Assembled My First Fixed Blade

smiling-knife

smiling-knife

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Nov 11, 2006
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I recently assembled my first fixed blade knife. It has a 10.5 cm carbon steel blade made by Lauri in Finland. The finger guard and stacked leather handle were inspired by some of my Sheffield knives. Sort of a fusion of two fine traditions.

I started with these parts.

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I cut a strip of leather into sections about 3.5cm by 3cm. I cut holes in the leather to fit the tang. I used a leather punch to make two holes, gradually reducing the distance between them as I went towards the butt. I used a sharp knife to cut the bit inbetween. By the end it was just a single hole.

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The original spacers were forrest green and black fibre with white bone in the middle. I glued the the spacers bits together to make solid blocks. The original blocks didn't look good because of the lack of contrast between the dark green and black so I redid the sections with the green in the middle bordered by thinner ivory-coloured high impact plastic and then black. I drilled holes in the spacer blocks and used a small file to make slots.


I did a trial fitting to see how it looked.

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Looked ok... so took it all apart and epoxied the brass guard in place and left if for a couple of days.

Now I needed a clamp. I made this from a scrap of 8mm thick veneered fibre board, used for inexpensive kitchen cabinets and furniture, and 6mm diameter threaded rod. I cut a slot for the blade in one board and a hole for the tang in the other. A little reinforcement along the top of the blade slot was needed. Wing nuts on the butt end allowed me to compress the handle.

I expoxied all the parts together and left them in the clamp for about 3 days.

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Part two tomorrow if there is interest.
 
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I am very impressed, I cannot wait to see what the finished product looks like!!

So how is the butt cap attached? I am assuming that it is epoxied, but is there any other fastening system being used that I cannot see? I really like the contrast between the white plastic and the leather; I especially like the contrast of tradition and modernization due to the natural and synthetic materials both infused together in the handle.

Also, have you any ideas for how you want to sheath this little gal yet?

I almost bought one of these blades myself, but I never did come up with how I really wanted to do the handle. I might do a 'crashcarta' wrap after I see how yours turns out.

Good work so far, you may have just inspired me :p
 
Thanks very much for your supportive comments. To answer your question, I did epoxy the butt cap in the assembly as shown in the last photo above. However, that proved to be irrelevant as it came loose when I peaned the tang. The riveting of the tang firmly fixed the cap to the rest of the handle.

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p.s. no idea re sheath yet. That's another project for the future.
 
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Wow! S-K your projects are always getting greater each time. I like the look of that knife. I´m looking forward seeing more of yours!

Kind regards
Andi
 
I would like to see some pics of how you sanded the handle and some final pics please. Looks awesome.
 
Thanks everyone for your interest and supportive comments.

Here are a few photos at various stages. I used a razor saw to produce the rough shape. I then filed and sanded the handle. I cut sandpaper into strip and then worked it back and forth like a shoe shine. I learned of something called micromesh which is like a sanding cloth. It worked much better, didn't break like paper. This was very useful for the later finishing.

This is the rough shape after the sawing. This is the point where I realised that I put one of the leather pieces out of place. There should be equal numbers(6) in the front and back segments. Somehow, I transposed one from the middle to the back....:mad: Apparently, such mistakes during production make an item much rarer. ;)

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Then with some filing and sanding the shape is becoming a little more refined.

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After some further slimming down, I applied some 'Leather Food'. I used this rather than glue as I wanted a natural leather feel rather than a hard plastic feel. It should be water resistant but on the down side more susceptible to gouges and scuffs than if I had used glue. At this stage, I used a small file on the spacers to flush them with the brass fittings at each end and curve the bit on the underside by the guard.
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Three or four steps later, alternating more food followed by increasingly finer sanding with the strips, the handle is finished.
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I filed the tang rivet flat but left a decent size head on it for strength and removed the black scale from the blade forging using wd40 and fine steel wool. Then finally finished the brass fittings.

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Thanks again for your support. I hope this helps others to give it a try. It was lots of fun and very educational.
 
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Wow-- that looks tremendous! I like how you described maintaining a leather feel to the handle, and wish I could touch it!

Had you not mentioned mis-placing one of the leather pieces, I either would not have noticed or assumed it was intentional. Not knowing your original idea, there's nothing that is visually distracting-- whereas you probably have difficulty not noticing, yes?

Very nicely done. :-)

~ P.
 
Thanks very much. I greatly appreciate your comments.

Pertinux, I can't help but notice whenever I look at it. On the plus side it does seem to fit with the back slope being a little more gradual than the front. The highest point is slightly ahead of the middle. Not sure if that was a subconcious design feature or just worked-out that way. :)

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s-k!

That´s a really nice fixed blade :) Congratz on that wonderful piece of steel, leather and brass! I really like, how you made the handle. The result speaks for itself.

Thank you for sharing all the steps you made to get that job done.

Kind regards
Andi
 
Bravo! I am very pleased at the results!

If I may ask, where did you acquire the butt cap and guard? I really want to try my hand at my own micarta wrap on one of these guys.
 
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