Ringed Gidgee Fighter

Will Morrison

Will Morrison

Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Messages
329
Hi guys, here’s my latest.

For a while I’ve wanted to make a sort of ‘no nonsense’ fighter type blade, a la Scott McGhee, Wheeler/Paranee, Knight etc. This knife is my slightly dressed up version of that idea.

The blade is forged 80CRV2, 8 7/8” long, and about 1/4” thick at the ricasso. The thickness tapers gently from ricasso to the start of the (sharp) clip, then more dramatically until the tip.
The handle is made from a beautiful piece of Ringed Gidgee, 5 3/8” in length. The guard and pin are both 416 stainless, and the spacers are black G10, and 416.

This one weighs 360 grams, and the balance point is just ahead of the plunge.

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It really is amazing what distal taper does for a knife.
This one pushes all the right buttons.
Lovely gidgee for this no nonsense fighter, Will.

Doug
 
I'm just trying to envision you taking that last shot, almost as much skill as building the knife! Balance... Steady.. Reach for the camera... Steady... Hold
 
Beautiful classic profile with a bit of a belly. Very cleanly done in every detail. I like this a lot.
 
Yet another super clean, super fit, super beautiful knife from a super talented guy. I'm super jealous.

Will, would it be giving away secrets if you told us a bit about your heat treat formula for this steel? How thin do you take the edge before you sharpen it?
 
Great looking knife Will, love the pics, the balance shot is sweet :)
Cheers Keith
 
Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated.

C. Bryant said:
I'm just trying to envision you taking that last shot, almost as much skill as building the knife! Balance... Steady.. Reach for the camera... Steady... Hold
Click to expand...

It's almost as if you were there watching me!


i4Marc said:
Yet another super clean, super fit, super beautiful knife from a super talented guy. I'm super jealous.

Will, would it be giving away secrets if you told us a bit about your heat treat formula for this steel? How thin do you take the edge before you sharpen it?
Click to expand...

Thanks Marc

No secrets here. My current formula goes something like this (and this will no doubt change as I learn more):

After forging, and before any grinding: normalise at 1652F > heat to 1544F and air cool > heat to 1454F and quench in canola oil > heat to 1260F and soak for 15 minutes, then air cool.

My aim here is to create a fine, semi-spheroidised structure. In reality I end up with something that feels much more like highly tempered martensite, beautiful to grind, but very resistant to bending. It’s actually quite impressive how strong this stuff is, even after being tempered at 1260F.
Next time I’ll be either increasing the sub-critical temperature, or increasing the soak time (possibly both).

After rough grinding I heat to 1472F, soak for 10 minutes, and quench in Houghto-Quench K. I think I tempered this one at about 420F

I can't remember exactly how thick the edge was before convexing/blending, but I'd say around 0.020" closest to the guard, thickening at the tip.
 
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