Knife I'm Donating To Our Troops

Matt Shade

Matt Shade

Joined
Nov 24, 1999
Messages
4,981
Here's a knife I made to donate to our troops. I'm sending it to the adopt a sniper program at www.adoptasniper.org . This is one of the best methods I've found for getting donations to the folks that need them. Generic addressed packages are hard for the military to handle with the volume of mail they're dealing with. Adopt a sniper and similar programs can send directly to the troops.

Its made of 1/4" thick O1, with black linen micarta scales, brass pins and thong hole.Blade is 6" long. Overall length is 11".

Here it was before being browned:
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Here is now:
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I used some browing solution I had left over from a muzzle loader and a few pairs of spurs. Took about 2 days and 5 coats before fitting the handle. This was difficult, I had to boil the blade to get the darker color which meant doing the handle section without the scales attached. I had to have the scales 99% finished so that I didn't have to do any grinding after attaching them. Once I had them epoxied and pinned on, I masked off the blade and tang edges and ground the pins smooth and completed finishing the scales. Then I had a little touch up work to do on the blade finish. I re-cleaned it with acetone and did a few more rounds with the browning solution. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Browning hardened tool steel is a whole new ball game over gun barrels and spurs.

Here is the sheath:
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The belt loop can be removed and put back on horizontally. Also has the slots for a web strap and lots of rivets to run cord through. Its far from the greatest, and I was hoping to give them more options. Things weren't going too well though.I decided I'd better stick with function instead of going for multifunction and getting disfunction ;)

Still needs sharpened and I'm hoping to find a drawstring clamp to put on the sheath so they don't have to tie knots. The paracoard criss crossing the knife locks the sheath down as tight as you want depending on how tight you pull them, figured that way they could lock her in tight if they're jumping in from somewhere and could leave it loose for normal use. The sheath locks it up pretty well alone, you can hold it upside down and shake it fairly good, but it draws easily.

This was a lot fun. I have to get some paying knives down now, but I wouldn't rule out doing another. It was my first time doing a blade over 5", and first time using 1/4" stock, and first time browning it. I'm hoping to do them all again :D

So what do you guys think? Thanks for lookin :D
 
Looks awesome !!! I'd like to hear more about the coating thingy you used and the coating process itself. Is this a gun "bluing" coating ?
 
Thanks :)
Browning is the old fashioned equivalent of bluing. Bluing is best done with a bath of hot salts, thats what you have to do to get the deep glassy blue like a nice rifle has.
Browning is done cold, and gives a more plum/brown if you boil it at the end, or a reddish brown if you don't boil. Its what they used to finish barrels and fittings on muzzle loaders way back when. It gives a much deeper, more durable finish than cold bluing which is a chemical you wipe on to imitate the hot bluing done in the heated salt bath.
I posted the details on how its done in this other thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327454 , its in a post farther down the page. Its pretty simple, and doesn't require any real special set up. The biggest thing is to try not to make a mess with the chemical, and don't touch anything without washing your hands afterwards. I had stuff all over my workbench rusting like crazy when I did the muzzle loader. Now I put everything away and put down waxpaper first :D
 
Matt, that is a great looking knife and sheath!! Good job!! :D :D

It is a very good thing you are doing for our service men. I know they will appreciate the knife to the fullest! :D

Steve
 
Nice blade there. Like the design quite a bit -- looks useful and deadly. :cool:
 
This blade will serve well, Matt.

Well Done!
The bluing is mighty nice....
Tom
 
that is great! looks great and a heck of a great thing to do! A friend of mine who son is there, said one thing they don't need is candy! everyone sends candy, they want beef jerky, bottled water, koolaid and gatorade mixs and of course knives!

Paul
 
Thanks Paul :)
This really isn't that much to do considering what they are doing for us and everyone else. I just hope it makes life a little easier for somebody over there :cool:
Thanks again everyone :D
 
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