First Knife WIP

One thing I noticed is that, as drawn, you have a lot of blade ABOVE the tang. Looking around at the various pictures on this site, I'm seeing most stick tang knives have very little of the blade above the handle.

Figure that you're finished handle is probably about 1.250" in diameter at the hilt. That means you would have approximately .625" sticking above the center-line of the tang. Will that look "right"?

I noticed this because I'm currently stuck in the middle of my own Bowie design and trying to figure out how I'm going to fix this gaff. I didn't really notice it until the blade was almost finished and I started playing with handle materials. Even with a hilt, the antler/micarta handle just didn't look well-placed. If I make a handle that's bigger in diameter at the junction, it doesn't look right or feel right! :o
 
The results of today's work...It's just so slooooowwwww!!!

007-5.jpg
 
VaughnT said:
One thing I noticed is that, as drawn, you have a lot of blade ABOVE the tang. Looking around at the various pictures on this site, I'm seeing most stick tang knives have very little of the blade above the handle.

Figure that you're finished handle is probably about 1.250" in diameter at the hilt. That means you would have approximately .625" sticking above the center-line of the tang. Will that look "right"?

I noticed this because I'm currently stuck in the middle of my own Bowie design and trying to figure out how I'm going to fix this gaff. I didn't really notice it until the blade was almost finished and I started playing with handle materials. Even with a hilt, the antler/micarta handle just didn't look well-placed. If I make a handle that's bigger in diameter at the junction, it doesn't look right or feel right! :o
Click to expand...

There goes my Karma...Just when I thought I turned it around...;)

You have me now trying to visualize what your talking about. You can grind down the antler to match the size of the spacer or whatever your going to use. I'll go look and see what Mr. Royer did since that is my eventual goal!!!

Jeff
 
Don't fret. It might just be the angle of the photos, or seeing my gaff in your work.

What I was trying to say is that you need to pay attention to the distance from the spine of the blade to the center-line of the tang. While you don't want a skinny tang butting up to a fat blade for the sake of strength, you also want to make sure that the handle material is sufficiently large enough in diameter to fill the distance between the two parts of the blade.

Does that make sense? In other words, you can grind the antler down to size, but you can't grind it up to size! :D
 
I think what VaughnT is trying to say is that it looks like the base of your blade is going to be wider than the end of the grip which will be fitted up against it. If this is the case you want the grip to be offset so that it fits flush or nearly so on the spine side and the edge side of the blade stands proud of it. To do this you want the stick tang offset towards the spine.

If the blade is wider than the forward end of the grip and grip is centered it never looks right, this is a common mistake that beginners make on stick tang knives. I have done it myself.
 
KB1SYV said:
I am definitely not the authority with this, but I was going to have IG weld some threaded rod to the tang and put an end on the handle.

Thanks

Jeff
Click to expand...

Ah, I didn't realize you were going to do a pommel. If that's the case, why cut out the long curved tang in the first place? Why not just weld the threaded rod to the end of the steel (a bit late now). Just thinking out loud--there a lot of different ways to do it.

Anyway, looks like you're making good progress--take your time and don't rush it.
 
Alright Guy's,

I haven't done any filing yet today, but here are a couple of pictures of the knife with the stag handle. It seems that the stag thickness seems to be the same as that of the blade.

001-6.jpg



002-7.jpg
 
Hey Fletch,

Do you think that this handle matches size wise pretty well with the blade? I rely on you to be honest and frank like in the past, so tell me what you think.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
A good Samaritan sent me a brand new Nicholson Magic Cut File. Has anyone ever heard of it? How would it be used? Is it an initial file for heavy removal?

Jeff
 
I'm pretty bad with overall blade to handle ratios to be honest. I have a knife that I'm getting ready for HT I started a while back. The handle is quite long given the blade length but I really don't care. I have a purpose in mind for it and I feel it fits its purpose. I wanted a knife that would be a good skinning knife that had a blade short enough to get your index finger over the top of for good control and not poking through the hide. But also had enough leverage in the handle area to work with easily. So I have this stubby little blade with a seemingly long handle. But I prefer function over form a lot with knives. I showed it to our beloved NJ Steel Baron and he really liked the way it felt as well. So for overall aesthetics I'm probably not the greatest of judges, I don't think it looks bad, but again I'm not a great judge of things like that a lot of times.


Here is a pic of the knife I was talking about. I took it after I finished grinding it. Knowing more about the bubble jig and grind heights on blades now I would grind it a bit different instead of putting a fill grind on it but I can always make another. ;)

35finger.jpg
 
I'm always ready to offer an unsolicited (but constructive, I hope) opinion. If it were my project, I would really consider saving that nice piece of stag for my second knife and going a different route for this one.

The handle is way too big, in my opinion. You've got plenty of tang to do a nice wooden handle--either hidden or full tang and still have it come out looking nice. It's the perfect size for a neck or EDC knife.
 
Mr. Bad Example said:
I'm always ready to offer an unsolicited (but constructive, I hope) opinion. If it were my project, I would really consider saving that nice piece of stag for my second knife and going a different route for this one.

The handle is way too big, in my opinion. You've got plenty of tang to do a nice wooden handle--either hidden or full tang and still have it come out looking nice. It's the perfect size for a neck or EDC knife.
Click to expand...

I still want to put a guard on it though and the more I think about it, the more I think you might be right. I just need to figure out how I'm going to incorporate a guard and a handle with scales or a block.

Jeff
 
How about using this fine piece of wood for the handle instead of the stag?

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One possibility is to cut the tang down a bit, but leave it wider than you were going to. That will let you slide a guard over it and let it butt up against the ricasso like you want.

Then you can do a rabbet tang--take two slabs and route out a space for the tang--one half the thickness from each slab. Sand them perfectly flat and epoxy and pin them together. I am doing a re-handle on a Cold Steel Trailmaster this way right now.
 
You beat me to the post--that is EXACTLY what I'm talking about--I think that looks much nicer and in proportion.
 
I still have to extend the tang though, it comes up short on the back end. Should I still do what you explained in the above post with this block?

Thanks,

Jeff
 
KB1SYV said:
I still have to extend the tang though, it comes up short on the back end. Should I still do what you explained in the above post with this block?

Thanks,

Jeff
Click to expand...

Jeff, with a (so called) rabbet tang, the tang is fully enclosed within the wood, so it can be any width/length within reason.

Edit: They call this a mortise tang as well in some threads--perhaps there is a difference.

Edit 2: Here is a page with a good diagram of a rabbet tang--it's about half-way down the page: http://www.knives.com/engnath_handles.html
 
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Mr. Bad Example said:
Jeff, with a (so called) rabbet tang, the tang is fully enclosed within the wood, so it can be any width/length within reason.
Click to expand...

The reason I say that is because the tang only comes up to half the length of the block. I'm looking at just under 4" for the blade and 7" for the piece of metal, so I think I'll need to extend it anyway. When I decided on the blade size, it was under the pretense that IG was going to weld on some threaded rod to put a pommel on the back end of the stag handle. So it comes up a little short for the handle at this point.

Jeff
 
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