My first knife

OK here is my second knife.
I saw the design in Murray Carter's book (101 Knife Designs: Practical Knives for Daily Use), Carter seems have an appreciation for Kitchen cutlery and neck knifes. I had never really considered a neck knife as a particularly low key EDC, but his designs got me curious and I made this one to see what it would actually feel like to hold and use.

So:
CPM 154 steel
0.16 inch at its thickest
Tapered tang to reduce weight, plus it just looks cool.
I did not taper the whole blade much, but upon reflection I probably should have...
tried to do a mostly flat grind since the stock was so thick I figured I would get a better slicer while still being fairly strong.
black G10 for the scales

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Things to learn and practice more.
How to make cleaner and more accurate plunge cuts. (They are not as even or straight as I would like)
Stop sooner on the course grit.
Take more time on each following grit to remove the previous scratches (There are some scratches that I did not get out and they show up real well in the polish).
need a better grinder! going to pull the trigger on ordering one before too long.

This knife is really too long for a neck knife. I should have made the blade around 3.5 inches for that.
The handle is definitely different, though fairly comfortable for light daily tasks. At the same time, if I wanted to hack at something I would want a different handle shape. A major plus to the handle design is that it is thin enough to be surprisingly inconspicuous and with little smaller version could probably be worn under a shirt as a neck knife and not be noticed too much.

As for performance, the knife really dose slice well and seems to hold an edge about as well as I would expect with this steel.
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The plunge line looks fine to me. Does it not match up with the other side? I would say that that's a superior looking knife that anyone would like to carry. Assuming a good heat treat you did an outstanding job.

Doug
 
That is a great looking knife. Very well done. Your fit and finish looks really good and I think you are being a little too hard on yourself concerning the plunges. I know I may be in the minority, but I'm not a fan of hard, sharp plunges. They look great in pictures, and perhaps that's a good standard on a Bowie knife- but I've never had a customer who wanted hard, sharp edges anywhere on a daily use knife. I think that's where a knife has to be purpose-built. A collector will have an entirely different set of criteria for a knife than someone who wants an edc that screams user-friendliness.

You'll find several of us on here who are big fans of Murray Carter's designs. His neck knife designs excel for small, edc type knives used for slicing. They definitely are not camp knives, but fill that niche for an everyday utility knife very well as an alternative to a folding knife.
 
Doug Lester said:
The plunge line looks fine to me. Does it not match up with the other side? I would say that that's a superior looking knife that anyone would like to carry. Assuming a good heat treat you did an outstanding job.

Doug
Click to expand...

Thanks!
The plunges are pretty close, but the far side has a slight S shape to the line and the angle is just a little different. plus I went a little too deep. just enough to feel a slight wave along the spine on one side.
As for the heat treat, I followed the fairly standard bring it up to 1400 and soak for ten minutes then bring it up to 1950 and soak for 25 minutes. Followed by 2 temper cycles at 425 and 2 hours. No cryo treatment.

The edge seems pretty stable and does not chip out from smacking an old 2x4 a couple times. So far the edge holds well and it is not too hard to sharpen.
 
John Wilson said:
You'll find several of us on here who are big fans of Murray Carter's designs. His neck knife designs excel for small, edc type knives used for slicing. They definitely are not camp knives, but fill that niche for an everyday utility knife very well as an alternative to a folding knife.
Click to expand...

I was definitely impressed with Murray Carter's designs, which is why I made this. As a side note I am starting to see the draw for satin finishes. I am thinking that a satin finish is more forgiving then a polished one. When my grinder comes in I will be ordering some of those non-woven belts that are supposed to be really good at creating a satin finish.
 
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you can get a nice finish with belts, but hand sanding is still where it's at in my opinion. The happy spot is to get your bevels flat and dip-free on the grinder so that hand sanding can start at 320 and finish at 600. That cuts hand sanding down to about an hour for me. When I try to do the complete finish on the grinder I spend just as long as if i had stopped at 400 and hand sanded.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I agree John, if all goes well and smooth 320 is the final belt then on to the hand sanding for that loving touch.
 
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