5160, red palm harpoon hunter

[trogdorr]

Hi guys, I have made a habit of posting my projects on here because of the wealth of knowledge and the feedback I receive on this forum. I mostly make knives as a hobby although I have sold a few. So I made this knife as a wedding present for a friend of mine, he wanted a multi purpose hunting/outdoor type of knife he really likes contoured, wooden handles and wanted a short guard. I have been practicing some hidden tang knives prior and felt I was at a point where I could create a gift worthy of such occasion. Sorry for the cellphone quality pictures

This is what I drew up

I got a little off track with the cutting wheel on the tang. Its not very deep and since it is a hidden tang knife I don't think it would really affects anything. still bugs me though.

To recognize This big moment I wanted something on the knife that would represent permanence and unity. I have a metal stamp set of the alphabet I picked up from menards one day, I heated up the blank and stamped two "O"s into where the ricasso of the knife would be.

Using my Craftsman 2x42 belt sander and a fixture I made, I ground in the bevels and the swedge then sanded the surfaces to take out the grind marks. This is only the second swedge I have made and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out. The first was on a blade shaped like this but a bit larger, that didn't turn out bad either.

I didn't take many pictures of the progress of the handle but it started out as a rectangular block, I drilled the area for the tang and did most of my shaping using belt sanders. I also drilled and filed the brass for a guard.

After some more shaping by hand, some finishing sanding, and a couple coats of polyurethane this is what I ended up with.

Any thoughts on how my design or execution can be improved would be very welcome. Every knife I make keeps getting better and better and improvement is what keeps me going at it.

Thanks for looking,
Trogdorr

 

[Dawkind]

I think you did a fine job and it looks very useful and ready for work.

 

[i4Marc]

Harpoon is a good description because you will have a hard time withdrawing the blade after it penetrates something. The rear angle on the top barb of that blade is very tall and straight. Lower would help but more specifically the straight angle in the back will catch on things and make it difficult to back the blade out. Check out blades by the likely progenitor of the style, Jason Knight. Do a Google image search for "Jason Knight bowie" and you'll see what I mean. Much of your knife looks very good. The blade shape and the nice work on the bevels stands out. I would say that a bit of curvature along the top of the handle flowing from the spine in a nice sweeping arc would have looked a bit less "stiff" and would feel great in the hand. Also, a round radius on the rear of the guard blending nicely into the handle would feel better too. Additionally, it would reduce some weight up front and make the blade perform a lot better if you take your swedge to a sharp peak on top rather than having a flat spot there. You don't have to sharpen it, as some localities have laws against that, but almost sharp is good. Pin placement on the handle could be a bit lower top to bottom so it's a bit more centered. Handle shaping looks very good although still a bit blocky on the corners. You might try more of an oval or egg shaped cross section on the next one. I'm not sure a poly finish is the best thing for the handle. A finish like TruOil would probably be better. Lastly, the tang is a bit thin where it meets the ricasso. You have a small radius in the corners which is good. But having the tang wider where it connects to the ricasso will be much stronger. You only need maybe 3/16" or so on each side against which to seat the guard. You can taper the height of the tang as it goes further into the handle but try to keep more meat up front. This is a fine effort though and your friend will be proud to own it.

 

[andrewh2011]

thats really nice i especially like the intertwined Os

you asked for ideas on design and execution well i cant say any thing about execution because i couldnt make a knife that nice if i tried so that being said i do have a couple of ideas about design that i have noticed while drawing up knifes for when i do start getting back into my shop (i recently got married as well so were still recuperating financially lol)

first i think this style hidden tang look alot better with a ricasso that lines up with the handle so i draw a straight line from handle through the guard (line under the 2) and remove the metal where the x is. I personally think this makes a huge difference in the aesthetics to this style hidden tang.

the other thing is a small detail that is probably really difficult to add would just be to make the handle guard transition almost semi-circular

 

[trogdorr]

Thanks for the replies. I can definitely see what you mean about the harpoon tip being a bit straight up, as I was making it I was thinking "this would be cool looking" but form follows function right? im glad you pointed that out Marc. An arc to the handle would also be a nice touch, I think it feels really good in the hand for one of my own handles.

Congratulations on the marriage Andrew! I like your idea about the ricasso lining up with the handle, that would look sharp. I'm working with some pretty basic tools right now so getting that rounded guard to handle transition would take some practice. I need to invest in a drum sander or a belt sander with a smaller diameter contact wheel I think that would help a lot.

There is so much more to making a nice knife than I originally thought. small details can make a huge difference in the performance of a knife as well as the aesthetics. every time I learn something.

 

[i4Marc]

trogdorr,

You can use a half round file or a round file to get that rounded contour behind the guard. Then clean up with sandpaper.

 

[trogdorr]

I will certainly try that on my next knife like this.