Attmepting my first solo knife hopefully WIP C&C's welcome

Fletch Helical

Fletch Helical

Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
1,614
Some of you know that Bladsmith has generously agreed to help me on a knife build. Thread with that knife is here http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=687010

He's been fairly busy lately and he still hasn't gotten an opportunity to get that back to me. Now it's gotten to the point that everyone in my family is tired seeing the wood I've bought and of hearing my talk about making a knife. And I've been chomping at the bit to get going long enough :).

So today I drew out what my 1st/2nd knife will be. (When the one Bladsmith sends me arrives I'll put this one on the back burner and do that one). I drew the template and transferred it to a piece of 1080 and should hopefully get it it cut out tonight. Unless some of the critiques and comments by then help me make some slight modifications.

My plan was to making it a skinning/caping knife and I thought the slightly rounded tip would be a good idea (I think :o). I've found that sometimes with a very pointy tip and sharp knife it can be easy to cut through the hide in certain spots. Which, if you plan on tanning it is an undesired thing. Overall the blade is about 3.5" and the hands is 4.25"

Fire away.

Buildknife.jpg
 
looks good I like the overall design, but the tip is odd. if it works for skinning, and thats what you want it for then fine, but there may be other applications where a sharp tip can be necessary. Unless you have other work/general purpose knives you want to use you may want the tip. (trust me you'll want to use your first knife for everything)
 
The belly is also very odd. If you have a reason it's like that, go ahead but just make sure you do. You'll probably want to make it more of a smooth curve starting further back and bring the point up a bit higher than where it is. I'd also smooth out the top, its rather abrupt. When designing a knife make sure you do everything purposefully and for good reason. Everything works out being much more practical, and often functionally prettier.

Really like the handle though.

Edit: I dont mean to tell you how to make your knife, but here's a picture to describe what I meant

redonep.jpg
 
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Munky88 said:
The belly is also very odd. If you have a reason it's like that, go ahead but just make sure you do. You'll probably want to make it more of a smooth curve starting further back and bring the point up a bit higher than where it is. I'd also smooth out the top, its rather abrupt. When designing a knife make sure you do everything purposefully and for good reason. Everything works out being much more practical, and often functionally prettier.

Really like the handle though.

Edit: I dont mean to tell you how to make your knife, but here's a picture to describe what I meant

redonep.jpg
Click to expand...

Hey I'm open to all suggestions and ideas, that's why I asked for the C&C's. Also like the look of what you did there, thanks.
 
Well since you asked, I think its too short and plump.

The design stage is everything in how the final knife will look. Draw about 10 or 15 knives and take your favorite parts from them into one drawing and come back and show us. People here are so nice they dont want to say anything negative but You are wise to ask.

Do you look at knives in the Knife Annuals? There are some great shapes there. Dont worry about drawing one just like somebody elses for now. Later you will develop your own style but for now you just need to design a knife that looks appealling and is a useful knife.

I like to draw a shape and blow it up on a copier until it fits my hand. You have the exact size handle on yours, 4 1/4" I also use cardboard to cut it out and see how it feels and looks in the hand. Remember simple profiles are usually best.
 
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Kinda piggy backing off of Bruce.

I have books and books of knife sketches. When I get in the mood to make a knife I'll probably draw 50 or more a week.

I'd really recommend you draw 20 or more hunters to get a better idea. I often sketch different styles of knives on the same sheet then will compare like purposed knives on different pages then kind mash them together. One thing that helped me design knives is to draw them point down and use a french curve, seems to help me get "flow" better than when I sketch them sideways if that makes any sense. Look at lots of pictures, books, magazines and the forum galleries and sales threads.

One thing for me, I hate straight lines in smaller knives, I think useful curves add a lot to a design.

From my point of view:

The butt drops too much, this will cause the point to raise up and defeats the purpose of dropping a point (to add control.)

Not enough usable ricasso, there's not enough to choke up on and just enough to snag all the dang time (I know, I've made pretty much the exact same knife, I think we all do at the start.)

The drop or divot on the spine at the front of the handle needs to go, it serves no purpose and will aggravate your hand after being used a while.

I think the palm swell on the bottom of the handle is too large too far back towards the butt.

I would really simplify the handl treatment with just a simple "swoop" from the guard to the butt. This is more comfortable than you might think, search for one of my "EDK" knives and look at the handle design, it's very comfortable.
These are just based on my design philosophies.
 
At one time somebody here posted a link to a deceased makers design stash. He had every pattern for anybody and everybody to use. Anyone remember that web sight?
 
Bruce Bump said:
At one time somebody here posted a link to a deceased makers design stash. He had every pattern for anybody and everybody to use. Anyone remember that web sight?
Click to expand...

Are you referring to LLoyd Harding mentioned here? I think the site is down now - it didn't realize that until I tried to look it up again :(
 
photonjunkie said:
Are you referring to LLoyd Harding mentioned here? I think the site is down now - it didn't realize that until I tried to look it up again :(
Click to expand...

I have 25 pages of patterns off that site. They are in JPG format. If anyone wants them let me know. Since they've already been made public i don't think anyone should mind?
 
photonjunkie said:
Are you referring to LLoyd Harding mentioned here? I think the site is down now - it didn't realize that until I tried to look it up again :(
Click to expand...

Yeah thats what I was talking about. All those designs are tried and tested and free for anybody. Thanks man.

Whew, my AVG doesnt like that site. There are girls wanting dates all around the knife patterns. I'll never be the same now.
 
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Thanks for the info Munky88... downloading as I type this. Wonderful gesture of his to leave this to the public domain. If anyone is having trouble getting this I can chip in with some help/guidance as well.
 
Okay as per Bruce's and Will's suggestion I'll hold off a bit and do some more drawings. I also just found out that the knife I sent to Bladsmith was sent out today so I should have it soon. So this project will go on the back burner for a bit.

I appreciate everyone's responses on this and if anyone else has anything else to add please feel free to do so. As a noob I'm trying to take in as much as I can with regards to knife making.
 
build an inexpencive brakedrum forge, and start heat'n &beat'n and after a few screwups you'll get the hang of it (and still screwup some more) but its a great way to relive a little stress and make something nice to boot ,I dont know how to and links,but if youll go to youtube, purgatory ironworks, they give detialed instructions on the build. let your imagination run wild dont let soneone else design YOUR knife have FUN youll learn a lot
 
I was able to get a copy of the LLoyd Harding drawings back when they were still available. Even then some links were dead and many pics were duplicated.

I downloaded them again from the torrent site, and the files have been cleaned up and sorted out considerably.

Rapidshare link
-everybody should be able to use the free link i think

http://rapidshare.com/files/311829009/Lloyd_Harding_-_100s_of_Knife_Patterns.zip



Torrent file location
It needs uTorrent or some other such client to get it.
There is more good stuff there too.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4996025/Lloyd_Harding_-_100s_of_Knife_Patterns
 
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bigern26 said:
If you could send them to my email that would be great!
my email is bigern26@gmail.com
Click to expand...

12345678910 said:
Big Ern

The file size is 107Mb

That would cripple most email systems...mine craps out at 5 or so...

try the rapidshare link i gave above...It will avoid all that.

http://rapidshare.com/files/311829009/Lloyd_Harding_-_100s_of_Knife_Patterns.zip
Click to expand...
THanks for the link, I did not know if I could dl that file.
I tried it and it worked.

cdhumiston - I will not be needing that email now :D
 
Alright I admit it. After I got done posting the urge to make SOMETHING nagged too much at me to ignore :o. So I took some of the advice on making the blade not as fat and made some minor changes to the handle. And pushed some of the other stuff... (like don't do that design, draw more knives, etc.) and pushed it to the back burner and let impulse get the better of me. And in all my stupid eagerness I got sloppy and put the hacksaw into a finger.

I was actually going to stick this whole thing on the back burner for a while because I got the knife Bladsmith sent to me a day or 2 after making this. I also managed to get an opportunity to get over by Aldo's shop for a while today and he graciously offered me a ton of help while there, (thanks again Aldo). Originally we got to forging a knife (first time I ever did that and am already hooked :D ). After we got so far with that, I decided to see if he could take a look at the knife I cut out.

He gave me some input on it and helped get me started on using the grinder and the next thing we knew we were moving right along. So I thought I'd post where it's at now. Slightly different than the original pic, and it may not be perfect but it's a first knife and I'm not expecting miracles either. It seems to fit my hand well and since no one will likely ever use it but me I figured why not do something with the blank I cut out.

For the time being it'll sit for at least a few weeks while I spend my work time on the one Bladsmith cut out for me. All I basically had before this was the blank cut out and the edges cleaned up a bit.

Everything in this picture got done today at Aldo's shop.

Knife-1.jpg
 
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