Watch a rookie make his 8th knife

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

I recently made a knife for my sister-in-law's wedding (that occurred on Aug.9) and kept a picture log to show other beginners and rookies how I did it with limited means, as well as to get the more established makers to possibly give me hints and their opinions on what I came up with.

First is to show my work area, a 20' by 6' area of my basement.
The main view from the stairs:

My machinery (the bandsaw gets used for a light only):

My Mom's scroll saw (just started using it on this knife):

My workbench:

Now that you can see what I work with, here is what I did, made with a backup in case I messed up (but I did not, surprisingly). With the cardboard cutouts that I started the design with:

Placed with the handle material cut out, just to see what it may be like:

My filework station, complete with $2 vice and single half round file:

It took a while to drill and scrape out the tang holes, but here it is prepped for glueup:

Now for the sanding, because I only have a 4x36" grinder my selection of belts is not the best and I always get ripples from the belt, so the sanding was all done by hand (and I ran out of 240 grit part way through so it went to 400 prematurely, but I feel came out OK):

Continued.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

The many, many, many hours of sanding later.....

Glueup, with a light coating of epoxy (G2) to emphasize color:

A quick buzz on the sander to get the handle profiled (not too bad looking if I say so myself- at least better than I thought it would):

Station #1 for the rasp:

Station #2 for the rasp:

After this I forgot to get pictures of the sanding (up to 600 grit), and the first few coats of tung oil (buffed with 0000 steel wool in between), but here it is set up with my first real leather sheath to see if it will work:

This was my first leather sheath that I included a welt, did proper cutouts in the seam, and buffed the edge (with buffalo horn spacer in a die grinder). Not the quality of others I have seen here, but I liked it, plus I could not get the leather to case (must have chosen the wrong kind of scraps from the bin). Overall a great learning experience here it is in the sheath prior to stitching after glueing:

Beside the sheath:

Again, with time constraints and me doing all pics I did not get any of the stitching, but it was saddle stitch with sheath clamped to the board seen in the sanding pictures. The next time I got pictures was in the hotel before giving it away and finishing the sharpening (DMT coarse hone and their angle guide to keep the bevels looking nice- very long and hard work taking the edge from heat treat to sharp):

When I pulled the knife out of the box I had it in I was very disappointed as the strop I had shifted around until it got green compound onto the sheath, leaving the stitching and sheath green in places:grumpy:. This actually turned out to be a good thing. The Dubbin I coated the sheath in repelled the strop compound, while the waxed thread picked it up well. The wedding colors were green, yellow and brown, so I just took an accident and used it to accent the sheath. The compound rubbed into the stitching well, and gave it a nice distinction, and would not rub off easily.

Continued at the wedding.

 

[Steinerj]

looks sweet. What did you do for the Heat Treat?

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Here it is beside the cake at the wedding:

This picture really has the handle popping! I love how it turned out, and this is the best picture of the handle that I got:

Now the thread is about me, but the knife isn't. If only the knife looked half as good as the bride and groom (with their permission to use their likeness)!:

Awww... (I've never heard anything about not kissing with a knife in your hand, just about running):

It cuts!!! That means it is actually a knife.

I had a blast making this knife! The 60 degree handle cutouts worried me but I did something right for once. I was very honored to have the photographer ask to take my pic with the knife, but I do not have those, or the ones I had my father in law take of the knife (they are MUCH better photographers). It was the fastest knife I've ever made, only a month and a half- very fast for me. Working with the handle was great- first time using maple and g10, and was very impressed with how it turned out- almost like I know what I am doing, and I never thought I would be able to make it look so good. I hope that the couple liked it, they said that they did and I hope it wasn't just smoke- after all I am family, who else can you be honest with. It was not perfect- I did some small mistakes, handle got a couple of small impressions/dents after finishing it; there was a bit of a gap in the front spacer; and the blade was slightly offset if laid down on both sides.

It was also a changing design. At first I wanted the fishtail butt of the knife, but did not want to risk messing up the handle after it looked so nice, and feel that I made the right choice. Altogether I feel it is the best knife I have made to date, and can't wait to get started on it's big brother.
Plus I put their names into runes on the tang to bind them together forever:

Just to show what my wedding knives last year were like (the last ones I made):

Now for the statistics of it:

The Beautiful Buckskinner
CPM 154 Rc 61, HT by Rob! @ Ranger Original
3/32" thick, 5 3/4" blade, 4 3/4" handle
Kiln stabilized curly maple and green G10
Tung oil and dubbin handle finish
Leather sheath Dubbin finished, green stained waxed thread, burnished with buffalo horn.


Please give me all of the constructive criticism that you feel is necessary so that I can grow even further on my next ones. I am a big boy, tell me what you like and hate about it. Suggestions on techniques are always appreciated as well.

Thank you
Kris

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Steiner- I use Rob! @ Ranger Original for my steel and heat treat almost exclusively.

 

[bikermikearchery]

An excellent looking knife.

 

[CUTS LIKE A KRIS]

Nobody has other comments- Good or bad. I'd like to know how to better my future knives from those in the know.

 

[bikermikearchery]

Draw filing with a good quality sharp new bastard file will cut your sanding time down a lot. I go from draw filing straight to 400 grit.