Erin Burke
Well-Known Member
It's probably not fair to call this a Work In Progress (WIP) thread, as this knife was completed last year... but Lord knows I took enough pictures, so here we go.
SKETCH
My knives always start out as a pencil sketch… and my day job has me sitting at a desk for 10-hours stretches, providing me ample opportunity to sit down with a sheet of paper. All sketches are drawn free-hand, then refined and cleaned-up using various French curves. If I am building a folder, the pencil sketch will be brought into AutoCAD as a template… but that’s a whole different WIP.
This knife is a fixed blade, and started life looking something like this:
It’s a fairly straight-forward design with maybe a couple things worth commenting on.
• I did not draw a plunge on the sketch. Most of the knives that I make nowadays are plunge-less, with a few exceptions. This knife is not one of the exceptions.
• There are three holes drawn in the blade. This is 99.9% an aesthetic feature. When I drew up this sketch, I felt like the broad expanse of the plunge-less, flat-ground primary bevel seemed a bit sparse. I used the three-hole accent on a little pocket-Bowie a few years ago, and just liked how it looked… so the feature made its way into this design as well.
PHOTO #1
I am currently a stock removal maker. I own an anvil… it sits in my shed. Sometimes, late at night – when the moon is high and the birds are asleep – I like to think about forges & san mai, presses & integrals… then I grab a chunk of steel from Aldo, Don or Kelly and turn it to dust. Shortly thereafter my wife comes downstairs all bleary-eyed and asks “the moon is high and birds are asleep... why are you making so much noise?”. She does not understand.
I make many photocopies of my original sketch. Here is one glued to a bar of Aldo’s 1/4” W2. I use 3M 77 spray adhesive, and hate it. It doesn’t hold up well to grinding heat and the cap is always plugged… but until a better solution presents itself, I’ll just keep using it… and keep complaining.
PHOTO #2
My shop is tiny (about 9’x21’) and so, therefore, are my tools. This is my wall-mounted porta-band. With it, I cut pieces of steel into smaller pieces of steel. Sometimes the smaller pieces of steel are vaguely more knife-shaped than the source pieces.
Fun side note: My wife hardly ever comes into the shop unless she is leaving the house and wants me to come upstairs to watch the kids. She is a professional photographer… and in the past I have tried {unsuccessfully} to get her to document my process. I argued that these photos, in the future, will aid the biographers in their research to develop an authentic feel for the TV movie. She often is unimpressed by the logic of my arguments. All that to say, I have to take pictures of myself for these WIPs. These are a lot like my Facebook selfies… only without the duck-face. And I had to buy one of THESE THINGS to hang my iPhone from the ceiling.
PHOTO #3
Admission: I'm not above sucking it in for a photo.
Sad realization: this is me sucking it in.
Here I am cleaning up the edge profile with a worn 36-grit blue zirc belt on the KMG.
Note: This is a good way to destroy a white t-shirt.
PHOTO #4
And this was the result. Feel free to hold your applause until later.
So I had the brilliant idea to track the weight of this "knife" as I go. As you can see, my top-of-the-line Harbor Freight scale can display weights in grams, ounces or pounds. I chose grams; I figure "if it's good enough for drug dealers, it's good enough for me." This blank is starting out at 1031grams.
SKETCH
My knives always start out as a pencil sketch… and my day job has me sitting at a desk for 10-hours stretches, providing me ample opportunity to sit down with a sheet of paper. All sketches are drawn free-hand, then refined and cleaned-up using various French curves. If I am building a folder, the pencil sketch will be brought into AutoCAD as a template… but that’s a whole different WIP.
This knife is a fixed blade, and started life looking something like this:
It’s a fairly straight-forward design with maybe a couple things worth commenting on.
• I did not draw a plunge on the sketch. Most of the knives that I make nowadays are plunge-less, with a few exceptions. This knife is not one of the exceptions.
• There are three holes drawn in the blade. This is 99.9% an aesthetic feature. When I drew up this sketch, I felt like the broad expanse of the plunge-less, flat-ground primary bevel seemed a bit sparse. I used the three-hole accent on a little pocket-Bowie a few years ago, and just liked how it looked… so the feature made its way into this design as well.
PHOTO #1
I am currently a stock removal maker. I own an anvil… it sits in my shed. Sometimes, late at night – when the moon is high and the birds are asleep – I like to think about forges & san mai, presses & integrals… then I grab a chunk of steel from Aldo, Don or Kelly and turn it to dust. Shortly thereafter my wife comes downstairs all bleary-eyed and asks “the moon is high and birds are asleep... why are you making so much noise?”. She does not understand.
I make many photocopies of my original sketch. Here is one glued to a bar of Aldo’s 1/4” W2. I use 3M 77 spray adhesive, and hate it. It doesn’t hold up well to grinding heat and the cap is always plugged… but until a better solution presents itself, I’ll just keep using it… and keep complaining.
PHOTO #2
My shop is tiny (about 9’x21’) and so, therefore, are my tools. This is my wall-mounted porta-band. With it, I cut pieces of steel into smaller pieces of steel. Sometimes the smaller pieces of steel are vaguely more knife-shaped than the source pieces.
Fun side note: My wife hardly ever comes into the shop unless she is leaving the house and wants me to come upstairs to watch the kids. She is a professional photographer… and in the past I have tried {unsuccessfully} to get her to document my process. I argued that these photos, in the future, will aid the biographers in their research to develop an authentic feel for the TV movie. She often is unimpressed by the logic of my arguments. All that to say, I have to take pictures of myself for these WIPs. These are a lot like my Facebook selfies… only without the duck-face. And I had to buy one of THESE THINGS to hang my iPhone from the ceiling.
PHOTO #3
Admission: I'm not above sucking it in for a photo.
Sad realization: this is me sucking it in.
Here I am cleaning up the edge profile with a worn 36-grit blue zirc belt on the KMG.
Note: This is a good way to destroy a white t-shirt.
PHOTO #4
And this was the result. Feel free to hold your applause until later.
So I had the brilliant idea to track the weight of this "knife" as I go. As you can see, my top-of-the-line Harbor Freight scale can display weights in grams, ounces or pounds. I chose grams; I figure "if it's good enough for drug dealers, it's good enough for me." This blank is starting out at 1031grams.
