My first knife since joining BF

[Atlas Knife Company]

For your review, my knife #5, the first I have completed since taking up knife-making seriously. Knife #4 is at the blade stadge, and #1 recently got re-finished from it's beginning 10 years ago. Unfortunately, it is made of 1" 303 Stainless. The handle is a little short, but it is for my 10 year old and his hands will fit it perfectly. The guard is made of the same stainless and the handle is red oak. The pins are 1/8" stainless welding rods.

The 303 stainless can't be HT'd so I had to change some things. I originally had it mirror-shiny but just handling it caused scuff marks. So, I sanded it back down to 400 for a satin look.

I haven't had it sharpened yet, but am planning to send it off with a couple others as soon as they are down.

I learned a lot making this knife, and hope to learn more on #6, which won't be started until sometime in March.

 

[thompsonblades]

Very nice, very servicible blade. I think SS is a little soft to work well for a knife like that, but I guess your son will get plenty of practice sharpening it.

 

[C_Kyle]

Question:

How did you attach the guard? Is that a framed tang?

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Not sure what you mean by a framed tang. The guard is epoxied to the blade/scales using 105/207 two part epoxy. It takes about 8 hours to set and 36 hours to cure. I would have gotten it welded, but the consensus was to do as little work to finish it as possible after it was discovered it was 303 Stainless. Well, "scrap it and start anew" actually won, but I couldn't do that. I really liked how it turned out. Now to make the same kinife out of better steel.