2nd Knife Build - Loveless Drop-point

[Jacob Hays]

Finally finished off my second knife. There are a few things I missed on the fit & finish side of things when it came to (1) soldering the guard, (2) tapering the tang and (3) getting the handle liners on.

I did manage to get better/quicker at initial beveling and sheath making, the rest I still suck at. Funny thing about soldering the guard, I did a test piece with some scrap which took about 15 minutes from start to cleaned up and it was perfect. Sweet, I'm going to do a soldered guard on every knife from now on, or so I thought. I then spent approx. 10 - 15 hours over the course of a few days doing and redoing the guard on the actual knife, what a pain in the ass.

Loveless style drop-point
Steel: 1080+
Temper: ~60 HRC* (*beginner w/ a blow torch heat treat method)

Blade Length: 4"
Overall Length: 8.5"
Handle Material: Walnut (left over from flooring my kitchen) and white vulcanized liner. Used a walnut oil based finish called Pens Plus.
Guard and Pins: 410 Stainless
Finish: 800 grit hand-rubbed

Sheath: 8 oz. Dark Mahogany stain (Eco-Flo brand), White thread (Tiger/Ritza brand).
The Tiger thread is way better than the stuff I have from Tandy. Also got some John James harness needles which certainly broke less than the Tandy ones, but maybe I just got better at not breaking them.

You can see where I messed up the placement of the liner on one side, leaving a gap by the guard :-(

This is probably a problem with my (slightly) tapered tang, doesn't look like I got the taper all the way to the guard again leaving a gap that the liner couldn't quite make up for. Also not sure how some guys make the blade to guard transition seem-less looking.

Anyways, thanks to the guys that put out WIPs and video tutorials on youtube. Lost track of all the stuff I referenced but specifically:
Aaron Gough
Nick Wheeler
Ian Atkinson (Leodis Leather on youtube)

 

[AVigil]

Nice job...

If you watch The Loveless video or SR Johnson video they both show how to get that nice fit on a tapered tang to the guard.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

If I may make a suggestion?

Next time, when working with white liners, use white epoxy pigment with your clear epoxy. It will help cover small errors. You'll still need to get it 99% right, but it may have made the gap much less noticeable.

I used this method here and there could be a small gap or two, but I can't tell.

Love the knife. I'm too chicken to try my hand at guards like that for now. Taper could be a hair more dramatic, but it looks very nice.

Keep going!

 

[phorizt]

I really like your sheath. Looks very well made and I love the mahogany color with white thread. I think I'm going to have to give that type of thread a try as I haven't been very happy with the tandy stuff I've used. This is just my personal preference but I kind of like my sheath to go up a little higher on the knife handle(maybe 2/3 of the way up). Either way it looks great.

Overall the knife looks really good too. The contour and shape of the handle and blade look nice. I think the white epoxy pigment would probably fill in any gaps and it would look perfect. I'll have to give that a try too.

 

[Jacob Hays]

Totally open to suggestions. To quote Sgt. Schultz "I know NOTHING".

Great tip, I will definitely give the pigment a try next time. What type/brand pigment do you use?
The other problem I ran into with the white liner and clear epoxy is that it picked up some of the pigment from my black sand paper. It looked pretty good before I started sanding with the finer grits that came on black paper. Part of that might be that I started out w/ crappy paper from HF before getting some 3M.

Totally agree with you on the taper. Put everything together and I was less than impressed. I was scared on this one, next time I'll be going thin.

 

[NickWheeler]

Excellent work Jacob.

If those scales are leftovers from a remodel...you must have a really kick-ass kitchen floor now!!!

Super second knife... you obviously put some time and pride into it.

If this was your 50th knife, there are some things I'd pick on you a little about, but as knife #2... all I've got to say Jacob, is--- keep going man. :thumbup:

 

[Jacob Hays]

Following Strig's comment found some info on pigments for the epoxy I'm using (West System 105 w/ 207 Hardener) in case anyone is interested.

http://www.westsystem.com/ss/adding-pigments-to-epoxy/

AVigil - I'll be trying to track down those videos. I'm a cheapskate but it will probably be worth it in the long run to pickup one of those. Sadly the local library won't have them until I buy/watch and then donate.

Phorizt - I got the thread off a seller on Etsy.com, which was fine for the smaller quantity that I wanted to try. It's a bit spendy but looks and handles nice. You can probably get larger quantities for a better per yard price going to the manufacturer, I think they are in the UK.

 

[Adam Buttry]

Jacob,
On the whole your knife and sheath looks pretty good!

As per Mr. Apelt's suggestion, I recently picked up some epoxy pigment from K&G Finishing. Comes in powdered form and is specifically for epoxy. Only a TINY amount is required so it should last a long while. I use G Flex and the amber color is unsightly if you get an exposed gap. Fortunately this hasn't happened to me recently, but I thought I would go ahead and pick up the pigment anyway. It works beautifully. In fact I used some this morning gluing up handles for 2 knives I'm currently working on.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

I use Evencoat resin and epoxy pigment. It comes in a little tube like a tube of toothpaste. I like it quite a bit and use it to make the handle material (except for the pins which are natural color resin) and for doing the liners.

I saw some pigments at Hobby Lobby the other day. They are comparable in price to the Evencoat, but HL has more colors than my local mom n pop hardware store (where I normally buy my pigment).

My only concern using it is my paranoia that it may weaken the epoxy, but then I'm just using Devcon 2 ton on my own knives for now. If I were selling, or REALLY worried, I'd be using WS and investigating the relationship between epoxy and pigment more closely.

I like the sheath too. I don't know about white thread, never used it. I've read that some people have had issues with the thread picking up dye as it goes through the stitching holes, but yours looks good. For now I'm using Tandy thread and needles (haven't had any problems with either, knock on wood), but have read excellent things about the thread and needles that you're using. Those are probably going to be my next purchase, or at least the thread.

 

[Frank Niro]

My opinions are the same as Nick's. You certainly have talent and abilities for this ! Recognizing any problem areas will help you to move forward more quickly and with the quality of work you are showing you will complete well done work all the time. Frank

 

[phorizt]

I broke an entire 10 pack of Tandy needles doing my first sheath. I actually broke the first 9 less than 1/3 of the way through. I was doing something wrong. I had the needles with the big eyes on them but they weren't very strong and broke off almost every time I tried pulling one through the hole. I made 2 changes on my next sheath and didn't break anything: 1) I went back to tandy and bought the bigger needles with smaller eyes. Not sure what they're called or exactly what size they are. b) instead of drilling 1/16" holes like I did on the first one I did 5/64" holes. I actually did this for the last 2/3 of the first sheath too b/c I was down to 1 needle and didn't want to break it. I still ended up breaking that last needle but luckily it was half a stitch short of where I planned on ending so I just cut it off and stopped there.

I did have trouble with the dye getting on my white stitching. However, I think that was just because I didn't wait very long to stitch it after I dyed it. I used the same kind of Eco Flo dye as the OP and his looks just fine so I think it was me rushing the process that caused the problem.

 

[Omega Leather Works]

Jacob, mind sharing where you sourced your thread? I know there is a seller on etsy, but that Tiger Thread is kinda hard to come by.

You can email me if you'd prefer. I hope you don't mind me asking, I'm not meaning to clutter up your thread.

 

[Jacob Hays]

Had the same experience as phorizt on my first sheath, went through the whole damned pack of tandy needles. I did change things up and bought a decent awl and just used that instead of drilling this time.

Strig - Don't mind at all pm sent