eisman
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2009
- Messages
- 7,025
Not the first I owned, but the first I built. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 35 years since I got a copy of David Boyes "Step-by-step Knife Making" and decided to try it out myself. My dad's shop was mostly woodworking stuff, but a neighbor who had been a SeaBee had some metalworking stuff in his garage I could use. I don't remember what we cut it out of ( I think it was a concrete saw blade), but I took the pattern from a old Dixie Gun Works Catalog. THe handle is cast resin, and it's pretty obvious we cut the tang way to short. The grind lines are pretty rounded, but mostly straight. Tempered it like a spring, big flat piece of iron heated with a torch and got it to color. Polished by hand and dipped in the bluing tank (I was doing a little gunsmithing back then too.) Made up the sheath and carried this thing around for a few years. Put it away when I joined the Army.
It was a good project for a teenager, and it taught me a little. The next couple I built I used store bought blades for. The stag handled hunter went off with a friend and a dagger I did up with a cholla handle and german silver fittings got used for throwing against the side of the garage (2" redwood slabs) by the youngest brother until it was bent all out of shape.
I always wanted to try the acid etch, but mom pretty much drew the line there. It was bad enough we were brewing our own black powder (remember back when kids could do this?) gallons of acid added to the mix was just tempting fate too much. Besides, I can't draw that well.
I keep this around to prove that sometimes things you do last longer than expected. But the memories are worth it.
It was a good project for a teenager, and it taught me a little. The next couple I built I used store bought blades for. The stag handled hunter went off with a friend and a dagger I did up with a cholla handle and german silver fittings got used for throwing against the side of the garage (2" redwood slabs) by the youngest brother until it was bent all out of shape.
I always wanted to try the acid etch, but mom pretty much drew the line there. It was bad enough we were brewing our own black powder (remember back when kids could do this?) gallons of acid added to the mix was just tempting fate too much. Besides, I can't draw that well.
I keep this around to prove that sometimes things you do last longer than expected. But the memories are worth it.
