African Blackwood Mini Hunter

J

Jason Cutter

Joined
Oct 9, 2002
Messages
1,419
The latest, finished yesterday. A compact version of the blackwood hunter I posted a few weeks ago. The specs - 3.5inch blade - O-1 carbon, 1/8inch stock, flat ground to a thin edge, edge quenched,deep freeze, triple temper, dehorned spine. 416SS guard, red-white-blue waterproof spacers with black linen Micarta spacer double grooved by hand - adds significant feel and grip. African blackwood handle with SS fittings. OAL only 7.5inch Detail insets show the spacer and fitup, size comparo to full-sized hunter, and some hand positions / size for perspective.

Thanks for looking and any comments would be appreciated. Jason.

orig
 
As usual, a fantastic looking piece! How did you get the double grooves in it by hand?
 
Very nice. Love the grooves. The larger knife in photo B looks like it'd have a very comfy handle.
 
African Blackwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite handle materials, and I dont even own a knife that utilizes it yet. :) Note, I said YET. :)

This knife is simply magnificent!
 
This handle is simply drilled, slotted with a file and shaped across the front face until everything locks into place when I drive the tapered pin through the handle and tang. The tang 3.5inch long. Any excess gap inside the handle is loaded with Devcon 2-tonne epoxy. The piece of blackwood wasn't large enough for me to "play with" to do my preferred mortised tang or tang-framed versions. It was my last piece of blackwood too.

The grooves, I use a chainsaw file (1/8inch wide). Cut a groove on the top then follow the groove further and further down the spacer. Just be careful to keep it straight. Its slower on brass/SS fittings but same principle. Because the file runs inside the groove it has already made, its a lot easier than you'd think if you go slow. To polish inside the groove, you can use a thinner eg.- brass rod with a bit of 240grit paper stuck to it first, then a nylon cord which I load up with grey (then green) oxide buffing compound and run it inside the groove to polish it.

Cheers and thanks for the responses. Jason.
 
I love African Blackwood. I plan to have Jerry Fisk use it on a fighting Bowie he is going to be making for me.

The knife looks good Jason. I do however prefer a handle without the finger groves.
 
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