5th knife complete, seeking feedback and constructive criticism

hey,,, looks like a great blade to me,, i am a more function kinda maker.. the true test of a blade for myself, is in the heat treat.. if she will get sharp and stay that way... i see it as a great blade!
 
P J 234 said:
James, Here's a pic of the whole spine. The distal taper has more to do with the grinding errors described above than it does with good design...
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Regardless of how you came about it, that's what I was talking about. Maybe it's just me, but a full taper kinda like that is something I look for and strive for in my own work. Sometimes a goof-up leads to an "oh, yeah, duh!" :) I understand what you said about "breaking the spine", been there, done that.

The best I can say is, listen to the "old guys" (not me) and keep at it.
 
PJ that is a great looking knife there. Better than my fifth, Thats better than the number 9 I am working on now. I like the blade design and the handle shape too. Who ever gets that knife will love it for sure. Now go and make one of those fancy sheaths for it.

-frank
 
PJ, great job on that knife. Most things I note have already been discussed. I remember in my earlier knives, I really wanted to go all out and tried to add file work to my first several. In the end I realize that I made a much more professional and much cleaner knife without the file work. Aside from some parallel lines for grip on top of the spine, I haven't put file work on a blade in two years or more. I definitely don't think you will be leaving anything out by forgoing this. With that said, if you really want the file work, take some scrap and practice some different designs until you nail them.

Also, I would have spaced the middle pin in between the first pin and the tube to balance out the knife a bit.

As for finishing ironwood, you're right on track in getting it hand sanded to 2000 grit. From there I do a very light buff with white rouge to bring out the chatoyance and then finish with several coats of Danish oil. Coat the handle in danish oil (get it at lowes or hardware stores in the stains section) so that it's wet and let it sit for a while. Most of the oil will soak in and some will be left. Buff the remainder off and repeat. Do this 3 or 4 times and then finish again with a very light buff on the wheel followed by a hand buff with a microfiber cloth.

edited to add: I see you don't have a buffer. I would do the danish oil coats and then hand buff to finish it out.

You should be proud of the knife. It looks great! And you've gotten lots of great suggestions and feedback from this thread. Good job!

--nathan
 
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Everyone else already told you all you need to know. Handle is nice and not blocky, finish is nice. Pins (middle) needs spacing work, clean up the plunge lines, add some nice thin black spacers, and leave out the filework. Some people like filework some don't (I do) but your poorly done filework really killed this one.:(
Rent the video on filework by Dwayne Dushane sp? You can get it at technical video rentals.com Practice your filework on brass or corian which both cut very easily.
Good Job:thumbup:
Matt Doyle
 
Here are my thoughts - I think the knife would work better with some bolsters and a bit more curve to the spine in the handle. The bolsters would break up the wood a little and bring in the pin spacing a bit. With a tad bit more curvature, the handle wouldn't seem to swell quite so much at the rear of the knife.

You don't need to taper across the length of every blade, there would be a lot of hollow grinders out of business if you did. That being said, I feel that a bird and trout knife should be rather slender and I was worried at first when you said 1/8" stock. I think the taper works well with the design.

I like the knife.
 
Great work bro. I really like your knives, and your attitude is exemplary. This one is much better than the last, and you'll find the next ones will out do this one.

I like the handle. The front of the scales match, are finished well, and there aren't scratches in the blade there, so you finished them up ahead of time. Bueno. There aren't burnt pins, etc.

I never flare tubing in wood. You may have GREAT success. Or, you may screw up a lot of scales with a tad too much pressure splitting out beautiful handles. Micarta is different.

I also never buff wood. The blackness gets int he poores. Though, I've never tried it on Ironwood, so maybe thats not a concern there.

I don't get excited by filework. Its like Michael Jackson's glove IMO. Just not my gig. (I kid and mean no offense by that silly remark.)

Very cool knife.
 
Thanks again everyone for all the great feedback and nice words; it means a lot to me! I've got both Danish oil and Tru-Oil, so I'm covered there. Would it be worthwhile to wax it, either before or after oiling?

Bolsters are probably beyond my skill level at this point (or are they...I'm not sure exactly what's involved?), but they would look nice for sure. This being only my fifth knife and never having any sort of hands-on skills or hobbies with anything else in the past, my learning curve is pretty steep on all of this.

Just so I completely understand the feedback regarding the pins and thong tube, would you all layout everything out as if the thong tube were just another pin as far as spacing and location goes? For some reason, I'm still struggling with that in concept...

Thanks again!
 
Just for fun, here's a pic of my 'grinding' of this blade! (Top one in the picture)

IMG_1009.jpg
 
I think I managed to capture what I am calling my oval/egg shape from spine to edge of the handle. Is this not the right idea, or does it need to be more pronounced? Perhaps I should round the top corners more (although it feels great now)?

P1000047.jpg


A couple more shots in the daylight, I'm not sure they're any better than the ones I took indoors under incandescent light yesterday...

P1000039.jpg

P1000037.jpg
 
Looks good to me. Time to start another one :)

AcridSaint said:
You don't need to taper across the length of every blade, there would be a lot of hollow grinders out of business if you did.
Click to expand...

Good point. I just plain like flat and mild convex grinds, so I didn't even think of that.
 
P J 234 said:
Thanks again everyone for all the great feedback and nice words; it means a lot to me! I've got both Danish oil and Tru-Oil, so I'm covered there. Would it be worthwhile to wax it, either before or after oiling?

Bolsters are probably beyond my skill level at this point (or are they...I'm not sure exactly what's involved?), but they would look nice for sure. This being only my fifth knife and never having any sort of hands-on skills or hobbies with anything else in the past, my learning curve is pretty steep on all of this.

Just so I completely understand the feedback regarding the pins and thong tube, would you all layout everything out as if the thong tube were just another pin as far as spacing and location goes? For some reason, I'm still struggling with that in concept...

Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Bolsters are just like attaching wood. Just harder material, but same process.

As far as laying out pins and thong tubes, what I do is lay the knife blank on a piece of paper and trace around it. I also draw in the location of any bolsters and handle material, so that I know the general arrangement of the handle materials.

I have a collection of short cutoffs of all my different pin sizes and thong hole tubes in a drawer that I get out. Each cutoff is about an 1/8" long. I just lay out different pin combinations on my tracing of the knife profile until I find one that trips my trigger. You'll quickly find out which pins and at what locations you'll want to put them this way.

Sometimes the thong hole is in line with the pins after going through this process and sometimes it isn't. When you layout your short cutoffs, the knife will tell you were to put everything.

Once extra bit of advice. Pins almost never look good below the centerline of the handle. Most of the time they look best on the centerline, but on rare occasions, they can actually look better ever so slightly above the centerline. Once again, the knife will tell you when you trace it and lay out your short cutoffs.
 
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P J 234 said:
Perhaps I should round the top corners more (although it feels great now)?[/IMG]
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I personally would round the a little more. To me it still looks a little 'blocky' in that area but you have very much improved your overall handle shape. All else looks great to me.

Good job and thanks for sharing.

Pat
 
Paul, looks freaking great! I'm not a fan of filework, they add very little unless you can really really do filework and you risk losing a lot by adding it.

I'd round the spine of the handles more but you have the general idea and a willingness to work on it.

A little detail after you wax the handle or whatever finish you're using. Clean out the thong tube :p

Looks great and you're a lot further down the road than I was (heck probably further down it than I am now.)
 
Thanks for the additional input and suggestions, guys! I feel like I have a decent 'eye' for locating pins, but the addition of the thong tube has me a bit confused. I laid out the pin location as if there was no thong tube, then put it where it made sense to me afterwards (it seems like more knives were laid out this way than not when I looked at others for examples.) So, it was as I intended it to be and looked ok to my eye, but obviously the majority of the feedback tells another story. I will alter my placement next time, and try your trick of drawing it out and sample pins, Scott.

Will, the thong tube's all clean...nothing that a q-tip couldn't handle! I can assure you I'm still trying to find this 'road' that you speak of, and getting lots of bumps and bruises along the way!
 
Paul.... you're definately on the road.... when it gets bumpy just make gentle corrections :p

The bumps and bruises are usually from the wife/girlfriend for spending more time in the shop than the house :p
 
Now that's one good lookin' knife! Noone has ever made a knife that EVERYONE liked but I think most people will like this one, alot!!!
-M
 
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