S Guard Rifle/Militia Knife

L

LRB

Joined
Feb 28, 2006
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Finished this one this morning. It's been a couple of years since I made a knife with a guard. This one was almost more fun than work, but was also very time consuming requiring a lot of hand filing. 9" blade of 01 vanadium tool steel. Through tang peened over a steel butt cap, in a grip of very nice curly maple, with chip carved rings. Grip is 4 5/8" in total length. All mounts and hardware on knife and sheath are of mild steel. All very lightly aged by the cold blue and bleach method. I hope you enjoy a look.

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Very nice job! My only question is since you made a metal throat for the sheath why not a metal tip to? I think the tip would pull it together better. Now this is coming from someone that has never tried either a metal throat or tip. :D The sheath just doesn't look complete to me without the tip.
 
Metal throats are relatively easy. Tips involving a curve are much more labor intensive, and best done in two pieces using a form from what I've seen. I intend to give it a try one day, but time did not allow me to try on this one.
 
Any chance for higher resolution/closer shots of the carving in the handle? It's an awesome knife all around, but that handle really has my curiosity piqued!
 
I will try. My camera is a 4.1 MP. I am glad for it to do as well as it does, but if I concentrate it only on the grip, with the right light, it may do better. The carving is pretty simple. It consists of a knife cut boundary, then gouge cuts made to it with a 1/8" gouge, and a 3/32" along the bottom ring because of less room in the flats due to the taper. This sort of carved decoration was prevelent in colonial times, and long before.
 
LRB said:
It's been a couple of years since I made a knife with a guard.
Click to expand...

Well I hope you don't wait another couple of years cause I'd love to see more of them from you.
Gorgeous knife! :thumbup: (And sheath of course!)
 
Thanks! That's surprisingly less complicated than I thought, but still pretty awesome looking.
 
Very cool package. Everything fits together nicely. At first glance, I couldn't see a darn thing wrong with it... but now Ray has got me thinking that a metal tip would add a little visual balance to the sheath. Thanks for posting this one. :thumbup:
Erin
 
Thanks Ray! Sword sheaths nearly always have a tip, as well as dress knives, but with working knives it can be optional. The collar serves as a base for the belt hook more than decoration, can be fitted to a leather frog for sling or belt carry if wanted, and if the blade becomes too loose in the sheath, the collar can be squeeze adjusted to tighten it up. If your thumbs are in better shape than mine.
 
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