- Joined
- Feb 4, 1999
- Messages
- 5,786
These are two of my latest knives. The smaller knife is 1/8 thick 1084 with a differential heat treat. The blade is a few years old and I messed up finishing it originally, so its been sitting in a drawer until I could properly rehab it. The edge is a full convex ground edge/primary bevel with a just-not-quite sharp false edge. Etched to reveal the temper line, but as you can see I quenched it a bit deep and the entire blade is hardened so the temper line is high and far back. Still a great knife, though! This one has wonderful curly koa handles (wood courtesy of Tom Mayo!) that have been finished with tung oil and rubbed with Trewax. Pins are black Micarta. The finish of the knife was left intentionally rougher than my more current work because I liked some of the deep file scratches from handworking this steel (all the grinding is done with good ol files!). So, I left it pretty rough to show off the character.
The second knife is a larger tanto with an interesting history. Before I got married (4+ years ago) I had the idea of making knives for the groomsmen. I purchased some recycled D-2 from planer blades used in the Pacific Northwest (the same steel Madpoet used on all his knives) and when I got it, even though it was annealed, I knew I bit off a lot more than I could chew. These were the first knives I had ever attempted. I spent a few weeks just profiling the knives, so I was in big trouble. Neil Blackwood came to my rescue and he turned 8 profiled pieces of steel into finished, heat treated blades. This is one of those eight. You can see that he hollow ground the main edge and convex ground the tip. Unfortunately I didnt have the foresight to have Neil mark any of these! I still own a few of them and Ive traded a few of them away. This one has stainless steel pins and black linen Micarta handles finished to 220 grit and oiled. Sheath is Concealex with a multicarry clip. So, blade design and profiling and finishing by yours truly, grinding a heat treating done by Neil and the work is superb. I ended up not using the blades for my groomsmen because by the time I got them back from Neil it was really pushing it in terms of the time, and in the meantime I had found a supply of 1084 and found that MUCH easier to work, so I ended up making different knives for the guys.
The second knife is a larger tanto with an interesting history. Before I got married (4+ years ago) I had the idea of making knives for the groomsmen. I purchased some recycled D-2 from planer blades used in the Pacific Northwest (the same steel Madpoet used on all his knives) and when I got it, even though it was annealed, I knew I bit off a lot more than I could chew. These were the first knives I had ever attempted. I spent a few weeks just profiling the knives, so I was in big trouble. Neil Blackwood came to my rescue and he turned 8 profiled pieces of steel into finished, heat treated blades. This is one of those eight. You can see that he hollow ground the main edge and convex ground the tip. Unfortunately I didnt have the foresight to have Neil mark any of these! I still own a few of them and Ive traded a few of them away. This one has stainless steel pins and black linen Micarta handles finished to 220 grit and oiled. Sheath is Concealex with a multicarry clip. So, blade design and profiling and finishing by yours truly, grinding a heat treating done by Neil and the work is superb. I ended up not using the blades for my groomsmen because by the time I got them back from Neil it was really pushing it in terms of the time, and in the meantime I had found a supply of 1084 and found that MUCH easier to work, so I ended up making different knives for the guys.