Light weight forged hunter with some awesome redwood burl...

J. Doyle

J. Doyle

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
8,181
Here's a recently commissioned piece I just finished today. It's a nice compact hunter. This is really light weight. Redwood burl is usually pretty light anyway, the g-10 guard keeps the weight down without sacrificing strength. It puts the balance right behind the guard, right on the first finger. This knife just melts and disappears in the hand.

Specs:
Hand forged from 1075 steel, clay quenched and etched lightly
8 1/8" overall, 3 7/8" blade (about 3 1/2" sharp), .185" thick at the ricasso with full distal taper
Rounded spine and ricasso edge for comfort
Black g-10 guard and spacer
Coined 416 SS spacer
Stabilized Redwood Burl from our friend Mark at Burl Source

All comments and discussion welcome. Feel free to say what you like or dislike, please. :)













 
John, you hit it out of the park as usual. In fact, I con't recollect that I've ever seen anything from you that wasn't exemplary. I like that G10 guard; I may have to give that a try. And after seeing you and a few others do it and finally trying it myself, I might never make another stick tang without a rounded spine and ricasso.
 
Very nice John, I bet it's a featherweight!
I love the contrast with the G10 guard. :thumbup:
 
What do you use for the butt? Is that the female end of a corby ground off?
 
Wow, both of the Fry boys in the same thread. It's like a family reunion in here. ;) :)

Travis Fry said:
John, you hit it out of the park as usual. In fact, I con't recollect that I've ever seen anything from you that wasn't exemplary. I like that G10 guard; I may have to give that a try. And after seeing you and a few others do it and finally trying it myself, I might never make another stick tang without a rounded spine and ricasso.
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Thanks Travis. Yeah the g-10 guard has it's advantages. Try it sometime. The rounded spine makes things so much more comfortable in use. If you ever have to bear down on something with your thumb on the spine, you'll really appreciate that detail.

Jason Fry said:
What do you use for the butt? Is that the female end of a corby ground off?
Click to expand...

Jason, that's pretty much it. I usually make my own cause it's way cheaper. :)

Thanks to the rest of you guys too for the comments.
 
Speaking of butts, I like the way you do the routed edge. How do you do that? Oh the rest of the knife is killer too.
 
Bruce Bump said:
Speaking of butts, I like the way you do the routed edge. How do you do that? Oh the rest of the knife is killer too.
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Thank you Bruce.

First I get the handle all shaped and sanded to about 800 grit. Then I take a small fine flat file and knock a 45 degree angle all the way around the 'corner' on the butt end. I file until the flat is about 3/32" wide. Then I take a round file, usually a 5/32", and start to groove out the center of my newly established flat area, using the borders of the flat to keep my file centered. Keep going around until everything is even and at desired depth. On a knife where the top rear part of the handle rounds off into the butt end, like this one, there is a small area on top that I have to blend in with a ball end burr and carve an arced channel that meets the filed groove on both ends. Most of the butt end has an 'outside' corner and that's easy to file, where they start to meet on top makes sort of an 'inside' corner and you can't get it with a file so you have to carve it out instead. I made a small 1/8" bent file to clean that area up, after the carving with the ball end burr, and blend it all together. Man, I hope that makes some sort of sense. :)
 
John, it makes good sense, just need the skills to make it possible. You apparently have the skills and patience. Nice work.
 
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