Simple 3-piece hunter

J. Doyle

J. Doyle

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Feb 17, 2008
Messages
8,212
Sometimes I like to scale back a bit and make a nice simple clean 3-piece knife. It takes me back to my beginnings and I find it relaxing and fun. These simpler knives force you to focus on fit/finish, flow and proportions with few other details to distract.

Steel is 26c3. Blade is 3 7/8" tip to scales, 8" Overall. Scales are stabilized koa with black micarta pins.










A quick note on the steel: I like the performance of this steel...it seems comparable to W2.

But this steel was marketed and touted as a "hamon forming steel" thats more consistent and more readily available than W2.

I've made about 10 blades with this steel and have clay quenched all of them. I continue to be underwhelmed with the hamon formation potential of this steel. It just won't produce the nice activity that I can regularly get with other steels.

I would say its on par or below hamon potential of 1084, in my experiences. Its a good steel but I don't see me trying to chase hamon with 26c3 any more.
 
‘Simple’ is ALWAYS the most difficult to nail, but you always make it seem effortless.


Agreed on that alloy - a quick glance at the chemistry should be enough to demonstrate that it’s not going to do what we expect.

I almost never use pins like that, and now you’ve got me wondering why. Looks great!
 
Hamon looks nice to me. It fits the lines of the knife and is a good contrast to the handle. How hard is the edge?
 
brownshoe said:
Hamon looks nice to me. It fits the lines of the knife and is a good contrast to the handle. How hard is the edge?
Click to expand...

It will show some sort of line for sure bit you don't get the fine, subtle wispy, cloudy activity that you can get with shallower hardening steels.

Hardness is 62-63 Rc.

Thank you for the post.
 
J. Doyle said:
It will show some sort of line for sure bit you don't get the fine, subtle wispy, cloudy activity that you can get with shallower hardening steels.

Hardness is 62-63 Rc.

Thank you for the post.
Click to expand...

It’s got a bit of chromium and the manganese is on the high end for hamon formation. I’ve done a few that I am polishing, and the thin stock doesn’t show much, but the thicker stock seems more active. Dropping the temp to 1450 or 1440 seems to get more activity.
 
Willie71 said:
It’s got a bit of chromium and the manganese is on the high end for hamon formation. I’ve done a few that I am polishing, and the thin stock doesn’t show much, but the thicker stock seems more active. Dropping the temp to 1450 or 1440 seems to get more activity.
Click to expand...

I dropped the temp to 1425 and it still doesn't do much. This was the thickest stock available.
 
'Simpler' always means less distractions so we naturally focus on the cores: Fitment, style, and materials.

I note the flat backspine in the handle and how you cleverly graduated it to rounded on the blade.

That ain't 'simple'. :)
 
I would use the word elegant to describe this blade. There's nothing simple about this one John :D
 
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