Uh, oh! Not a knife, yet.

Looks fantastic! Interestng shape to the tang, I can't wait to see it with the handle on.

PS.. how'd the race go?
 
SBranson said:
PS.. how'd the race go?
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I had a solid mid pack finish with a crash, (blunt saddle trauma, if you know what I mean- I was singing soprano for a bit:eek::barf:) a bunk rear brake and a hangover. Not too bad, all things considered.
Shortly after I finished, due to my wanting to make up time after my crash and going totally anaerobic, I tried valiantly to throw up although I had absolutely nothing left in my system- after practice runs and waiting for so long to go. I felt like I was about to curl up and die right there.
I didn't.:D

So, you know it went pretty good:). I got smashed with some good friends and enjoyed some quality time with my tribe.

It was nice to come back to the knife after being away. Thinking about how I was going to do various things, without having the thing in front of me was great. A lot of those ideas lead to some changes in the way I'm going to approach the various problems I'm about to start dealing with, vis a vis the handle. But I had a couple of design epiphanies occur today, one of which is to avoid unnecessary curves. For one thing, I want to be able to swing this thing from the heel of the handle for more power, and another thing I'm really concerned about minimizing twist, which is such a problem with downward curved blades or knives with handles at an angle to the blade.

If anyone is curious, I don't know if that upper 'edge', (it's not going to be sharp, well not too sharp;)) is going to have a functional purpose although I can actually think of a few. I just thought it would look cool and save some weight. I left the spine in the area of the tip flat, as a 'batoning' platform. I don't know whether it would have been better to save even more weight by running the upper edge to the tip, but I felt the functionality over rides weight savings for this little bugger. The blade is going to be around 200mm/7.5"

I weighed it once it was all rough filed, and it was 260 grams/ .57lbs. I'm hoping it will weigh less than a pound but the wood is extremely dense and heavy. My handle design epiphany I think might help shave weight, but we'll see:)

Good fun!
 
Lorien said:
...

It was nice to come back to the knife after being away. Thinking about how I was going to do various things, without having the thing in front of me was great. A lot of those ideas lead to some changes in the way I'm going to approach the various problems I'm about to start dealing with....
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean. I design sheaths and troubleshoot design problems while walking my son in the evenings to try to get him to sleep.
Better to think through revisions rather than start testing them as you go...;) Done that with disasterous results..:p

Lorien said:
If anyone is curious, I don't know if that upper 'edge', (it's not going to be sharp, well not too sharp;)) is going to have a functional purpose although I can actually think of a few. I just thought it would look cool and save some weight. I left the spine in the area of the tip flat, as a 'batoning' platform. I don't know whether it would have been better to save even more weight by running the upper edge to the tip, but I felt the functionality over rides weight savings for this little bugger.
Click to expand...


I was interested and assumed it was to reduce weight but keep a little extra mass at the tip for more power.
 
your knife is looking sweet for your first one. have your hands started cramping on you yet from all of that hand work?
 
everything is holding up fine, thanks:)
If anything, I'm going a little cross eyed;)
 
As I gaze into my crystal ball I see the bike business fading away. The birth of a new knifemaker! Your really doing a nice job! When you going to straighten out that tang?
 
Raymond Richard said:
As I gaze into my crystal ball I see the bike business fading away. The birth of a new knifemaker! Your really doing a nice job! When you going to straighten out that tang?
Click to expand...

Thanks Ray, that's awfully nice of you to say and means a lot to me. I almost feel like I've been 'born again' in some ways. Rediscovering the artist I had fairly heavily cultivated over many years and dollars is really satisfying. You know they say that 'you can never go home', well at least I feel kind of on the way there.

As for the tang, I screwed it up a bit today, not catastrophically but I'm not real happy about it.

And thank you as well, for your kind words Ian:)

So here's what happened today, for the most part;)

I hope you don't find the photos of finishing the blade overly boring, but man it takes a long time! And I'm still finding marks!:grumpy:

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I was disappointed that I couldn't use the titanium ferrule thingy that I had planned on using.
All along I thought it might be a little light duty, gauge-wise, but I was confident it would hold the handle together just fine.
Because I didn't really 'plan' the knife much, I also didn't take certain dimensions into consideration. I also have limited
materials at my disposal and have to make due with what I've got.
Anyway, the titanium thingy was too large a diameter for my block of wood and rode up too high onto the ricasso.
So I ditched it, and found me a nice piece of thick wall steel, (I wish it was chromoly, but I'd describe it as
'high tensile steel'). So, the handle will blend more nicely into it, plus it will provide more surface area where it seats on
to the blade, and maybe I can texture it or something neat like that. It will definitely provide more support to the blade,
which is going to be important, given the intention behind the design of this knife. A bonus- it's coated on the inside so
I don't have to worry much about it corroding there.
And it just occurred to me that if I am EXTREMELY careful, I might even be able to braze/solder it right to the blade!
Couldn't do that with ti...
Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. One step at a time!
 
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got working on the handle today. A real head scratcher, but I think I've got a handle on it;):D

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:)

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Are you learning any thing Lorien?

Just messing with ya a little...... :D

You will even learn a little more on your next one......:D:thumbup:

Your doing good - keep it up. - :thumbup:

Todd
 
bigal2me said:
Are you learning any thing Lorien?
Click to expand...

Yes! I would recommend to anyone who likes knives to make one for themself:thumbup: What a challenge!
Thanks:)
 
Lorien buddy.... you're going to need to borrow someone's tang stretcher. :p Admit it, you just didn't feel like doing all that filing? :D
 
Just ship it to Will, he'll have his monkeys draw that tang out a bit.:rolleyes::p:D

btw great looking blade ya got going on there
 
most guys who sneak a peek at my tang wish their's was bigger:confused:
:p
 
This thread has been fun and looks like you have an interesting design.
Will you elaborate on your design elements as to choice and purpose?

What will the finished knife primarily be used for?
 
I like the curved tang and I know why you did it that way but my question is do you think it is long enough ? maybe some expeirenced makers will chime in. Great work and thanks for taking the time.
 
Thanks for asking, Kevin. I'll consider that license to ramble on:D

My intent behind this knife is for a tool with some heft, but not too much to be able to carry in my pack when I'm mountain biking. Right now, I have a golok from Valiant which works like a hot damn. This knife is designed using that golok's general construction method with a few variations.

I'm looking for a final weight of 500gms or less, including the sheath, which will be difficult with the thickness of the blade stock and the lignum vitae which is the handle. The steel ferrule will add weight as well, but ultimately is a better choice than titanium. The 2/3 tang was part of that decision. This is some thick steel yo!

I personally feel that this knife is screaming for fullers! But I don't know if I can pull it off. It isn't hardened yet, so I have time to decide before I send it to Nick.:confused: I have a dremel tool, and lots of interesting diamond bits which I've never used...

So, ok, the use this knife will see- living in my pack, but perhaps on the belt- is the impromptu and ongoing pruning of trails.

I don't bother trying to chop through wood much larger in diameter than 8" or so, and it's usually alder which is a pretty easy chop due to brittleness and retained tension. Mostly I'll be cutting salal, salmon berry, scotch broom and ferns. I've cut birthday cakes up on the mountain with my golok before, too:):cool:

The blade steel stock is a little thicker than ideal, which is why I tapered it, but the edge is going to be a relatively acute convex profile without a secondary bevel, a la traditional golok. Where it differs is that the appleseed leads into a sabre profile. The upper edge is kind of an homage to a full convex profile, which I didn't think would look as cool.

The edge still has about .5mm of material, so it's far from sharp and I'm going to leave it that way until it's hardened and apply the edge with diamond hones. I'm paranoid about cooking the edge and having it chip out. I'd rather it dent and roll. Besides, Richardj warned me about working a blade withou using a cheater block, so I thought I'd remove the risk entirely.

Which brings me to hardness. The steel is high quality Aldo'stm carbon steel. With all that carbon and manganese, I'm thinking that a hardness between 57 and 58 would be ideal. I've found 1084 to be a pliable steel with amazing edge-taking and holding properties. I have two knives I use frequently made from this steel and I'm very happy with it. There's some science talk about eutectoids or something or other, and 1084 is favourable from that perspective- or so I've been lead to believe;)

The handle being angled from the blade will help generate a shearing cut which works best with the fibrous, stringy and tough vegetation I'm dealing with. It's not like you need the length of a machete either. I'm going to shape the handle so it will resist twisting. I like a nice straight edge for easy sharpening, but I submit that a subtle curve along the length of the edge provides better cutting.

I've decided that I am going to try carving/engraving the ferrule. Just have to come up with a design.

Now if anyone actually read all that I'd be amazed. But it sure is nice to be able to get it out of my system. My apprentice who is helping around the shop thinks the project is cool, but you people are really into knives and that makes all the difference.:thumbup:
 
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