The BK101--the tweener BK1 Brute: Design, planning, grinding, and testing.

S

spydercobenchmadekai

Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
2,466
Inspired by the BK34 tac-bar, I decided to work on a tweener-sized BK1 Brute.

The design:



Specs:

Over all length: 10 inches
Cutting edge: 5 inches
Blade height: 1.25 inches
Blade thickness: 0.125
Blade material: 1095 @ 59hrc
Acid etched flats; grinder satin bevels
Handle material: stock BK&T tweener grivory sanded for grip
Design: handle credit Ethan Becker/tweener design; blade credit Ethan Becker BK1 concept, SBK adaptation

I'll start cutting it out soon.
 
Reserved for future use...

---

You may have noticed that there is no recurve. This is because I can't/am not willing to try to grind a recurve. Maybe Ethan will see this and have an idea or two for a new tweener?


(psst. maybe an un-coated bk101 made to the specs above. with g10.)

----

Here's an updated design. I canted the handle down a little, straightened out the grind, and cleaned up the lines.

 
Last edited:
Interesting idea, but why only 1/8" thick? Even the tweeners are thicker than that.
 
Nothing wrong with 1/8". Cuts better. I use 3/16 as my all-around choice, but for smaller knives, 1/8" is plenty nice. Recurve isn't as bad as you might think, IMO, and removing it will mean the front bevel won't be consistent height. That means you have to alter the pitch on the fly, which is a challenge. The hardest part for me would probably be getting a swept plunge on the back bevel.
 
I like 1/8 for just about anything under 5 inches. I like the BK17, but I wanted to design this more to the spec of my Mud Mutt.

crimsonfalcon--I didn't think about that front bevel height. I'll do a rework of the drawing and see what I come up with. I don't really want to do a recurve; besides grinding, they're hard to sharpen on my Lansky.
 
This is gonna be the chopper of tweeners. The angle that I have the handle at will give a user extra power while chopping while still maintaning ease of use for other tasks like feather sticking.

I'm going to use 1.5" x 0.125" steel for this knife. I will trim a few corners to make it fit on this steel, but 1.5" is the only width I have of 0.125" 1095. I could use 2" steel if I went up to 5/32" thickness, but it might get heavier than I am hoping for. I don't know which I will use at the moment, but I'm leaning toward the 1/8" stock.
 
Damn you guys and all these awesome modding threads! You are killing me.

Spydey,
I'm super pumped to see what you can pull off with this. I think it's a fun and cool idea. I'll be checking this thread fanatically for updates. Now go and GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND!
 
Cryptyc said:
Damn you guys and all these awesome modding threads! You are killing me.

Spydey,
I'm super pumped to see what you can pull off with this. I think it's a fun and cool idea. I'll be checking this thread fanatically for updates. Now go and GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND!
Click to expand...

Haha, sadly I'll be super busy this weekend...no grinding until Sunday night. I might get to cut out the general shape with the band saw tonight or tomorrow morning.
 
1/8" is great however the Brute should be a chopper. I think I would go 5/32" and skeleton it under the Handel to keep the weight forward. Better yet a distill taper. Ether way looking forward to how it turns out.
 
I dunno about "tweener chopper." That's one of the reasons I didn't want to do this project myself. I just don't think it makes sense. The brute is supposed to be a chopper, but a "chopper" with a roughly 4" blade makes no sense at all to me. It's not got the length to do the job right or well, and a blade that length should be slicy. Making it thicker would defeat that purpose at well, leaving a blade that's bad at just about everything knife-related. The brute design doesn't lend itself well to slicing, IMO. I could be wrong, but I just don't see the point of the grinds on a smaller blade. The main interest I have in this project is in the complexity of the grinds, TBH. If this is going to be any kind of reasonably useful blade other than a novelty, it's got to be 1/8" thick, IMO. I'd be interested to hear what Uncle E thinks, of course, it being his design. But scaled down chopper designs don't really make too much sense to me. YMMV.
 
I see your point and you are right about 4" being to short for a chopper. IMO this should be 5/32" & 7-8" long but not my project. The 16 is 5/32" it is more of a slicer then a not. After all it is called Brute. Then again we are only talking about 1/32" difference.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
I dunno about "tweener chopper." That's one of the reasons I didn't want to do this project myself. I just don't think it makes sense. The brute is supposed to be a chopper, but a "chopper" with a roughly 4" blade makes no sense at all to me. It's not got the length to do the job right or well, and a blade that length should be slicy. Making it thicker would defeat that purpose at well, leaving a blade that's bad at just about everything knife-related. The brute design doesn't lend itself well to slicing, IMO. I could be wrong, but I just don't see the point of the grinds on a smaller blade. The main interest I have in this project is in the complexity of the grinds, TBH. If this is going to be any kind of reasonably useful blade other than a novelty, it's got to be 1/8" thick, IMO. I'd be interested to hear what Uncle E thinks, of course, it being his design. But scaled down chopper designs don't really make too much sense to me. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Not wanting to rain on your parade SBK, but.....yeah. What the falcon said. Even my Bravo 1 at nearly a ¼" is NOT a chopper. Don't let that stop you though....any experiment should provide a learning experience, even if what you learn is "I certainly won't do that again".
 
Well, it won't be a "chopper"--I do have a BK9 and a SRKW Battle Rat, remember? ;) But it will be the "choppiest" of the tweeners; not a chopper in its own right, but the canted handle and forward balance should make it chop slightly better than the BK16/17/15. In fact, I won't be using it much, but it will be a fun project to do.

You guys have convinced me to go to 5/32, though. So I that will help it some.

FYI, it has a 5.25" blade...

:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top