Frame Handle Fighter

tryppyr,

Props on attempting, what appears to be, a very challenging project. With that said, two things jump out to MY eye. First, the spine/choil line look......off. FTO_dude's 2nd pic looks like it would correct that. Second, the extremely aggressive drop of the handle. Maybe it's just me, but it looks visually out of balance. Also with such a quickly aggressive drop, I'm wondering how comfortable the knife would be in hand.

Adam
 
Thanks, Adam. I can tell you that as it stands now the drop of the handle is comfortable in my hand (when the scales are in).
 
Definitely your nicest project to date, Greg! I really like it. If you deepend/flattend the choil, I think you'll be on the money!

Awesome work to date, sir!
 
Thanks.

This is the stage of a project where I have to be careful not to rush myself. I'm close enough to completion that I want to see the finished product. But I have to temper that with the desire to do things right. Today I cleaned up the tang just a smidge to make it easier to get it in and out of the handle without a lot of additional banging of the handle. I also sized the guard down just a hair in order to allow the tang pin hole to move back to the alignment point with the the handle (just far enough ahead of that so I still have a little room to work without overshooting the alignment). I also removed a little material from the back of the scales to get them a bit closer to the proper thickness, so I don't have to remove as much visually interesting material when shaping them for final fitment. And yes, I raised the choil a bit more and am still thinking about whether/how I can flatten it.

Fighter57s.JPG
 
Okay, this is as far as I care to push the choil flattening and and handle alignment.

Fighter58s.JPG
 
Greg,
I believe that will do the job nicely. The flow of the knife is greatly enhanced by these two small changes. I can't wait to see it with the Musk Ox mounted and polished, and the blade finished.

I am very impressed with this project.
 
bladsmth said:
Greg,
I believe that will do the job nicely. The flow of the knife is greatly enhanced by these two small changes. I can't wait to see it with the Musk Ox mounted and polished, and the blade finished.

I am very impressed with this project.
Click to expand...

Yes this is what I was thinking too. The flow is much better with the choil straightened out.
The musk ox is going to glow on this Bowie.
 
Very cool! I have probably followed every one of your projects and this one is the best!
 
Thanks Bruce and Daniel.

Despite having a lot of honey-do projects this week I managed to get some time to work on the knife and made a fair amount of progress. I've started refining the guard, but now that I've reprofiled the parts of the blade and handle that contact the guard there is more work to be done. I spent a lot of time hand sanding the blade to 2000 grit, then etched my mark on it. I added the primary edge with the Edge Pro and then etched the damascus. After the etch I gently cleaned it with the 2000 grit, and that's where I am at the moment.

Fighter59s.JPG
 
The last few days has been all about shaping the guard. I'm still not quite there, but it's getting closer. Looks ugly now because I'm still at the stage of using files. The idea is that the guard is fluted so the front is wider than the back.

Fighter60s.JPG


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For some time now I've known I wanted all of the pins on this handle to be hidden pins. Last night the decision became more than an aesthetic preference and more of a functional requirement. I noticed that the pressure applied to the brass spacer plates was causing a very small amount of buckling, as you can see from this shot.

Fighter65s.JPG


I thought of various ways to resolve this but to me the most sensible was to peen the brass pins to hold the sides of the plate flush to the frame. So that's what I did today.

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This does mean I'll need to countersink the scale pin holes a bit, but that's easily done. There will still be enough pin protrusion to give the scales lateral stability, which I figure will be more than enough for any blows the handle is likely to encounter, even if dropped, as the combination of the guard and the bolsters/butt pieces keep any impact from striking the scale squarely on the side.
 
Over the last couple of days I refined the guard, peened the assembly pin permanently into place, attached the scales and have started running through the sanding grits on the handle. Currently up to 220 grit, but not done with that grit yet. There are still some areas that need attention (like the tips of the quillions), but on the whole I'm pleased with what's shaping up. It feels very comfortable in the hand, and I find I can't stop touching it. I had to stop sanding for a while, though, as my shoulders and back were starting to warn me of imminent muscle spasms.


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Really nice project. I like the look of the brass liners. Looking forward to see some pics of this in natural light :)
 
Thanks. I'm still sanding out some rough spots, but I should be able to post final pictures later this week.
 
Here are the outdoor pictures of the more or less final state of this knife. Though you can't really tell from the pictures, the handles have been sanded to 2000 grit and are slick/shiny. I may still tweak some things here and there, but for now I'm putting this one down. I'll definitely be making a sheath for it... soon. Probably going to use some of that crocodile back strap I have.

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Fighter75s.JPG
 
Very nice Greg. Thanks for letting us ride along while you made this knife. Jess
 
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