First sale!

A

AwP

Joined
Apr 13, 2004
Messages
408
Finished up my first sale, a custom hunter for a friend of a friend. He specified the shape of the point and the length of the blade, he left the rest up to me. What do you guys think? Be brutally honest, he doesn't read knife boards so he won't see any unflattering comments about it and I'm tough, I can take it.

Blade material: O1
Handle material: Oiled Bacote, Red Oak spacer, Koval mosaic pins
Sheath material: Red oak, Leather, Wire nail pins
OAL: 6 3/4"
Blade length (from the choil) 2 1/2"
The pics are kinds big, sorry.
saleS01b.jpg

saleD01a.jpg

If I was ever to get into this full time, I think I'd need to outsource my sheaths. I was going great with a full head of steam making the knife, but when I got to the sheath all my motivation left. Actually I don't mind the wood part so much, it's just the leatherwork that I don't feel confident in.
 
Congrats on your first sale! Can't tell for sure from the pics, but the bolsters look integrel with the knife. Did you forge it? Pat McGroder
 
Pat,do you have different photos than I do? There is no bolster on the knife I see.

AWP - Interesting shape.I would beef up the throat a bit in the future.Also round off the point at the choil just a tad.
Stacy
 
That is really nice!

I can imagine seating the handle in the palm of my hand and putting my index finger on the spine near the tip and doing some fine cutting.

Good job....
 
Thanks for the comments :) . Yup, it's forged from 1/2" O1, I had to upset the end a bit to get enough meat for the width. There's no bolsters, but it's got distal and tang taper, so the ricasso is the thickest point and it can kinda look like a bolster, someone else thought that when I showed them an in progress pic too.

Stacy: By "throat" do you mean the ricasso area? You have a point about the, er, point on the choil.
 
I'm currently looking into buying either a new monitor or a new set of eyes. Pat McGroder
 
Congratulations on the sale!! :thumbup: Interesting handle shape (I like it) and the distinct wood grain sets it off nicely. The blade's got even more belly than I do. ;) :D Looks like it would be mighty comfortable in use and a handy li'l bugger for skinning. I also like the dual-material choice for the sheath. It's an interesting diversion from the world of "leather or plastic, your choice" sheathmaking.

The two upper pins being so close to the edge of the handle makes me nervous. I suspect they go through the tang okay and will never give any problem in use. But visually to me they look like they are slipping off the edge of the knife :eek: and I wanna reach out and grab 'em.

FWIW, below is a picture of a two-pin arrangement on your handle that my eye likes better. (But that's just me.) I know... it's standard, stolid, in-line-with-the-tang, and not-nearly-as-imaginative-as-your-placements. ;) The red lines and numbers show how the pin placements correspond roughly to The Golden Section and the magic numbers 1.6 and 0.6 associated with it.

AWP-1.jpg
 
You're not the only person to say that RokJok. I think you're right about the look of the pins, though I would have to change the tang style to do it differently next time. Here's a pic that shows how my tang looks, this was actually an earlier attempt at making the same knife but I wasn't happy with how it turned out so I ground it into a whittling knife.
tangsample1.jpg
 
Nice work, and while I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the choice of oak for the handle/sheath will more then likely cause problems. Oak is a good wood, but if you notice, theres barely none used for knife/tool handles. The reason is it contains Tannic Acid, which reacts with the iron and will cause staining. Probably you'll see problems first on the wood, staining blue, though it can also rust the steel. Real sorry to say it, but better you know after one, then after twenty. (Plus if no one voices this up, and it comes back after awhile, might save you some troubleshooting time)

Looks great, and I don't want that to discourage you.

-MJ
 
knife! You've gone to a good finish on your blade which is somthing people just starting out seldom do, they just give up. And I'd never have thought of wood and leather for a scabbard; now that's something new.

regards, mitch
 
MJ: I'll warn the buyer of the possibility of that and offer to replace the sheath for free if any problems turn up. I'm hoping the dye method (dead vinager), which chemically reacts to the tannic acid to make the color neutralizes it too, I guess only time and feedback from the buyer will tell. I've used oak before, but only with rustic finishes where any tarnishing wouldn't show anyway.

Mitch:Heh, I would have made the whole sheath wood if I could have figured out a good belt attachment method that I could trust, I'm not real comfortable with leather work yet. I'm not imune to the newbie bad finish syndrone, my first few definately looked like that. While I'm still relatively new, I think I've progressed beyond straight up newbie over the last three years, I've learned to be more efficient doing the finishes and hammering close to shape with less deep hammermarks to grind out.

I still have a long way to go to be as good as alot of you guys, but I think this is a big step on the path. With this sale, I feel more confident (and if I get good feedback from the customer that'll help even more) and I might get a few more customers out of the deal from word of mouth as he shows it around.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top