Maritime Machete

[P. McKinley]

Here's a project I've been working on in spurts for quite a while. This is a knife and sheath combo that I initially drew up about 2 years ago and intended on having the blade made for me by an accomplished bladesmith.... I spoke to several.

I've made, now, 14 knives(I think), but all I had ever done was put handle on blades and make sheaths. I had never done any metal grinding, much less blade grinding, and I had never done any heat treating/tempering steel either. But, I became determined to do every step of the stock removal knife making process, by myself, with what resources I have on hand.... for the first time and deal with the challenges as they would inevitably and often arose.

I built myself a jig that was long and strong enough to hold a blade this size and ground away on a bench-top 1X30 belt grinder with 80 and 120 grit belts. For my first grinds I pretty happy. The plunge lines are close, the bevels are symmetrical and the edge is straight, so I'm happy.

I heat treated and tempered the blade at the Canadian Coast Guard College in their high tech oven at their Mechanical Engineering building(my wife teaches at the college). The quench was done at 1350 F in a 20 liter tub filled with old motor oil and left in the sun to warm to about 100 F. The tempering was done immediately after the quench in one of the college's kitchen ovens at 500 for 60 minutes - twice.

This is my second attempt at any sort of file work decoration and in the end like it, but I've stopped looking closely.

Here's a few of the details:

*Blade - 3/16X11", O-1 steel cut from a 4" wide piece
*OAL of knife - 17 1/4"
*Handle - Bubinga( I think the grain pattern is described as "waterfall"), with hand turned ebony pins and black fiber liners.

Here's a few photos. Thanks for looking.

 

[betzner]

It looks like something I would definitely like to get into my hands and take lots swings at vines, limbs - do some chopping with.

 

[P. McKinley]

And, here's a look at the sheath/scabbard.

Again the wood is the same Bubinga cut to just over 1/4" thick then fully lined with black oiled leather. There is a full veg tan leather welt carefully dyed black just before the final series of buffings. All seams are recessed into either the wood or the leather. And every pre-drilled stitch hold has been hand beveled with a counter sink bit to get rid of sharp wood edges. The leather welt was sanded to thin it down just enough to achieve a tight, smooth blade fit. The oil tan leather belt loop/shoulder strap harness is sewn through the back side slab of wood with the stitching hidden under the leather lining.

The brass fastener will be changed out for a steel one and a bubinga tab will be sewn onto the end of the retention strap.

 

[Jos]

Very nice. I like the way you made the sheath!:thumbup:

Kind regards,

Jos

 

[Lorien]

love it! What a great job you did:thumbup:

 

[Keith Montgomery]

I like everything except the holes.

 

[JParanee]

Very interesting piece of work . Good job

Cool sheath