by one of South Africa's top knifemakers, is to use a 1" (25mm) wide contact wheel with 1.18" / 30mm wide belts, and keeping the belt centered, the belt wraps around both edges of the wheel and never has to be tracked to the side to grind the plunge lines. the idea is that with a normal 1" or 2" wheel with 1" or 2" belt, when the belt is tracked off the edge for grinding, the part hanging of the edge doesnt wear as much as the rest of the belt, and then when tracked to the other side of the wheel, to grind the other plunge line, this part of the belt is now higher than the rest of the belt and tends to dig in and grind the 1" / 2" groove/dip.

I was intrigued to see your hand sanding tools as the ones I use are nowhere near as fancy - basically just a couple of blocks of hardwood about 1.5" wide shaped for comfortable grip on top, ground to a sharp leading edge with leather glued to the bottom. One has a flat bottom and the other has the tip curved (side to side) to match the curve of my contact wheel (12"). The strips of water paper are wrapped lengthwise over the sharp end and the blade is rubbed from tip to ricasso holding the sanding stick parallel to the blade.
 
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Hi Shokr

Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated. From what I have seen of your work you are seriously talented yourself. I liked the way you ground your handles, maybe not the most comfortable (given the ridges etc) but I like the way they looked. did you ever do that comfort testing as suggested by Ed Caffrey?

I seem to remember that you had to slow down or stop for a while due to circumstances, have you started up again?
 
Thank you, Rick!

That is some sound advice and I have come to that conclusion myself, just couldn't say it any better than that. Congratulations on the win. I bet that was a proud day.

Sounds like we struggle with the same issues on grinding. That little area at the top of the plunge has always been a booger to keep consistent for me. I also have troubles at the tip but with each one, it gets better and better. I think a lot of our problems with that area at the plunge stem from keeping a consistent angle while holding the blade to the belt. It seems not holding the knife at the exact same angle, even off by a fraction, causes that area to change shape or be different on each side. And I think pressure has a little role in it too.

Hope you can build your workshop soon. I can't imagine the work you could put out with a place to call your own and be comfortable in.

Something which I do these days, which was originally done and subsequently recommended by one of South Africa's top knifemakers, is to use a 1" (25mm) wide contact wheel with 1.18" / 30mm wide belts, and keeping the belt centered, the belt wraps around both edges of the wheel and never has to be tracked to the side to grind the plunge lines. the idea is that with a normal 1" or 2" wheel with 1" or 2" belt, when the belt is tracked off the edge for grinding, the part hanging of the edge doesnt wear as much as the rest of the belt, and then when tracked to the other side of the wheel, to grind the other plunge line, this part of the belt is now higher than the rest of the belt and tends to dig in and grind the 1" / 2" groove/dip.
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Ahhhh... that makes perfect sense. Great tip.

I took Nick Wheelers approach to hand sanding and it changed everything. He has some very good info on it.

It looks like you are well on your way to making a name for yourself and your approach to knife making is inspiration for sure. Slow and methodical...

Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
 
Hi Steven

Just had to let you know that my vote is for you for maker of the year!! I just spent the past couple of hours reading through your "2013 knife making progress" thread and I have to say - WELL DONE, your thread just boosted my motivation and inspiration by 500%. I have picked up a ton of tips, and a lot of ideas for things to try, and lots of ideas for my workshop layout.

I need to get a tumbler and try the tumbled / stonewashed effect, carbon fiber pins, copper liners and lots of others ..........Awesome stuff!!
Absolutely love your last knife - the box elder burl one you made for yourself - the contrast between tang and blade flats is stunning, as is the handle material and shaping.

It would be great to get together some day and chat knives, maybe I could route one of my regular trips to San Francisco via Houston.
Would love to know what you think of my Bowie (it was linked in my opening post)

I too look forward to seeing more of your work.
 
RickA said:
Hi Steven

Just had to let you know that my vote is for you for maker of the year!! I just spent the past couple of hours reading through your "2013 knife making progress" thread and I have to say - WELL DONE, your thread just boosted my motivation and inspiration by 500%. I have picked up a ton of tips, and a lot of ideas for things to try, and lots of ideas for my workshop layout.

I need to get a tumbler and try the tumbled / stonewashed effect, carbon fiber pins, copper liners and lots of others ..........Awesome stuff!!
Absolutely love your last knife - the box elder burl one you made for yourself - the contrast between tang and blade flats is stunning, as is the handle material and shaping.

It would be great to get together some day and chat knives, maybe I could route one of my regular trips to San Francisco via Houston.
Would love to know what you think of my Bowie (it was linked in my opening post)

I too look forward to seeing more of your work.
Click to expand...

Awesome! The great craftsmen who contributed to that thread made it a great one. Glad you were able to take a few tips away from it. I learned a whole lot from it and glad it was a success. Thank you so much for letting me know what you thought about it and for the compliments. Really means a lot reading comments like yours.

I am going to check out your bowie now. But I am literally blown away by this one. Your attention to detail is just incredible. Really great work all around. Looks like you've been working with leather for years.

It would be great to get together. If you are ever able to make it to Houston, my door will be open, anytime. I am sure I could learn a lot from you.

I really hope you are able to get your new shop going soon and start posting more of your work.
 
Hey Everyone

So my now ex-boss finally got the knife I made for him, last friday afternoon, my colleague who handed it over said he was speechless, just sat there for a few minutes looking at it. Then they ended up having a 10 minute discussion about it. He was apparently blown away that our team would get him such a gift. He called me this afternoon to say Thank you for a beautiful knife and all the effort put into making it. He said that the knife is without a doubt the nicest gift he has ever received. - made my day.

Now that I know he has it and is happy, I can get going with making more. During this process, and especially after seeing this knife I have had numerous requests from my friends and colleagues for knives (I have about 10 to 15 people wanting to order, so now I need to really get going.
 
Very nice! I like the design of it. Looks like a comfy and user friendly blade. I am sure it will never get used because the new owner will be afraid to get it dirty and scratch it! That's the deal with making beautiful knives. They won't use them! Great job. You definitely have talent

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
 
thanks Rick

i wised up a bit about those ridges and actually i havent tried that test, but you reminded me off it now, i definitely will


yeah i'm getting back to it now but only to finish up what i started so far (20+ blades) no idea how things would go from there

as for the scratches, i know what you mean i go through the same thing. the tissue itself is so soft cant possible scratch the blade, however there are two theories, dust particles which can be anything landed on the tissues or -and i really wish thats not true- particles embedded in the tissues in the manufacturing process. i now try only whiping the blades dry in the same direction as the grinding/sanding while i look for a better substitute (i even tried using the regular tissues instead of the paper towels) and as for the fiber towels they never completely dry the blade for me.
 
Rick, first let me say WOW!!!! Your work ranks right up there with the best. Hard to imagine this is only your 7th knife. WOW!!!

Now on the paper towels - Yes, they will scratch. Not sure why, but some of us folks are wimps and ride with a windshield on motorcycle. Cleaning a new windshield with paper towels is a big NO- NO!! It WILL put small micro scratches in the plexiglass. I'm sure the same thing is true with a highly polished blade - doesn't take much. I've never had that problem with my blades - they are not that highly polished:(

GREAT WORK!!!

Ken H>
 
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