design critique needed

P

pike3e

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Sep 28, 2008
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The following picture is of a knife that I recently forged from w2 square stock. The guard is wrought iron and the redwood burl is from burl source. Anyway after looking at the picture I cant decide if I should grind down the top line of the handle and guard to be more in line with the top line of the blade. Constructive criticism needed.

redwoodburl.jpg


Thanks

John
 
To my eye, the knife just seems to travel "uphill" once you pass the guard and move into the handle. Here's my suggestion:

You have a nice gentle curve formed flowing from the tip of the knife across the spine of the blade and up to the guard area. My opinion would be that that curve should contiue with the apex near the guard and then a very gentle down-sweep to the butt of the knife. I hope that makes sense. Basically, the spine of the knife including the handle spine should be one big arc from tip to butt, though the proportions of the arc can vary from blade to handle.

See if you can get a straight sideways profile picture. The picture you posted seems to be at a slight angle, and that may be exagerating the bulkiness of the handle.

It's ok to have the guard extend a bit past the spine of the knife, but I'd like to see the handle quickly transition back to the flow from the blade. And the back of the guard looks to be angled up slightly. It might look better if it were parallel with the nearest portion of the spine of the blade or sloped very gently in the same direction as the finger portion of the guard.

--nathan
 
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nice looking knife, by the way. Are you going to etch that guard? Might look nice... other that that, Nathan pretty much took the words out of my mouth.
 
Make sure you know exactly where the tang and tang pocket are before you start grinding. It'll look a lot worse with the innards exposed.

Sometimes it's best to just wait until the next knife to change the design. Just because she's not the prettiest girl in the bar doesn't mean she can't dance. ;)
 
As I look at the picture (sorry for my ameature "Paint" skills), maybe like that with just a tad bit less drop than I drew in at the very butt.

--nathan
 
Both the handle and the blade look good, but it's "funky" where they meet.

I'm a fan of a single smooth curve defining the spine and the top of the handle, like in Nathan's edit.

The belly of the ricasso also needs something, but that's more complicated. The problem is that there are too many lines conflicting with one another: the curve of the edge, the belly of the ricasso, and the index-finger groove. Extend the line of the ricasso into the handle and see what I mean. It just kind of cuts through the finger groove at a random point and angle. A straightforward fix might be to simply make the ricasso more narrow, so that the line of the ricasso is fully contained in the handle. At least ensure that the belly of the ricasso is in line with the spine of the blade/handle.
 
Here's what I mean. I drew hidden lines in to show the visual extension of the ricasso. All it takes is a shift of the handle and blade relative to one another.

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Drawing is not my forte. :o
 

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I'm with Phillip on this.

It is absolutely critical (IMHO) to get the guard shoulders filed in a way that will allow subsequent guard fitting and handle shaping to get the end result you want.

I like the blade and handle. I would like it as a WHOLE better, if the entire handle was canted down about 5-10 degrees.

I use a guide to accomplish this... any simple one will work. I'll try to take a pic for you to explain. :)

I worry if you try to change this one, you'll have issues like Fitz pointed out, as well as you may end up with a handle that is too narrow. Maybe. Maybe not. It's hard to say at this point! LOL :)
 
Thanks for the input and keep it comming. I just pulled the knife out and the angle of the pic seems to exagerate the lines. However the comments were right on. I think I got a slight shift during the glue up. I think i can fix it without getting into the tang area however i have a very similiar pattern nearly forged from the same stock and may just try to do it better the second time. Also the guard has been etched. See then black dots? The grain is going the wrong way, something to fix next time as well.

John
 
All I think is that the guard should have been near tight against the ricaso area . The extra space between makes it look lobsided. Other than that you did an excellent job nice wood great finish. kellyw
 
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