Thank You GL Drew

[Burl Source]

Several months ago GL Drew forged a blade blank for me. I kept changing my mind about what sort of wood to use for the handle. Finally I settled on Black Oak Burl with some cracks and voids. I thought that would go well with the forged surfaces. I still have a long way to go before I get good at the handles, but I learn a little more each time. Thank You Mr. Drew for such a cool blade. I had a lot of fun putting this knife together.

I still need to do a bit of clean up before this is all done.
I tried to post this in the gallery thread but for some reason it said I don't have permission to access that area. ???

 

[kilua]

lookin good!!!

 

[bacustomknives]

Cool!! Great job mark!

 

[Dan Pierson]

Good looking knife, both of you.

 

[Burl Source]

If this looks lame to you guys, feel free to let me know what I should do differently. That is how I learn. Otherwise I will keep doing things wrong.

 

[wildmike]

Looks Good! I have a couple bowies made by Gerry. He makes some good blades.

 

[Dan Pierson]

OK, if you'd like a bit of critique:

The handle doesn't look at all lame to me. It's profile is attractive, it's rounded instead
of having squared off edges and it's well finished. The butt has a firm line instead of
being loosely rounded off -- something I've learned from Dan Farr and some on the
forums.

I can't tell the cross section shape from the pictures but would guess that it's more a
slightly squared oval than a teardrop. Doesn't look like there's a palm swell and there's
certainly not any more dramatic contouring. That's OK. I'm just starting to try and
play with some of these things. While not necessary, they do tend to appear in higher
end ergonomic handles.

Then comes the question of bolsters. It's not at all clear to me that they'd improve this
knife.

 

[Burl Source]

Dan, I didn't try a palm swell this time but will do some practicing with scraps. That is a look I like. Overall shape of this one was an oval rectangle thinner in the front getting wider as it goes to the butt.
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This is a first for me. I got one of Keith Johnson's hawks a couple months ago. It came with a normal handle. After a bunch of harrassment from my co-workers I had to make a fancier handle. Normal wood is what we use in the woodstove. I never tried to do this before so I started with a piece of what I thought was scrap. I thought when I messed it up I could throw it away and make a new one with a good piece of wood. I think the handle turned out ok and the scrap ended up looking pretty good too. I did all the shaping with my sander because I didn't have any idea what I was doing. It worked pretty good.