Beckerhead Knife Making and Modification Thread

[daizee]

Final progress!
The bolster is a bit of a disaster visually, but is holding together at the moment.
In the second-to-last picture you can see a crazy hardening line, which totally surprised me when polishing. The finish is only 400x, so it might really pop if I had gone higher. Not sure what the steel is, of course, so it's shallower-hardening than I expected. Either higher or lower carbon, can't tell. But at 350F temper it was ~61Rc. It didn't air-harden too much from forging, which was nice.

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

Though some of you might appreciate where I’m heading with this design I call the “Overlander”. I took some of the chunk of a blade in the BK2 range and added some more depth, a little belly and some recurve, and came up with a camp knife that can take a beating chopping and batoning, but also slice like a champ with the belly. So far testing it has been realty fun and it’s hitting on what I hoped it would do well. Here’s a couple pics of one in process about to get some koa scales, and a couple others I made and tested a bit.

 

[daizee]

Though some of you might appreciate where I’m heading with this design I call the “Overlander”. I took some of the chunk of a blade in the BK2 range and added some more depth, a little belly and some recurve, and came up with a camp knife that can take a beating chopping and batoning, but also slice like a champ with the belly. So far testing it has been realty fun and it’s hitting on what I hoped it would do well. Here’s a couple pics of one in process about to get some koa scales, and a couple others I made and tested a bit.

That looks FANTASTIC!!

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

That looks FANTASTIC!!

Thank you! Hoping to send a few of these to deer camp with my brother this year…they will get field tested to the extreme there.

 

[1066vik]

looks good - is that bog oak?

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

looks good - is that bog oak?

Yea, the bottom one is stabilized bog oak. I love bog oak and African Blackwood.

 

[daizee]

ambition and bad ideas....:

 

[daizee]

Teaser for a thread over in Custom:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/wedding-knife-for-shipmates-w-ship-parts.1885494/

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

This is my “Grizzly” hunter/bushcrafter….I’ve made a bazillion of these and iterated them based on lots of use and feedback. I’m really happy with the ergonomics, form, and function, but will probably forever be tweaking the design. It draws heavily on my love for the BK16, particularly my rare saber ground 16’s that I’ve hunted down over the years. I’ve done this one in saber, scandi, and full flat grind, and settled mainly on this grind which is somewhere between the 16 saber and a full flat grind.

 

[daizee]

These look great, like a Fiddleback/BK-16 crossover. I dig the modest blade length. Small knives are awesome.

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

Definitely have influence from Andy Roy in my work, especially in my smaller blades. I learned a lot about ergonomics from him as well…he’s so good at what he does.

 

[daizee]

Since y'all like the making of things, here's a short progression of making a kydex sheath.
Final knife pix here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/auk3-edc-kephart.1886000/

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

Another Overlander heading out to many new adventures. I tweaked the ergonomics a tad from the last one after some heavy use to better adjust for modified grips. More comfortable in the choil area for gripping up for small tight tasks without hand fatigue, and adjusted palm swell placement for gripping back and chopping/batoning.

 

[1066vik]

Saturday was spent learning how to make this.
Now I just need to figure out what it wants to become.


1.75 x 1/4 x 15
Started with 36" each of 1/8 x 1 15N20 and 5/32 x 1 80CrV2.
First stack was 12 pieces 6" long
Second stack was 3 pieces 4.25" long
Third stack was 3 pieces 3.75" long

 

[Tortuga Bladeworks]

80crv2 clip point hunter, flats left brut de forge, and some nice koa scales.

 

[knoefz]

Beautiful knife!

 

[daizee]

80crv2 clip point hunter, flats left brut de forge, and some nice koa scales. View attachment 1911032

Gorgeous bevels finish! (and the other stuff too)

 

[Jonny1280]

80crv2 clip point hunter, flats left brut de forge, and some nice koa scales. View attachment 1911032

Wow!
Beautiful. Nice work!

 

[Jonny1280]

Final progress!
The bolster is a bit of a disaster visually, but is holding together at the moment.
In the second-to-last picture you can see a crazy hardening line, which totally surprised me when polishing. The finish is only 400x, so it might really pop if I had gone higher. Not sure what the steel is, of course, so it's shallower-hardening than I expected. Either higher or lower carbon, can't tell. But at 350F temper it was ~61Rc. It didn't air-harden too much from forging, which was nice.

That’s a great looking piece daizee

 

[daizee]

It was too nice yesterday to just polish, so I rolled up the shop door and lit the forge.

More pix in The Gallery:

https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/forged-twisted-kiridashi.1889360/