Pancake Sheath

Might call this a generic pancake sheath, from bolster down can be drawn in to fit your knife

 

was going to have a drawing file and pdf but that will have to wait until I figure out how to get them here

Wood Sheaths

This question comes up on occasion about making sheaths out of wood. I do not have any step by step photos but essentially
1) Two slabs of wood remove enough wood the blade is a snug fit and glue together.
or
2) two slabs of wood with a layer or three of spacer material shaped to the knife profile and all glued together.

Belt loop attachments can be done in any variety of ways, let your imagination run wild.

 

Block of hardwood shaped to be the belt loop

Sheath has a recess carved for the leather and a leather loop attached to the back like a conventional leather sheath. Forming and sewing wrap around portion done while wet so it shrinks tight.

 

Stabilized maple burl and ebony, boar is carved ebony and family name is dyed epoxy in a groove

 

 



Work and hobby combined

Planning on a new grinder with all the fancy attachments next year so I downloaded the drawings from the "Sayber OSG" Open Source Grinder Project by http://dcknives.com/osg

After spending a day learning a new software package add-on for AutoCad the little light bulb came on, Make a 3D model of the grinder.

No idea what I am going to do with the completed model just yet but practice is never wasted. 

 

Recurve Blade

Having a little fun with making a blade with no straight lines. going to have stainless steel pommel and bolster and hidden pin handle.

stuck at a point of deciding to go with a curved top swage or a straight one. Either way it will be sharpened, Curved with mirror polish would be rather interesting looking.

 

 

Overall length is 15" give or take a bit and made out of 01 steel 1/4" thick

Knife kept looking like it needed a curved swage just a little more freehand grinding and twice as much fun hand polishing.

 

Tried out a older camera, might be time to retire it. Everything is symmetrical and now onto the 400 and 600 grit to flatten out the bevels and prep for heat treating

 

outdoorsman knife sets

Got to thinking it would be nice to have a matching set of knives for various outdoor activities like fishing, camping and hunting or trapping.

Slowly getting from idea to finished concept only finish work needed on the knives and then on to the sheaths.
Fillet knives will have Kydex sheaths with 550 cord for belt loops or tying to life vest the other knives will have leather sheaths with tooling or Kydex if the owner prefers.

Still working on the design for the small knife for the orange/black/wood hybrid handles.

Any combination can include a Ferro rod with matching handle. The rod will be mounted on the larger knifes sheath, smaller knife can have its own sheath or as the lower set the knife will be mounted on the larger knifes sheath.

kitchen knives

An odd assortment of kitchen knives I have made for myself trying out different bevels plus the little guy I got from a fellow knife maker in a draw

Kitchen knife restoration

From what little information I was able to gather on this old knife it was made between 1861 and 1882 based on the makers mark of the word "ART" in a circle. I could be wrong about this and if anyone knows the actual dates please drop me a note, Thank You

Made by George Butler & Co.
Sheffield
Trinity Works

Blade is made from two laminations which was a common practice of using a high carbon knife steel and wrought iron in order to save money. Many sold to the Natives as trade knives and this one came from Manitoulin Island just a few years ago and was in very poor shape from many decades of storage.

Knife as received from the owner bit of rust and organic matter, handle is end of an old broom stick and split. Edge is showing a bit of wear and dents from cutting small bones.

Makers Mark side weld line along back of blade

 



 Back side, notice weld line is on opposite edge

 

Two choices of antler handles

 

Knife was cleaned up by a few short dips in Muriatic acid. Vast majority of the material came off as a sludge so was not rust, most likely a coating of fat or old oil.

Very light touch with a 800 grit sand paper was used to even out the finish.

Went with the old worn antler as it better reflects the age of the knife. Gave it a light coating of Tung oil to help seal from dirt, going to be on display from this point on at the owners house.

 



KITH 2016

Just a refresh post on a knife I made over a year ago for a knife in the hat draw 2016.

Paring knife

Liked the last project so much that I have decided to make a pair of knives in a smaller version. Strongly considering making one with a stabilized and dyed Maple handle in a lighter version and bundling with the other knife in a two blade sheath.

Glory shot of the little ones in the furnace, removed before heating up and will be back in once the 600C temperature has been reached. That is the minimum temperature that a Condursal treated knife can be introduced to heat.

 

 

 

Post heat treating pose, no clean up needed after hitting with compressed air during plate quench.

 



Pinless Handle Experiment

Attempting a Pinless handle, creating separate post from the KITH 2017 post so everything in one subject is together.

 

Bolster and pommel are in place and ready for polishing and final shaping.

 

First step of fitting the wood slabs is creating a template from masking tape and second step is put the tape on the wood blocks then cut close to the correct shape.

 

 

Ideally the wood will be a snug fit so essentially the scales will stay in place without glue. In a perfect world the bolster and pommel curves will hold the wood but as you can see here I messed up a little on the Pommel.

 

Some more progress.

Wood glued on and preliminary shaping done.

 

 

 

Have a few scratches to fix on the pommel and bolster where I hit them with the sanding belt. a quick buff in these pictures at 800 grit to see what the handle will look like.

still have to go over everything with the 1200 and 2000 grit before waxing and giving the whole blade a final buffing.

 

couple test shots before sheath construction which is usually not as fun as it sounds. Figuring out a style to match the blade takes me way to long.

 





Skinner

A project a friend asked me to make for him based off of a knife he lost years ago. Forget the type or original company, old age and no notes to blame.

Blade is CPM 154 stainless steel, tempered back to a 59-60 HRc and cryogenic quench for 12 hours for improved wear resistance.
Handle is a curly maple that has been stabilized and double dyed with purple and green and in the natural yellow color and it makes for a odd looking handle material.

One of those cases of an experiment with colors being stranger than first thought.

 

 

Still some cleaning up to do like getting the wax off the blade and buff one more time. Also have to figure out what kind of sheath to make for it.

 



Wood handle knife

Went with a plain old wood handle for a change of pace from stabilized hybrids, sometimes you need a change of pace.

Blade is 1084 steel with purple heart and Blood wood handle styled very loosely on a Puma White hunter from the 60's

Home made Knives

My very first knife I purchased from a knife maker
in Fort McMurray Alberta back in 1979/80 is on the bottom. Blade is recycled leaf spring from an old truck with a hidden tang birds eye Maple handle, handle was stained with transmission fluid at one point during an roadside repair of an very old Ford power steering pump.
Since then about every five years i give it a fresh coat of Tru-oil and buff it up. Blade gets a coat of oil after use typically a vegetable oil or mineral oil and is stored in the sheath for over last 37 years.

 

 

Top knife as far as I can find was from a gentleman out of Winnipeg Manitoba and made back in the late 80's forged of a torsion bar. Mirror polish has held up very well and the butt ugly sheath was not original.

Pretty sure 99% that a friend of mine made the sheath out of scrap in the early 90's from something he bought at second hand store. Still have not found out who it was (forget his name) but we served together in the Military at CFB Comox up until 1994.

Fillet Knife

Fillet knife
Blade: AEB-L stainless steel, single bevel of 12 degrees for a left hand user.
Handle: Banksia seed pod from Australia stabilized and filled with green Alumilite resin.
Sheath: Hand tooled leather, going for a mix of fishing lure animal skin theme.

Chefs knife

Made this one with 0.07" AEB-L and an assortment of small wood pieces that needed a home

Was originally planning on selling it but it cuts so nice it may just stay with me.

Pinless Knife Handle

Trying Pinless knife handle construction since I think that pins would not help this nice piece of wood look any better.

Much longer process than straight one piece scales on a knife. Bolster and pommel fitted and shaped so they capture the scales on either end. Plenty of holes for the glue to create a solid bond and the remaining steel gets a 80 grit finish before gluing.

Initial fit up is lots of test fitting, you want a nice snug fit but not to tight or the wood will crack when it expands in the summer heat.

It feels like the front and rear of the wood next to the stainless steel needs some color so it stands out a little more. Almost seems bland right now.

 

 

Still a dozen test fits left to do then on to the left side of the handle.

Took the other pieces out of the tank and cooked, the Single dyed Purple is rather interesting

The dyed block is going to get cast in Alumilite resin and very good chance will become a hidden tang handle

A couple of progress shots since nothing shows up problems as much as a picture in sunlight.

Knife in the Hat 2017

My entry into the Knife In the Hat draw for 2017 on the Canadian Knifemaker forum
canadianknifemaker.ca

Template is from Dan Comeau linked on my page but not yet available also inspiration from another maker Joe Mcneely

Plan is to use CPM 154 stainless steel for the knife blade, 1/8" 304 stainless steel for the bolster and pommels and a hybrid wood Alumilite material for the handle.
Still no decision on which of a multitude of materials I have on hand will be used or the color, this usually comes along near the end.


Template version 2 with thumb rise and as of yet modified bolster. Going to try something I have never seen done before so that little surprise is going to wait until near completion.

 



 

If anyone ever wondered if the knives were inspected well here you go. Pre heat treating inspection being carried out by Dual Optical Gauge or DOG for short.

 

 

 

Posing in the furnace, actually does not go in until the first preheat step is reached at 1400F any sooner and the Condursal will burn off rendering it ineffective.

 



 

Heat treating finished and time for the bevels

Really need to get caught up on my Fillet Knives

Knife beveled and getting hand sanded. Still have to decide it I want to keep the color from heat treating along the back or sand it down

 

A little behind but some progress is being made slow but sure

Middle of May now and bolster and pommel are in place and ready for polishing.

First step of fitting the wood slabs is creating a template from masking tape
Second step is put the tape on the wood blocks then cut close to the correct shape

 

Realized after getting first knife done I was too large, got carried away free handing the tip shape. So made a second knife with matching handle material and the bolsters need lots of fine sanding to get flattened after a grinder slip up.

So on to the third knife which will have a Ebony handle with red fiberglass liners. Tapered from top to bottom for a nice fit in the hand.