Eucalyptus Is Really Something!

[bear71]

Gorgeous knives! The Kephart is my favorite, but that's probably obvious by the thread I just started. I feel like it's not FF's first or most prolific model, but doesn't play second fiddle to any knife I've seen.

It's like lab is to dog.

Buck 110 (or Case peanut) is to pocket knife.

Fiddleback Kephart is to bushcraft knife.

Anyway, the Kephart wins my imaginary award.

I second that! My first Fiddleback was a Kephart and still my favorite, does everything i need of a 4" blade and feels so good in the hand. I look forward to posting in the new thread

 

[Fiddleback]

Man, Brian, those pics are fantastic. I still love the Kephart as well. You know I had designed a Kephart right at the beginning of my knifemaking. It was almost a clone of the old school one Horace carried. I hated looking at it in the book all blocky and lifeless, and it set there for years without being made. In fact, I never made a knife like that drawing. I was at Pauls to try out his Burr king when I designed the Kephart absolutely on the fly so that I'd have a knife to profile on his machine. I opened my notebook to find something to trace and found that old drawing. The only thing I kept was the lengths and the point location. I didn't spend two minutes on this and was profiling immediately. When I finished the profile I told Paul that this knife was going to be a special one. The one I made myself is one of the few knives of mine I've kept. Its got a special piece of curly Black Locust for scales and a tapered tang on 1/8" thick 01.

Its a shame about the leading edge of the scales on that one. Its a by product of our love of a minimal ricasso. Sometimes the belts will nick there and at that point we can't do much about it. The epoxy we use absolutely shreds micarta and g10 if you try to remove the scales. Usually, this ruins the blank because of the amount of pounding and scraping it takes to remove the old scales.

I hope you enjoy and use that one. That piece of wood was something special.

 

[SA Condor]

I second that! My first Fiddleback was a Kephart and still my favorite, does everything i need of a 4" blade and feels so good in the hand. I look forward to posting in the new thread

Man, Brian, those pics are fantastic. I still love the Kephart as well. You know I had designed a Kephart right at the beginning of my knifemaking. It was almost a clone of the old school one Horace carried. I hated looking at it in the book all blocky and lifeless, and it set there for years without being made. In fact, I never made a knife like that drawing. I was at Pauls to try out his Burr king when I designed the Kephart absolutely on the fly so that I'd have a knife to profile on his machine. I opened my notebook to find something to trace and found that old drawing. The only thing I kept was the lengths and the point location. I didn't spend two minutes on this and was profiling immediately. When I finished the profile I told Paul that this knife was going to be a special one. The one I made myself is one of the few knives of mine I've kept. Its got a special piece of curly Black Locust for scales and a tapered tang on 1/8" thick 01.

Its a shame about the leading edge of the scales on that one. Its a by product of our love of a minimal ricasso. Sometimes the belts will nick there and at that point we can't do much about it. The epoxy we use absolutely shreds micarta and g10 if you try to remove the scales. Usually, this ruins the blank because of the amount of pounding and scraping it takes to remove the old scales.

I hope you enjoy and use that one. That piece of wood was something special.

Man! You guys need to stop! It does look like an awesome knife . . . I just don't know how long it will take to save for another Fiddleback! Beautiful knives in this thread. That eucalyptus looks stunning.

 

[Mistwalker]

Man, Brian, those pics are fantastic. I still love the Kephart as well. You know I had designed a Kephart right at the beginning of my knifemaking. It was almost a clone of the old school one Horace carried. I hated looking at it in the book all blocky and lifeless, and it set there for years without being made. In fact, I never made a knife like that drawing. I was at Pauls to try out his Burr king when I designed the Kephart absolutely on the fly so that I'd have a knife to profile on his machine. I opened my notebook to find something to trace and found that old drawing. The only thing I kept was the lengths and the point location. I didn't spend two minutes on this and was profiling immediately. When I finished the profile I told Paul that this knife was going to be a special one. The one I made myself is one of the few knives of mine I've kept. Its got a special piece of curly Black Locust for scales and a tapered tang on 1/8" thick 01.

Thank you Andy! I just never could warm up to the traditional Kepart design. I don't like it aesthetically or functionally. For me personally, if a knife is going to be a spear point, then by damn I want a point! , and I believe lobe the slightly below center point of your Kephart!