WIP of Sheffield inspired 3 thick Sportsman's knife - Ken Erickson

This is a very fascinating thread. It's always great to see these WIP threads, but a special treat when the OP is someone like Ken.

As a knife tinkerer/modder, my head is swimming with the fantastically detailed work you are doing. I guess someone is only limited by their imagination to make something like this possible. (oh yeah, and a bunch of great tools and years of experience).

I can't wait to see how this evolves. Thanks to both parties for sharing the experience.

Glenn
 
Ken, the content in this thread nerly brought a tear to my eye. Magnificent stuff sir! You are channeling the old craftsmen from what I can tell.
 
shaldag said:
I guess that after reading some of these comments, I give Ken a call and we can discuss the ivory thing. I've always been partial to ivory, especially the creamy kind that Those boys at Wilfred Works use, and a reaaly nice example is on that Tennessee Jack that Kerry made for me recently. And I do love that deep blue mammoth and walrus. There are a couple of things about the fossil stuff, though. i think that it would be a departure from the traditional Sheffield look. I am not sure I want to go down that road, and I am not sure that Ken does either. Second, I am pretty sure that all the really good stuff --the really deep blues and greens --is being hoarded by a dragon. i can just see him lying on a mound of first class fossil ivory. It has to be that way, cause he makes a whole bunch of knives with the stuff, and it is always the most beautiful, matched pieces. He must have a hoard. You hear me there, Don?

As far as bone goes, I grew up with jigged bone knives. Meaning, of course, I still like 'em. But this one just needs something a little dressier. Same goes for stag.
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I absolutely agree with you that exterior mammoth ivory would be a departure (and in my mind, not quite the right one) from the classic Sheffield look, but I've seen a few knives with interior mammoth ivory covers, and I think they look great.
 
If its doable, I vote for elephant ivory by a long shot. From my understanding the coloration of bark mammoth ivory is simply mineralization. Stunning in its own right and I enjoy the material myself.

Kevin
 
Once again simply amazing. Your push for challenging projects is always an inspiration to me. Next time we talk I'll have to have you tell me more about those tweezers. They look like fun... ;)
 
The tweezers are one of the most important features on this knife, they need to work. I intend to carry and use this knife, and aside from a knife blade, the implement that I use most is tweezers. I like the design of these, and they seem to me to be as good as one can get in a tweezers that will last and still be carried in a knife.

ETA: I know that Jared was asking Ken, but I wanted to get my two cents in as well.
 
I made some slow progress on the knife yesterday. Refined the corkscrew and the awl. Both are heat treated and close to finished size. If I can find my small tripod:eek: later today I will take a short video of how I test my corkscrews.

The picture shows my pattern for the two outside springs that work the small blades along with either the corkscrew or awl. I make the pattern out of nickel silver sheet. I have found that the nickel silver has just enough resiliency to act as a light spring. On a spring such as this, this gives me a much better idea of my spring before cutting it out of CPM154. I can eliminate some waste of the more expensive CPM154 and time by doing it this way.
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That's awesome, Ken!

You could make your own tripod :)

I would love to see videos of this knife.
 
shaldag said:
There is another problem with ivory--i live in Israel. That means that the knife has to travel overseas at least once. I hate that. When you are dealing with ivory, it means that there is a nonzero probability that it will be confiscated by customs in one country or another on the basis that ivory is banned. I have no idea of how to convince any government authority that a piece of ivory is preban. I woukd hate for this knife to be confiscated; aside from being a big financial hit, it would hit me hard emotionally. That is one of the reasons that I was leaning toward pearl.
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Your concerns are valid, but given how well ivory would suit this knife, I propose a solution:

Ken's Courier Service.

Hand-delivered knives!

(Ken, improving the sheaths is a worthy idea, but should perhaps be back-shelfed until you get your Courier Service up and running. ;)).

~ P.
 
pertinux said:
Your concerns are valid, but given how well ivory would suit this knife, I propose a solution:

Ken's Courier Service.

Hand-delivered knives!

(Ken, improving the sheaths is a worthy idea, but should perhaps be back-shelfed until you get your Courier Service up and running. ;)).

~ P.
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Ken starts heading over to that region and we'd better start putting in our orders for custom jambiyas. ;)
 
Talked with Ed this morning and worked out a few more details. Still no hard decision on the covers but narrowing it down a bit.
We talked at length about the tweezers and Ed wants to go with a tweezers that is much more pointed. I had figured on making a new set as this one is a tad thick.
We also chatted about the hawkbill blade. I mentioned to Ed that I was going to be reducing the profile to allow a better fit in the frame. Ed was on-board with this as he prefers a smaller hawkbill blade. You may notice that in this group picture the blade is smaller than the previous posts. I have the two outside springs roughed out and ready for heat treat. My next step will be to cut the long pulls on the four blades and get things ready for HT. I still have the lancet to make yet, which may yield a surprise.
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Ken,

Looks a major league jigsaw puzzle to me, one thing's for sure you know what your doing and they always end well.

Your photos are so informative and add a visual aspect to the build, keep em' coming, I LOVE EM'!

Jeff
 
ken erickson said:
Talked with Ed this morning and worked out a few more details. Still no hard decision on the covers but narrowing it down a bit.
We talked at length about the tweezers and Ed wants to go with a tweezers that is much more pointed. I had figured on making a new set as this one is a tad thick.
We also chatted about the hawkbill blade. I mentioned to Ed that I was going to be reducing the profile to allow a better fit in the frame. Ed was on-board with this as he prefers a smaller hawkbill blade. You may notice that in this group picture the blade is smaller than the previous posts. I have the two outside springs roughed out and ready for heat treat. My next step will be to cut the long pulls on the four blades and get things ready for HT. I still have the lancet to make yet, which may yield a surprise.
DSC02245.jpg
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What a fantastic photo. A picture worth a thousand wows.
 
I had a chance to fit up my tangs and springs. Everything is working really nice. I still have a bit of fine tuning of the tangs but very minor at this point.
I did the initial grinding of the blades and they are fitting like they should.
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As promised I also did a quick video, testing the corkscrew. Those hockey pucks are tough!:eek:
[video=youtube;XEul3mdL0g0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEul3mdL0g0[/video]
 
Ken, I love you like a brother but don't mention hockey...it's killing me that they are locked out. On a brighter note, your project is coming along swimmingly. Just beautiful.
 
Wow! This is such a great thread. Thank you very much for sharing this!

Can I follow you around your shop for about a month and take notes? ;)
 
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