Questions about first knife

M

Maverick44

Joined
May 18, 2016
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After years of wanting to get into knife making, I finally took the plunge. I have everything I need, and enough 1084 to make several knives. :D

So, I think I've come up with a good design after watching a few tutorials and looking at countless factory and custom knives. What I wanted is a 3/16' thick, roughly 4" drop point bushcraft knife. I found out that the blade design is the easy part. The handle is where I've spend most of my time working on getting right. I've redesigned it a few times, and made a few wooden models so I could see how they felt before hand. I'm probably overthinking things, but I want to do things right. The model I made feels nice, actually really nice. I had a few other people feel it, and they liked it too. It indexes well, and feels like the sort of handle you'd want on a knife that will be used a lot.

The main question I have is with the pins. I'm using 1/4" corby bolts, and a 1/4" stainless steel tube for the lanyard hole. From what I've read, the pins should be about 3/4" from the ends of the handle. The front pin on my design is centered, and the rear pin is the same distance from the spin as the first pin (1/2"). The lanyard hole is 3/8" from the bottom and back of the grip. It's in a location where it is out of the way of your hand. My main concern with it is whether or not I've left enough meat around it, as it's close to the edge. I don't want the handles to chip or break there. The handles will be made of micarta. Does it look like I did the pin placement correctly, or is there a better way to do it?

Here's a picture of the design, and a couple pics of the (very rough) wooden model. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. Like I said, this is my first knife, but I want to make sure I do it right.

Thanks!

https://flic.kr/p/2hcfHS8

https://flic.kr/p/2hcd5ae

https://flic.kr/p/2hceP6v
 
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I think I fixed them? Google Photo is what I originally used, and I've been having issues with them lately. I can always see the pics I post, but half the time, others can't. I tried Flickr, and it won't let me embed the pics, so I had to post links. Let me know if that doesn't work, I'll try something else.

Edit: I gave imgur a try, and it seems to work. It would not let me change the OP (it kept telling me it was flagged as spam or something ,and to contact an admin), so the images have been posted below.
 
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I'd have the corbies a bit more to the middle.
Will you contour the scales?
 
Hengelo_77 said:
I'd have the corbies a bit more to the middle.
Will you contour the scales?
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm going to coke bottle it. It's going to be pretty subtle though. The low areas are around 1/16" thinner than the high areas on each side.

Would moving the corbies in about 1/4" be enough?
 
rQKSgBg.jpg


(The contour looks a bit crooked and uneven in this pic for some reason. It's actually straight and even)

cVIXoI3.jpg


4fDnzNi.jpg
 
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Try 20% of the handle lenght front of the grip to the middle of the first corby, 60% to the second(making 20% to the end of the handle)
or try 25/50/25 and see what looks best to you.
I'd contour a bit more but I enjoy that process
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Try 20% of the handle lenght front of the grip to the middle of the first corby, 60% to the second(making 20% to the end of the handle)
or try 25/50/25 and see what looks best to you.
I'd contour a bit more but I enjoy that process
Click to expand...

Looking at it on paper, the 20/60/20 seems to look the best to me. The grip is just a bit over 4 3/4" long, so 20% would be right around 1" from the ends. It would put the front corby at the thinnest part of the contour. Would that be an issue?

I tried contouring one of the other models I made a bit more, but it just felt wrong. It ended up too thin for my liking. The plywood is used is 3/4" or thereabouts, so that limited the amount of contouring I could do before I got the grip too thin. The micarta will give me a LOT more material to work with, so I'll play with the contours a bit more with it and see what I like. Worst case, I'll just grind it down like I have the model, which is still a very nice feeling grip.

Thanks!
 
I use blind aligment pins.
I have the scales on the knife, feel it in hand, countour a bit and feel again.
I do that untill it feels good. Then I set the knife away in the livingroom and grab and hold it every now and then over a few days.
Sometimes I countour a bit more after that.

Hold the knife in your hand and see where your hand is the biggest.
You'll want the thickest part on the top slightly more towards the butt end then the bottom of the handle.
Just play around a bit and try
 
I would move the Corbys in to 1" from the ends. Otherwise, it looks good except the issue below*.

I ask most new makers, "Why is there a lanyard hole?" Are you going to attach a lanyard? A first knife has enough issues to deal with, I would leave off the lanyard hole and do a plain handle.

* The little finger guard will need to be exposed metal. If you run the scale material down it as shown, the wood will snap off easily in use or even in sanding. Cary the line of the handle forward to the front so it comes out just above the choil., leaving off the dropped tit.
Personally, I would eliminate the drop guard and round the finger groove into the choil as a small bump.
 
Is this better? Most of the bushcraft knives I've seen had a lanyard hole, so I figured I'd add one to mine. I kind of come and go on whether I use them or not, it's definitely not a deal-breaker for me. If you think it's better to leave it off my first knife, that's not a problem. I highly doubt this will be the only knife I make. ;)

o6We5Pd.jpg


I wasn't entirely sure what you meant by rounding the finger groove into the choil as a small bump. Were you talking about something kind of like this?

798471.jpg
 
That is better. The knife image posted also is a good ( better) basic shape. I would sketch that basic shape on your 9X1.5" area and see if it doesn't look better to you. Then adjust the front of the handle and butt to your liking. This would help you get your blade a bit more aligned size wise, too. As you have it now it is a tad wider than it needs to be.

I would also recommend a full flat grind to start with, as in the image. The 3/4 high bevel you drew looks good in a sketch, but will be very hard to do with no experience.
 
I sat down to do what you suggested, and I went a little overboard, lol. I was having a little too much fun sketching new designs.

I tried to keep the blades a little bit narrower than the original design's. Some are, so aren't. I think I'm subconsciously trying to fill in as much of the sketch area as I can. Out of the 4 knives I sketched, #1 is my favorite with #4 being close behind. #1 is based mainly on a Loveless design. #3 is based on the Benchmade in my last post.

dJdYUaS.jpg


I'll go with a full grind until I get some experience. Thank you so much for the help BTW. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.
 
I made a wooden model of #4 and played around with it a bit. I like it! Looks like I have some filing and grinding to do. :D

Thanks!
 
Well, I think I'm hooked. :D

Cutting this out was surprisingly easy. All I used was a 4.5" angle grinder with a cuttoff wheel and a 6x36" belt sander that I have used and abuse for years. It went much faster than I had expected it to. I've got a few more projects that I need to finish up before I can get back to working on the knife, so it might be a bit before I can post any pics of it finished.

Thanks again for all the advice! :D

EMZmlaY.jpg
 
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