Ebony Skinner

[Franco32]

CHECK MY SECOND POST FOR BETTER PICTURES
Here's my latest weekend effort. The blade is stainless steel, flat ground, OAL is 8 1/4", blade is 4 3/8" x 1" at 1/8" thick. The handles are Ebony with 1/4 mosaic pins. I might be willing to part with it if someone is interested. I like the knife so much, I plan on making more. I've got a great supply of the blackest Ebony around. This stuff is almost as hard as the steel... I'll try to get some outdoor pictures tomorrow....Franco

 

[Franco32]

I hope these turn out better than my last attempts...

 

[defaultuser]

I like it a lot! What's the steel exactly?

 

[Franco32]

Thanks for the compliment...I was wondering if anyone even looked at it...It's 440C. I ground it from flat barstock. I hardened to 57-58. My dad had some older knives that had seen better times and I kind of borrowed some of the blade shape from them and put a smoother shaped handle on. The only comment I received from anyone on it yet is that I should have put more of a finger guard on it....any comments, Gary

 

[xaman]

It looks real nice :thumbup:

I agree with the statement about the finger guard, or at least more texture in the scales -- especially for a skinner that will be used with wet hands...

what's the thickness of the spine? Looks like a nice thin slicer...

 

[Franco32]

It measures 1/8 at the handle. That's a good point about the handle texture. I might try a cross hatch next time to get a little more grip....Gary

 

[defaultuser]

Unless you have very big hands (XXXXL gloves on your pics), the knife looks like a kinda "three finger"...am I right? If so, a deeper finger "groove" is not really necessary since it is not designed for "heavy duty" slicing...Anyway, just wanted to say I like the lines and the execution...the ebony looks very nice! Is it a wood that benefits from stabilisation? Another question I had is why the front pin is almost in the middle of the handle? If you glued the scales, this is not a big concern. Good job!

 

[Franco32]

Well, the gloves are XL in size and with my hand on the handle all four of my fingers fit around with my little finger wrapped around the hilt. The handle measures 4 1/4 inches. The wood is very dense, I tried to float a piece in water and it sunk! The gentleman I bought the ebony from said it would polish nice on a buffer but rub super glue into the grain and polish up. As far as the mosaic pin, I was hoping nobody caught the position...I planned on using two pieces of giraffe bone for bolsters but couldn't get the look I wanted. Since the holes were drilled before I heat treated, I just left them where they were at and epoxyed the scales for extra hold. Thanks for the critique, it's appreciated....Gary

 

[defaultuser]

My pleasure...discussing design is a win-win situation! Hopefully, I'll get many questions and critiques when I post my "work"