design thoughts?

S.Alexander

S.Alexander

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Jul 7, 2013
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I am finally going to break away from carbon steel soon, and do a couple blades out if stainless. I have some cpm-154 that I am going to use. I wanted to get away from the typical drop point style that I have been doing lately, and make something with a more tactical look to it.

Here is my design so far. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.


 
S.Alexander said:
I am finally going to break away from carbon steel soon, and do a couple blades out if stainless. I have some cpm-154 that I am going to use. I wanted to get away from the typical drop point style that I have been doing lately, and make something with a more tactical look to it.

Here is my design so far. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed.
Click to expand...

In my limited experience, that kind of looks like a hybrid between a drop-point and a Bowie. I'm not big on Bowie knives personally, but that looks kind of cool. It has good lines.
I hope you'll post pics of it when done.
 
My only thought is to bring the lanyard hole inboard away from the edge a bit more. Handle material will be vulnerable to breakage if left that thin at the edge.
 
i4Marc said:
My only thought is to bring the lanyard hole inboard away from the edge a bit more. Handle material will be vulnerable to breakage if left that thin at the edge.
Click to expand...

Yeah and I don't like the look of the pins where they are anyhow. I was toying with the idea of a hidden lanyard hole.
 
I like it!
How thick is the stock?
I work with CPM 154 too. I have found that it can handle a much finer tip than I gave it credit for. Nice steel to work with. Good luck.:)
 
This is coming from a user, not a maker, but since you say this tactical and not a skinner, I would drop the handle a tad bit in the back, otherwise it's difficult with this kind of a blade design to get the point "to the work" for a push. If you've ever tried to puncture a hard plastic package (for example) with an upswept skinner, it's a bit awkward and you have to tip your wrist down to get the power behind the point. I'm not saying curve it WAY down like a golok, just a bit more of a drop to make it comfortable to make it point forward in a saber grip, instead of pointing up.
 
Thanks guys. I have some 1/8" stock to use for this project.

Ballew I have ground a swedge before. I didn't find it very easy but I'll try it again!

T1 I see what you mean about the tip and I agree with you. In another iteration I drew it that way. I'll have a look at it again.
 
I love "below the knuckles" designs like this, and find them magnificent for general use. Another option, of course, would be to drop the point like five degrees or less, making it about 1/8" lower compared to the center-line of the handle. You wouldn't sacrifice too much belly, and could keep the straighter handle shape, which is very nice for grips OTHER than saber. Just thoughts---overall, again, I really like this design!
 
I would move the lanyard hole to the top so that it's farthest away from the hand as possible. It kinda resembles a caping knife, if a caping knife looks like what I think it does. It's cool though. Might be a tricky grind, but that's how you get better. Or throw things! Of corse I've never thrown anything out of anger;)
 
You have a good design here. I too like the suggestions the others gave for improving it just a bit. Best of luck mi amigo!
And do give us some pictures when you've finished, it would be cool to see the before and after shots.
 
I messed around with MS paint a bit, and dropped the handle. That is more like it! I also moved the lanyard hole to the middle, as I will do a hidden lanyard on this.

 
My suggestion is to move the tip of the blade down a skoosh.......and move the handle scales ahead......also a minor change in the edge angle at the ricasso.
Something like this.


Darcy:)
 
Thanks for chiming in Darcy. I'll do a couple of cardboard cutouts with the designs up top and see how they work.
 
Suggest adding some Jimping in front of the top edge where the thumb hits.
IMO 1/8" thick is too thin to call tactical 5/32 - 1/4 thick makes more sense
 
Depends how big/long this is. Looks like about a 4.5" blade to me, and at 1/8" that's actually pretty robust...the USMC knife was 7 inches long at 5/32" and this (lever arm vs thickness) would be stouter than that. Unless you're planning on hanging the sentry by his hand off of the top of a door frame to act as a distraction for the other guards while you ninja your way in through the window, 1/8" should be plenty. ;)

I'm liking the new direction of the knife very much!
 
I ordered 1/8" (.125) stock but I just measured it at .150. It will be plenty thick I believe as the knife will be right around 8" oal.

I did cardboard cutouts of the three variations and found that I liked Darcy's version the best. The slight change of the blade shape made it very comfortable to hold. I then made a wooden blank of the knife. I like it alot. It will be next up on the list to make when I finish up my most recent knife.

Just have to figure out how to do a hidden lanyard hole now. I have an idea how I will do it though.
 
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Well I made two of these with variations. The first one that I finished has no finger choil. The second one has a choil, but I still need to put the handle on.

Here are the pics of the first one.










 
I like it. The hidden lanyard loop turned out pretty good. I really like your sheath also, the black and red stands out though I think it might look a bit better as a package if the paracord matched the sheath.
 
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