First completely original knife pic. Comments?

T

T. J.

Joined
Jul 27, 1999
Messages
228
I decided to go ahead and post this hoping for some comment on the design and execution. Please pardon the poor lighting, I'm an electron jockey, not a photographer.
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The blade is 3/16" 440c, guard and bolsters 309, handle is bocote. Although it doesn't show up, there is a flat ground false edge from tip to within an inch of the guard, and where it intersects the hollow grind it produces an interesting s curve. I don't know if this is good from a design viewpoint, but I thought it looked cool. The balance point is about 3/4 of an inch behind the guard, right between my index and second fingers. This took a bit of fiddling with the rear bolster thickness, but was my intention. What is the general opinion on where to balance a blade? This is my first blade from paper to finished product, and the work is 95% mine. The other 5 percent was done by Don Morgan, and consisted mainly of fixing my mistakes, so is probably the most important part. Thanks Don.

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I love my country! I just don't trust my government!

[This message has been edited by T. J. (edited 06 October 1999).]

[This message has been edited by T. J. (edited 06 October 1999).]
 
TJ,
It looks rock solid! The handle seems like it would be nice to hold. I like the spacer material between the wood and bolsters, that's a nice touch!
I personally like knives to have as much forward weight as possible. On my hunters I do a very tapered tang and drill lightening holes through the tang as well. I know most people like a balance just behind the guard.
Keep up the nice work,
Neil

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http://members.aol.com/blademakr/BlackwoodWP.html
 
TJ,
It sure looks like a stout worker. What is the blade length/OAL?
I'm not a big fan of pinned on handles and prefer the security of bolt sets. That's probably the only thing I would have done differently.

Grind looks great and you can see the top grind. The spacers add a nice touch.

Started on the next one yet?
 
Kit;
Thanks, but I really didn't plan it as as that much of a user, it was more of an experiment in the combination of hollow and flat grinds. My general impression is that any situation where you could use a blade like that, a .45 would serve better. It's about 5 1/2 blade x 10 1/2 oal. I've done a set of matching kitchen blades since then for a neighbor, but I'm waiting for an order of 440c to arive before I start on my version of The Knife List Knife as my next project.

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I love my country! I just don't trust my government!
 
Nice Piece of work.

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Curtis Wilson -
Wilson's Custom Knives, Engraving, and Scrimshaw
 
Very pretty blade. I like the mix of grinds. Was it fun to make?

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Oz

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
- Henry J. Kaiser
 
TJ

I like what I see, you've done yourself proud. The knife has nice lines and the lines from the underside of the handle into the finger guard are smooth and attractive.

As a former commerical artist, suggest you find a less "busy" background, that is lighter in color than the knives you'll be photographing. You can check your local arts and supply store for an assortment. If you get better lighting, you can go to darker backgrounds.

To add visual interest to your photos, casually place small items of interest within the frame. Items that come ot mind are bullets, shell cases, twigs, leaves, small tools, leather, etc... Your imagination is the your only limit... Bet you thought I was going to chew up your knife, didn't you???

Just a suggestion, where the blade joins the choil, that small "hangy" down part where the blade returns to full width before it enters the guard, you should notch the blade.

Right now, to sharpen the blade, you will probably run the knife into the stone to sharpen the last part of it. The notch, allows you to sharpen the blade all the way to the end without getting scratch marks on the choil (some would call it the "kick") or chipping the side of your stones...

Last thing, you have a hallow gring on your knife? Thought you were lookiong for a good belt sander last week, true??? If so, what did you get???

Once again, nice blade.

Bruce

PS: Where's the "Bear?"
 
Thanks for the suggestions for backgrounds, I just laid the knife on a chessboard for this pic, and didn't think much about it. As for the blade, there is a notch about 1/8 deep at the ricasso that didn't show up in the pic. I ground the blade at Don's shop, using his 8" burr king. Probably a mistake, as now I am not nearly as thrilled with my little 2x48 grinder as I was a couple of months ago
smile.gif
Gotta sell a few more blades before I can justify another grinder though.

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I love my country! I just don't trust my government!
 
Looks real good. Much better than my first attempt. You will get a different opinion from just about everybody about the proper balance of a knife. I have shot pistol competition for years and like a little weight in front of my hand. But overall I am not to sensitive about knives. The handle shape and feel of the knife works for me better. Unless there is a large imbalance.

Your design looks very usable to me just form the 1D photo.

Cheers,

ts

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Guns are for show. Knifes are for Pros.
 
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