River Knife

[Lorien]

A client/friend of mine during my former career decided to stay with me as I build a new career.

I made this knife for him, of my design, based on my understanding of what he might need it for in photographing bears all around BC, Canada every fall. My first commission, actually.

Bears eat salmon which helps them fatten up so they can sleep through the winter. Conveniently, salmon- without fail- return to the rivers amongst which they were spawned so that they can spawn and keep the cycle going.

If you want to photograph bears, you need to spend a lot of time around rivers, often floating around, nylon webbing everywhere, hip waders to cut off in case of an injury, cold wet hands which are alternately gloved, cord to cut etc etc.

This knife design is kind of a wild hair with a mission.

It's made from 154CM at 59.5, and G10 layered with two part epoxy. The pins are made from a turned down, (on my drill press with a file, lol) 7075 aluminum stanchion for the gas charged cylinder from inside a dropper seatpost.

Apart from the drill press, this knife was made using hand tools. I've since procured a proper grinder, a portaband, an oven and my studio is almost dialed in, so no more of that ridiculous time wasting!

Thank you, Don, for the support, and the fine photos.

 

[JParanee]

Very cool and congratulations on your first commission

I think it turned our awesome and I understand the design elements

well done my friend

 

[Dusty One]

Well thought out....Very nice work !!

 

[Dawkind]

Great job buddy and your leather work is exceptional, too....congratulations!

 

[Lorien]

thanks very much for the kind words

here's the sheath;

I finished this project a few months ago, and looking back on it all I can see are areas in which to improve

 

[john april]

very cool looking handle too !

 

[Scott Hanson]

Very nice! With that squared off tip like that it looks like it would make for a pretty decent small diving knife. Make a Kydex sheath for it and you're good to go.

 

[Lorien]

thanks guys, and yeah, I think of this knife as kind of a general purpose water knife for scuba too

Don sent along some photos you all might enjoy;

Here's a link to where Don's photos are hosted

 

[duramax]

Very nice !!!! There’s no doubt you’ll be turning out some great blades !!!!
Great job !!!!!!

 

[Lorien]

Very nice !!!! There’s no doubt you’ll be turning out some great blades !!!!
Great job !!!!!!

thanks very much! I really appreciate it
Heading to the po for my grinder tomorrow

 

[PaulDiStefano]

Great piece Lorien! I love the handle shape. It has a lot of great pulling and pushing grips to it almost like the handle grips your hand and not the other way around.

 

[Lorien]

Great piece Lorien! I love the handle shape. It has a lot of great pulling and pushing grips to it almost like the handle grips your hand and not the other way around.

thank you, Paul. I was originally thinking that the grooves in the handle would have nitrile o rings in them, but didn't take into consideration the variability in depth of the grooves, so that didn't work out. The idea being to provide crazy traction if wearing neoprene gloves. As it is, the overall shape of the handle still lends itself to gloved use and traction isn't a problem, but the grooves turn that traction up to 11. It's a pretty comfortable handle, unless you're doing bushcraft all day long with it, in which case the grooves can become hot spots

 

[Bigfattyt]

Looks great!

 

[PaulDiStefano]

Those nitrile rings are a very interesting thought. Really a great idea. I bet they’d be amazing on diving/scuba knives.

 

[Lorien]

Those nitrile rings are a very interesting thought. Really a great idea. I bet they’d be amazing on diving/scuba knives.

agreed. I really wanted the grooves to get down to the toxic green G10 layer, since that goes toward being able to find the knife if dropped, and because the handle's contoured so much the rings just wouldn't work out. I'm pretty sure the idea for the rings came from Maringer, but who the hell knows where ideas ultimately come from anyway?

 

[Scott Hanson]

I think you're better off without the rings. They're just something more to clean around and replace every so often, they're going to eventually stretch out or break. Lorien, have you looked at the UltreX SureTouch yet? It's layered Q10 and rubber, that might be just the ticket for you.

 

[Lorien]

I think you're better off without the rings. They're just something more to clean around and replace every so often, they're going to eventually stretch out or break. Lorien, have you looked at the UltreX SureTouch yet? It's layered Q10 and rubber, that might be just the ticket for you.

I hadn't heard of it, thanks for the heads up!

 

[ShannonSteelLabs]

Great work!!!
Looks sort of like a dive knife. But it looks like it will fulfill its role on the river like a champ!