Finally finished some knives

[gudspelr]

A while back I had some struggles with a bird and trout knife I'd made-wouldn't hold it's edge. Finally got the kinks worked out and made some more of them along with some hunters. There were some more bumps along the road, but ended up with 5 finished ones.

The bird and trouts started out as 1/16" thick 15n20, so I wanted to carry the slim, light thing through the design with the handle.

 

I finished 3 of these-Osage, curly Desert Ironwood, and black G10. First time for me using G10 and I like it pretty well. Easy to work and the pattern as you shape it is appealing to me.

 

 

Not very good leather, but it holds the knife...

 

 

 

They sliced very well when I tested them. Still shaved hair after cutting several pieces of old stiff leather.


 

[gudspelr]

The hunters are out of 1080 and gave me some headaches along the way. After grinding into the tang pockets, I smashed the handles off on the anvil and got back to slotting more blocks of wood... Here are the two that got finished. One is some figured Maple that I ended up dying. The other is some mystery hard wood a friend gave me a few years ago. He'd had it for several years. It has some nice chatoyance and is really hard stuff. A little reddish in color when working it, but after some wet sanding with oil, it darkened a bit and reminded me (and a friend) of Mesquite.

Maple before any dye:

 

After some dye:

 

Finished:

 

Other one-same blade as the Maple one:

 

 


These turned out relatively well, but I still have a ways to go before I'm satisfied with how things come out. If anyone has some suggestions/constructive criticism, please let me know. It's hard to be really objective about your own work sometimes so taking help from others tends to be the mechanism for better results next time. Thanks in advance for the help.


Jeremy

[Track]

Nice work Jeremy. Nice a slim style.

[D.Ellis]

Nice work! I really like the slim little guys     .
One thing I recommend with the skinny tang blades is to leave the handle material "proud" of the guard/spacer to allow for some shrinkage of natural materials.......like so....
 

With time, even fairly stable natural materials can move a bit, and if they shrink, the sharp edges of your fittings will be higher than the handle if they stared out flush and equal.

Darcy  

[gudspelr]

Glad you guys like them.

Thanks very much for the advice, Darcy. These hunters gave me a few fits and I plan to change a bit of what I'm doing... These had the guard stock and handle blocks secured, then shaped. This can and does work, but there are also some other things that this method can wreak some havoc on. One thing you can't do is just like you mentioned-leave the wood proud.

I think I over complicated some things in my mind. Like, how do I know how slim to go on the guard if I'm shaping it prior to glue up? Ideally, shaping the guard prior to glue up and then the handle material would allow for a bunch of better practices (in my opinion). I'm hoping I have a solution in hand to do things a little different on the next ones. I also really want to work with some varying materials and the chance to try some coined spacers. But again, the process(es) dictate to a degree what can be done. Enjoy the journey, right...?  


Jeremy

[Kevin Evans]

I like the finish on the blade ,it is important to go that extra mile. , and make each knife     better than the last.  

[tomsm44]

Those are all nice.  I like those bird and trout knives a lot.  Do you use a tool rest to grind your blades, or is it completely freehand?  I know the way my grinder's tool rest is setup, it's hard to keep the clearance between it and the belt as tight as I'd like, it wants to pull the blade between if the back of the blade gets very thin.  Thinking about that and using 1/16" steel gives me a chill down my back.  The second knife I ground after I built my grinder ended up stuck in the floor about 6" from my foot with a nasty groove cut into it about an inch from the tip.  Needless to say, I'm much more diligent about getting everything setup properly now.  

Matt

[gudspelr]

Matt, that sounds like a bit of a brown trouser moment...    :eek:   I don't currently have a tool rest. I have plans to build one soon, but not for grinding my bevels (more for profiling, fittings, etc.). I do bevels all freehand. I suppose it may not be the easiest way to do things and there's a bit of a learning curve, but I'm glad I learned to do it that way.

A maker I know uses a very small rest. He doesn't rest the blade's spine on it, but uses it for his finger to ride on. His finger supports the blade and he still has the ability to feel what he's doing while having the rest to keep his hand a bit more steady. If I was going to use a rest, I think it'd be in the manner he does things. But you're right-thin blades make for scary moments when getting sucked in between the proverbial rock and hard place. Especially when the hard place is humming along and 60 grit.    :D


Jeremy

[tomsm44]

I still use the tool rest for most of my grinding, but once I get my bevel up far enough that I start thinning the spine out toward the point, I will swap to freehand and a higher grit belt.  I'm not steady enough to freehand grind with a coarse grit.  The tool rest is great for shaping guards and bolsters and keeping everything square though.

Matt