- Joined
- Jan 6, 2005
- Messages
- 9,680
I call it the "keeper" cause this one's all mine.... its a prototype "heavy bushknife". I had intended to sell it... but ran into some problems and decided to keep it for myself or possibly the KITH.
This was the initial bar of 1/4" thick 1080 steel.... I ground some of the stock off to save time on the forge....
At the forge, I pre-bent before drawing out the finger guard and hammering the bevels in. I also tapered the tang and gave some profile to it. I decided to give the blade a distal taper... which stretched out the overall length from 11" to just over 12". I drilled out the handle holes and heat treated the piece....
I fitted the handle and was ready to grind in the final edge. That's when I ran into my problem...... after putting the edge on I felt that there was too much stock behind it.... the knife would chop well but wasn't the best slicer... it behaved more like an axe than a knife.... So I decided to put it on the grinder and take the flats down a bit.... which took almost all my hammer marks out... snif snif.....
I decided to give it a vinegar bath (very carefully... to avoid messing up the handle) and blended it in with some "gun blue"..... I dipped the handle in hot wax, shined her up and took these pics.... not too bad for a "hail mary" fix up job...... like I said, though.... I won't be selling this little guy..... he's a "keeper"....
Its hard to see the blade taper in this pic but it's there... the depth of the shot is a bit misleading...
A shot with my "spokesmodel"....
This was the initial bar of 1/4" thick 1080 steel.... I ground some of the stock off to save time on the forge....
At the forge, I pre-bent before drawing out the finger guard and hammering the bevels in. I also tapered the tang and gave some profile to it. I decided to give the blade a distal taper... which stretched out the overall length from 11" to just over 12". I drilled out the handle holes and heat treated the piece....
I fitted the handle and was ready to grind in the final edge. That's when I ran into my problem...... after putting the edge on I felt that there was too much stock behind it.... the knife would chop well but wasn't the best slicer... it behaved more like an axe than a knife.... So I decided to put it on the grinder and take the flats down a bit.... which took almost all my hammer marks out... snif snif.....
I decided to give it a vinegar bath (very carefully... to avoid messing up the handle) and blended it in with some "gun blue"..... I dipped the handle in hot wax, shined her up and took these pics.... not too bad for a "hail mary" fix up job...... like I said, though.... I won't be selling this little guy..... he's a "keeper"....
Its hard to see the blade taper in this pic but it's there... the depth of the shot is a bit misleading...
A shot with my "spokesmodel"....
VERY SCARY !!!
