..well, according to my profile I've been trolling around bladeforum since 2007 with on/off participation, so I may as well take this as an opportunity to re-introduce myself. I'm 41 and grew up using my hands; bodywork, auto restoration, welding, hunting, archery,shooting..stuff most kids do in the midwest. I love archery and shoot a Matthews Drenalin at 280fps and especailly enjoy shooting indoor 3d's. I was going to try and take the next step and start shooting competitions, but there is only so much time in the day while working 48 hours a week, so knives trumped archery, and my bow sits in its case. My passion lies with traditional fixed blades; hunters, bowies, skinners, nessies with well incorporated natural materials that fit the style and function of the knife.
I didn't get the "knifemaking itch" until about 10 years ago. It was kinda like a virus in the sense I kept getting the itch back and would then quit again. This cycle would repeat itself once or twice a year mostly due to the fact I had poor equipment. I made 5 or 6 knives by hand on a piece of crap 6x48, none I was proud enough to even take a pic of. I would then usually get discouraged and say this isn't worth my time, then revert back to assembling some knife kits, knowing that one day I would have the proper equipment and be better prepared at that time.
Well, my kids are older, I have some things paid off, so I finally bit the bullet and bought my newly acquired 2x72 from AMK Tactical a few months ago.
Surprisingly the bevel grinding came pretty easy, at least a lot easier than trying to do on a 6x48. My plunge cuts are relatively square to each other and bevels are pretty symmetrical and flat. I am by no means saying I am great at it, I definitely have much more to learn and have yet to try my hand at hollow grinding.
This is my first and only knife to date completed 100% by my own hands. It is ground from 01, ht58-60 (outsourced), and comprised of black linen micarta, nickel bolsters, and pins. I hand sewed, stamped, and dyed the sheath from 10 oz veg tanned.
I started profiling a bunch of templates to help reduce future build times and simplify ordering so friends have something to choose from
I then discovered I didn't want to do batches of 10 blades at a time to make heat treat costs economical so I had to purchase this
...which I just recvd earlier this week. This was my first treated blade on my own, went pretty good. Typical treat of 440C at 1880 for 15 min (no cryo)
and here it is after final sand this morning to 500 grit (unsharpened)
Hope this helps you guys out. I would personally like to thank Andy again at Fiddleback and the rest of you that offered great advice. Nick I wasn't going to respond to your comment, but I guess I understand it must get old having to answer questions from newcomers all the time and then you never see or hear from them again. I want to hit this right even though it is a minuscule operation. Having to manage the family business over the last 20 years has taught me to always have your ducks in row before you go to market, even it is a just a lemonade stand. First impressions are everything, the buyer needs to know exactly who you are and what it is you are selling, or concepts become grey and washed out. This was the main reason for this post. Search engines won't even start recognizing it for a year, so I want to get it done now. I need to figure out branding and get a them or style, and get it migrated into the system. I can add knives and pics as I build them.
