Well done ! It looks good.
^this please.
SharpBits
Thanks guys,
I got this retired old man neighbor who grew up on a farm and worked lots, went to university and had a good career in IT also. He has been helping me with my cars, I've been learning lots from him, even painting car parts with him. He's got all kinds of tools and machines he likes to build and is a knife maker (lucky me) and has a sweet tooth for flippers.
So I messed around on his belt sander one time before then took a long break then this summer I committed to going through the whole process.
Practiced with some mild steel and was given a piece of 5160 that he had already cut out, it had an ugly shape he didn't like. My task was to make it look better and make something out of it. I went to town and out of necessity ended up with a deep finger choil, because I just didn't have any material otherwise to not have your hand slide onto the edge. Then again I had a long break and wanted to practice on sander with junk first before messing with knife steel. Well he liked what he saw every time I did something in his shop and said next one start using an actual steel we going to heat treat and told me to forget about that 5160 piece and gave me a fresh piece of 80CRV2 to work with.
Now I had more material and decided to make a broader blade, just becuz, and a more generous cutout for finger. The handle scales are synthetic ivory. I ground things before heat treatment to a certain point then we heat treated the blade and quenched in special oil that we even had preheated to a certain temperature.
After this, with heat treated piece in hand, I setup shop in my basement and finished it all by hand pretty much. It took a while. I got better throughout this process. It would have been faster if I used the belt sander post heat treat, but I was in no rush, saw it was going good and didn't want to mess it up with my inexperience on belt still. I did come back and used belt sander to form the tip, which i left to be meaty. The straight portion of edge is main cutting machine, then the tip worked out somewhat pretty even. Secondary bevel grows towards the tip and I knew it would, I wanted it to be like that for cutting performance, but this was tricky and easy to make a mess of. It was all free hand and surprisingly worked out well and was easy transition to water stones for the final edge.
I didn't measure anything, but in the end the edge portion is 4.5 inches, the handle is also dead even at 4.5 inches and its half an inch in a middle to join it all together and make the blade look a bit longer than handle.
While it was dull I also discovered I can spin the knife backwards around my finger like real cowboy. So it can do that lol and I kinda mastered it by now. The finish with this steel shows lots of scratches after use, its more battle scarred now and thats the only gripe I have, otherwise it holds edge well enough and takes a good edge. Still testing it out. Geometry just glides through things. No issues with burr whatsoever. The handle, the balance, the weight, the leverage, where the tip is and how your body just naturally expects the tip to be there all worked out how I planned. Tested it out in the bush, its a demon. Like how the blade comes out from your hand and you can get really personal with it. No jimping, because you just slide your thumb onto the spine, it's wide enough to push on comfortably. Lots of leverage and ways of gripping that feels secure. Can do push ups with it, and holding it feels safe for yourself while operating it, doesn't get in a way. Packs length but not too long to feel awkward. I got a test where I gotta be able to cut tape on boxes corners/seams and it should feel easy/comfortable/naturale to aim and palce the tip.
So I am welcome to use my masters
belt sander and oven etc. We can cerakote things different colors. Got other projects around the house I have to direct my time towards otherwise color me an apprentice knife maker hobbyist.
It is lots of work and to be able to offer knives at a reasonable price... gotta have a good process in place and your shit together.
More shots.
No but if I was that would be the one I wanted 
