Small Pocket Fighter

L

Laredian

Joined
May 27, 2013
Messages
199
Hello,

I wanted to show you a knife that I just recently finished up. It is designed as a small bowie type knife with a pronounced clip grind. This is sort of a prototype and the particular knife you see in the pictures I made for myself, because I liked the feel and look of it.

The blade is flat ground 80CrV2. The blade was etched in ferric chloride and the primary grind and the clip were then sanded to a 800grit hand-rubbed satin finish.

The handle is a special type of stabilized maple burl....I don't know the correct english translation for this particular type of maple. The literal translation would be something like "ashen-leaved maple" I guess. What ever it is called, I personally think that this particular piece of wood is spectacular.

Please let me know what you think, any criticism is very welcome.

The quality of my photos is very crappy in comparison to what is usually posted on this forum, but I hope you can see what is going on.

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Thank you very much for looking and for any advice
 
I like this one, a lot. To me, blade and handle have a great profile. Love the, just right, smooth curve and belly of the blade. The clip looks to be of good proportion and shape to augment the rest of the blade.

The stock looks fairly thick, but it appears to me that you have a very nice distal taper to the blade.

Beautiful handle materials and great looking fit and finish.

I realize this next part has more to do with balance and just plain personal preferences, but the only thing that would make this a tad sweeter for me, would be a tapered tang.

Overall, in my opinion, great work and a very nice knife! Can you provide some dimensions? Thank you. Mike
 
Thank you for your kind words.

I am quite proud of the handle. I really, really took my time but it is only the third one I've ever made.

As for specs: the thickness is 4mm, the overall length is approximately 21cm (about 8 inches) and the blade is 11cm long (about 4 inches).

A tapered tang would have been nice I agree, but I am not quite confident in doing those yet...I did not want to mess it up on this piece.

Edit: also the fist time I used liners. I really like the red ones with certain wood, like this one.
 
Very good job! The knife goes together very well and the details work together to add up to more than the sum of its parts.

These harpoon clip points seem to be all the rage. I actually wondernifnthey should be called clip points at all. The "clip" sits higher than the rest of the spine, a regular clip is lower.
 
Laredian,

your grinds are clean and symmetrical, your lines graceful, proportions are aesthetically pleasing. The handle is nicely shaped with well placed pins. Materials were well chosen. I agree with Stacy, a tapered tang would have been a nice touch. Very nice piece.
 
Thank you all very much again for your kind words.

Maybe you can give me some advice. I am trying to make a leather sheath for the knife. I do have some books about leather sheaths, but I wanted to ask you if the design of the knife with its prominent sharpened clip requires a certain type of sheath build to really fit the knife.

The general idea was to make a sheath so the knife can be worn horizontally on a belt.

I have one more question regarding blade geometry: the blade on this piece is flat ground, but the last third or so of the primary grind I convexed to almost zero. I did this by hand with sandpaper and a leather backed sanding surface. While that got the job done, it took me quite some time. I wanted to ask what method you more experienced makers use to achieve this maybe faster? Edit: I have tried doing this also on the slack belt on my grinder, but in my experience the belt has too much "give" and creates a very obtuse convex...which I did not want.

Best regards
 
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Very nice blade! I’m curious as to what etching 80CrV2 does to the appearance of the blade when theres no hamon?
Click to expand...

I have experimented a little bit with 3:1 ferric chloride solution. In my experience it is difficult to get a uniform dark color across the whole length of the blade. If the flat of the blade still has an oxide layer from when the steel was produced, that part will look a bit different from the hand sanded parts. Like this:

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Edit: I have to add that the color from the etch was much more uniform with the small pocket fighter than with the bigger piece in this picture.

I honestly cannot say what made the difference...maybe I degreased the steel more carefully on the small pocket fighter before I went into the etch.
 
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After I'm done with the etch and steel wool (when it looks like i want it) i neutralize it and clean it properly.
 
I finished up another small pocket fighter. This time the handle is stabilized elm burl (I think that is the correct tanslation of the wood type...) with black liners and bronze pins. Satin finished bevels and etched flats. The clip grind on this one is a little bit less pronounced than the other one I've posted.

I did not know if I should have created a new thread, but since it is the same knife...

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I hope you like it, please let me know what you think
 
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