Making knives with blade blanks. Show your stuff!

[lentuk]

I like to either thread the tang or weld a bolt on the end, I then thread the butt plate, epoxy everything then tighten the plate down snug. I have peened the threaded tang after also.

 

[Tx308]

My first ever try at it several years ago.
Really wish I'd bought more of the yellow burlap micarta when I had the chance.

Love these patch knife blades and have a few more somewhere waiting for handles.

 

[sunknife]

I've done some using full tang blade blanks. Makes for a enjoyable project and wasn't all that difficult with a few basic hand tools. I had all the wood on hand, scraps of end cuts from my main hobby of wood bow making. None of the wood was stabilized but all was well seasoned, at least 10 yrs. Mounted with epoxy and pinned with steel.
I've given away all but the first two pictured below. So far the 2 I kept for myself have held up well but I can't say that they have seen any heavy or steady use.

Patch knife with buckthorn scales, rawhide & thread.


Green River blade with black locust scales, wood burned accents.

 

[sunknife]

Here are the others that I passed on to friends. All Russell Green River Works blanks, Handled in Osage & Black Locust, on a couple I dyed the wood with Feibings leather dye.
View attachment 2055882View attachment 2055883

 

[dantzk8]

What methods are you all using to put your knives together?

My first hidden tang was an experiment in making do. I had a hand drill with drill bits, a chisel I borrowed from my neighbor, a 1x30 sander from harbor freight, some sandpaper, and some mineral oil to finish it off. It was hardest to get the hole straight and deep enough, as you can see by how my blade is sitting a little too low in relation to the spine and sticks out farther from the handle than a normal Mora would. It is aesthetically awful, but I do like that it will be easier to sharpen and puts the edge of the blade more forward in relation to the hand when gripping the knife. Some mistakes can be fortunate.

I've used a ashwood log.
Shaped it with a carving hatchet to get a 2"x3"x6".
Drilled it at a depth 1/4" shorter than the tang is.
Sharpened the butt of the tang with a file.
Put the blade in a vice and hammered the wood.
Whittled the handle in such a way the handle was in line with the blade and at the right size.
My goal is to get a practical, reliable and comfortable result. If i take care of aesthetic i know i will miss at least one of the targets.

Dan.

 

[VCM3]

Some RGR's I did with real nice ironwood

 

[VCM3]

An old skinner with some maple

 

[VCM3]

Some figured olivewood

 

[ron55]

A Wood River knife blank I picked up at Woodcraft with spalted Tamarind scales and a bocote scaled skinner from Harbour Mercantile on Etsy.

 

[VCM3]

More RGR's ,stag . A friend really takes his pics to next level

 

[VCM3]

RGR Patch

 

[VCM3]

From memory that's shrinking ,this was a big butcher blade that I bought seems a factory burned down ,can't recall the stamp. Anyhow upon inspection I saw a crack out near the tip so I re profiled and this was the result

 

[VCM3]

Menefee sent me this blade I put some Lloyd stag on it

 

[VCM3]

I must've done a hundred of these little drop points ,the blades from China but they were ground really nice

 

[VCM3]

John Lloyd's African Blackwood on this set

 

[VCM3]

Wild handles

 

[davek14]

I love Green River blades

 

[VCM3]

Some may find this interesting. These blades from China called caper or mini ,I could not figure why the front pin hole was so far back . I hafted many like this with the cover going up towards the front

Then one day I saw this on Ebay ,and realized this was where they got the idea for this blade ,and pin hole placement

 

[BladeCommander]

I've done a ton of kitchen knife rehandles from finished knives, but since "blanks" was mentioned specifically, here are some of the ones I have done from blade blanks. Mostly kitchen knifes again, but hopefully these count.
Most of these are Zhen knife blade blanks that are easy to find online. All as gifts to help upgrade friends and family's kitchen cutlery. They have pretty good steel and decent grinds for blanks that don't require extra labor to pull handles off. Prices were reasonable as well for how well they function. The standard Zhen knives came from Woodcraft's website last I purchased. The hammered damascus was a damaged blem with a bent tip from the Zhen main website that was really well priced. I cut about 1.5" off the tip to make it more gyuto style so the bent 1/4" didn't bother me at all. The last pairing knife in rosewood was a Jantz knife in AUS8 and is ground nice and thin. Probably my favorite knife from that particular line.

The Russel Green River carving knife looks very nice. Next time I get the idea to do a blank I will pick up one of those.

 

[old4570]

NKD 95mm Blade blank in 80crV2 Carbon
Handle is a Gumtree branch .
Would have been all white , except I hit it with some black marker and sanded down .
Then varnished it .

Spine was ground to make the blade more Bushcrafty .. Scrape ferro and wood to make fire !
My 5th DIY blade blank ..
Just considering right now what my 6th one will be ?