NixKustoms
Sheath and Knife Maker
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 5,883
That thing is looking damn sweet bro!!!! Keep it up!
-
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Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Maethor's BK-2... Updated with beauty shots on pg 4!
- Thread starter maethor
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2011
- Messages
- 243
That looks awesome! I think you have done every mod that I've ever considered. Absolutely amazed...can't wait to see more...
CW
CW
Actually all of this could be done without a dremel. It makes making the jimping easier, but with a good new chainsaw file you could do it just as good. I took the shoulder between the primary grind and the flat stock off with just sandpaper and some leather glued to a piece of 1x2 to have something with a little "give" under the 80grit. About 2 hours per side.
I tried to saw the slabs out of that piece of wood I got, but it looks like I need to find someone with a bandsaw who will cut them for me. Doesn't work with a handheld circular saw.
Edit:
Yes, I put a handheld circular saw into a vise and screwed some pieces of wood onto it. Guess what, didn't work.
I'll go to a local carpenter's shop tomorrow and see if he can cut the slabs for me.
Last edited:
I went to a few carpenters today until I finally found one who would cut 10mm thick slabs out of the block of birchwood I had, this was the result.
3 slabs of full thickness and one a little thinner, about 7mm. Awesome and beautiful material for knife handles. I wanted something that's somewhat exotic, but not something that has traveled around half the world after being harvested in a tropical jungle, so I chose karelian curly birch. It comes from the northern parts of finland, around the russian border, and very few trees have this beautiful curly shiny pattern. I didn't get super lucky with the grain on this one, and the picture doesn't do it justice. There are also some burn marks from the sawblade on it.
I then went to the shop and proceeded to chop the butt end off. I wanted to use a handheld angle grinder, but it turned out not to be there, so I had to use a dremel with a little SiC cutoff wheel. Yes, it took a while. I marked out where I wanted the new handle end to be by scratching a line into the metal with a scribe, and cut it off maybe 1/8" from that line, then did the final grinding and clean up on a bench grinder.
I wanted to put a tube through this hole to attach a lanyard, but a comfortable lanyard tube for 550 cord should be 6mm outer dia, IMO at least. I took a little hot soldering burner to the surrounding area and brought it to a faint red glow to be able to drill it to 6mm. I haven't drilled it yet, dunno if it worked as planned, we'll see tomorrow. Yes, I know I effed up the temper, but that kinda was the point, right? I'm not gonna pound on the butt end anymore, not with the nice expensive work-intensive wood scales
The slabs cut to length and, drawn out on the paper, the shape I would like them to have, ideally.
Quick question, how should I go about attaching and drilling the wood? I think I'll shape the end which will be closest to the blade first, then glue one of the scales to the handle, drill the holes on the big drill press at the shop, glue the other scale on, drill holes through from the other side, glue lanyard tube and pins in, do the rough shaping with a saw and then start working with files and sandpaper. Right? Now that I think about it, it would probably be good to saw the first slab to shape before attaching the other one. What do you guys think?
That's it, I'm tired, and I want to get this done tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
3 slabs of full thickness and one a little thinner, about 7mm. Awesome and beautiful material for knife handles. I wanted something that's somewhat exotic, but not something that has traveled around half the world after being harvested in a tropical jungle, so I chose karelian curly birch. It comes from the northern parts of finland, around the russian border, and very few trees have this beautiful curly shiny pattern. I didn't get super lucky with the grain on this one, and the picture doesn't do it justice. There are also some burn marks from the sawblade on it.
I then went to the shop and proceeded to chop the butt end off. I wanted to use a handheld angle grinder, but it turned out not to be there, so I had to use a dremel with a little SiC cutoff wheel. Yes, it took a while. I marked out where I wanted the new handle end to be by scratching a line into the metal with a scribe, and cut it off maybe 1/8" from that line, then did the final grinding and clean up on a bench grinder.
I wanted to put a tube through this hole to attach a lanyard, but a comfortable lanyard tube for 550 cord should be 6mm outer dia, IMO at least. I took a little hot soldering burner to the surrounding area and brought it to a faint red glow to be able to drill it to 6mm. I haven't drilled it yet, dunno if it worked as planned, we'll see tomorrow. Yes, I know I effed up the temper, but that kinda was the point, right? I'm not gonna pound on the butt end anymore, not with the nice expensive work-intensive wood scales
The slabs cut to length and, drawn out on the paper, the shape I would like them to have, ideally.
Quick question, how should I go about attaching and drilling the wood? I think I'll shape the end which will be closest to the blade first, then glue one of the scales to the handle, drill the holes on the big drill press at the shop, glue the other scale on, drill holes through from the other side, glue lanyard tube and pins in, do the rough shaping with a saw and then start working with files and sandpaper. Right? Now that I think about it, it would probably be good to saw the first slab to shape before attaching the other one. What do you guys think?
That's it, I'm tired, and I want to get this done tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
NixKustoms
Sheath and Knife Maker
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 5,883
I think you're on the right track there brotha. It's really looking good man! I can't wait to see what happens in the end 
Got more work done today.
First, drilled out the hole to 6mm (about 1/4"), the annealing of the surrounding area worked like a charm and the TiN coated HSS drillbit went through like butter. Lanyard tube fits.
Shaping the scales, this is the area that can't be worked on anymore without scratching the ricasso after they are glued to the tang. A rasp and a file did most of the work, some 100grit sandpaper cleaned up the edges.
Give everything a good wipedown with acetone before applying the epoxy, it will take any oil/fat/dust residue off the tang and the wood and make their bond stronger. Very romantic.
Then I applied epoxy to one side of the tang and put it all into a little vise, because I had no clamps readily available. I should have drilled the holes and put the pins in before putting gue on it, it would have made this step a whole lot easier. Get a drink while you wait for the epoxy to dry, my choice is Club-Mate.
Then shaping of the already attached slab, I used a hacksaw to cut big chunks off and then a rasp, file and sandpaper to finish up. I also drilled the holes, 5mm for the pins and 6mm for the lanyard tube.
Then I drilled the holes into the second slab and checked the fit. It's tight, but that's a good thing. My pins are M5 threaded rod (M5 meaning a metric thread with an outer dia of 5mm) and the lanyard tube is 6x0.5mm (6mm outer dia, .5mm wall thickness) tube. Brass of course, for ease of working with and looks.
Again, applying epoxy, clamping (this time in another vise with an extra clamp) and having a drink while the epoxy cures.
Just for fun and educational purposes, we chucked it onto our milling machine which I learned to properly operate in the process. This is actually my only action pic of this, a good friend who wants to stay unpictured and unnamed is operating the machine in this picture.
Result of the milling process. Cleaned it up like before.
Some terrible pictures of the knife as of now:
You can already feel that it's gonna be a great handle, I love the contours so far. Of course the real shaping work is still ahead of me.
Wish me luck, I have an interview tomorrow, and I really want and need this job.
That's it for today. Enjoy.
First, drilled out the hole to 6mm (about 1/4"), the annealing of the surrounding area worked like a charm and the TiN coated HSS drillbit went through like butter. Lanyard tube fits.
Shaping the scales, this is the area that can't be worked on anymore without scratching the ricasso after they are glued to the tang. A rasp and a file did most of the work, some 100grit sandpaper cleaned up the edges.
Give everything a good wipedown with acetone before applying the epoxy, it will take any oil/fat/dust residue off the tang and the wood and make their bond stronger. Very romantic.
Then I applied epoxy to one side of the tang and put it all into a little vise, because I had no clamps readily available. I should have drilled the holes and put the pins in before putting gue on it, it would have made this step a whole lot easier. Get a drink while you wait for the epoxy to dry, my choice is Club-Mate.
Then shaping of the already attached slab, I used a hacksaw to cut big chunks off and then a rasp, file and sandpaper to finish up. I also drilled the holes, 5mm for the pins and 6mm for the lanyard tube.
Then I drilled the holes into the second slab and checked the fit. It's tight, but that's a good thing. My pins are M5 threaded rod (M5 meaning a metric thread with an outer dia of 5mm) and the lanyard tube is 6x0.5mm (6mm outer dia, .5mm wall thickness) tube. Brass of course, for ease of working with and looks.
Again, applying epoxy, clamping (this time in another vise with an extra clamp) and having a drink while the epoxy cures.
Just for fun and educational purposes, we chucked it onto our milling machine which I learned to properly operate in the process. This is actually my only action pic of this, a good friend who wants to stay unpictured and unnamed is operating the machine in this picture.
Result of the milling process. Cleaned it up like before.
Some terrible pictures of the knife as of now:
You can already feel that it's gonna be a great handle, I love the contours so far. Of course the real shaping work is still ahead of me.
Wish me luck, I have an interview tomorrow, and I really want and need this job.
That's it for today. Enjoy.
NixKustoms
Sheath and Knife Maker
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 5,883
Very nice brotha!! I wish you would have done those kinda mods to the 9 before we trades
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2008
- Messages
- 1,692
Looks great meat. Keep it up.
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2010
- Messages
- 1,497
It really is coming along nicely.
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2011
- Messages
- 26,009
Lookin good meat.