#21 & #22, Please let me know what you think!

N

Nic.

Joined
Dec 8, 2014
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814
Hey all! Here are two hunters that I recently finished, please let me know what you think! Both are 1/8th inch 1084 and are very sharp! And, these are my first knives with my makers mark. The first one has canvas micarta scales with blue G10 liners. The micarta was getting discolored towards the front of the scales and wouldn’t sand off, any ideas on how to fix that? There is a thumb grove on the spine, It is comfortable, but I prefer notches for grip on top. The second is my all time favorite. The blade has a satin finish, sanded to 600 grit. The notches on top were done with a small triangular file and turned out very nice. The handle is ancient olivewood with beautiful figure and G10 liners. This one is slimmer than the other and is very comfortable.


 
Looking good Nicole. I like the top one out of the two. The blade finish looks alot better than your previous ones.

Be careful with the nub of wood at the ricasso, where your index finger would rest. It's very thin and will have the tendency to chip off. I had that happen to me on one of my first knives. Yours should be strong enough with that g10 liner though.

Keep it up.
 
Slow down. You are still not correcting things people discussed with you with your first few knives. You will learn much more if you make one very good knife rather than a pile of mediocre knives. These are ok but you should be beyond this level at 23 completed knives. I'm not at all trying to be rough on you. I'm trying to encourage you to focus. Aside from the heat treatment and geometry, the details are what separate the men from the boys, metaphorically speaking. And that doesn't take a lot of expensive machinery. It just takes the will to spend the time to make sure every detail of the symmetry, fit and finish is clean and precise. On your next knife make it PERFECT even if it takes you a whole year to do it.
 
Thank you! Ok, thanks. Should I just not have that nub of wood at all? Or how could I redesign this so it isn't fragile?
Thanks Shane!
 
Just move the front of the handle back a bit. Here's an example:

IMG_3743_zpss6t6bhgw.jpg
 
i4Marc said:
Slow down. You are still not correcting things people discussed with you with your first few knives. You will learn much more if you make one very good knife rather than a pile of mediocre knives. These are ok but you should be beyond this level at 23 completed knives. I'm not at all trying to be rough on you. I'm trying to encourage you to focus. Aside from the heat treatment and geometry, the details are what separate the men from the boys, metaphorically speaking. And that doesn't take a lot of expensive machinery. It just takes the will to spend the time to make sure every detail of the symmetry, fit and finish is clean and precise. On your next knife make it PERFECT even if it takes you a whole year to do it.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the honesty. I know Stacy had talked about the wood nub at the ricasso, but I thought that was fixed with the different design of this knife. What am I missing? Especially on this latest one, I'm pretty happy. I'm getting the symmetry down along with comfortable geometry, and learning with every knife I make. When sanding blades, I work through the grits and make sure no scratches are left behind. I want to learn, please tell me the main issue that you see with these knives.
 
Thanks again Shane! I thought it looked neat to have the wood transition down that internal guard in this design, but I guess I can't seem to get it quite right...I'll just get rid of that concept for now.
By the way...nice knife!
 
Nic.,

These are only my observations. Others may feel differently. Like I said, these are not bad. You are doing well. It's just that sweating the details more will bring your game to another level.






 
i4Marc spotted ( and illustrated very well) the same things that I see. The burning on the wood and micarta is a huge problem. The dip in the spine also is detracting.

One thing no one seems to have mentioned is the makers mark on the blade bevel near the edge. This is a strange looking place for it, and a poor choice for location.
 
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I4Marc-
That rocks, thank you very much. As for the liners on the first knife, I looked it over and there are no gaps. All I did with the liners or epoxy them onto my scales and then work the whole thing, I didn't thin and part if them out in any way. I will truth to post more pics tonight, perhaps the glare is making some sort of illusion. Maybe you can help me with the tip, my purpose for this knife was a hunter/skinner, so I want to minimalize the tip...how do I so this without making it look like it does? Ok, it's a saber grind like the knife below it.
Second knife: dip in spine is a thumb grove, I hate it and won't use it again. I was trying to figure that out, I can't get those marks out, I don't know what they are.
Thank you very much, that is super helpful.
 
Nic.,

The tip may just be a personal preference thing. I like tips that come to a point. I don't mean that all knife tips should be long and aggressively pointy. I mean that the spine should meet the cutting edge at a very distinct corner. On your knife, if you want a softer tip be cause you will be using it for skinning, then do that. You build the knife that is appropriate for the tasks it will be asked to perform. Here is a skinner I made not long ago:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1281170-12-done!?p=14684048#post14684048

My blade has plenty of belly for skinning and has a relatively short tip, but the tip comes to a crisp point. Again, I'm not saying you must do this. That is your call depending on what you envisioned for your knife. I'm just illustrating what I'm talking about when I say your tip is "soft". Also, that is my 12th completed knife. It is not perfect but the details are pretty clean. You could be doing this kind of work if you put more emphasis on quality over quantity. You can do it! If you want your tip to have a crisp point at the tip there are two ways to do it. You can bring the cutting edge up until you get a sharp point. This will also involve resharpening the cutting edge at the tip. The easiest way is just to grind, file or sand the forward portion of your spine and blend it down until you achieve a sharp point.
 
The top is your best to date by far. There is still room for improvement as others have pointed out. I will say that I think a skinning knife needs a point. I don't know if you've cleaned any whitetail but you need a good point to get around the anus. Also, the notch in the spine is seen on some caping knives. Most of the time it is more pronounced. I like the feel of one but don't like the look. Overall it's getting there. Focus on correcting the things stated above. Also, I'm diggin' the blue liners!
 
i4Marc said:
Nic.,

The tip may just be a personal preference thing. I like tips that come to a point. I don't mean that all knife tips should be long and aggressively pointy. I mean that the spine should meet the cutting edge at a very distinct corner. On your knife, if you want a softer tip be cause you will be using it for skinning, then do that. You build the knife that is appropriate for the tasks it will be asked to perform. Here is a skinner I made not long ago:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1281170-12-done!?p=14684048#post14684048

My blade has plenty of belly for skinning and has a relatively short tip, but the tip comes to a crisp point. Again, I'm not saying you must do this. That is your call depending on what you envisioned for your knife. I'm just illustrating what I'm talking about when I say your tip is "soft". Also, that is my 12th completed knife. It is not perfect but the details are pretty clean. You could be doing this kind of work if you put more emphasis on quality over quantity. You can do it! If you want your tip to have a crisp point at the tip there are two ways to do it. You can bring the cutting edge up until you get a sharp point. This will also involve resharpening the cutting edge at the tip. The easiest way is just to grind, file or sand the forward portion of your spine and blend it down until you achieve a sharp point.[/QUOTE
That's a beautiful knife, I remember seeing that one! Thank you so much for all your help, I really appreciate you taking the time to break it all down and go through it with me.
Click to expand...
 
Matt R said:
The top is your best to date by far. There is still room for improvement as others have pointed out. I will say that I think a skinning knife needs a point. I don't know if you've cleaned any whitetail but you need a good point to get around the anus. Also, the notch in the spine is seen on some caping knives. Most of the time it is more pronounced. I like the feel of one but don't like the look. Overall it's getting there. Focus on correcting the things stated above. Also, I'm diggin' the blue liners!
Click to expand...
Thanks Matt! Ok. Where I live we only have blacktail, so I've never skinner a white tail! Thanks! I like the blue liners too!!
 
Nic.,

We all stand on the shoulders of those who inspire and teach us. Build up your shoulders well. In no time you will be lifting up others and paying it forward. It is the circle of life.
 
To answer your question about the marks on the micarta, it looks like you burned it.
Use sharp, fresh belts, and if possible, slow your grinder down. If grinder can't be slowed, take light passes and take care not to over heat. Files and/or hand sanding may also be an option.
 
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