First try at a Loveless style drop point hunter--- feed back wanted

S

Stevenj369

Joined
Dec 21, 2013
Messages
42
Hi guy, So I got kinda a cool order awhile ago. She asked for a knife for her boyfriend and the only request was to use some of the elk antler that she had. Outside of that whatever I wanted to make I could make!!!!! Oh yeah and no real time frame. Kinda a knife makers dream. So I have been sitting on it for about a month going back and forth on designs and ideas. Now I mostly make kitchen stuff and she already bought a couple of kitchen knives so I knew I wanted to do some thing new/uncomfortable and make it a learning process. Now I knew it might not turn out that good and might have to scrap something but I figured she gave me a whole side of an elk antler that I could try a couple time if needed.

I have always liked Loveless style and since I'm in the same city that he was I thought it was fitting to give it a go. I had some 440C and 420ss for the bolster laying around and thought it would work for this project. I know their are other steels that would probly be better for this style knife but I have been wanting to try working with 440c and I am pretty sure this knife is just going to sit in an office :-( and not really used. I forgot to take picture during the whole process but I will post below what I have. Sorry for the low quality on them, my wife normal does the picture taking.

I ended up doing a 8in hollow grind (biggest wheel I have... for now) and a very light tapper on the tang. First time doing a tapper tang and I really like it. I think next time I'll go much thinner on the end. I ended up going to a 58-59hrc and did a mirror polish.

Please let me know what you think. I would love feed back!



















 
You know I thought the liners would look good but after putting it on and having to sand the bone so much I kinda regretted it.

The picture you tagged was before heat treat. I got the flats of the blade area up to around 600 grit before putting on the bolster but forgot to do it the tang and had to do it with the disk sander after, that and sand paper on a 123 block.

I do need to work on the buffer, it seemed to kinda wash out most of my lines.

Thanks for the feed back and I can't tell you how many time I have gone over Nick's threads and youtube videos. Probly going to try a new one here once I catch up with orders.
 
Fit up looks good, .015 red liners is what you want , but you know that ;) I think the loveless grinds go up closer to the spine for the most part as well.
 
I like it. Think maybe the handle is a little too fat, but that might just be the thick liners throwing the look off a bit. Overall I really like the look and size. Would prefer a larger wheel for the grind, but them I'm limited to a an eight inch wheel as well since I don't do much hollow grinding.
 
Nice work. Your guard is very well done. The main thing I would say about improvement is, taper the tang a lot more and the handle is way too thick. Use thin red vulcanized fibre liners. As has been said, the Loveless grind goes all the way to the top of the spine.
 
handle looks thick in the pics, as in way too large?
btw, I follow you on IG and really like your multi-wood handled kitchen knives :-)
 
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