That's a scary photo Charlie, when I first laid eyes on it, a diabolic act flashed through my mind... for a second I thought you may have decided to take your nip to a whole new level.
BTW... that knife's bigger than I originally thought, it's a beast, and that handle... boy... she's a ripper of a handle. Handle of the year if you ask me, I'm not jokin.
Can you image someone using that picture to show prospective knifemakers how they'd like their handle to be? LOL!!!
Derzelas,
Matey, I had a closer look at your 2 knives on my graphics package, the one you are getting made and your Bowie... because I love a good bowie.
Let me basically explain how PaintShopPro and most all CAD type software allows you to create lines and curves. They use an mathematical algorithm of the French Curve. Whereby if you attempt to create a curve that goes OUTSIDE the bounds of the French Curve, they do NOT allow it unless you BREAK up the curve into smaller individually joined curves, and when you do that, then the resultant curve is NOT smooth anyway, it does NOT look naturally pleasing to the human eye.
So if you already have a curve that you are attempting to TRACE over in an effort to replicate it for the purposes of your graphics package, whether to further manipulate it or to copy and paste it elsewhere EXACTLY as it is, then the software applies that same algorithm as you work away at tracing the existing curve.
When I attempted to accurately copy the peripheral profile of both your knives, the algorithm found a few non conforming areas. So I retraced both knives and made adjustments to bring those "stray" parts of the curve into line with the algorithm.
Below is a picture of the areas I speak about, I have used a much
THICKER edge line of your profile so when it comes time to print it out for a template, it will be much more forgiving to the knifemaker who is trying to mark it carefully on the parent steel he intends to cut it out of.
None the less, it is still thin enough to show you the main area in question around the lower half of the knife's Rake. If you look carefully at the black line I have superimposed onto your knife's Rake, it is in fact a copy-and-pasted portion of the rectified line which the program allowed me to create without showing any discrepancies in the resultant curve. When I stuck to tracing the EXACT line you originally had, the program did NOT like it, it would NOT allow me replicate it "as is". Meaning, that it did NOT fall into the curvature of the French Curve algorithm. If I made my line as thin as your line on your originally drawing, then the area of your line BETWEEN the inner part of the red (circular) ellipse I have superimposed can be seen WAVERING throughout that entire length. The same in the other 2 areas within the red circles.
Note how the outline trace the program allowed me to create without a hickup now looks MORE sweet to the eyes... compliments of the computer age. The computer did that, not me, I just guided the computer, I didn't tell it what to do, it told me what to do.
Which raises another side issue that I did not talk about yesterday, but would be worth mentioning NOW. Would anyone believe that a knife made around the days when Jesus Christ was alive, and made by hand of course, could possibly FALL into the acceptable curvature parameters of today's mathematical algorithm of a CAD French Curve in its ENTIRE profile's circumference? Well guess what; the Spartan knife I quickly traced using the algorithm did... and I mean along its ENTIRE length, even the curvatures on the handle's butt. I was flabbergasted when I saw it, I could NOT believe it ! lol And to think... all those years ago... done solely using the human eye... it's a beautiful thing.
So in case your knifemaker has NOT yet started cutting your knife, you may wish to have him do it using the templates I made which have the algorithm's correction worked into them, just configure your printer to print out at 100% scale and make sure you have the correct paper size that you are using in your printer set in the program as well... centered on page is good too, as follows:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=38730896041118228728
And in case you ever decide to have your Bowie made, here are the template files to it, French Curve corrected, either for printing on a single page and cutting and taping into one template, or for printing on an oversize single page (set to portrait print):
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=66364683143200217870
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=56164747688435598614
