Mini Skinner

A good style of knife and I do like the dyed maple although that is not always the case with some of the colours.
In one of the pictures it looks like there is a gap between the handle and tang 034DC786-3EE4-4C9D-9B36-CBB183D6F5E7_jpeg.jpg
 
Von Gruff said:
A good style of knife and I do like the dyed maple although that is not always the case with some of the colours.
In one of the pictures it looks like there is a gap between the handle and tang View attachment 63836
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I like this knife a great deal, and your work has continued to improve at an astonishing pace. You asked for constructive feedback and Von Gruff has given you a very good piece of advice to look for on future knives. There are a couple ways to avoid these gaps. I realize that you are working with very basic equipment, and that means flatness is extremely difficult to achieve. That said, flatness is the key to just about everything.

Here's a little tip that can help greatly with avoiding visible gaps: Liners and black epoxy. By adding black tint to your epoxy, any visible gaps will be a solid black line. The liner doubles down on this. A liner adds an actual straight line for the eye to focus on, as well as holds epoxy on both sides of it. So let's say you had a gap that was .010 The liner only needs .005 of epoxy on each of its sides. That splits the difference of the gap and any visual irregularity is also cut in half. .005 is almost impossible to see when you have that perfectly straight liner to look at and draw your eye.

One other thing: Your tang on the underside could use a wee bit more sanding. Up in that inside radius by your fingertips, some judicious draw filing with a round file, followed by some 320 grit wrapped around the round file or dowel, would remove those horizontal grind lines lickety split. You always want to treat your visible tang just like a continuation of the the spine of the blade. When the handle work is all done, you go back along the tang dragging your paper in one direction to get your scratch pattern uniform and running the length of the visible tang.

Please take these critiques as a HUGE compliment- when the only critiques you're getting are for detailed finish work, you are making damn good knives!
 
Those are nice knives Kevin. I agree with the other's about the gaps, I don't know if its the steel or the wood but the gaps stand out pretty well, and John was on about finishing the tang, getting those scratches out.
The file work pattern is almost vine...but not quite, I'm not good at describing how to do vine on a keyboard but you can find pictures of vine on the internet. if you file the sharp triangular cuts melding back towards the handle and make your round cuts more of a wide oval melding to the front and back it will look like ivy growing up the spine.

After you've found the right moves it will really stand out. I do Ivy filework on just about every knife I make.
I see some peoples knives with filework that frankly doesn't seem to make any sense and sometimes it's just too much and distracting.
Back too your knife work, your doing great. just slowdown and check the details...because that's what everyone will be looking for.
 
The only thing I can offer beyond what has already been said is that filework on the spine of a skinner is a potiential determiment to the design of the knife. For every edge or point on a blade, the potiential is there to knick or tear something you don't want to knick. Simply put, the filework may increase the chances of contaminating the meat if something is knicked or torn by accident. Just some food for thought.
 
I should’ve been clearer with the “almost finished”. This is the same knife right now (as I type) after hand sanding everything to 1200. The file work issue is work in progress lol. I’m getting a little better, but unfortunately I have a few more ugly ones that I have to post first haha. Thanks guys for the feedback, and compliments. It certainly helps me grow!image.jpg
 
And guys I have no feelings when it comes to critique... especially when y’all always tell me how to fix it lol. I VERY MUCH take the criticism as complimentary. You all rock!!
 
The Black dye for the epoxy is great to help hide gaps as long as they are not crazy. I started doing this on the forged ones. I don't have a surface grinder but I can get pretty close with my 2x72 the Black helps cover up any hammered imperfections!!
 
Kevin, looking good! I like all of them! This is probably personal preference but, stopping the file work at the handle looks better. However like I said that is personal preference, I see it going beyond all the time.

I will say the way you carried that all the way out and it reduced in size as it went out, that was a nice touch!! You are well on your way my friend!
 
C Craft said:
Kevin, looking good! I like all of them! This is probably personal preference but, stopping the file work at the handle looks better. However like I said that is personal preference, I see it going beyond all the time.

I will say the way you carried that all the way out and it reduced in size as it went out, that was a nice touch!! You are well on your way my friend!
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Thank you very much, CC!
 
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