First knife design critique / WIP (Almost Finished)

Ocelot85

Ocelot85

Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
424
This is my first knife design, its intended as a EDC / Hunter design. The blade is 3.625 long and the handle is 4.125 inches. This is just a template, it's 1/4 spring steel. I'm going to lay out pin placement and I plan on a lanyard hole as well. I'll use this template to scribe lines and use my transfer punches for hole location on the actual knives.

The final knives will be made from 1/8 thick 440C, I'll be sending a batch of around 16 knives to Peters for heat treatment. Handles I have a selection of black, olive green and natural tan canvas Micarta. Sheathes will be pouch style leather, I'll do half black and half dark brown.

It feels good in the hand with multiple grips, let me know what you think of the profile. I'll update this thread over the next few weeks as I progress with making the knives.


24qiy2u.jpg
 
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Looks pretty good, it would look more proportional if it was a little narrower, blade and handle. I’d make the handle a little longer also.

Hoss
 
DevinT said:
Looks pretty good, it would look more proportional if it was a little narrower, blade and handle. I’d make the handle a little longer also.

Hoss
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Thanks for the feedback Hoss. I'll bring the heel of the handle slightly above the ricasso and thin the contour. I'm debating on pin location and size. I'm thinking about a single 1/4, 416 stainless pin in the center of the handle and a lanyard hole with a 1/4, 304 stainless tube in the upper left corner. Do you think a single pin and lanyard throng tube are sufficient in strength for that?
 
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What do you think about making a one off with your design (handles and all) to see how it feels in the hand before running a batch of 16? You could get a piece of 1084 or 1095 to make a test knife on the cheap then make your tweets to the design before committing to a large order. Just a thought.
 
I plan on making more templates and mocking up handles first regardless. I can send one in first before the remaining 15 and still get the reduced cost of the batch. Singles with Peters are 32 dollars a piece, so I'd rather not do a small quantity.
 
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The Micarta that I currently have is .25 thick, I may get some .03 - .06 spacer material as well to line the spine with and make the scales slightly thicker and add some contrast.
 
Batch of 16 knives is kinda crazy for a first go imo
Make 1 at a time and in 16 knives you will be making knives of good quality and skill level
But doing it this way and you will make 16 versions of your first knife.more or less
 
Not trying to go off topic but im subbed.

Im in this same spot myself....
Debating on buying a ht oven or going with peters for a few rounds....

But like you i also dont want to pay for the single blade charge and i HATE shipping with a passion (Alaska life)....

So im trying to figure out if i should make 20 different blades or a batch...

But like john said if no one likes the knife in the batch then we are sitting on 20 knives lol

Now im thinking to make as big of a shipment in one steel to peters with 2 of each blade

That way if one sells i have one more....if they dont sell im only out 2 knives instead of 10

If both knives sell fast then thats the one to try a small batch out.

I guess I need the courage to show profiles and ask for advice as well:oops:
 
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Teppojutsu said:
Not trying to go off topic but im subbed.

Im in this same spot myself....
Debating on buying a ht oven or going with peters for a few rounds....

But like you i also dont want to pay for the single blade charge and i HATE shipping with a passion (Alaska life)....

So im trying to figure out if i should make 20 different blades or a batch...

But like john said if no one likes the knife in the batch then we are sitting on 20 knives lol

Now im thinking to make as big of a shipment in one steel to peters with 2 of each blade

That way if one sells i have one more....if they dont sell im only out 2 knives instead of 10

If both knives sell fast then thats the one to try a small batch out.

I guess I need the courage to show profiles and ask for advice as well:oops:
Click to expand...

I decided there was other equipment I could invest in with the money I could have spent on a heat treating oven, sending out to Peters for heat treating seemed the most logical to me since they're one of the best in the world and relatively local to me. As you said though it simply isn't economically viable to send single blades, it would be 480 dollars to do 15 single blades and 128 dollars for a batch excluding shipping costs. If some of the blades are not up to my standards I won't sell them and I'll test them until I break them, just because I send a batch of 15 to Peter's for heat treating doesn't mean I'm going to sell all 15. I'm just trying to use economy of scale to reduce cost.
 
In my experience Jeff Mutz at Tru-Grit does a great job heat treating blade and is more economical for single or small batches, it’s $10 for a single blade compared to 32, if you send in 20 blades it’s 6 per blade so 120 for the batch which is pretty good. Not saying Peters heat treating isn’t good just that they can be pricy for test designs.
 
Joshua Fisher said:
In my experience Jeff Mutz at Tru-Grit does a great job heat treating blade and is more economical for single or small batches, it’s $10 for a single blade compared to 32, if you send in 20 blades it’s 6 per blade so 120 for the batch which is pretty good. Not saying Peters heat treating isn’t good just that they can be pricy for test designs.
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Thanks for the information, I'll have to research Tru-Grit's services.
 
Same boat......
Trying to decide if the oven i want is worth it .

If I succeed then it will pay for itself in about 20 shipments to peters........but will i ever make 20 shipments worth of knives hahaha

Thanks for this thread as it has made me think more on this.

At first i figured it would take about 18 trips to peters to pay for the oven so i figured long run would it would pay for itself.......

Now that im thinking !
that equals out to close to 300 blades!.... so mabey I should spend it on other tools as well and get the oven next year.

Again thanks for this thread as i was thinking of pulling the trigger on that oven!

Even though it will kill me to wait on blades to come back.
 
Teppojutsu said:
Same boat......
Trying to decide if the oven i want is worth it .

If I succeed then it will pay for itself in about 20 shipments to peters........but will i ever make 20 shipments worth of knives hahaha

Thanks for this thread as it has made me think more on this.

At first i figured it would take about 18 trips to peters to pay for the oven so i figured long run would it would pay for itself.......

Now that im thinking !
that equals out to close to 300 blades!.... so mabey I should spend it on other tools as well and get the oven next year.

Again thanks for this thread as i was thinking of pulling the trigger on that oven!

Even though it will kill me to wait on blades to come back.
Click to expand...

The other deciding factor for me was is that it leaves me open to focus on developing other skills and also they're experts and that takes one more point of failure out of the equation or at least minimizes it.
 
I was thinking the same with cost of power and heat treating supplies.

Plus the learning curve...I agree with this part alot
 
You could always start with simple steel like 1084 ht in a forge, atlas has a mini forge that could work to ht knives one at a time for only like $330, you don’t have the same control as a oven but it doesn’t mean you can’t make a good knife with a decent ht, this also opens up doing things like a hamon using clay, if you think of it that way in 3 batches you payed for the forge, at that point if you want to move on to more complex steels or doing larger batches it may be easier to justify the oven and you can alway use a small forge for other aspects of knife making.
 
Ocelot85 said:
Thanks for the feedback Hoss. I'll bring the heel of the handle slightly above the ricasso and thin the contour. I'm debating on pin location and size. I'm thinking about a single 1/4, 416 stainless pin in the center of the handle and a lanyard hole with a 1/4, 304 stainless tube in the upper left corner. Do you think a single pin and lanyard throng tube are sufficient in strength for that?
Click to expand...
I would buy one ,but I don't like the single pin idea,I know a lot of makers are doing it ..but it's a deal killer for me...love the design ,I would keep this design and also make a slimmer longer version also
 
Joshua Fisher said:
You could always start with simple steel like 1084 ht in a forge, atlas has a mini forge that could work to ht knives one at a time for only like $330, you don’t have the same control as a oven but it doesn’t mean you can’t make a good knife with a decent ht, this also opens up doing things like a hamon using clay, if you think of it that way in 3 batches you payed for the forge, at that point if you want to move on to more complex steels or doing larger batches it may be easier to justify the oven and you can alway use a small forge for other aspects of knife making.
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Right now I decided to focus on stainless steels, NE Ohio can be a pretty humid place and we have plenty of wetlands around my area. I figure farmers and hunters, and anyone who will carry it daily will appreciate it being stainless for that reason. One day I would love to be able to forge and make damascus, that's what inspired me about knives when I was younger but I live in a residential neighborhood right now and I doubt my neighbors would like it as much as me. I appreciate the ideas though, and if my living situation ever get's better and I can move farther into the country like I hope to one day a forge and such will be on my list for sure.
 
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BITEME said:
I would buy one ,but I don't like the single pin idea,I know a lot of makers are doing it ..but it's a deal killer for me...love the design ,I would keep this design and also make a slimmer longer version also
Click to expand...

I plan on making a larger version of it as well, I haven't decided on the pins yet. I'm going to do some different layout's with it tonight and see what positions look the best. Thanks for the words and interest, nice to hear it.
 
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