2 new knives: let me know what you think

R

rwn2000

Joined
Jan 6, 2003
Messages
716
I posted these in the Knifemaker's gallery as well, but I wanted to post it here as well and get your opinions too, let me know what you think.

I've been on a bushcraft/survival kick here lately and wanted to come up with something more than just my basic leather or kydex sheath. These two are my answer to the "What do you do if you're in the woods alone and lose your pack and all you have is what you're carrying on your person?" question that pops up about once a week on some forums. :) So here we go:
IMGP1279.jpg


Number 1:
IMGP1280.jpg

IMGP1281.jpg

IMGP1282.jpg


This one is 5/32" O-1, 10" OAL, 5" blade, tip to scales, camo G-10 bolster with micarta pins, rubber horse stall mat handle with stainless tubing. Sheath is kydex with a leather belt loop and removable pouch for supplies.

Number 2:
IMGP1283.jpg

IMGP1284.jpg

IMGP1285.jpg


This one is 5/32" O-1, 9 1/2" OAL,5" blade, camo G-10 scales with toxic green G-10 liners and pommel. Sheath is wet formed and hot waxed 8-9 oz leather with a front pouch sized for an Altoids tin.

Both are made for rough woods use. The spines have been drawn softer with a torch and are squared off for use with a firesteel. Proper batoning should not be a problem with either of these two. I've still got a few minor things to clean up but these are 95% finished. Comments are welcome.

randy
 
I like the blade on the black handled one a lot!! Nice stuff. I like the sheath with the Altoids tin as well.
 
The first one looks great to me. I've got a thing for rubber handles on users so you're tickling my fancy there. The design looks very well thought out. As a personal preference I'd rather solid pins than tubes, and that would be a deal breaker even though it is only cosmetic. Sadly I think your sheath betrays you. Looks like you've used copper rivets to hold the leather on and they aren't seated very well at all. They'd go green and start to fail for me in very short order. Address that and I think you've got a good package.
 
Thanks for the comments, guys,

Baldtaco-II, I don't like the way the rivets turned out either. My kydex rivets were not long enough and I thought the copper rivets would be more permanent than Chicago Screws but I'm beginning to re-think that. I may grind off the rivets and replace them with Chicago Screws with Loc-tite.
 
Pretty cool designs, I like them both. I like the handles on both, they are unique and look comfortable :thumbup:
 
Well, hate to go counter to the current on here (not really), but if I were buying the knife with the copper riveted sheath, I'd insist on the rivets staying. They probably COULD be done a little better, but I think they really add to the flavor. Although, I'd probably like them even more on the all-leather sheath. Copper rivets have been around forever. My father did some leather-work and used copper rivets, and yeah, they would go green, but I never saw one fail. And that was even when the leather was not treated as well as it should have been. Nahhh... I'll take copper rivets over screws any day of the week.

Knife number one is REALLY nice, and I really like the blade. But, not so much rubber handles. But that is just me. I'm guessing, though, that they are a heckuva lot better than kraton, so I'd probably adjust with no problem.

I like knife number two better, though. I take it it is a stick-tang? I just like the lay-out, the shape of the handle, the works. And the sheath. Except for the lack of copper rivets. ;)

Keep up the good work Randy. One of these days I'm going to grab another one of these knives. I'm still using the heck out of the small knife I bought earlier. Not so much the hunting knife, but no fault or shortcoming of the knife. It is just my hunting/dressing/skinning/quartering knife, and my hunting sucked this year.
 
Last edited:
Like the Black handled one a lot. Great functional execution on handle, blade shape and sheath!

PM sent
 
Thanks guys. I did replace the copper rivets with Chicago screws and like the look a lot better. I did a crappy job of setting the copper rivets initially; I shouldn't work on stuff at 11:00pm when I'm tired, :)

Rockspyder, I hate to disappoint you because i know stick tangs are your favorite ( :) ) but number 2 is a full tang except for the pommel. There is too much glare in the last pic to see the tang and liners very well. It is full tang to the end of the camo scales and then filed down and threaded for the 10-24 stainless nut. The outside 1/2 of the G-10 pommel is threaded as well so the nut is probably overkill. This is the first time I've used Micarta pins and i thought the threaded pommel would add a little shear strength to the entire handle. And the handle on number 1 is still pretty hard, harder than Kraton. The horse stall mat is made from shredded tires so it's pretty stiff with just a little give to it, but very grippy.

again, thanks for the comments.

randy
 
Love that second one, a lot. Not a big fan of the tin pouch on the sheath, but I certainly understand the merit of it. A simple sheath with a firesteel loop does it for me, then I might ranger band a piece of fatwood onto it and call it good. Nice work on both either way:thumbup:
 
Ah.... I was just in too big a hurry yesterday when I saw that. AND, it DOES have a little bit of glare, but not so much I couldn't have seen it if I paid attention. I like the idea of doing the pommel that way, plus it gives it some pizzazz. And even hearing the particulars about the horse mat, I'd probably still opt for G10 or Micarta. Either of those are my favorites. But like I said before, horse mat or rubber won't stop me, just not my favorite. Heck, I even have SOME Kraton, but very few (one I can think of) because it will stop me from buying a good blade. But, I digress.

Of the sheaths, the second one is my favorite, too, just because it's leather. I like leather, and it will hold up pretty well in anything except swamp-work, as long as you take decent care of it. Good idea sizine the pouches on both for the Altoids tin. I don't recall seeing that before. Sure, plenty of knives/sheaths that the Altoid tin (some size or another) will work. But VERY few leather ones that I've see that specifically have a spot for it.
 
Those are beautiful knives! I really like the blade shapes, I'm gravitating towards the Buck Vanguard/Busse BA-3E blade shapes as the best all-rounder for outdoors use, for me at least, and these are very similar. Not to mention it's nice to see something that's NOT a scandi grind these days, I've seen enough of those lately.... :D
 
Sodak, scandi grinds have their place but they don't really work for me either. Most of the knives I make are flat grind/secondary bevel and I like a convex edge on some hard use knives as well.

randy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top