mrstenoien, glad to know I'm not losing it
Mark II and III look good. At the risk of losing out on a bunch of Knife Annuals and other books myself, I'd suggest you check them out on ebay- usually can be had for very little of the original cost. There are definitley alot of makers and designs out there. Another good "hunting knife" book is called, oddly enough, "The Complete Guide to Hunting Knives" and shows alot of designs as well as discusses considerations that went into the designs. There's usually one or two of the hunting knife book on ebay.
The good book says that there is nothing new under the sun and that may be just so. When you think you have an original idea, guess what- you're either just ahead of or just behind the curve- I was putting weaver/picatinny rails on AK handguards before the gunparts companies got tooled up for it. I figured that the AK could be turned into a more accurate weapon by controlling the gasport hole- a few companies now offer adjustable gas blocks for the AK- and I later found out that the Daewoo DR200 rifle already had the type of gasblock that I though I had "designed". I had a few other ideas like that, but again, the curve was ahead of me...sometimes by decades- let alone years or months.
One day a last year the 12yr old girl (thinks she's 25) looked at me and told me that I needed to design a knife that attaches to a gun- I replied, "oh, you mean a bayonet?". Then she rold me I needed to make a knife that was a 22 pistol- I replied. "oh, you mean one of these?" and showed her a drawing from the 1600s in a book. Then she suggested that I make a fixed blade that also had some folding blades, like Mommy's swiss army- I replied, "oh, you mean like this Puma Waidmesser on my table or like the photo of this Scagel?". She threw her hands up in the air and said something like why bother making things if somebody else already thought of it and did it? Why indeed? Ypu can make a more unique knife than a factory can- YOU control the type of materials the piece is made from- YOU decide how the fit should be. If you like a design but want the blade a little longer or have a more or less round curve here or there, or have the edge go back to the guard or whatever,- then YOU can make those changes... You will develop your own style and may even develop an original design idea (or at least a non produced design) of your own.
A detective at work heard I make knives, took a look at a few of them and asked me to make him a skinning knife. Well, I asked him what sort of design he wanted- gut hook, drop point/gut hook- you get the idea. He pulled out a yellow plastic handled Case sodbuster and said he's always used one like this to skin hogs and wanted a blade like that except longer, wider and fixed, not a folder, with a crown stag or stag slab handles- stainless or nickel guard. Guess what- that's what he's getting... and I think it looks pretty nice, so far.
You'll see what I mean- in January I posted about tang trouble with a knife that is my take on the Puma SeaHunter. The knife in question is way bigger than the Puma, has some has some obvious similarities and looks like an amateur did it. But I am proud of it none the less and the lines flow differently than the original, the guard and handle and choices of grips are not Puma - I cut this blank out, shaped it myself and it changed from the first design into what it is now.
I'd say go ahead and forge out or grind one or two of these to the ability you can now- the grinder has arrived, right?
