THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

This thread is rapidly becoming 'THE how to ruin a hollow handle knife thread'.
Gaston, the best thing you could do would be to throw away any sharpening equipment you own, any angle measuring devices and more importantly, your vernier caliper/micrometer.
Whether you like to admit it or not, your obsession with angles and measurements has cost you a lot of money - first the Neeley (although to be fair that looked more like the result of a temper tantrum on your part) and now a Lile which looks like it's been sharpened with a chainsaw.
Then again, it's your money, so who am I to complain if you want to waste it?
It is however, painful to watch.
Have you ever considered getting yourself a belt grinder and having a go at making one yourself? That way you could get a better understanding of symmetry, edge angles, finish, the odd 0.001" discrepancy and all the other things that most makers seem to 'get wrong' in your eyes.
Anybody got any more hollow handled knives to show?
I'd love to see this thread return to the original title, rather than what it's become.

Ian.
 
RevDevil said:
Someone correct me if I am wrong in this, but these kinds of knives are NOT designed to to be thin beveled, delicate slicers.
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You're correct, Rev. They should have a more durable edge.

Sam, thanks for saying what I was thinking.
 
irbailey said:
This thread is rapidly becoming 'THE how to ruin a hollow handle knife thread'.
Gaston, the best thing you could do would be to throw away any sharpening equipment you own, any angle measuring devices and more importantly, your vernier caliper/micrometer.
Whether you like to admit it or not, your obsession with angles and measurements has cost you a lot of money - first the Neeley (although to be fair that looked more like the result of a temper tantrum on your part) and now a Lile which looks like it's been sharpened with a chainsaw.
Then again, it's your money, so who am I to complain if you want to waste it?
It is however, painful to watch.
Have you ever considered getting yourself a belt grinder and having a go at making one yourself? That way you could get a better understanding of symmetry, edge angles, finish, the odd 0.001" discrepancy and all the other things that most makers seem to 'get wrong' in your eyes.
Anybody got any more hollow handled knives to show?
I'd love to see this thread return to the original title, rather than what it's become.

Ian.
Click to expand...

Once again, you make some good points, Ian. Nice post, and hopefully makes it clear that there is quite a bit that goes into making one of these knives, or any knives really. This whole distraction over edges and angles and whatnot is running this thread into the ground. Maybe it can get back on track with some more pics or use photos. Thank you.


TAH said:
You're correct, Rev. They should have a more durable edge.

Sam, thanks for saying what I was thinking.
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I couldn't take it anymore. As has been mentioned several times, they're Gaston's knives and he can do whatever he wants with them. But that is painful to watch. And other people that read this thread that may not know the difference need to know that that is NOT how sharpening and edge bevels should be done. Again, nothing personal Gaston, but you have to understand that is NOT right. Send them to Josh and hopefully he can recover some of it.

Sam :thumbup:
 
Gaston, if you're going to post some long-winded, wall-of-text rebuttal to what's been said, please just start another thread. You're killing this one with your tome-like posts. I think everyone is happy to see that you have some great knives, you really do. But you're choking the life out of this thread with the page-long posts and endless minutiae over edges and angles and other stuff. I'm asking you, please, stop.

In the spirit of this thread and Ian's post, here are a couple of pics of the SAFE Stic. I recently did a thread on this, but I don't recall posting it here, so I'll throw some pics up just for fun.

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Sam :thumbup:
 
In the spirit of getting back to talking about hollow handle knives I went out and got a piece of really dead and dried oak and did some chopping and then made feather sticks. So here we go

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I didn't chop with the 7inch martin the oak was hard as a rock no point whacking it with the shorter blade. Both the larger martins chopped just fine although if I really wanted to bust that piece up for fire wood I'd just have stomped on it against a larger chunk. All three made feather sticks easily, i need to watch where I put my thumb though on the surv9 the front clip is razor sharp and I almost pushed down on it with my thumb.

Anyways i hope we can get back to using and posting about our knives.
 
Sam Wilson said:


In the spirit of this thread and Ian's post, here are a couple of pics of the SAFE Stic. I recently did a thread on this, but I don't recall posting it here, so I'll throw some pics up just for fun.

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Sam :thumbup:
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I have one of Sam's SAFE Stics and once again am very impressed with his work. It is perfect for when I choose to take a non-hollow handle knife into the woods. It also makes a pretty good defensive tool in areas where knives are not permitted.
 
Some lovely clean work there Sam. I'm still very much in the beginner stage of lathe work, having only owned one a few months, but one day I hope to make a hollow handle knife myself. If I can manage something half as nice as that I'll be happy.
Some nice Martin blades there as well, all of which tick the right boxes for me. :thumbup:

Ian.
 
J-Utah said:
I have one of Sam's SAFE Stics and once again am very impressed with his work. It is perfect for when I choose to take a non-hollow handle knife into the woods. It also makes a pretty good defensive tool in areas where knives are not permitted.
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Thanks J-Utah, much appreciated. Yours actually wound up being the first one ever made, due to a change in order for another customer. I am glad you like it, and you make a good point that I failed to mention in my write-ups, regarding the defensive capabilities. I hadn't even really thought of that aspect until I completed it, and felt the heft of the sealed end with the stainless steel cap. Nice work.

Here's a top view of the sealed end, in stainless:

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Sam :thumbup:
 
irbailey said:
Some lovely clean work there Sam. I'm still very much in the beginner stage of lathe work, having only owned one a few months, but one day I hope to make a hollow handle knife myself. If I can manage something half as nice as that I'll be happy.
Some nice Martin blades there as well, all of which tick the right boxes for me. :thumbup:

Ian.
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Thank you very much Ian. Based on not only the Lile tribute knife you posted earlier, but looking at some of your other work, I have no doubt you have the skill to do this, no problem. As far as the hollow handles, I start out with SS tube, so I don't turn them with a lathe, either. I do like being able to start from scratch with the tube, so I can make the handle length whatever I want for a customer or to fit the aesthetics of a particular knife. I can tell you, threading them by hand is hard work though, lol. Stainless is incredibly wear resistant.

Sam :thumbup:
 
Thanks Sam. Thread cutting on a lathe is what I'm trying to get my head around at the moment. For some reason I've always had it in my head to make one from round stainless bar stock with a milled slot to accept the tang, then attaching it by pinning, peening and silver soldering.
I think it's time for me to have look back through this thread to brush up on hollow handle attachment methods, etc.
Judging by your videos, you've certainly got the method perfected. The pull-up video should be essential viewing for all those who endlessly repeat the old 'hollow handles are weak' mantra.


Ian.[
 
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Sam Wilson said:
..........you make a good point that I failed to mention in my write-ups, regarding the defensive capabilities. I hadn't even really thought of that aspect until I completed it, and felt the heft of the sealed end with the stainless steel cap. Nice work.


Sam :thumbup:
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Careful or you are going to be asked to make pointy or crenelated end caps for these things next! :-)
 
Thank you, Ian. And despite that video, I still get questions about whether they're strong enough to chop wood and "do buschcraft" with. :rolleyes: What can I say. I'll just keep building them to work. As far as attachment methods, I have used several different methods, depending on which model it is. With all of them, the blade will break or there will be other catastrophic failures before the blade comes out of the handle.

If you have any questions, or I can be of help in any way, please feel free to email me at wilsoncustomknives at gmail dot com. Its not really difficult at all, if you're already setup for making knives.

Thank you,
Sam :thumbup:
 
Love the SAFE Stic, Sam. It would go well paired up with a full tang survival knife. :thumbup:

Dave, out of all your knives, that Martin with no sawteeth is my favorite. It's just an awesome knife and beautifully designed.
 
I thought I would post a pic of a simple mod I did on a Boker Apparo. I have never been crazy about the knife, but I do think it is well made. Basically I just ground the lugs off the guard and made the guard more symmetrical. Then I re-profiled the false edge a bit and sanded off the bead blasted finish and put it on the buffing wheel for a a few minutes. I need to polish it up some more, but I am sure I will put that off forever.

 
irbailey said:
I think it's time for me to have look back through this thread to brush up on hollow handle attachment methods, etc.

Ian.[
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That is my fascination with hollow handle knives - the handle attachment. We need more pics of that ilk around this thread again! :)
 
Sam Wilson said:
Thank you, Ian. And despite that video, I still get questions about whether they're strong enough to chop wood and "do buschcraft" with. :rolleyes: What can I say. I'll just keep building them to work. As far as attachment methods, I have used several different methods, depending on which model it is. With all of them, the blade will break or there will be other catastrophic failures before the blade comes out of the handle.

If you have any questions, or I can be of help in any way, please feel free to email me at wilsoncustomknives at gmail dot com. Its not really difficult at all, if you're already setup for making knives.

Thank you,
Sam :thumbup:
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Thanks Sam, that's very much appreciated.
I think once I've finished the knives I'm working on at the moment I'll take you up on your kind offer and give it a go.
The hollow handle survival knife has always held a fascination for me...no doubt due to watching First Blood about 10,000 times after recording it on VHS as an 8 year old! It's about time I bit the bullet and gave it a go.
J-Utah, nice work on the Apparo. I've never been a huge fan of lugged guards and that looks much better to me.

Ian.
 
BladeScout said:
Do tell......or dont we want to know!? :D
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I have had some doozies. The one that most recently takes the cake, and this is not a joke, a guy wanted a hollow handle sawback scimitar machete. For real. I gotta say, I didn't even know it was possible to combine all that stuff into one knife/sword thing, but apparently it is. Somebody else wanted a hollow handle knife that would also launch the blade, like a ballistic knife. But wanted it to be totally safe to use as a regular hollow handle knife for bushcraft or whatever other purposes they had in mind. I'll stop there, and let those sink in. Maybe put in some more at a later date.

TAH said:
Love the SAFE Stic, Sam. It would go well paired up with a full tang survival knife. :thumbup:

Dave, out of all your knives, that Martin with no sawteeth is my favorite. It's just an awesome knife and beautifully designed.
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Thank you, Tom. That is just what I had in mind.

J-Utah said:
I thought I would post a pic of a simple mod I did on a Boker Apparo. I have never been crazy about the knife, but I do think it is well made. Basically I just ground the lugs off the guard and made the guard more symmetrical. Then I re-profiled the false edge a bit and sanded off the bead blasted finish and put it on the buffing wheel for a a few minutes. I need to polish it up some more, but I am sure I will put that off forever.
Click to expand...

I'm not a huge fan of lugged guards either. I think that looks good, J-Utah. I bet it is more comfortable for woods use, now. Nice job.

Sam :thumbup:
 
irbailey said:
Thanks Sam, that's very much appreciated.
I think once I've finished the knives I'm working on at the moment I'll take you up on your kind offer and give it a go.
The hollow handle survival knife has always held a fascination for me...no doubt due to watching First Blood about 10,000 times after recording it on VHS as an 8 year old! It's about time I bit the bullet and gave it a go.
J-Utah, nice work on the Apparo. I've never been a huge fan of lugged guards and that looks much better to me.

Ian.
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Lol, don't worry, in this thread you're not the only one who feels like that! Let me know when you're ready, I'll help out in any way I can.

Sam :thumbup:
 
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