Another lesson learned, more experience gained.

Core Knife Co.

Core Knife Co.

Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
1,367
This is number 6. It's cut from Aldo's 3/16" 1084. It has a 2.905" blade, a 3.925" handle and a total length of 7-1/8". It has black G10 liners with antiqued micarta under Burl Sources Koa. There are (4) 1/8" black micarta rods with a corbie bolt and a lanyard rod. It's flat ground towards the spine and tappers into a convex towards the blade. This was my first freehand grind on the Craftsman 2X42.

I was totally pleased right up to the point where I burned the corbie and the surrounding wood. It's going to my father-in-law as a gift, and my wife said it looked cool, so I left it, but it still hurts some knowing I blew it right at the end.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or criticism.

Many thanks.

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I think your father will be very proud to have and use that knife. He will be happy to have been part of teaching you one more thing!
 
Nice knife.

Yes, many forget that metal gets hot when grinding/sanding it. Stainless Corby bolts and stainless pins are the worst. I prefer Nickel for that reason.

The answer is:
Cut off excess with a saw or file.
Use slow speed and fresh belts when shaping. Avoid heat buildup.
Finish sanding by hand.
Buff with care.
 
I really like the overall profile of the knife. The grinds look good. The flared thong whole is well executed.

The four handle pins forward seem a little out of place with the other two being centered. The white edges on the handle accents its bulk and highlights the fact, that it does not taper towards the ricasso. Handles are more comfortable, in the hand, when they are thinned forward.
A knife of this size would benefit by thinning and tapering the tang as well as thinning the overall handle a bit.

My sixth knife didn't look any where near as good. Make some more.

Just my 2 cents, Fred
 
It dosen't look as bad as it could. With the dark micarta pins and the figure in the wood the eye dosen't really stick on the bullseye ring around the pin. It looks like a good user at any rate.
 
Great to see you're still at it buddy! This knife shows you've been practicing! I know it's a bummer to have burned the Koa, but in this case, with the colors of your handle it does fit in pretty good and I'm sure your father in law will be thrilled to get this blade. Nice work, keep it up!
 
Thats a cleaner grind than i ever got with the craftsman.Looks awesome with the layers!
 
I appreciate those who replied with suggestions and encouragement. I really have been reading and trying to understand the process and improving with each knife. I liked the idea of having a corbie in the middle to help with the overall strength of the scales even though I am pretty confident my epoxy prep and process is spot on for strength. I am second guessing that decision now t hat I see how easy it is to burn wood.
 
bladsmth said:
Stainless Corby bolts and stainless pins are the worst. I prefer Nickel for that reason.

The answer is:
Cut off excess with a saw or file.
Use slow speed and fresh belts when shaping. Avoid heat buildup.
Finish sanding by hand.
Buff with care.
Click to expand...

Good advice as always, especially cutting off the biggest part of the waste. SS corbies/pins seem to heat up before you notice and then stay that way for a while; then that heat radiates into your handle material and blammo :mad: I bet copper stays hot just as long or longer (haven't used it yet, couldn't say.) Anyone got a source for N/S corbies? That would be sweet...

MHill said:
I liked the idea of having a corbie in the middle to help with the overall strength of the scales even though I am pretty confident my epoxy prep and process is spot on for strength. I am second guessing that decision now t hat I see how easy it is to burn wood.
Click to expand...

Don't second guess now, corbies plus epoxy works very well. Just take your time. I try to always have at least two projects on the grinder at once, so I'm not tempted to keep grinding when things warm up. Set one aside and work on another while the first cools down. If you don't have a second project going, play with the dog for a couple minutes, put some tools away, have a smoke, pick your nose... whatever. :D
 
/\ Great advice from James. I also try to make sure I have more than one thing at a time for the grinder. Keeps overheating to a minimum.
 
I must have overlooked that corbie excess part in my studies. :D

I was grinding through that excess like it was dollar bills in a Vegas strip club.

Once my brain, which is admittedly slow at times, registered "HEY! My handle is smoking", it was way too late! If I admit that my first reaction was to stick my thumb on it, would anyone think less of me? I should have titled it "Two lessons learned".
 
It's chamfered. I have been working on doing both and have gotten pretty good results both ways. I had a lot of this thicker tubing and the effect is similar, so since I have the bolt in the center, I just went ahead and chamfered this one.

Another thing I noticed that I need to start doing is taking pictures before I go in the woods behind the house and getting the blade all dirty.
 
Punching a hole the size of the pin through a small piece of the backed aluminum duct tape and then placing it on the handle with the pin sticking through it is a good way to finish the pins with files; when you get really close to the handle surface the file will mark the aluminum before it cuts into the finished handle surface.

Just one more option, Fred
 
I mean this sincerely, imo that burn around the corby looks cool! I don't think it detracts from the knife. Which by the way, that is a nice looking knife.

I too burnt up my handles around a pair of 416 stainless pins not too long ago. I asked about dipping the handles in water to cool em down. No problem, as long as you are using stabilized material (or anything that won't absorb the water). So another reason to use stabilized wood.
 
Nice looking knife, MHill. The index finger-curve behind the guard is well done as is the chamfered lanyard hole. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
 
Nice work
Tell him that you even took the extra step and made a nice, black circle around the corby for extra contrast ;)
 
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