What do you guys think

B

Bob From Accounting

Joined
Sep 19, 2016
Messages
21
Been a super long time lurker, but I need some advice on this blade. This bad boy is 1095 and its ready for a handle. What do you guys think of the shape of it. I am really digging drop points as of late.

LqM1xBo.jpg


Also I cant decide what I want to make the handle out of, Ive got a couple of options. I have plenty of wood besides this but this is what I have narrowed it down to.

M23yUny.jpg



Any input is welcome!
 
Something fiddleback figured....the green or the orange is my vote. Green is maple? What is that orange figured wood?
 
I'm thinking you could push sand the blade finish by hand and clean up into that plunge a bit. :D It'd be pretty easy to do.

As far as the handle material, I like the curly wood on the top right. Maybe with some white liners and white pins.

Nice blade shape though.
 
I'm a newbie so take this with a grain of salt like JG said clean up those grind lines. Watch nick wheeler hand sanding 101. And in make it a smoother transition from blade to riccasso instead of that shelf thing. Unless you were gonna use bolsters and I say regular wood with SS pins but call me old fashioned
-Justin Schmidt
 
The shape looks excellent ... nice job.
As said, make sure the grinding/filing/sanding marks are all taken care of before doing the handle.

I would take off that 1/2 wide drop behind the ricasso. It really doesn't serve any purpose, and looks odd. The blade will look and work sleeker with the edge inline with the ricasso.
It may affect some cutting tasks, too, making the last part of the edge not usable.
I would also add a tiny 1/8" choil at the plunge when you take off the drop.
If you are worried that your hand will slip forward onto the blade, just raise the finger notch a tiny tad.
 
I find it difficult to move the ricasso after heat treat so I left it alone. I was planning on having the wood end about 1/4" from the finger grove cus I agree it does look kinda odd. I cleaned up the grinding last night and added the choil with my dremel. This one is essentially a trial run for when I do the same pattern out of damascus, I might shorten the blade a little next time not sure Ill post some pics when i get the thing glues up.. I think im going to settle on the middle natural wood scales ive got in the picture.
 
Bob From Accounting said:
I find it difficult to move the ricasso after heat treat so I left it alone. I was planning on having the wood end about 1/4" from the finger grove cus I agree it does look kinda odd. I cleaned up the grinding last night and added the choil with my dremel. This one is essentially a trial run for when I do the same pattern out of damascus, I might shorten the blade a little next time not sure Ill post some pics when i get the thing glues up.. I think im going to settle on the middle natural wood scales ive got in the picture.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the little section projecting from the bottom of the ricasso.I was suggesting you grind it back flush. This is simple on the grinder, even after HT.
 
Alright guy this bad boy is done! sorry for the crappy phone pictures. I would have posted sooner but I apparently got metal or some girt in the kydex sheath I made and got massive streaks down the length of both sides of the blade. Absolutely Infuriating even though I washed and blew the sheath out with my compressor. So im going to end up making a leather sheath for this one.
RQOgiK0.jpg

better shot

UUNSBrn.jpg
 
I like it, looks pretty good! No ding intended, is that your first knife? And if so, be sure not to part with it!

Is that stabilized wood? Some personal advice if it is not, use only stabilized wood. It will save you a lot of work and can't be beat.

I use WSSI services for all my wood. They are great folks and worth every penny.
 
Thanks alot. No, this is like the 20th or so knife ive made. Im probably going to keep this one since it came out sub par to my standards, but live and learn and move onto the next one. Plus I havent kept a knife ive made in so long. Yeah I took a break from grinding for about a week and I have been fighting this one for a while. It is some stabilized english maple. I still dont understand peoples obsession over stabilized wood, yes some woods definitely but other hard woods of very oily woods dont need it. Mind you stabilized woods looks amazing, I find really soft woods like zebra wood really need it. Im still really mad about my screwed up kydex sheath though that caused alot of extra work. But overall im liking this design, I have been refining it for a while. Ill post what a good one looks like when I get home later tonight.
 
As far as having grit in the kydex sheath is concerned. When I make mine, I put eyelets in to hold it together, but don't flare them. That way, after I finish shaping the profile of the sheath, I can take it apart and clean the inside out REALLY well. Food for though.
 
Well, you do good work, Bob.

The reason I use stabilized wood is because I have tried just about every kind of wood finish and decided stabilized was the way to go. I also use a lot of Osage orange and I have all of it stabilized. Having the wood stabilized has removed ALL my worries of how the finish will last.
 
True a lasting finish is something to be concerned about. A while back when i first started I had some of this birds eye maple, it was this super light colored wood it took a couple of coats of linseed oil with a final coat of bees wax to make it last. I have yet to re touch the handle on it, mind you ive moved onto a different knife for EDC now. I had some Koa and i tried a wood handle with it and while I could get the final finish to look good, all the contact from your hand destroyed the finish and you couldnt see the underlining pattern in the wood. Koa is my by far favorite wood and I ended up getting my chunks of it stabilized.

JG yeah that was my mistake I flared the eyelets before I shaped it. This almost turned me off of kydex since i recently started using it, not a big fan of making leather sheaths (it takes alot of time)..... But hey live and learn, onto the next knife!
 
You are quickly fixing problems, Bob. About your linseed oil, was it boiled? I always used boiled.

Be sure to always destroy any rags contaminated with linseed oil. They will spontaneously combust and burn down your shop.

I have a pal that makes my sheaths, all hand sewn leather and wet formed.
 
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