Knife #7 Preview - 5 for 1 deal

Erin Burke

Erin Burke

KnifeMaker...ish
Joined
May 19, 2003
Messages
1,330
For the past couple of weeks I have had a mental-block concerning my next knife project (Knife #7). I made a couple of sketches, but nothing really jumped-out at me... so I decided to approach things differently and design a knife based on as specific person.

For the last couple of years, my younger sister Kate (one of four younger sisters) has been requesting that I get her a knife for her birthday. My original intent (before I started making my own knives earlier this year) was to get her a nice small folder. Now that I have a few of my own knives under my belt, however, I decided that I would give a handmade gift instead. :D

So once I had made the decision, it didn't take long for the bones of a new design to reveal themselves (mostly just popped into my head as I was laying in bed a couple nights back). There were a couple of design criteria that were obvious right-off-the-bat. First, if my sister where going carry this knife it would have to be small and light. Now, I don't have this skill or equipment to turn out a good folder, so this knife would also have to be a fixed-blade. Before long I had things all sketched-out on paper and had created a cardboard template.

Now this is where I decided to take things a step farther. As mentioned above, I have four little sisters. How would the other three feel if I put this amount of time and effort into a gift for Kate and they got... well... nothing (my usual gift). So, without further ado, here is a preview photo of Knife #7... a,b,c,d&e.

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You'll notice that there are five blanks in that stack... one for each sister, and one sacrificial piece (just in case I screw something up). I am working with 1/8" 1080. If everything comes together as I hope, these should be COOOOOOOL when they are done.:D

Erin
 
Your a good big brother. Those knives look very cool. I am sure they will like them.
 
Nice design.

You know this means you can never piss off your sisters ever again, right?

:)
 
Cool profile, i'm sure they'll love those :thumbup:... If all five survives fifth one may be your KITH knife??
 
Nice work getting the blanks all the same. They look like they were done by a machine (in a good way)! I've been working on doing "four of a kind" as a skills exercise, and getting the blanks identical at the outset--while important--is undoubtedly easier than keeping them identical.

Cool design as well. They're but a finger-ring away from being kerambits.
 
DrThunder88 said:
Nice work getting the blanks all the same. They look like they were done by a machine (in a good way)! I've been working on doing "four of a kind" as a skills exercise, and getting the blanks identical at the outset--while important--is undoubtedly easier than keeping them identical.
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It's actually REALLY easy to get them to have identical profiles. All you need to do is rough-cut them all on the band saw, make one of them a template for the pin holes, and then drill the holes for the rest of the blanks using that template. Then you just pin them together like shown in my picture... add a couple of clamps to hold them tight... and clean up the profile on the grinder. Quick and easy...

You are right, though... grinding identical bevels and tang-tapers will be the tricky part. Fittings too.

Erin
 
Been a few weeks, but I finally got these blades through HT. At this rate they might even get done before 2010. ;)

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Erin
 
Hey Erin,

Nice project, honorable objectives, cool design and good of you to share the process with us. I wonder if you might take a moment to explain your reasoning behind the design? I get the small and fixed parameters, but don't get the blade design for ladies. Maybe your sisters are quite progressive, but the women in my life would not understand the cutting edge. It doesn't quite seem kitchen worthy as it would arch out away from a cutting board. It looks like it might excel at cutting fabric and boxes and such though.

All the best, Phil
 
Farmer Phil said:
Hey Erin,

Nice project, honorable objectives, cool design and good of you to share the process with us. I wonder if you might take a moment to explain your reasoning behind the design? I get the small and fixed parameters, but don't get the blade design for ladies. Maybe your sisters are quite progressive, but the women in my life would not understand the cutting edge. It doesn't quite seem kitchen worthy as it would arch out away from a cutting board. It looks like it might excel at cutting fabric and boxes and such though.

All the best, Phil
Click to expand...

Good question...

As mentioned in the OP, the original concept is based around my sister Kate. She is in law school... very sharp wit and sense of humor. As part of hers school/internship, she hangs out with cops and bad guys. But the design works for my other sisters as well who (perhaps with the exception of Meagan) are much more likely to cut somebody on the street as cut something in the kitchen. :D The knife design is not based on domestic sensibilities but more on EDC and discrete/aesthetic self defense.

Erin
 
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It has been slow going on this project, but here are some more progress pics. This first pic shows bolster blanks cut from 416ss on the bandsaw.
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This photo shows my setup for dovetailing the bolsters. It's kinda ghetto, but it gets the job done.
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So far I have two blades all cleaned up and polished with the blades etched (to show the teeny-tiny hamon). One of the blades has bolsters and handles attached with rough profile grinding completed on the handle... the other is epoxied and clamped-up as I type this. The final three are polished up to about 400-grit. Take a look.
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Handles on the first two are desert ironwood. I'm not sure whether I should make them all exactly the same or not.

Erin
 
very cool little knives. i liek the design quite a bit.

i would suggest doing four different handle materials, that way each of your sisters gifts will be that much more unique.
 
supasuprab0b said:
very cool little knives. i liek the design quite a bit.

i would suggest doing four different handle materials, that way each of your sisters gifts will be that much more unique.
Click to expand...

Yeah... but what if one ends up looking better/worse than the others?... Then we got a knife fight on our hands.:eek::D. Also, from a practical standpoint, because these knives are so small, I can get four sets of handles out of one set of ironwood scales. I hate wasting handle material. :grumpy: For a personal touch, however, I figured I'd get a sheet of stencils made up with their nick-names and give each blade a custom etch.:thumbup:

Erin
 
that would be pretty cool as well. you could have done micarta as well, for a unique look w/ their vavorite colors.
 
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