Takedown WIP- pic heavy and completed!

Tony Mont

Tony Mont

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
Messages
1,489
Good morning ladies and gentlemen!

I'd like to show you my latest and hardest project, a takedown fighter! Last July, I was approached by a forum member (which I shall not name unless he wants to reveal himself) for a takedown knife.

Since I had just completed my first ever takedown, I really wanted to tackle such a project. We discussed a bit and desided to go for a vest style fighter. Other than it had to have a stabilised wood or synthetic handle material, I had a free pass on the rest.

This was the first design iteration, nothing super fancy.
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Other than adding a swedge, the design was kept pretty much the same.
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With the rough grind, it was ready for the heat treatment.
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Once every stage of the heat treatment was done, I ground the edge quickly and tested the knife to ensure it can take abuse. I chopped a few wooden blocks and then decided to chop a 0.157" brass square tube.

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While chopping my cellphone fell but luckily everything is visible. The edge hold up perfectly and I was ready to keep going.
The final grind was completed and I was ready to move on.
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To be continued...
 
...

Back then, one of my main issues was to drill straight holes on long hidden tangs. It was the perfect moment to become better. I simply bought quite a few cheap wooden blocks and practiced.
After quite some practice, I was able to drill straight holes
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Now that I had aquired the necessary skills, I could move on to the handle.
Started by fitting the guard and spacers.

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And then it was time for a really challenging stage. I wanted to combine two micarta blocks and make a keyhole design. This is when I realised that my skill level is faaaar faaaaar away from such a complex handle. While preasuring the two block, one of them snapped.

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to be continued....
 
...

I didn't really worry about the keyhole, I was pretty sure it was going to be a disaster.
Restarted the handle with some black micarta and stabilised walnut burl.

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This is the stage that shit hit the fan...

The more I worked on the knife, the more I didn't like it. The reason behind this was simply the fact that ever since I started this knife, I evolved as a maker (these updates took a few months to happen in real life). I was spotting mistakes on the foundations of the knife that were prohibiting me from getting the flow and lines I wanted. Don't get me wrong, structurally it would have been fine, the problem was lying with the "flow" of the knife.

I was debating with myself what I could do about it. Later that night I decided, I should restart!
Next morning I went early in the workshop to cover the lost ground. I didn't take any pictures because it was pretty much the same process but I had the knife in the tempering oven by noon.

While the knife was tempering, I made a new broaching tool for the handle ahead. Nothing crazy about it, just a toothie broach with a ghetto style heat treatment.
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to be continued....
 
...

This time around, once I had the knife final ground, I focused on the handle and the takedown assembly. Other than adding more of a harpoon style blade, everything stayed almost the same.

I fit the guard, nowadays I take extra material from the back side to made fitting much much easier.
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On the red spot, I had a slight warp from the heat treatment which I corrected when I blue tempered the tang.
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After a couple of hours worth of grinding, the blade was ready.
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Prior the hand sanding, I wanted to finalise my assembly. Unfortunately, I was way too focused on the task at hand to take pictures.
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Nonetheless, it was a success!

Rough shaped the guard...View attachment 1558326
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to be continued....
 
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I kept shaping the guardand moved on to the handle.
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Drilled my location pins to keep everything aligned...
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...and rough shaped everything!
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Now that I knew my assembly was good to go, it was time for hand sanding.

A pack of cigarettes, coffee and some good music are essential for this stage.
Started with 320grit, moved to 400grit diagonally and finished with 600.

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With the boring stage out of the way, I etched my logo on the ricasso.

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to be continued...
 
...

The finish line was so close I could not believe it! I blackened the guard with heat+oil and I completed the handle! The micarta block I had was barely wide enough and since I did not drill perfectly in the middle of it, the grain from one side to the other is different.

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Here is a video of the assembly takedown.

.....to be continued.
 
Last edited:
Wow Tony, this is a great thread. Thank you for sharing, it is a pleasure to watch a skilled craftsman at work.

One question I have always had regarding takedown bowies: how tightly does the micarta handle fit onto the tang? When you are assembling the handle, before you tighten the nut, do all of the handle components have some wiggle room or is everything snug before you tighten the nut?
 
Thank you very much for your kind words!

The guard has a couple of small pins which run to the micarta block. This ensures that everything will line up at the same place no matter what. It can't be tightened down unless it's on the correct spot.
 
You did an exceptional job and thank you very much for taking this on during such upheaval World Wide…I very much appreciate your efforts and the fact you never quit moving forward. :)
 
Great description of your work & documentation with the pictures is really nice to see. It's amazing to me to see the level of skill & dedication you've put into this blade. Congratulations!
 
Impressive on every count. I hope Blade #1 returns in some way. It's HARDLY unsatisfactory.

Bravo!

Good thread.
 
I think knifemakers should do more of these WIP threads.
I always come out impressed with the meticulous skill demonstrated and interested in that maker's work...
 
Thank you guys for your kind words!

On the first knife, the main problem was the width of the ricasso. It was too wide and since I wanted the handle to follow the lines of the ricasso, it created an uncomfortable handle.
I fixed it by grinding the ricasso a bit but that made my logo off center.

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What a great morning read, thanks for documenting, Tony. Great work, obviously.
 
Hell of a job! Nothing like poppin your cherry and publicly too!! I love the white handle one!! Thanx for sharing with us!!
 
I'm really glad you guys enjoyed the process! I can;t wait to do another one now that I have more experience!
 
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