Made a Knife... now w/ a Completed Sheath & Firesteel!

[Big B]

Looks pretty sweet! I love how you're sharing step by step as you finish this! Keep it up

[Cpt. MelonBuster]

Tagged, because this project is so full of win!

[elkhills]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I'm having fun and taking my time with it.

Looks great so far! As far as the handle goes, I wouldn't be too stingy on rounding it--most people make the mistake of just rounding the corners of square scales and that leaves you with a very blocky handle that, personally, I find to be very uncomfortable and tends to have some really bad hot spots. Also, you said you are going to oil the wood scales with WD40? I would stick with Tung Oil or Boiled Linseed Oil for a professional finish, and if you don't want to do that then go with mineral oil--I'm not a woodworker at all, but I've heard of WD40 not being very kind to wood

I appreciate the advice, I need all I can get I probably would have been stingy with the rounding over process. Maybe I'll start small and see how it feels, you can always sand more but it's tough to put wood back on.
So, any links/sites/suggestions on how best to shape this handle? My gut instinct is to use the 4" belt sander for the bulk of it and finish by hand.
I will have to test that WD on a scrap first to see what it does- now that I think about it I remember hearing WD40 actually contains a lot of water... that would not be good for wood. Although... a High School project of mine was a whetstone holder out of Ash (a very hard wood, they make baseball bats out of it). I finished it (at my teachers suggestion) with WD40. That was 21 years ago ( ) and it's holding up fine. Of course it doesn't see much action, and probably soaked up very little being so hard.

[Regulator]

WD-40 doesn't contain water, in fact it was made to displace water. On the 40th attempt at making it they got it right. Hence the name WD (water displacement) 40. Some say the main ingredient is peanut or fish oil, WD-40 company won't say, and never patented the formula so as not to have to disclose what it's made of.

OT: The knife is awesome! I've enjoyed following your progress.

[Wastelander]

Thanks for the encouragement guys! I'm having fun and taking my time with it.

Looks great so far! As far as the handle goes, I wouldn't be too stingy on rounding it--most people make the mistake of just rounding the corners of square scales and that leaves you with a very blocky handle that, personally, I find to be very uncomfortable and tends to have some really bad hot spots. Also, you said you are going to oil the wood scales with WD40? I would stick with Tung Oil or Boiled Linseed Oil for a professional finish, and if you don't want to do that then go with mineral oil--I'm not a woodworker at all, but I've heard of WD40 not being very kind to wood

I appreciate the advice, I need all I can get I probably would have been stingy with the rounding over process. Maybe I'll start small and see how it feels, you can always sand more but it's tough to put wood back on.
So, any links/sites/suggestions on how best to shape this handle? My gut instinct is to use the 4" belt sander for the bulk of it and finish by hand.
I will have to test that WD on a scrap first to see what it does- now that I think about it I remember hearing WD40 actually contains a lot of water... that would not be good for wood. Although... a High School project of mine was a whetstone holder out of Ash (a very hard wood, they make baseball bats out of it). I finished it (at my teachers suggestion) with WD40. That was 21 years ago ( ) and it's holding up fine. Of course it doesn't see much action, and probably soaked up very little being so hard.

What I have seen people do is grind off the corners on a flat belt and then round it from there on a slack belt, that way they are rounding the handle from an octagon shape instead of a square and it comes out more of an oval which is more comfortable to hold. As far as the WD-40 goes, there is no water in it but I have heard of the oils used making wood "gunky" for lack of a better term and loosening the fibers to where they are damaged with use. I could be wrong, though. Still, I prefer plain oils for wood finishes

[KentsOkay]

looks awesome dude! cant wait to see finished

[m ellis allen]

awesome job so far.
may i suggest using a cabnet file after the belt sander to get the handle the shape you want it. last time i made a knife nearly ten years ago, (i realy need to try it again), i used one. put the blade in a vise using blocks of wood to pevent marring the blade and have at it.
also in a pinch if you dont have a file using sandpaper wrapped around a paint stirring stick works great.
again awesome job, i cant wait to see it done.

[elkhills]

Spent a few more hours with the knife this morning- 3 to be exact. This process went fast! Started by sanding the shorter brass rod side smooth. Once I could lay the work down flat I profiled the other side, by drilling a hole just off the line for the inside curve, and bandsawing about 1/16" away from the line for the rest.


Used the big belt sander to smooth out everything I could reach after that. Looks good to me.

That friggin little curve. This has been the most pain in the @$$ part of the project- because of it I have drawn blood from my thumb, and probably doubled the amount of time I spent fussing with the handle. My little drum sanders just weren't getting the job done, so switched to working the spot over by hand in a vise. Wasn't happy with what I was getting by hand either, and figured "I'm gonna be removing half this material anyway when I profile... let's come back to it."

I cut away the long ends of brass rod with a hacksaw, gouging the cherry a little, but that's okay because it's all going away soon.

Gave myself a line about half the thickness of each scale, all the way around. This was my guage for how much to sand at the edges, while keeping full thickness (or close to it) at the center pin.

Starting to take shape! Didn't take a lot of pics from here, but basically I sanded a flat spot from high center to my line, then smoothed the flat into a curve. This is more art than science at this point.


Of course, lots of extra time dealing with that friggin little curve.

So here she is all roughed out. The sun kind of washed out all the little facets and rough spots. Anyway, made some tweaks like thinning the lower half of the handle and the FLC (that will be friggin little curve from here on out!) and spent some time making sawdust. 150 grit for the final shaping, then 220 and finally 320. I used my random orbit sander for the very first step after the belt sander, but it was much too aggressive; I ran it for maybe 20 seconds and I was cutting in to wood I didn't want to. Hand sanding was the way to go.

Took a while, but I got it where I wanted it. Dusted off with a tack cloth and started the first step of finishing...

...a coat of sunshine! Cherry will darken quite a bit when exposed to sunlight. I will give it a few hours each side and see how it looks.


I think you guys have talked me out of the WD40 idea. I don't think it will hurt the wood, but I don't want a sticky oily handle to hold, either. Besides, I have a nearly full pint of Tung oil in the garage, and I know it looks fantastic on cherry.

[Brock Meatstone]

AAAGGHH! Damn dude, that is so badass!
I really want to do something like this, now.

[Rebelac7]

HOLY CRAP YOU DID A GREAT JOB!

[KentsOkay]

Looks awesome.

[Wastelander]

Spent a few more hours with the knife this morning- 3 to be exact. This process went fast! Started by sanding the shorter brass rod side smooth. Once I could lay the work down flat I profiled the other side, by drilling a hole just off the line for the inside curve, and bandsawing about 1/16" away from the line for the rest.

Used the big belt sander to smooth out everything I could reach after that. Looks good to me.

That friggin little curve. This has been the most pain in the @$$ part of the project- because of it I have drawn blood from my thumb, and probably doubled the amount of time I spent fussing with the handle. My little drum sanders just weren't getting the job done, so switched to working the spot over by hand in a vise. Wasn't happy with what I was getting by hand either, and figured "I'm gonna be removing half this material anyway when I profile... let's come back to it."

I cut away the long ends of brass rod with a hacksaw, gouging the cherry a little, but that's okay because it's all going away soon.

Gave myself a line about half the thickness of each scale, all the way around. This was my guage for how much to sand at the edges, while keeping full thickness (or close to it) at the center pin.

Starting to take shape! Didn't take a lot of pics from here, but basically I sanded a flat spot from high center to my line, then smoothed the flat into a curve. This is more art than science at this point.


Of course, lots of extra time dealing with that friggin little curve.

So here she is all roughed out. The sun kind of washed out all the little facets and rough spots. Anyway, made some tweaks like thinning the lower half of the handle and the FLC (that will be friggin little curve from here on out!) and spent some time making sawdust. 150 grit for the final shaping, then 220 and finally 320. I used my random orbit sander for the very first step after the belt sander, but it was much too aggressive; I ran it for maybe 20 seconds and I was cutting in to wood I didn't want to. Hand sanding was the way to go.

Took a while, but I got it where I wanted it. Dusted off with a tack cloth and started the first step of finishing...

...a coat of sunshine! Cherry will darken quite a bit when exposed to sunlight. I will give it a few hours each side and see how it looks.


I think you guys have talked me out of the WD40 idea. I don't think it will hurt the wood, but I don't want a sticky oily handle to hold, either. Besides, I have a nearly full pint of Tung oil in the garage, and I know it looks fantastic on cherry.

Fantastic job! I'm still not a huge fan of the protruding tang, but if you like it then that's all that matters! It looks like you rounded the handle well, and it all looks very clean. Now go get it dirty

[maldon007]

Me have one please?

[Bill_Mead]

Very nice work, thank you for sharing.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

pure win my friend....pure win!

tung oil will give that sexy knife a proper finish.

well done!

[Skull_Hide]

You'll have to update on how the edge retention holds up and how fast it gets dull. If I'm understanding this right and haven't mixed anything you didn't heat treat the blade or anything and just simply cut the blade out of the old saw blade so your still using the original temper for the saw blade unless when you were cutting you heated the blade too much and changed it. So I'm interested in how the old temper works. Very nice looking blade. Good work.

[elkhills]

You'll have to update on how the edge retention holds up and how fast it gets dull. If I'm understanding this right and haven't mixed anything you didn't heat treat the blade or anything and just simply cut the blade out of the old saw blade so your still using the original temper for the saw blade unless when you were cutting you heated the blade too much and changed it. So I'm interested in how the old temper works. Very nice looking blade. Good work.

You're correct. I don't have the facilities (or know how) to heat treat. I made every effort to not over heat the steel, cooling it with water whenever it felt a little too warm. My hope is that whatever tool steel temper it had when I started is still there.
For what its worth, I feels hard. Sharpening took a while, like stainless. My carbon steel knives seem to get their edge quicker.
Once my handle is finished I will most definitely run it through the paces, and post the results.
Plan to test: paper slicing, meat cutting, rope cutting, wood carving (fuzz stick), battoning... what else should I try?

[Ad'lan]

The Coconut Stab!

Looks good.

[Wastelander]

You'll have to update on how the edge retention holds up and how fast it gets dull. If I'm understanding this right and haven't mixed anything you didn't heat treat the blade or anything and just simply cut the blade out of the old saw blade so your still using the original temper for the saw blade unless when you were cutting you heated the blade too much and changed it. So I'm interested in how the old temper works. Very nice looking blade. Good work.

You're correct. I don't have the facilities (or know how) to heat treat. I made every effort to not over heat the steel, cooling it with water whenever it felt a little too warm. My hope is that whatever tool steel temper it had when I started is still there.
For what its worth, I feels hard. Sharpening took a while, like stainless. My carbon steel knives seem to get their edge quicker.
Once my handle is finished I will most definitely run it through the paces, and post the results.
Plan to test: paper slicing, meat cutting, rope cutting, wood carving (fuzz stick), battoning... what else should I try?

Drilling

[Gun Rock]

That looks flipping sweet good job!

[elkhills]

Was invited to a friends cabin in the Hills this weekend, rained on us non stop Here's a shot of the road in. Got a little sketchy in places, but we made it (thank you, 4WD)

A bright spot though, Round 1 of Torture Testing! I will mention before starting these tests the knife was sharp enough to slice off a triangle of paper when brought down guillotine style, like a 45* angle brought straight down- get it? Okay then, on to the Battoning!
Now I have never really split wood with a knife before, but come on, how complicated could it be? Besides, this task was actually required; the old wood stove "kindler" needs small sticks of fuel to burn, and believe it or not no hatchet was to be found on the property for some reason. Most of the wood I split was about this size, 3" or so I would guess

I lined up roughly on center and square to the end, rapped the back of the blade above the wood to start the split, then once the blade was buried, rapped the point that was sticking out. In dry wood, it worked like a charm. Wet wood seemed a little "stickier", but it still splits with a little more effort. Did not feel inclined to take my camera phone out in the rain, so no pics, sorry




Split a fair amount on day 1, maybe a dozen or so. Did a little off road adventuring, then came time for dinner. I feel confident saying that this blade can adequately spread butter for Hamburger Bun Garlic Bread.

It also does a fine job of cutting steak. An interesting (to me) observation; I think I have become acclimated to "sawing" through a steak, probably because every single steak knife I can remember using is a serrated number. With this blade, you can still "saw", but another technique that worked well was to "slice" through the "skin", and then just push down toward the plate, with a little rocking motion.

Another unexpected phenomenon- this blade stains. Are you supposed to treat, or finish, metal? All I did to this knife was sand most of the scratches out and polish with Red Rouge. And yes, I cleaned it with hot soapy water before (and after) using. Check it out, maybe cant tell in the pic but in person you can definitely tell it's oil or fat latching on the the blade.

She finally met her match when I got a little over zealous and tried to split a hard, heavy, thick chunk of Oak. Oak knots are apparently stronger than old saw blades turned into knives.

No damage to the back of the blade, or straightness of it after the workout, but that Oak knot put a nice tweak in the cutting edge, dammit .


Regardless, it's still sharp as hell. Wont guillotine slice like before, but will still slice paper (albeit with the threat of tearing) with a sharp slicing pull across the edge. I'm guessing a little touch up on the whet stone will remidy that.
Here's a parting shot I took coming down the Mountain, I think the whole weekend can be summed up in a word- Wet.

[Frank]

i'd be pissed ^^

[grand94jeep]

Awesome knife. Awesome post.

Good work.

[Wastelander]

Nicely done! Generally Oak is pretty good at messing up blades, but the fact that it bent instead of chipping and is still sharp is a sign that you didn't lose your heat treat from the steal. As far as the discoloration--that's because you used high carbon steel that isn't stainless. That discoloration (patina) is a badge of honor for your blade and will get more attractive the more you use it