Mike157
Gold Member
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2006
- Messages
- 3,018
Hi All,
I had the pleasure of visiting Matt Gregory, earlier this year, pre-pandemic. The plan was for me show up with a knife design and make it entirely by my own hand. Matt, of course, would be there every step of the way to demonstrate techniques, give moral support, and show a good load of patience. Matt, I must say, is an excellent teacher and mentor. I also enjoyed the hospitality of and visiting with Matt's partner, Jill. And as always, enjoyed the company and snow trail forestry hikes with their four legged boy, Brokk.
I've always liked the simple and, to me, clean look of a full tang knife with scales recessed from the spine's edge. As are many, I'm also a fan of the late Bob Lum's knives. And, when appropriate, a bit of polished steel. This design features some of Mr. Lum's influence, the recessed scales, and a bit of polish.
Though I might have liked to have a slightly more tanto-ish tip, we both agreed that it might be pushing it for time we had and my skill level. I will also note that I let the grinder get away from me slightly, couple of times, so there were one or two modified "features".
The steel used was CPM-154, and came from Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM). They are located not far from Matt's place, and were gracious enough to give us nicely detailed tour which we enjoyed greatly. Good friend and talented knife maker, Chris Adelhardt, joined us for the morning hike with Brokk in the forestry and the visit to NSM. Matt surface ground the bar of steel before I arrived, to save us some time. I believe the the project took a solid 40 hours, which gave us one day to play, and me a day to travel on either end. I showed up at Matt's house with card stock template in hand. We transferred it to a more sturdy piece of cardboard and got to work. This blade had a thorough heat treat, including subzero quench and appropriate tempering.
The spine and clip are mirror polished. The flats are hand sanded past, and then back to 1000 grit. The bevel is belt ground to 800 grit. The scales are polished ironwood and include four hidden stainless pins. The blade is 5" from tip to plunge and the knife is 10" overall.
Paul Long created the wonderful, lined, sash carry, sharkskin sheath. Thank you, once again, my friend.
And, as is obvious, Coop, created the magical presentation. Thank you, Coop. Always appreciated.
A big thanks to Matt, Jill, and Brokk, for putting up with me for a week.
Thanks all, for taking a look. Mike
I had the pleasure of visiting Matt Gregory, earlier this year, pre-pandemic. The plan was for me show up with a knife design and make it entirely by my own hand. Matt, of course, would be there every step of the way to demonstrate techniques, give moral support, and show a good load of patience. Matt, I must say, is an excellent teacher and mentor. I also enjoyed the hospitality of and visiting with Matt's partner, Jill. And as always, enjoyed the company and snow trail forestry hikes with their four legged boy, Brokk.
I've always liked the simple and, to me, clean look of a full tang knife with scales recessed from the spine's edge. As are many, I'm also a fan of the late Bob Lum's knives. And, when appropriate, a bit of polished steel. This design features some of Mr. Lum's influence, the recessed scales, and a bit of polish.
Though I might have liked to have a slightly more tanto-ish tip, we both agreed that it might be pushing it for time we had and my skill level. I will also note that I let the grinder get away from me slightly, couple of times, so there were one or two modified "features".
The steel used was CPM-154, and came from Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM). They are located not far from Matt's place, and were gracious enough to give us nicely detailed tour which we enjoyed greatly. Good friend and talented knife maker, Chris Adelhardt, joined us for the morning hike with Brokk in the forestry and the visit to NSM. Matt surface ground the bar of steel before I arrived, to save us some time. I believe the the project took a solid 40 hours, which gave us one day to play, and me a day to travel on either end. I showed up at Matt's house with card stock template in hand. We transferred it to a more sturdy piece of cardboard and got to work. This blade had a thorough heat treat, including subzero quench and appropriate tempering.
The spine and clip are mirror polished. The flats are hand sanded past, and then back to 1000 grit. The bevel is belt ground to 800 grit. The scales are polished ironwood and include four hidden stainless pins. The blade is 5" from tip to plunge and the knife is 10" overall.
Paul Long created the wonderful, lined, sash carry, sharkskin sheath. Thank you, once again, my friend.
And, as is obvious, Coop, created the magical presentation. Thank you, Coop. Always appreciated.
A big thanks to Matt, Jill, and Brokk, for putting up with me for a week.
Thanks all, for taking a look. Mike
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