The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
When i have a lot of jobs to do in the evening, i often defer to looking at "folding knives" on ebay. Used to be way more interesting. Now some businesses list their entire inventory of mall ninja knives."Mall ninja" is not derogatory, but it sums up a genre of low end often poorly built but wild looking & often assisted folding knives. There are few vintage USA German or British folders that show up but it takes a lot of looking/searching. So that's why i looked at "Homemade Knife", a listing with dark unrevealing pictures and no text. Price was low shipping was low, knife looked lonely, so i bought it.
When it arrived and i opened it up my very first thought was "homemade knife". So i opened it up, a nice "5" for pull, smooth to half stop and smooth with snap to fully open. and, No Blade Play ! And dovetail bolsters. And, spring flush in all 3 positions !
Nice walk/talk for closing with a definite half stop. Almost centered when closed.
If you've been following GEC threads (who hasn't !) then you know about those pesky liners and springs gapping and letting in light. So i went outside. It's a hot sunny day today. Full blasting June sun and i opened up the blade and held the knife up to the sun, moved it around some to make sure i was lining up right, and, no light, not even 1 speck.
O.K. so here's a picture of my "Homemade knife":
Here's the backside. It's 3 5/8" closed but i put another homemade knife in the picture just for scale:
I do think this was homemade by someone who was not a knifemaker but who knew how to use tools and make or build things. It's homey looking but it's reasonably sharp and everything about it works just as it should.
Does anyone else have a "homemade knife" to post. I'm meaning ones not made by a knifemaker.
I have another very different one to post sometime later.
kj
Yes, I have a couple home-made knives I'd like to post. Friction folder:
No idea why it's in two colors.
This one reminds me of the Frankenstein principle: use huge parts to make the connections easier. The blade is 3.25 " long. The nail nick is suspiciously well done, but rather oversized as well.
I've made three knives from parts; two folders and a stacked leather handle fixed blade. Clearly I am not a knife maker, but they were fun projects.
This sleeve board penknife has spalted beech and ebony wood.
Here is a neat old Barehead Jack, 4 1/4" that is a Custom but fits "homemade" as well. This knife was sold through the Sears catalogue circa 1911 for only 1 or maybe 2 years. Somewhere i have a copy of the catalogue page for this knife. The artist's sketch is accurate and the knife is described as all hand made by Chris Wolf and the toughest knife you will ever own. (or something like that). It would be interesting to learn how many of these knives Mr. Wolf made. I doubt many were sold as the price was 2-3x the next most expensive folding knife.
I will post a picture of the Sears catalogue page showing this knife when i find it. Many things are still 'hidden' from moving 9 months ago.
kj
My one and only very amateur homemade stacked leather fixed blade. Again, I put his together from parts.... no actual forging, grinding involved. It was a fun project. I could show wip photos if interested but don't want to side-track the thread.