Here is a cross-post from AR15.com... this project was for the groomsman gifts i gave out this last saturday on my wedding day...
So the project is finished. I made 9 of them. It was one of those projects that just kept growing and getting more in depth. All in all, it took me about 3 months of working an hour or so each night. I then sent off a knife to Robert Jones Hand Sewn Leather to make the sheaths. I handed them out on my wedding day (this last saturday, the 17th) while we were out shooting sporting clays.
to start, I took my favorite overall camp / hunting knife- the Becker Necker. Since Becker was bought by K-Bar, the design has suffered a little bit but the steel is 1095 CroVan, carbon steel- great stuff. to me, the size is PERFECT for all of my camp / hunting needs. Great size to skin / gut a deer, eating around camp, and normal day to day use. I usually keep a hatchet and / or a kukri around camp for the bigger jobs...
From the blank, I stripped the coating off and hand sanded it down to the bare metal. I didn't pay any attention to the edge because a 15* edge is WAY TOO STEEP to hold the edge under any actual use. I ended up re-profiling the blade to a 20* edge for the guys who won't use them much, and a 25* edge for my buddies that are hunters and will be cleaning deer.
Once the coating was stripped, i began making the micarta handles. I mostly used blue jeans but did a few with camo pants. My favorite few knives I used 5 layers of khaki on the inside (near the handle) and then denim after that. Creating the micarta sucked, but was no where near as big a pain in the ass as grinding down the micarta blanks to create the finished form of the handles. That SUCKED. Respirator, taped safety glasses, long sleeves in the heat, etc. Fiberglass dust is nasty stuff and it got EVERYWHERE. Used a combination of a belt sander, dremmel, and hand sanding to finalize this.
I ended with a 600 grit wet sand and hand filed the jimping. Last step was to force a patina on the blade... which i did in a number of different ways.
Overall i'm very happy with how they turned out, and worked on each blade until I was satisfied that I would want to keep it. What i ended with is 9 knives i didn't want to see leave...
Here are the final pics of one of the knives, one of the sheaths, and the stack of wrapped knives for my groomsmen.
One thing you cannot see, is on the other side of the handle, there is a relief cut where your index finger wraps around the handle- making it much more comfortable to hold and fitting the hand perfectly. Figured I would share!
So the project is finished. I made 9 of them. It was one of those projects that just kept growing and getting more in depth. All in all, it took me about 3 months of working an hour or so each night. I then sent off a knife to Robert Jones Hand Sewn Leather to make the sheaths. I handed them out on my wedding day (this last saturday, the 17th) while we were out shooting sporting clays.
to start, I took my favorite overall camp / hunting knife- the Becker Necker. Since Becker was bought by K-Bar, the design has suffered a little bit but the steel is 1095 CroVan, carbon steel- great stuff. to me, the size is PERFECT for all of my camp / hunting needs. Great size to skin / gut a deer, eating around camp, and normal day to day use. I usually keep a hatchet and / or a kukri around camp for the bigger jobs...
From the blank, I stripped the coating off and hand sanded it down to the bare metal. I didn't pay any attention to the edge because a 15* edge is WAY TOO STEEP to hold the edge under any actual use. I ended up re-profiling the blade to a 20* edge for the guys who won't use them much, and a 25* edge for my buddies that are hunters and will be cleaning deer.
Once the coating was stripped, i began making the micarta handles. I mostly used blue jeans but did a few with camo pants. My favorite few knives I used 5 layers of khaki on the inside (near the handle) and then denim after that. Creating the micarta sucked, but was no where near as big a pain in the ass as grinding down the micarta blanks to create the finished form of the handles. That SUCKED. Respirator, taped safety glasses, long sleeves in the heat, etc. Fiberglass dust is nasty stuff and it got EVERYWHERE. Used a combination of a belt sander, dremmel, and hand sanding to finalize this.
I ended with a 600 grit wet sand and hand filed the jimping. Last step was to force a patina on the blade... which i did in a number of different ways.
Overall i'm very happy with how they turned out, and worked on each blade until I was satisfied that I would want to keep it. What i ended with is 9 knives i didn't want to see leave...
Here are the final pics of one of the knives, one of the sheaths, and the stack of wrapped knives for my groomsmen.
One thing you cannot see, is on the other side of the handle, there is a relief cut where your index finger wraps around the handle- making it much more comfortable to hold and fitting the hand perfectly. Figured I would share!
