Last weekend I was fortunate enough to attend a hammer in and see real professional knives. Talking with other new makers the general consensus is that we tend to either get excited or defeated by a knife and in turn rush through it and on to the next one. With this project I did not do that, and it's funny, it didn't take any longer.
Mini cleavers seem to be awfully popular, and they're fun to make. Whether or not they're useful for everyday knife actions is debate able. For this one I was given some handle material that usaknifemaker started carrying called shokwood. This stuff is really fun to work with, it sands and shapes very easily. I think this is my best knife to date as far as fit and finish go. I kept going back over it and sanding out little areas that I'd leave before my new found patience. Also pictured is my 3rd leather sheath which seems to be getting better as well. It's 1080+ .24" thick from alpha. I tried my hardest to bring out the hamon but it just didn't happen. I can get it dark, and it's definitely there, but I end up sanding or polishing off all the etch. I used purple g10 liners stacked with .030" copper, and copper 1/4" corbys. The handle material is shokwood from beyond wood products, it's a maple burl with chamelian resins that change color in different light.
It's full flat ground, milled tapered, and etched fuller on both sides, satin blade finish, differential heat treat with a hamon fail, polished spine all the way from point to inside the spanish notch. Sharpened to a toothy 600 and polished afterwards. It cut through a bunch of leather pieces from the sheath, paracord doubled over 12 times, catalog paper on edge, then made my forearm bald.
So what do y'all think
Kevin
Mini cleavers seem to be awfully popular, and they're fun to make. Whether or not they're useful for everyday knife actions is debate able. For this one I was given some handle material that usaknifemaker started carrying called shokwood. This stuff is really fun to work with, it sands and shapes very easily. I think this is my best knife to date as far as fit and finish go. I kept going back over it and sanding out little areas that I'd leave before my new found patience. Also pictured is my 3rd leather sheath which seems to be getting better as well. It's 1080+ .24" thick from alpha. I tried my hardest to bring out the hamon but it just didn't happen. I can get it dark, and it's definitely there, but I end up sanding or polishing off all the etch. I used purple g10 liners stacked with .030" copper, and copper 1/4" corbys. The handle material is shokwood from beyond wood products, it's a maple burl with chamelian resins that change color in different light.
It's full flat ground, milled tapered, and etched fuller on both sides, satin blade finish, differential heat treat with a hamon fail, polished spine all the way from point to inside the spanish notch. Sharpened to a toothy 600 and polished afterwards. It cut through a bunch of leather pieces from the sheath, paracord doubled over 12 times, catalog paper on edge, then made my forearm bald.
So what do y'all think
Kevin
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