Military Appreciation Build-Off Knife

silver_pilate

silver_pilate

Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Messages
3,974
Here's the knife I completed for David's awesome military appreciation give-away. You can check out the build thread HERE and check out the rest of the builds HERE.

This knife is ATS34 and the design and waterjet cut blank were provided by David at Great Lakes Waterjet. The sheath was donated by Spec-Ops and the last ditch dog-tag blade by Alex Shunnarah. The blade is ground full flat grind with convex edge; handle is tan canvas micarta finished at 320 grit with screw-and-glue permanent construction.

I'll be giving it away this week to an active duty service member and will post pics when it's all done. Thanks for looking!

IMG_0220-1.jpg


IMG_0232.jpg


IMG_0233.jpg


IMG_0234.jpg


IMG_0235.jpg


IMG_0236.jpg


IMG_0242.jpg


IMG_0247.jpg


IMG_0248.jpg


IMG_0249.jpg


--nathan
 
Last edited:
I don't like it. It's too perfect, so there has to be something major wrong with it. It can't be THAT great! AAhhhhH! I can't find anything wrong!


It looks great. Whoever the lucky man is that gets it deserves it, for protecting the country. Just to clarify, you're GIVING it away, as in free, to an ACTIVE service member?
 
Mike, that's the idea. David started up the contest, and it was a smash hit. There's 20 of us makers across the country (including Erik, up there :D) completing blades for a "competition", but nobody is really interested in winning. We just want to make a great product to give to a service member. After everyone's done, members here will vote on which knife they like the best and the winner will get some credits at Great Lakes Waterjet. I'm going to make a few calls and find someone to get this to tomorrow. It will either go to someone about to get deployed, or a wounded soldier who's recovering at home.

Oh, and specs: it's just over 5.25" cutting edge, just over 11.25 OAL. Steel is 3/16".

--nathan
 
Oh, and Mike...just to make you happy....

Take a look at the bottom of the plunge on the left side (marked side) of the blade. Woops! :grumpy: Didn't even see it until I posted pics. Must of happened while sharpening on the slack belt.

Erik's knife, on the other hand, is a great piece of work! :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=616054

--nathan
 
That plunge is a disgrace. You should really be ashamed of yourself. Just scrap the whole blade and send it to me, and make a new one from scratch. :p

I wouldn't have noticed if you didn't tell me, and I still took a few minutes to find it. :D Great work.
 
That's just a good looking over all package. I'm diggin the bare ended tang. I've always liked that look on workhorse knives. Looking forward to pics of him receiving the knife!
 
Here's the presentation. A good marine, Sergeant Kennann is getting ready to go to OCS on the 28th and then flight school from there.


I put together a certificate telling about the knife and all who participated in its build:

IMG_7585.jpg


IMG_7581.jpg


Here Chris is checking out the knife:

IMG_7588.jpg


IMG_7591.jpg


IMG_7589.jpg


He seemed pretty stoked about it. Said it was one of the best gifts he's ever received. Kudos to David for putting this together!

IMG_7592.jpg


The obligatory picture in front of the tank :D After the pic we hopped in and tore off down the highway (...if only :()

IMG_7597.jpg


Thank you everyone who serves our great country. May you all come home.

IMG_7604.jpg


I've known Chris for a little while now back when he was coming to our clinic for therapy. He served in Iraq unscathed, but a motorcycle put a cramp on his game when he got home. He was telling me he had a knife similar in design to this one when he was in the sand box, but he wore it upside down on his rig (said he thought he was a badass back then), and it fell out and was lost. Best of luck, Chris, in OCS and flight school and in your upcoming marriage as well.

--nathan
 
Last edited:
Wow, that is just great!! I'm glad that he liked the knife and I really glad that you guys did this. It's just awesome!
 
Great Job! And the pictures are awsome. I am in the planning stages of making a knife for a young High School to be Grad that will be in boot camp in a few weeks or a couple of months. We're deciding what will be the size he prefers. What in your planning did you discover was the blade size prefered?
 
Brian,

In this case, the basic design was done by David at Great Lakes Waterjet. His initial blank he sent to me was just over 12" OAL. Since he gave us plenty of leeway to change what we wanted, I shortened the handle a bit and also took bout 1/2" off the blade to drop the point just a bit. This blade (cutting edge) is around 5 & 1/2" which is right at the legal limit in Texas (probably more like 6.5" from the front of the handle scales to the tip). Of course, legal limit doesn't matter much in a combat knife, but I wanted it to be carryable outside of the corps. I'd say in my mind, anywhere from 4.5-5.5" cutting edge would be nice for a general purpose combat knife.

This is the opinion of one who hasn't used a knife in the military, so really I have no earthly idea :D:p I'd hesitate to go much beyond that length for the fear of getting labled a "Rambo" or something.

--nathan
 
I was just currious. Sometimes we assume larger the better but I made 2 knives for a Special Ops Trainer and one was 4" and the other was 3" blade. I told this young man to go through training and he will better know what he prefers.
 
I'm glad he liked the knife. Hopefully he won't lose this one :x and maybe it will save his life some day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top