WIP a bowie-ish thingy-pic heavy

[J. Doyle]

Very nice WIP. Thanks for the time you invested for all the detailed pics.

I very much like the overall profile and lines of this knife. I like the blade shape a lot. Proportions look spot on. Nice handle shape. Transitions look perfect. And that guard shape and texture is very cool.

I would offer two points of critique, if I may?

I can't help but wonder what a nicer piece of wood on the handle would do for this knife. IMO, it would elevate it from good to spectacular. Don't get me wrong, not every piece of wood has to be the best of the best and lesser figures can be utilized in interesting and unique ways. But to me personally, this is a very underwhelming piece of curly maple. In all honesty, quickly scrolling the pics, I thought it was a temporary/placeholder/practice piece. I would have preferred even a plainer, less figured piece of ironwood, blackwood, walnut, rosewood etc.

I can't stress this enough: I think you did a great job. I love this knife. I just don't like the handle material or finish on it.

2nd critique, very minor.....I think a clip ground in on the spine would have looked cool.

Again, overall....very, very nice. You should be proud of that build.

 

[Tony Mont]

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for the kind words!

Very nice WIP. Thanks for the time you invested for all the detailed pics.

I very much like the overall profile and lines of this knife. I like the blade shape a lot. Proportions look spot on. Nice handle shape. Transitions look perfect. And that guard shape and texture is very cool.

I would offer two points of critique, if I may?

I can't help but wonder what a nicer piece of wood on the handle would do for this knife. IMO, it would elevate it from good to spectacular. Don't get me wrong, not every piece of wood has to be the best of the best and lesser figures can be utilized in interesting and unique ways. But to me personally, this is a very underwhelming piece of curly maple. In all honesty, quickly scrolling the pics, I thought it was a temporary/placeholder/practice piece. I would have preferred even a plainer, less figured piece of ironwood, blackwood, walnut, rosewood etc.

I can't stress this enough: I think you did a great job. I love this knife. I just don't like the handle material or finish on it.

2nd critique, very minor.....I think a clip ground in on the spine would have looked cool.

Again, overall....very, very nice. You should be proud of that build.

John, I completely agree with you on both matters.

Clips are the number one reason for me to mess up a knife. Even though I knew it'd look better, I decided to play it safe. In retrospect, I realised this is counter-intuitive in the long run, how am I suppose to learn if I don't actually do it?

As for the handle, I need to expand my stock to a wider range and not get stuck.

 

[Richard338]

Tony, I love that you took the time to show us the WIP. I'm sure that can only help your business.
Regarding the clip, I have done a few recently and with the procedure I follow it is one of the least stressful steps.
For a straight clip like you seem to have here, I grind it right after profiling, using an angled rest on a reversible disc grinder. I'm sure I could do it on a platen also.
After heat treat I finish it using two or three grits of EDM stones (no grinder). The stones ride smoothly on the established flat surfaces, but are aggressive enough to make minor tweaks. You can just about get it perfect this way, including the very tip.