OK. first design, critique me.

thegeek574 said:
OK. should i have a gentle curve all the way down to the end of the handle? should i have the entire handle offset a few degrees down, Kukhri style?

by the way, thanks for setting me straight. probably would have never changed it if you had not told me it was actually functional.
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Your profile says you are in Portland. If you PM me, I can talk to you about you stopping by when you get your steel and using my anvil and forge to hammer a curve into your steel. I have plenty of 3/16"x1-1/2" and 1-1/4" 1080 to share if you choose to use 1080.

I live in Beaverton.

I'm still working on my first couple knives, so I'm no expert mind you. But I hammered my bevels into my first knife, a full tang drop point hunter and after 3 days of fiddling with it I put the tang over the horn after heating it in the forge and added a nice radius. I am very happy with the feel in the hand now compared to a straight tang.
 
thegeek574 said:
Hmmm. I think i will go with 3/16ths if i can get it because i do not have the ability to hollow grind the blade, and i think that that would be the only way i could get the edge thin enough. I will be revising the handle and giving it a more abrupt curve at the butt with a more gentle curve down the back, and doing 2 pins, 1 lanyard tube.

When i classified this as a chopper, i meant that it would be to be able to be abused, as opposed to a kitchen knife, which needs to slice well and survive little. if i was going for a full blown chopper, i would make this 10 inches or more. i don't think i am set up to heat treat that easily, and i am absolutely not going to pay the 30 bucks it will take to ship the stupid thing to somewhere, get it heat treated, and then shipped back. that's kind of defeating the purpose of doing it as cheaply as possible. i can get an adequate heat treat at home, maybe not perfect, but adequate. now that the rant is over, thanks all for the advice. this is really helpful.
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That's about what I was thinking you were aiming for with this one, general abuse camp type knife. I am by no means an expert in any of this stuff, but I do use knives all day every day and have learned some of the things that make a good knife. So far sounds like you are headed in the right direction and thinking everything through.

However it ends up, keep us all posted!


-Xander
 
I will be doing a WIP as soon as i get the steel.

@fluidsteel I would take you up on that, but i am already going to be bothering Mr Richards down salem way, and so i won't mess up your life. ;)
 
The first knife I ever made was a big chopper. It started out as a design similar to yours. I ended up making the point a little more pointy and I wish I had reworked the handle. In the end I made a knife that was very pleasing to my eye but didn't work well in it's intended purpose. I posted it up here about a year ago. Consider carefully the anatomy and physics of chopping as you design your handle.
 
I noted that you said you aren't set up to do hollow grinds... but you might want to rethink that position. Like you, I avoided doing hollow grinds because I don't have a full on knife grinder with a good contact wheel. I also don't have a surface grinder, nor a CNC mill, nor any of the other equipment that most knifemakers find indispensible. But I did just turn out a hollow ground bowie style blade using my cheapie Harbor Freight 1 x 30 belt sander, a $2 rounded rubber sanding block and a lot of sandpaper. Others do it using a draw file method and a half-round file... or so I'm told.

I certainly wouldn't suggest that you try it as your first grind... but don't convince yourself it's impossible either. When you get a little more confident in your skills, give it a try. It will be hard... but hard work isn't going to kill us. ;)
 
Alrighty, time to resurrect this thread. I am still reworking the design, and today i figured out that i am going to have to switch up the steel a bit. would it be more advantageous for me to go with 1/8th inch steel or 1 1/4 inch width? circumstances surrounding the change are pretty weird, don't ask.
 
Yes, He found that the bigger knife won't fit where he was going to hid it in his prison bunk ,so he had to make it smaller.

Just kidding. Keep us posted.

FWIW, a camp chopper is a bit thin from 1/8" stock. 1/8" by 1.25" makes a nice drop point hunter, though.
 
I guess i did not write it clearly. I need to EITHER go with
3/16ths by 1 1/4
OR
1/8th by 1 1/2

or not buy from aldo, but that is out of the question ;)
 
thegeek574 said:
I guess i did not write it clearly. I need to EITHER go with
3/16ths by 1 1/4
OR
1/8th by 1 1/2

or not buy from aldo, but that is out of the question ;)
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I have 1080 from Kelly in 1/8" and 3/16" x 1",1-1/4" and 1-1/2"... I ordered 4'-8' of each to get to my free shipping price and can give you some of the 3/16"x1-1/4" or 1-1/2" to help you get started. PM me if interested.
PS, Not trying to "steel" sales from Aldo. :D
I could leave a 2' length at my shop in NW Portland and you or your dad could pick it up at your convenience.
 
fluidsteel said:
I have 1080 from Kelly in 1/8" and 3/16" x 1",1-1/4" and 1-1/2"... I ordered 4'-8' of each to get to my free shipping price and can give you some of the 3/16"x1-1/4" or 1-1/2" to help you get started. PM me if interested.
PS, Not trying to "steel" sales from Aldo. :D
I could leave a 2' length at my shop in NW Portland and you or your dad could pick it up at your convenience.
Click to expand...

Hahaha. e-mail sent.
EDIT: screw it, visitor message time. i liked the "send e-mail to this user feature". :(
 
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tryppyr said:
I noted that you said you aren't set up to do hollow grinds... but you might want to rethink that position. Like you, I avoided doing hollow grinds because I don't have a full on knife grinder with a good contact wheel. I also don't have a surface grinder, nor a CNC mill, nor any of the other equipment that most knifemakers find indispensible. But I did just turn out a hollow ground bowie style blade using my cheapie Harbor Freight 1 x 30 belt sander, a $2 rounded rubber sanding block and a lot of sandpaper. Others do it using a draw file method and a half-round file... or so I'm told.

I certainly wouldn't suggest that you try it as your first grind... but don't convince yourself it's impossible either. When you get a little more confident in your skills, give it a try. It will be hard... but hard work isn't going to kill us. ;)
Click to expand...

Tryppyr:
I would sure like to see you do a WIP about this. I'm one of those you described who thinks he can't do a hollow grind with my mighty Sears 2 x 42.

- Paul Meske, Wisconsin
 
Paul, it never occurred to me to do that. I've never worked with the Sear 2x42, so I don't know whether it would be the same.

In my case, I removed the clear plastic "hood" from the top of the HF 1x30, leaving the small domed top wheel more exposed. That became my contact wheel. If you can remove the "hood" from the Sears 2x42, it should be possible to do it with that sander as well.

- Greg
 
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