not just a new one, but my first as well.
I have a hunting buddy who has been overly generous to me and I want to repay him. I posted once a long time ago about this and am finally getting to the point that i can devote the time to actually doing his knife. Since then, some new kits have come along and I want some opinions.
SV30 is pretty hard to come by in a pre-ground kit. I think i'm going to stick with AUS8 - provided the steel from KnifeKits.com is acceptable for a user. this knife will likely see the insides of 10+ deer a year, as well as coyote, fox and a bear or 2. He fishes alot too, and my goal is to have his EDC be the knife I make for him.
That said, I think i'm going to go with the Delta5 Drop point for this project. I have two choices for wood - he helped me with a forest of cherry trees in my back yard a couple years ago and I have some stellar looking cherry from them, as well as - and i'm not sure about this wood - some really knurled juniper from a root I dug up last year and have dried completely. the grain in the juniper is beautiful and the wood is pretty hard. I think it would be a good candidate for epoxy stabilisation.
obviously, the wood chosen will dictate the final finish, so here goes.
If i go with the juniper and do some home-brew stabilization with a vacuum pump and some thin boatmakers epoxy, the stabilized wood needs very little in the way of finishing - i can simply cut to rough shape, assemble the knife and using JB Weld to adhere all parts to the blank, then final sand and polish the whole thing at once, right?
The cherry is a whole different story...assemble, and possibly using a CA finish or carnuba...either is end user repairable - what would YOU use?
I also have a nice wood shop up the road with some more exotic woods, but this stuff is near and dear to both of us...it represents some time spent getting our collective butts kicked by mother nature.
He's a Marine as well, so i intend on incorporating a small medallion of the marine Eagle/globe into the handle and covering with clear acrylic or CA...will this hold up? http://www.militaryclothing.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/hierarchy/0K0G/product-id/534036.html
Do you peen pins that go into wood? Lightly? Just glue them? the pins on the bolsters (likely will only have front bolsters...) get peened AND glued with JB Weld?
I'm a bit overwhelmed...i have been reading for a week now and soaking everything in, but i just wanna make a knife dammit LOL
I have a hunting buddy who has been overly generous to me and I want to repay him. I posted once a long time ago about this and am finally getting to the point that i can devote the time to actually doing his knife. Since then, some new kits have come along and I want some opinions.
SV30 is pretty hard to come by in a pre-ground kit. I think i'm going to stick with AUS8 - provided the steel from KnifeKits.com is acceptable for a user. this knife will likely see the insides of 10+ deer a year, as well as coyote, fox and a bear or 2. He fishes alot too, and my goal is to have his EDC be the knife I make for him.
That said, I think i'm going to go with the Delta5 Drop point for this project. I have two choices for wood - he helped me with a forest of cherry trees in my back yard a couple years ago and I have some stellar looking cherry from them, as well as - and i'm not sure about this wood - some really knurled juniper from a root I dug up last year and have dried completely. the grain in the juniper is beautiful and the wood is pretty hard. I think it would be a good candidate for epoxy stabilisation.
obviously, the wood chosen will dictate the final finish, so here goes.
If i go with the juniper and do some home-brew stabilization with a vacuum pump and some thin boatmakers epoxy, the stabilized wood needs very little in the way of finishing - i can simply cut to rough shape, assemble the knife and using JB Weld to adhere all parts to the blank, then final sand and polish the whole thing at once, right?
The cherry is a whole different story...assemble, and possibly using a CA finish or carnuba...either is end user repairable - what would YOU use?
I also have a nice wood shop up the road with some more exotic woods, but this stuff is near and dear to both of us...it represents some time spent getting our collective butts kicked by mother nature.
He's a Marine as well, so i intend on incorporating a small medallion of the marine Eagle/globe into the handle and covering with clear acrylic or CA...will this hold up? http://www.militaryclothing.com/IBS/SimpleCat/Product/asp/hierarchy/0K0G/product-id/534036.html
Do you peen pins that go into wood? Lightly? Just glue them? the pins on the bolsters (likely will only have front bolsters...) get peened AND glued with JB Weld?
I'm a bit overwhelmed...i have been reading for a week now and soaking everything in, but i just wanna make a knife dammit LOL
