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Blades, Bows and Tools Discussion of non-firearm weapons and camping/survival tools.

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  #1  
Old 03-10-2016, 10:36 PM
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Default Knives I've been working on (new work 5/1/16)

Just about finished with this knife I've been working on. This is the sixth knife I've made, and the first time I've tried a stacked handle.

Blade is carbon steel by the Finnish company Lauri, a model "carving 85" I believe. I've done very little to it other than polish out some tempering scale. I'm now regretting having not flattened out and removed the microbevel it has. I had originally planned on just throwing this together as a learning experience, but I wound up putting a lot of effort into it.

Bolster, spacers, and pommel are nickel silver. Bolster and pommel are both made by Lauri as well, though the bolster was stamped to fit fairly loose. While it works, in the future I'll probably just make my own. Pommel is a stamped hollow cap, so I fitted a stainless backing plate under it to rivet the tang to, and back-filled the cap with epoxy.

Handle is stacked compressed leather, and what I believe to be Manzanita burl. Wood was found on the ground near a bunch of Manzanita at my family's property. (FYI some/all California Manzanita is endangered. It is beautiful, but don't harvest live wood, and it may be also be illegal to harvest on property that is not your own.) Could also be Madrone but I think it is to red.

Sheath is my first attempt. I did some weird things with it. I started with, and carved out some fairly thick leather to make an integral welt. Also to create something of a groove the handle would sit in. The welt is fine, but the groove makes it to flimsy, and when on a belt it folds up when you try to pull the knife out.




Last edited by Rust; 05-01-2016 at 2:08 PM..
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Old 03-11-2016, 3:48 PM
wolfy wolfy is offline
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Nice work and great looking.
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Old 03-11-2016, 9:55 PM
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That's a nice looking little utility knife!

Can you post some closer pics of the blade and handle?
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Old 03-12-2016, 12:44 PM
Sabian722 Sabian722 is offline
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Beautiful
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Old 03-12-2016, 2:35 PM
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Thanks for the compliments guys!

wjc- I'll take a couple more and put them up. I just took a little bump out of the bolster where I left one "corner" a little high. It's got a fresh coat of finish on it and I'll need to buff the metal out again.

I also decided to start cleaning up the blade. Lauri leaves some very deep grooves from grinding behind and I'm kicking myself for not putting it on the belt grinder before I built it. I got most of them out, but I've still got a ways to go, and I don't have the talent to put it on the grinder freehand since it's assembled. It will work out in the end, but at the moment it looks worse than it did before I started. I should have taken a before and after picture of it to give an idea how rough they are.

They're a screaming deal, about $10. But if you want it too look nice when you're done there's some serious clean up work to get to that point. I also picked up a Stainless Lauri, and a couple Mora blanks as well (two stainless, one laminated). The Mora's have more effort put into finishing them, but one of them is ground concave tip to heel, and the spines are straight off the stamping die, no finishing what so ever. The laminate blade is nice though. It's a three layer blade, not a Damascus, but it has good width (the others feel thin to me) and the center steel is very hard, and gets very sharp. The Lauri's are cheaper, and rougher in general, but with some work on my end will make nicer knives in the end I think.

Last edited by Rust; 03-12-2016 at 2:40 PM..
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Old 03-12-2016, 2:39 PM
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Nice anvil
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Old 03-14-2016, 7:27 PM
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Well I did what I could to polish out the blade. I got all the factory marks out of it, but trying to buff it out with a Dremel was only moderately successful. Doesn't really matter, first time it gets sharpened the whole blade edge will be scuffed back up anyway.
I also put some more work into the grip and found a major flaw in my assembly technique. I glued up all the layers with five minute epoxy, and apparently didn't get one layer pressed down fast enough. So if you hold it up to the light there's actually a very thin, clear band right in the middle you can see light through! You would never notice it unless you had it back lit, but if you know what to look for it's obvious. Learning experience I guess.

Here are some blade and handle close ups per request.
They're big, hope it's not to much.




Last edited by Rust; 04-09-2016 at 11:11 PM..
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Old 03-14-2016, 8:49 PM
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Thanks for posting the larger pics!
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Old 04-02-2016, 5:54 PM
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Your Handle came out great.

That will leave all the Mora Boys Drooling!
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Old 04-02-2016, 8:36 PM
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Nice job ! Handle looks great.
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Old 04-05-2016, 8:41 PM
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Two more I've finished up. Both Mora's.

First one is a KB-1-S. Stainless steel blade, Claro walnut handle.
Sheath is water formed leather. Should have made it longer, and put a strap on it from the start. But I made this knife as bench knife so it works fine to keep me from either cutting myself on it, or dulling it banging things into it.
This blade is actually slightly warped so I made it up as a beater work knife. (As evidenced by the already chipped blade)

[IMG] [/IMG]

Second is a Mora KBH-2. Carbon steel blade, stabilized Brazilian cherry and French walnut handle, stainless bolster and decorative pins.
I like this blade, it's a good size and after flattening out the edge (rounded over by the factory polishing) it sharpened up quite well. What I don't like is that I over cut the pocket for the hidden tang, and when I shaped the handle I cut into it. Hence the "decorative pins" to fill the void I created. I opened it up and left a channel of clear epoxy between the pins on the belly. Not sure if I like it, or hate it enough to carve it back out and put some sort of inlay into it.
[IMG] [/IMG]
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Old 04-08-2016, 6:43 PM
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Both are very nice looking! Of all the various materials used for knife handles, I find darker hardwood to be the most pleasing from an aesthetic perspective.
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Old 05-01-2016, 2:07 PM
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Have not been getting much done lately with the knives. I have however been playing around with firesteels, and actual flint and steel fire starting.

Both steel's are forged from an old Nicholson "Home and Garden" file stub I had laying around, and then hardened in warm canola oil. On the left is a piece of Texas chert, and a tin of charred oak punk wood. On the right a piece of English flint, and some terry-char cloth. I'd like to have drawn out the curl/handles a little more and brought them down further. But I live in the city, and don't want to press my luck pounding steel in the back yard any longer than I have to. The forge is small enough to fit in the trunk of the car though, so maybe I'll take it down to the shop where I work, or up to my folks place next time I'm wanting to do any hammering. They're not the prettiest work I've done, but they do throw a spark.

[IMG][/IMG]

This blade is cut from an old carbon steel circular saw blade. The black patch is rust pitting I left behind not wanting to thin the blade out to much. I picked up a handful of these from my dad to try out. Thankfully this steel hardened easily. Handle is Santos mahogany, and French walnut bolster. Pin and accent band are yellow brass.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Last edited by Rust; 05-01-2016 at 2:19 PM..
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