First attempt at making a knife - just have to show it!

Walkabout

Walkabout

Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
637
Hello and Happy New Year :),

This is my first try at making a knife, using a beautiful Trond blade and a handle of red/black dyed stabilized box elder and a piece of reindeer horn. I used material that I purchased from Brisa.
I like the red/black box elder burl, as it should be easy to spot the knife if I should drop it in the woods or a creek. I know that a guard isn't a classical feature of Scandanavian knives, however I don't feel safe with the more traditional guardless handle shape, without so much as a finger groove.

I'm very much looking forward to taking it out camping/canoeing this spring!

Here's how it looks so far; just need to find out what I should finish the handle with (eg. oil, varnish, or nothing):

scandiknife.jpg


Regards,

Mike
 
WOW. Definately good for a first. Post in the knife maker section.

I can't really tell from the pic what finishing work is needed. The type of wood, and what it's like (smoothness, shine, ect.) will help. I still would'nt know but the Shop Talk guys will.

FYI:

I'll be up for my first custom in about a year. :D
 
amazing work i love it every thing from the handel matirial to the Scandanavian style plusthe guard! i just got some red/black box elder recently and cant wait to do some thng with it.

great knife....justin
 
Really good looking work! Always helps to start with the best materials, and you did well with them :)
 
Thanks everyone for the kind comments.

It will be a joy to use this... can't wait to get outdoors!


Mike
 
It's knives like this that make me sad Trond wont be making blades anymore. I'm not a fan of the guard but that just my taste. I love the choice of wood
 
Andy_L said:
It's knives like this that make me sad Trond wont be making blades anymore. I'm not a fan of the guard but that just my taste. I love the choice of wood
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

It was the news of Trond not making blades except for his own knives that prompted me to give this a try while I could still find one.

The rough finish of his blades reminds me of Fred Perrin's work, which I also really like.

Mike
 
That handle is awesome, the material reminds me of no longer mined (thanks to Bill Clinton) and now rare Morrisonite Jasper...
nice job.
 
Yow ! What a result for a first effort. Thanks for sharing it. You were right to show it off. Those scandi blades will make this a fantastic user as well.

My only suggestion to really finish up the overall design / pattern aspect is to pull the contour of the index finger groove a little further forward so that the radius cuts a little into the brass guard so the lines flow a bit better.

That box elder burl is amazing ! Keep it up and make sure to show us more in the future. I sincerely hope you're hooked now ! Jason.
 
Jason Cutter said:
Yow ! What a result for a first effort. Thanks for sharing it. You were right to show it off. Those scandi blades will make this a fantastic user as well.

My only suggestion to really finish up the overall design / pattern aspect is to pull the contour of the index finger groove a little further forward so that the radius cuts a little into the brass guard so the lines flow a bit better.

That box elder burl is amazing ! Keep it up and make sure to show us more in the future. I sincerely hope you're hooked now ! Jason.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much everyone!

Jason... in shaping the index finger groove, I was a little worried about removing so much material from the reindeer bone that I would end up in the soft centre, ie going right through the hard cortex. Is that a worry?

Thanks for your kind comments and expert help!

Mike
 
Very classy. I find that tung oil works well on wooden handles, at least on my Roselli erapuukko, which is Arctic birch. Lasts much longer under adverse conditions than boiled linseed oil.
 
You don't need oil or any varnish for stabilised wood, it doesn't help.( it's more like plastic than wood actually.)
What you can do is use some furniture wax to bring out the shines of the wood and stag.
 
Very nicely done.! That's a great way of getting started making knives. I did just what you're doing and before I knew it there was a belt grinder on my bench! :eek: I rehandled quite a few factory knives and put together kit knives for a couple of years before I started making them. It's an excellent learning tool. Post it on the Shop Talk forum, and read the posts there. It's a great place to pick up info.
Scott
 
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