My second Hunter, many things wrong, but many things learned

mccandmatt

mccandmatt

Joined
Oct 29, 2013
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358
This is my second hunter style based off the one that I made a few weeks back. I messed it up, I applied to much pressure with my thumb when passing it over the belt and did not realize it till it was too late, I pretty much gave up on it, stuck it in a board, drove home and went to bed with the intention of just starting a new one the next day. But I said what teh hell lets see if I can salvage it. So I decided to try some new things out, so I went to grinding the other side down at the tip as good as I can with out the blade getting to thin, then I figured what the hell I will taper the tang as well, so I ground that out, and figured while I was at it why not add a bolster. Bought some 1/4" mild steel and round stock and went at it. Then I attempted to adhere black G10 spacer to the handle, the bolster, and in between the bolster and resinwood. I was so fragile it just kept breaking on me so I scraped that and just left the spacer in between the bolster and resinwood.

Stupidly, when I epoxied the handle up I also put the pins in, and only made one pin for the resinwood so overnight even though it was clamped up the scales slid down just a tad on the front lowering below the spine about 2 mm. I noticed a few nicks on the blade spine that I did not notice before so i took the spine down some to mate up to the handles (I know stupid) and this messed up the top of the plunge on the FFG, looks horrible. The pin in the bolster is visible, I did not peen it any and on the other side there was what I guess a slight warble from the drill bit and really noticeable.

So all in all the knife is a failure but I learned a lot from the mistakes I made so in that I say it was a success.

The Cocobolo resinwood turned out nicely, need to polish it up some more though

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Dude, that turned out sick.. I like everything about it. Think I'm might try doing bolsters pretty soon. Thanks for the inspiration. :thumbup:
 
Very nicely done.
I have already expressed my fondness for this style and shape of knife, and you executed it nicely. Honestly the issues you point out are barely noticeable, and the overall aesthetics of the knife are wonderful. The bolster pin is placed nicely, therefore being visible doesn't detract from the appearance IMO.

I have had mixed feelings about the resinwood products, but if it all finishes up that nicely, I wouldn't care to feature it on almost anything...

I especially like your overall size, shape, corner treatment and placement of the bolsters. The front angle of the bolster, flat side, chamfered corners and alignment with the plunge are spot on. This is one area I see even some very experienced makers struggle with, and you nailed it. There is actually some pretty funky geometry going on there.

Don't kick yourself too hard. :)
Very well done.
 
I would have thought i was king of the mountain if my second would have turned out that good
 
Thanks for the compliments guys, appreciate it.

Eric, I only did a quick dremel polish on it since i was at home, when I get to work I will throw it on the buff wheel and see how it will look after that. Also the bolsters I left a little rough and then hit it with some 1500 grit, for a worn used look, not sure I got it right, wanted to try and contrast it from the blade.
 
Very nice. I hope my 10th is that good. I see what you're saying about bringing the spine down, which ground away any curve to the plunge, but I don't mind it at all. I have a few knives that have a very similar plunge that I payed good money for. ;)

I agree about the cool geometry/compound curves between the bolsters and handle. Ian (HallHandmade) made a knife for me that also has a very distinct follow through between bolster and handle. Really looks great.

Not sure how I feel about the liners yet. I think some red would look killer between the wood and tapered tank, but it almost looks like a glue line on your knife without liners under the scales. Or it could be my phone. :D

I am super jelly about the tapered tang btw. Was it your first? What was your method? Part of me knows that I can try, and if it doesn't work perfectly, then fix it with sandpaper and a flat surface, but I'm still kinda chicken.

Is there a way to blend the bolster pin? Doesn't look bad as is.

Overall, the knife is really nice. Sounds like you have a grasp on what you'd like to do differently next time. It also sounds like you learned a lot, which to me is one of the very best parts of all of this.

Keep em coming!
 
I attempted it with the same concept as grinding a bevel. I first ground the butt at an angle to what I wanted then passed the back half from the plunge across the belt and applied more pressure as i got closer to the butt. Then I put it to my disc sander to make sure it was flat. Not sure if it's the best way to do it but it worked okay. Yes it was my first time tapering the tang.

The bolster pins I think I am going try and remove with a little heat. Maybe try it like Nick Wheeler did with the handle in his massive WIP but on a much smaller scale lol. And put a little counter sync and peen them in and hand sand it flush. Or I might just leave it be but whole point to this knife was to try to fix problems and try things out.

There is a small glue line :( and I tried using some thin g10 spacer material as a liner but it was too brittle and kept snapping on me. Need to get thicker stuff.
 
As for the spacer material I might cut some of ghost jade I have to maybe 3-4 mm and try that with some white epoxy on each side and some dark scales
 
If this double posts. Oops. Tapatalk acting up...

I like the bolster finish. Appropriate for the style and should be more durable than a mirror polish (I'm not a polished up fan anyway...) It does a good job of looking broken in...

I don't care for a spacer at all on a tapered tang. The bright contrast should highlight the thin and elegant tang IMO.

Cheers.
 
When gaps are discovered in the handle I mix up some epoxy maybe color it and press it into the gap. Makes it less noticeable and keeps gunk out. Many times the gap appears in a mosaic pin after sanding too. Is there a gap under the finger groove too? if so a little more grinding can help. Overall though, very nice.
 
MT Borg said:
When gaps are discovered in the handle I mix up some epoxy maybe color it and press it into the gap. Makes it less noticeable and keeps gunk out. Many times the gap appears in a mosaic pin after sanding too. Is there a gap under the finger groove too? if so a little more grinding can help. Overall though, very nice.
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Yeah I am doing that today. The finger groove is fixed, the one bolster was just a tad to big on the one side, few seconds with the file and some sanding
 
Dude, that is a beautiful knife and a job well done.

If you consider that "horrible" or a "failure", then it simply shows that you're spending too much time on this forum.
 
Altofsky said:
Dude, that is a beautiful knife and a job well done.

If you consider that "horrible" or a "failure", then it simply shows that you're spending too much time on this forum.
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Thank you :)

lol certain things in life that I make, or do I am overly critical, it's annoying for me but it does drive me to improve each time. I am happy with knife but I see where I mess up every time I look at and it and know the next one will be better :)
 
I think its that way with anything you do. I used to roof houses. after I started I would drive down the road and see flaws in peoples roofs.

since I started making a few knives I do the same with them. anyone besides someone on this forum will probably never notice them.

where do you get the resin wood from? I like the way it looks.
 
crank78 said:
I think its that way with anything you do. I used to roof houses. after I started I would drive down the road and see flaws in peoples roofs.

since I started making a few knives I do the same with them. anyone besides someone on this forum will probably never notice them.

where do you get the resin wood from? I like the way it looks.
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I picked it up from Texas Knife Supply. Pretty happy with it
 
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