My first proper knife build, lots of pics

Great job, looks like it'll be a useful knife. Let us know how she performs after the heat treat.
 
Looks great! If it were mine I would slim down the handles a bit more, more oval in shape, but you might have bigger hands than I. PLus, handles are always easy to shape. Very cool!

Connor
 
bad_juju said:
Great job, looks like it'll be a useful knife. Let us know how she performs after the heat treat.
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I definitely will keep you all posted. Peters should have gotten it Monday, so I'm hoping to have it back in 2 weeks. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that nothing happens. The whole warping thing has me really worried for some reason. I'm sure it will be fine.

ConBon said:
Looks great! If it were mine I would slim down the handles a bit more, more oval in shape, but you might have bigger hands than I. PLus, handles are always easy to shape. Very cool!

Connor
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I had actually planned to slim it down a good bit more, and actually sculpt the handle to give it a coke-bottle-like shape. However, when I felt it squared off, it felt perfect. I was pretty shocked, because it's REALLY thick. I do have very large hands, though. I doubt it would fit most people's hands, but it feels great to me. I was also very shocked how I lucked out with the balance. I played with the thing for a few hours over the course of a couple of days and it just felt perfect. Then, I noticed that it balances right where my index finger goes on the grip. That was definitely accidental, but couldn't have worked out any better.

I'm still considering slimming it down maybe 0.1" on each side to make the screws totally flush, especially since I'm about to add another 0.06" in spacer material, but I may leave it alone. We will see once I get the blade back and get the spacer material on there.
 
Love this thread, thanks for the inspiration. Going to try & make a knife within the next few months when I can get a grinder. Will start out with better belts, thanks for the heads up on the Harbor Freight ones!
 
Paul Hart said:
Love this thread, thanks for the inspiration. Going to try & make a knife within the next few months when I can get a grinder. Will start out with better belts, thanks for the heads up on the Harbor Freight ones!
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I'm glad it inspired you to try making a knife as well. Yeah the Diablo belts from Home Depot were much better. I also ordered some 3M belts from Jantz. I'll let you know how they work when I use them.

GermanyChris said:
I'd take one with a green canvas micarta handle. ;)
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Maybe in the near future, when I feel confident I can make them perfect, and I buy a Knifemaker membership. Then we will talk!
 
Do not use water or a wet blade on your 3m belts if they are Trizact.
The grit will just shed and you will waste the belt. If you need water to cool the blade, make sure to dry it before you hit the belt again.

I am also looking forward to your updates.
 
NJBillK said:
Do not use water or a wet blade on your 3m belts if they are Trizact.
The grit will just shed and you will waste the belt. If you need water to cool the blade, make sure to dry it before you hit the belt again.

I am also looking forward to your updates.
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Thanks so much for the tips! That is some awesome info. I would have been very upset if I ruined a brand new belt. It is awesome to have guys like you around who are willing to share your knowledge.
 
Well, I got the blade back from Peters Heat Treat, cleaned it up, and finished it. So far, I'm really liking it. It hasn't seen any hard use yet, but it will in the future. I am somewhat concerned about how tough the blade will be. I didn't really do much thinking about what hardness to request from Peters, and said 63-64. They went with 64. It is certainly hard as all hell. Sandpaper is essentially useless. I'm glad I had already sanded it to an acceptable finish before sending it in, because grinding off the scale was about all I could do. I didn't feel like eating up a bunch more belts, so I just left the grind as is.

The steel seems great so far. It cuts very aggressively, and hasn't lost any of its edge yet. This steel is incredibly wear resistant. Not only did I about kill myself trying to sand out some deep scratches, but it also ruined a Lansky extra coarse diamond hone. That hone has reprofiled hundreds of blades of all different kinds of steels. It was probably down to about 60% before I started sharpening this knife. For whatever reason, I decided to go straight to the Lansky, and not put any edge on it with the belt sander. That was a mistake. Despite the edge only being about 0.018", it took forever, and like I said, killed the hone. However, it did sharpen up nicely. I achieved a razor edge much easier than S90V.

I made a kydex sheath for it last night, which was my first time messing with kydex. It was super simple, and really makes me wonder why there are high end knife makers that don't supply sheaths with their knives. That's just crap. As easy and cheap as it was to make this sheath, those makers should be ashamed. Anyway, here are some finished pictures:

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Here's a sneak peak at the next few. I have enough CPM 20CV to make about 7-10 knives, depending on the size. The top one, that looks like a KABAR is for my cousin who's in the Marines. He wanted a modern version of the KABAR, so I'm making it full-tang with green canvas micarta handles. I think it will turn out pretty cool. The smaller two are likely for me as a carry fixed blade. I like the the little Wharncliffe came out, but the other one I screwed up the plunge on the grind. I wanted to do an angled plunge, but messed up. Good learning experiences.

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Alfazulu said:
Well, I got the blade back from Peters Heat Treat, cleaned it up, and finished it. So far, I'm really liking it. It hasn't seen any hard use yet, but it will in the future. I am somewhat concerned about how tough the blade will be. I didn't really do much thinking about what hardness to request from Peters, and said 63-64. They went with 64. It is certainly hard as all hell. Sandpaper is essentially useless. I'm glad I had already sanded it to an acceptable finish before sending it in, because grinding off the scale was about all I could do. I didn't feel like eating up a bunch more belts, so I just left the grind as is.

The steel seems great so far. It cuts very aggressively, and hasn't lost any of its edge yet. This steel is incredibly wear resistant. Not only did I about kill myself trying to sand out some deep scratches, but it also ruined a Lansky extra coarse diamond hone. That hone has reprofiled hundreds of blades of all different kinds of steels. It was probably down to about 60% before I started sharpening this knife. For whatever reason, I decided to go straight to the Lansky, and not put any edge on it with the belt sander. That was a mistake. Despite the edge only being about 0.018", it took forever, and like I said, killed the hone. However, it did sharpen up nicely. I achieved a razor edge much easier than S90V.

I made a kydex sheath for it last night, which was my first time messing with kydex. It was super simple, and really makes me wonder why there are high end knife makers that don't supply sheaths with their knives. That's just crap. As easy and cheap as it was to make this sheath, those makers should be ashamed. Anyway, here are some finished pictures:



Here's a sneak peak at the next few. I have enough CPM 20CV to make about 7-10 knives, depending on the size. The top one, that looks like a KABAR is for my cousin who's in the Marines. He wanted a modern version of the KABAR, so I'm making it full-tang with green canvas micarta handles. I think it will turn out pretty cool. The smaller two are likely for me as a carry fixed blade. I like the the little Wharncliffe came out, but the other one I screwed up the plunge on the grind. I wanted to do an angled plunge, but messed up. Good learning experiences.
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Even though it has no green canvas micarta and it's not residing in my Jeep it's still a nice knife, it'll be much better in green canvas micarta and riding in my Jeep. :D
 
Nice looking knives.

On the one going to your cousin, hit those inside corners with a chainsaw file to round them. Those sharp 90° corners can create a location for stress risers to propagate.
And see if the top guard would be more comfortable as a thumb ramp on the handle side.

I am glad to see that you are learning from your experiences and that you are actually planning on using your knives and see what they (and you) are capable of.

Congratulations on your knives. I would ask about the pricing at peters, I believe they charge per blade under 4, and bulk 4-20. So if you make a bunch, you will save a bit of coin.
 
GermanyChris said:
Even though it has no green canvas micarta and it's not residing in my Jeep it's still a nice knife, it'll be much better in green canvas micarta and riding in my Jeep. :D
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Thanks, man. If I were set up here at BF as a knife maker, I'd offer to make you one. I'm considering it.

NJBillK said:
Nice looking knives.

On the one going to your cousin, hit those inside corners with a chainsaw file to round them. Those sharp 90° corners can create a location for stress risers to propagate.
And see if the top guard would be more comfortable as a thumb ramp on the handle side.

I am glad to see that you are learning from your experiences and that you are actually planning on using your knives and see what they (and you) are capable of.

Congratulations on your knives. I would ask about the pricing at peters, I believe they charge per blade under 4, and bulk 4-20. So if you make a bunch, you will save a bit of coin.
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I can't thank you enough for all of your advice and shared experience. It definitely makes my life easier and my knives nicer. I will definitely round out those corners a bit. As to the thumb ramp thing, I wanted to make the handle with a molded-in guard instead of a separate metal guard like the actual KABAR. I'm not sure if this will make sense (or even work), but what I'm planning to do for the handle is use thick micarta (like 1/2") and grind it down so that it is basically a round bar with the same cross section as the handle you see. It should end up looking like it was turned on a lathe. That will give it a guard at the top and bottom. I have no idea if it will work, but we will see.

I'm definitely planning on taking advantage of Peters' bulk pricing. I'll wait until I grind all 7-10 knives to send them in. It's painful to have to wait even longer, but I'll deal with it.
 
I carried my knife today while at work. First, I love it. It works great, and got used hard on its first day out. It sharpened pencils, cut plastic wrapping, chopped through a few small pieces of hardwood (poplar), chopped/cut some MDF, scraped rough edges off some plywood I cut with a sawzall, opened boxes, and various other tasks. The edge is still razor sharp. I was especially impressed with its chopping performance. I never use knives to chop stuff, but just so happened to need to do so today. Normally, I wouldn't have used my knife for this, but since I had a large fixed blade with me instead of my usual folder, I figured why not?

Today also made me realize that I LOVE carrying a fixed blade. I am shocked by that. I may start a thread about it.
 
The knife and sheath look great! You should consider selling them in the future. I'd be interested.
 
Great first blade. Good, useful shape and looks like a comfortable handle. You're definitely on your way. Great first sheath as well. Kydex and the other Kydex like plastics are great and very forgiving.

I hear you about carrying fixed blades. I'm tough on tools and even the high end folders I have like my ZT's are weak in comparison and not really any lighter in weight. I don't make my knives to chop, but if that's what I have on me, that's what I'm using. As you've seen and done, a properly made fixed blade can cut, chop and continue cutting for a long time.

I sharpened my first blade by hand on the largest DMT diamond stones. Going from .030 no edge to an "ok" cutting edge took me six hours by hand... Never again. The belt grinder is a multi tool in the shop and the best, most efficient sharpener. Now it's ten minutes from no edge to razor sharp with my grinder.
 
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