I started this project last fall shortly before hunting season. My hope was to finish in time to test it on some dead animals, but alas I am easily distracted and just finished it this week. As a lot of my projects go, I got bored with the tediousness of trying to make it as close to perfect as I can and opted to “just get it done” so that I could either accept the design or scrap it and start over. Therefore, it has some deep scratches that I didn’t want to take the time to get out and the handle isn’t as nice as I would like, but it should be functional. A couple years ago I was at a gun/knife show and saw a sharp finger styled skinning knife that had much thicker steel than usual, but couldn’t afford the $125 price tag. The maker said that he used thicker steel so that the knife would be capable of uses other than just skinning. Having one knife to complete the processing has always been an idea that I liked, especially for hogs.
Having watched several you tube videos on knife making, I felt like I was probably an expert and ready to tackle this project.
While changing the blades on my riding lawnmower, I thought the worn out blade was a decent thickness for what I wanted to try and it was free. What more could I ask for. I first did a drawing of what I thought would be a good blade design on some cardboard and cut it out to see how it felt. Next, I transferred the design to the blank blade and moved it around to find the best place and used the center hole as a basis for the transition from the handle to the blade. Using a variety of tools (port-a-band, bench grinder, and belt grinder) I was able to get the basic design roughed out. All this went pretty quick, so I was encouraged with the prospect of getting it done soon. This euphoria didn’t last long as my ADD kicked in and I was soon distracted and on to another project. (LOOK!!! Shiny things!!)
As the months ticked by, I would pick it up and work for a little while and then put it away for weeks at a time. Eventually, I got to the point of trying to heat treat the blade. I set up a temporary forge using fire bricks and a propane weed burner. Not knowing what type of steel I had, I did a test with some pieces that were left over from cutting up the donor blade. I didn’t get satisfactory results from either water or oil quenching and decided that my forge just wasn’t getting hot enough. Not wanting to take the time to build a different forge, I repeated the test with an acetylene torch. This turned out better, but I still doubted the hardness of the metal.
At this point I abandoned the idea of using high quality (expensive) stabilized wood for the handle and decided it would be more of a, “bush craft”, proof of concept knife that should be functional enough to determine if I want to duplicate it with better quality materials. I had some laminated material left over from a previous knife project and that got recruited for this one.
I made some cheap loveless style bolts out of stainless bolts and brass nuts for a two tone effect and also epoxied the handle scales on.
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[URL=http://s751.photobucket.com/user/dkhebert10/media/IMG_1023_zpsn7gkbdn6.jpg.html]
I brought the finished knife to work with me to try to do the final sharpening and after taking 2 days to get just a fair edge on the blade, have come to the conclusion that it must be a lot harder than I suspected. Time will tell if the design and the durability of the knife will be worth the effort.
Now to go kill something and try it out for real.[/URL]
Having watched several you tube videos on knife making, I felt like I was probably an expert and ready to tackle this project.
While changing the blades on my riding lawnmower, I thought the worn out blade was a decent thickness for what I wanted to try and it was free. What more could I ask for. I first did a drawing of what I thought would be a good blade design on some cardboard and cut it out to see how it felt. Next, I transferred the design to the blank blade and moved it around to find the best place and used the center hole as a basis for the transition from the handle to the blade. Using a variety of tools (port-a-band, bench grinder, and belt grinder) I was able to get the basic design roughed out. All this went pretty quick, so I was encouraged with the prospect of getting it done soon. This euphoria didn’t last long as my ADD kicked in and I was soon distracted and on to another project. (LOOK!!! Shiny things!!)
As the months ticked by, I would pick it up and work for a little while and then put it away for weeks at a time. Eventually, I got to the point of trying to heat treat the blade. I set up a temporary forge using fire bricks and a propane weed burner. Not knowing what type of steel I had, I did a test with some pieces that were left over from cutting up the donor blade. I didn’t get satisfactory results from either water or oil quenching and decided that my forge just wasn’t getting hot enough. Not wanting to take the time to build a different forge, I repeated the test with an acetylene torch. This turned out better, but I still doubted the hardness of the metal.
At this point I abandoned the idea of using high quality (expensive) stabilized wood for the handle and decided it would be more of a, “bush craft”, proof of concept knife that should be functional enough to determine if I want to duplicate it with better quality materials. I had some laminated material left over from a previous knife project and that got recruited for this one.
I made some cheap loveless style bolts out of stainless bolts and brass nuts for a two tone effect and also epoxied the handle scales on.
[/URL]
[URL=http://s751.photobucket.com/user/dkhebert10/media/IMG_1023_zpsn7gkbdn6.jpg.html]
I brought the finished knife to work with me to try to do the final sharpening and after taking 2 days to get just a fair edge on the blade, have come to the conclusion that it must be a lot harder than I suspected. Time will tell if the design and the durability of the knife will be worth the effort.
Now to go kill something and try it out for real.[/URL]
