Horsewright Knives and Leather

lambertiana said:
The wedding knife turned out really well. I want to see the damasteel when it’s done. Which damasteel pattern?
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Just re reading this and saw I hadn't answered your question. The steel just came the other day. He'd bought it and had it dropped shipped to me. It is Odin Heim.

Ever notice similarities in knife design?

For instance, my Poco and my Gordo are basically the same knife with the Poco being a bit smaller:

OIJBhck.jpg


I often joke about Poco being Dave Spanish for not enough steel to make another Gordo. But in simplest terms what is a knife? Really just a sharp edge with a handle. More thoughts on this later.
 
So finished up morning chores and had a lil bit of time before suffocating in the heat out in the shop today. So along our same theme. My Ranchero is a larger version of the Gordo:

BiM4jKk.jpg


While at the same time the Ranchero is a smaller version of the Sonoran Hunter:

vEL26Yi.jpg


So if you look at all four of these guys they are basically the same design. Our simple knife design of a sharp edge and a handle. Really besides a small tweak here and there the difference is in size:

FfYeD8C.jpg


From the bottom up: the Poco, Gordo, Ranchero and Sonoran Hunter. I had often thought on this and have other examples, for instance my Mestano is basically a scaled down Cowboy. But it just happened in this last batch of knives that I had a Poco, a Gordo, a Ranchero and a Sonoran Hunter.

TFiJTbU.jpg


Interestingly the Gordo was the first of the lot. The others all grew or in case of the Poco shrunk out of the Gordo. Gordo is Spanish slang around here for "chubby boy."

Any thoughts?
 
Horsewright said:
So finished up morning chores and had a lil bit of time before suffocating in the heat out in the shop today. So along our same theme. My Ranchero is a larger version of the Gordo:

BiM4jKk.jpg


While at the same time the Ranchero is a smaller version of the Sonoran Hunter:

vEL26Yi.jpg


So if you look at all four of these guys they are basically the same design. Our simple knife design of a sharp edge and a handle. Really besides a small tweak here and there the difference is in size:

FfYeD8C.jpg


From the bottom up: the Poco, Gordo, Ranchero and Sonoran Hunter. I had often thought on this and have other examples, for instance my Mestano is basically a scaled down Cowboy. But it just happened in this last batch of knives that I had a Poco, a Gordo, a Ranchero and a Sonoran Hunter.

TFiJTbU.jpg


Interestingly the Gordo was the first of the lot. The others all grew or in case of the Poco shrunk out of the Gordo. Gordo is Spanish slang around here for "chubby boy."

Any thoughts?
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I can hardly wait for my custom Ranchero 😍

Let me know if any Nichols Damascus shows up in time to switch from AEB-L 😂
 
Here's a few pics of Rancheros:

An old one with G10 scales and a copper bolster.

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Elk:

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26C3 with elk and turquoise. Notice its pretty sharp:

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T0jxwGy.jpg


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Another elk and turquoise on a 26C3 blade with a water buffalo overlay sheath:

mYyePup.jpg


FDC5HAH.jpg


Sheephorn and 26C3:

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Buckeye Burl:

avJ1ZNK.jpg


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Anyhoo ya get the idea.
 
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Thank you so much, beautiful work, I think that size would be just right, a little smaller than the Sonoran hunter.
 
cbach8tw said:
Thank you so much, beautiful work, I think that size would be just right, a little smaller than the Sonoran hunter.
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Yes sir. The design predates the hunter. The Sonoran Hunter, if you'll pardon the pun, grew out of the Ranchero. Thanks for the kind words.
 
I'd posted some pics of my daughter starting on cutting out a batch of knives, up above. I've finished that up:

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98 blades here with six more to add for a total of 104 that will go to heat treat.

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After I have them all cut out I start profiling them. So cutting with the band saw, basically I'm shooting to cut out the marked blade to the outside of the lines. When profiling I'm using the grinders to smooth everything out and grind to the inside of the line.

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I configure my grinders differently for each different knife model so I tend to do all those of the same type before moving onto a another knife model:

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The bottom right line of blades have all been profiled the left side knives have not:

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Oft times if I'm busy with a large multi day project like this, my wife Nichole will take care of some of the other orders. She built up and shipped this pair of roughout spurstraps for an order:

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I enjoy Dave's posts also. And my new Coyote. My wife snagged my Coyote for kitchen duty (and the last time it will be used on a non-wood cutting board). The Coyote is far sharper than all of our kitchen knives.

IMG_3023 Edited.jpg
 
echoscout said:
Enjoying your posts Dave. 👍🤠 Been carrying my Coyote 🐺 last couple days. I have a good sized hand. It amazes me how well the Coyote 🐺 fits my hand.

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Good deal! Glad that is working out for ya. I try as much as possible to get my handles to where they fit as many hands as possible. I try to get them comfortable for my big hands and then I have my wife check them too. Figure if they work for me and for her, they're gonna work for most folks. Also while I'm not a fan of multiple finger grooves on a handle. Too limiting. Thanks for the kind words.

ron55 said:
I enjoy Dave's posts also. And my new Coyote. My wife snagged my Coyote for kitchen duty (and the last time it will be used on a non-wood cutting board). The Coyote is far sharper than all of our kitchen knives.

View attachment 2613210
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Thank you too Ron, for the kind words! That pic looks like you might have a Cowboy there not a Coyote. Haven't made any Coyotes in the 26C3 steel. No particular reason why, just haven't. That steel is slicy ain't it? Here's the only kitchen set I've made out of that steel. A rancher in KS ordered this set for his sister as a gift upon her graduation from culinary school:

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Well I've been getting a lot done on that batch that is getting ready to go to heat treat. After the profiling above we moved onto drilling all the holes in the tang that are necessary. Some are for bolsters some are pin and lanyard tubing holes and others are simple to lighten the weight and improve the balance of the knife:

Hole positioning on each blade is marked with a Sharpie.

gtmKn6V.jpg


Then a small pilot hole is drilled with a #30 bit. A #30 is just a quarter of a hair bigger than a 1/8th. Did ya know that a 1/8th pin won't go in a 1/8th hole? It's a fact. I use a #30. If the knife does not have a bolster than the front hole will stay with the #30 size and so will the rivet holes for the bolstered knives. As ya can see the sharpie marks are suggestions:

TxaBnJi.jpg


Once I have the pilot holes drilled I use a step drill on my other drill press to punch them open. The two rivet holes on this Sonoran Belt Knife for the bolster will be left alone. All the other holes will be opened up:

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Got a few done:

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After drilling the knives need to have the burrs ground off and the entire blade smoothed off. I call this "cowboy surface grinding." I just carefully use a flat disc and even everything out on both sides. It's pretty quick maybe 35-40 minutes for the whole batch. To do:

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After that step I mark where the front of the bolster will be and the angle that it will be on the knife. This tells me where to stamp my HORSEWRIGHT stamp.

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Then using a press to hold the stamp.

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I give it a few good whacks:

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Since the steel is soft this of course causes a little bending of the blade so I straighten each one on the anvil with a few taps and they are done:

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A few more to whack:

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All 103 blades of this batch finished:

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