I got my kit today and I am pretty impressed. the grind lines weren't even on both sides, but it is a double edge blade, and I've heard that it is very difficult to keep the grinds even. I like the overall dimensions and even thought of leaving the handle off and just wrapping it to make a neck knife, but I want to play with hand tools and get the ya ya's out first! I got the Jantz catalog and I am impressd with that. They had 15 pages of knives and kits and they even told what size pins, guards, etc for each model so u know what to order. they had a bunch of varieties of blade sizes, styles and even had a few in ATS-34. They also sell steel, maybe barstock, (I cant remember exactly) and had D-2 listed there I think. Was someone looking for D-2 recently? they also told what temp and time to heat and temper the stuff to get certain Rockwells. they also had 12" by 12" kidex sheets for $4 each. Overall, I liked the knife kit and catalog a lot and only wished I had more money. I can't wait to put it together. One question, though...for the handle, do u go the whole length of the tang right up to nearly the sharpened part of the blade or jsut to where there is a little choil on each side?
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Jantz Razor Edge boot knife kit impressions
- Thread starter Taz
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 24, 1999
- Messages
- 4,981
I would have to see the blade to know for sure, but I think you should extend the slabs almost all the way to the cutting edge.
I'm guessing the little choil area your talking about is so you can sort of make a gaurd out of the ends of the slabs. That way your hand doesn't slide up on the blade if you try and punch a hole in something with the tip.
Jantz sounds like a good suplier. I've found that prices are a little inflated at all the mail order suppliers I've ever ordered from. I buy steel, and other things from them since I can't get them anywhere else. But you can save yourself money by not getting everything from them. Hobby store's are good places to get brass rod, music wire, and epoxy. Lowes carries brass rod and epoxy too, along with lots of machine screws and stuff that could be used to hold on handle slabs. I would look in the catalog to se what you need, then see if you can find it at a store near you, and then only order what you have to from the catalog. You'll save yourself some money that way,and its a lot easier to keep things on hand.
Have fun.
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Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
I'm guessing the little choil area your talking about is so you can sort of make a gaurd out of the ends of the slabs. That way your hand doesn't slide up on the blade if you try and punch a hole in something with the tip.
Jantz sounds like a good suplier. I've found that prices are a little inflated at all the mail order suppliers I've ever ordered from. I buy steel, and other things from them since I can't get them anywhere else. But you can save yourself money by not getting everything from them. Hobby store's are good places to get brass rod, music wire, and epoxy. Lowes carries brass rod and epoxy too, along with lots of machine screws and stuff that could be used to hold on handle slabs. I would look in the catalog to se what you need, then see if you can find it at a store near you, and then only order what you have to from the catalog. You'll save yourself some money that way,and its a lot easier to keep things on hand.
Have fun.
------------------
Fix it right the first time, use Baling Wire !
Thanks for the tips! I am using the basic kits with everything invcluded. i just don't have the epoxy, which I will get tomorrow somewhere in town. I will keep adding to my collection of tools and materials as i get better. Right now, i would rather stick to the stuff included in the kits until i get to know what i need more and have more experience working with the stuff. i won't be ordering steel yet for a while as I have no grinding or heating equipment. Oh well, there is plenty of time!
Well, i'm almost done with my kit. I just have to shape the handles. The only problem I had was getting the right size drill bit. The 5/64 seemed right and the 3/32 seemed too big (the pins seemed to fall right through..is this how it should be?). I used the smaller bit and ended up sanding the pins down to size. Also, i drilled the holes differently. After roughing out the handle and leaving a good amount extra, I clamped the handle pieces on the blade with the tang on top and just drilled through both handle scales while they were clamped. Saved lot of time epoxying, drilling, epoxying and drilling again. I epoxied all of the handle pieces together and got a little in the pin holes. it seems pretty strong and I will finish the handles today shortly. Overall, the kits was pretty easy except sanding those pins. that took about 90 min to do 6 pins, but I was also watching a movie at the same time, so it wasn't too bad. overall, I like these kits for their price and quality. Other than the misaligned double grinds, there were no other problems. I look forward to completeing more of the kits. Now to try to figure out how to do sheaths...