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Nir,
Hey bro...thank you for your soon to be service

I am a really big fan of the "tweener" sizes of knife blades... and since me and you are the same height I can suggest the following

no serrations
3/16"/1/4" thickness
6" blade
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 wide
5" handle of micarta
 
Nir,

Thank you for your future service to your wonderful country. A good knife needs no more than a 5-6 inch blade. Unless you are going to use it for "Heavy" duty, it needs to be no more than 3/16 thick, and probably no more than 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches tall.

As Dave said above, Micarta is a very durable handle.

Good luck and may you be blessed as you serve in the IDF. Also, good luck with the girls. :)

Robert
 
Robert Dark said:
Nir,

Thank you for your future service to your wonderful country. A good knife needs no more than a 5-6 inch blade. Unless you are going to use it for "Heavy" duty, it needs to be no more than 3/16 thick, and probably no more than 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches tall.

As Dave said above, Micarta is a very durable handle.

Good luck and may you be blessed as you serve in the IDF. Also, good luck with the girls. :)

Robert
Click to expand...

+1

Nir, take good care
 
Nir,
Congratulations on being a future member of the IDF. I'm sure your family and friends are very proud of you.
As far as the knife goes, a blade length as short as 2.54 cm can easily be lethal. When I was an Infantryman in the U.S. Army, I carried a knife with a 15.24 cm long blade. The blade was about 5mm thick, and the handle was about 13 cm long. The knife was made by an american company called Cold Steel, and was the SRK (Survival Rescue Knife)model. I found that this knife was able to perform very well for any task that I used it for. The one I had was the high carbon steel version, which is what I would suggest you use if possible because you will probably use it quite a bit and you don't always have a lot of time to maintain the edge. Stainless steel just doesn't perform as well as high carbon steel. For blade shape, I would suggest a drop point blade, because there really isn't much use for a clip point or tanto point in the military.
I hope this advice helps and good luck with your future service,
Dave
 
Nir,
Check with some of the people you know who have done Tzahal duty and see what they recommend. A sturdy folding knife is probably the most useful. After that, a strong fixed blade with a 3-4" blade would be best. A dagger has almost no military use besides hurting yourself. Many forces won't let you carry one.

For the rest of the BF folks, The IDF is the Israeli military. It isn't the Mossad or the Sayeret Tzanhanin. Every Israeli national person, male or female, does his term in the IDF or a suitable national service substitute .....unless you are sarvanim ( sort of like the old peacnicks of the 1960/70s).
Technically speaking, every Jewish/Israeli man and woman in Israel is a reserve member for life. Back in the six day war, I had a Jewish friend who was a doctor. He had gone to Tel Aviv for vacation ,and when the war was declared he was immediately put in a military medical unit. Even though he was a US citizen, he was not allowed to leave Israel. Luckily for him it was a short war. He said the reason it was so brief was the tanks were rented from Hertz for $100 an hour :)

None of this is meant to diminish Nir's service in the Israeli defense Forces. It is an honorable thing.

Nir - tihyeh batuach

Shalom
 
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Nir8
I don't know much about combat knives except for what I read, but if I were going to design and carry one as a soldier I would consider something designed by an expert, actually several experts, the Applegate-Fairbain knife.
KnifeApplegateFairbairnBOKER9in.jpg


I was in the US Army signal corps stateside and the only knife I carried was a small pocket knife.

- Paul Meske
 
The TV shows show the police running around with drawn guns and shooting hundreds of bullets.
Rambo and Chuck Norris style movies show soldiers running around with daggers in their hands, slitting throats and throwing them into unsuspecting guards.
In reality , most police never draw or fire their guns in an entire career. Today, most military soldiers never see an enemy close up, and never fight anyone physically.... except in a bar off duty

The days of the common soldier fighting hand to hand in the jungles, as it was in the 70's when the Applegate-Fairburn fighting knife was devised, are pretty much gone. Today there is body armor and high tech weaponry. Soldiers rarely fight hand to hand with the need to stab an opponent using a "tactical" dagger through plain cotton camo's.

However, There are more boxes, cloth, and ropes than ever. Cutting something soft and sitting still ( like a big box) is a common task, slicing on something a bit harder ( trimming a tent stake) a fairly common task, slitting a pant leg open on a wounded comrade might happen rarely, but would require a knife,.....but stabbing someone......almost surely never will happen.
A good sturdy folder will get more jobs done than any other knife style a soldier can carry.
And, contrary to popular TV and movies - Many military units prohibit the carrying of any fixed blade knife.
 
Are you a bladesmith or having this knife commissioned? If not, I would strongly suggest purchasing a good multitool. You'll get more use out of that thing than you could ever imagine. A nice leatherman wave or charge will serve you quite well. As an infantryman, you'll likely be issued a bayonet. That will probably suffice for all of your stabbing needs. No need to carry two fixed blades of the same size.
 
In all honesty, that's a terrible template you've cut out. I'd bet you already know that.

The template should not be in the shape of the finished knife. Rather, it should be in the shape of the blade. Remove the protrusions that are supposed to be the guard. Even up the lines of the blade.

Are you thinking of of full tang with scales, or a hidden tang with a full handle? The choice determines how you shape the back end of the template.

I can see you're determined to have a dagger... and I understand that, since I share a passion for daggers. However, I'd second the advice that you buy a well made knife for military service rather than relying on your first attempt at a handmade knife. The first knife you make is GREAT for teaching you how to make the second knife. The first knife you make would not be appropriate as a last line of defense weapon.

- Greg
 
nir8 said:
In this stage I am asking for help on choosing the right kind of steel for this knife.
Click to expand...

Stick to this. Your post is filled political commentary. Please refrain from any more as all political discussion on this site needs to be in the Political Area forum. Thanks.
 
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YOUR home grown dustar knives are hard to beat. make your first out an old lawn mower blade, with a differential quench in motor oil, then normalize in your home oven. knife will be ugly, durable, and nearly indestructable. then go from there with other shapes, steels and etc. this will give you a feel for the process on the cheap.
i shaped the steel, heated to non magnetic, used pliers and vise grips for tools, used an old concrete planter lined with clay, a fencepost for my airpipe, a bathroom vent for my airflow, charcoal for my fuel( after dinner). this way it was cheap, i got to experiment with temper, shaping, hammering, all for cheap.
this gave me some knowledge and experience, but also a great appreciation for custom knifemakers as well as good factory knives.
 
The steel you choose should be durable. I would go with 5160. it can be easily obtained from leaf springs. it is tough, easy to sharpen, and perfectly serviceable.
 
decent work dude. try 1095 steel, easier to sharpen, but durable-think becker and kabar here.
don't neglect a good sheath, without a good sheath you either lose your knive, or be unable to deploy it in a timely manner.
 
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