not another knife thread...

It is somewhere, presumably in storage by now, at a friends house along with several of my finished and mostly finished knives. He is in Chile for several months or more.

i did make a new handle for that crooked knife though.

several things about this attempt could use some practice and refinement, and i'm not nearly finished, but here's where this knife is at:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...G_0360-1-1.jpg
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...IMG_0361-1.jpg

in all this is serving as a good lesson in how to do, and how not to do such a knife in the future. i look forward to doing a good composite sheath next time, though i absolutely have to spiff this one up a bit, since i used the last good piece of padauk for it.

Nice work Canid. I'm liking many of your designs, and, like myself, you scrounge steel.

yeah, i love to scrounge/recycle steel, and to rescue broken and neglected blades.

now the adhesives are set better, and the leather is dry, so it's taken it's permanent shape and hardened back up a tad. the fitment is good, with the top of the leather upper fitting the mid-handle perfectly the lower portion of the upper did not contract as tightly against the wood of the sheath as i had hoped, so i'll probably wet that back down and try again.

for now, i'm glad i can still get it off easily, as i forgot to flare the slot where the blade enteres the wood/antler, so that it slides in readily and does not hang out.

i'll have to take some sort of rigid, but non-brittle adhesive to the upper and lower portion of the leather upper, to stiffen it up enough to make it sandable. i want to taper the lower portion so that the bottom edge sits flush against the surface.

the upper portion i would either like to round off by sanding, or if the leather will stretch further, do a rolled seam.

still gotta sand the profiles of the wood down, for better taper and to remove bulk where appropriate.

i soaked the wood in polyurethane sealant by immersion, so i'm sure it's well penetrated. i didn't mean this to be a finish, which is why i let it get all dingy before taking the picture.

i'm stuck with the visible glue-lines on this knife, as i didn't get my surfaces well mated.

so this is still not my best work, but it's coming right along:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...kko01large.jpg

the lady likes it well enough that she had to have it when it's done, so i'll probably be making another stand for the bookshelf in the living room.

Looks real good Canid!!

thank you. i tell you one thing, i'll never be much at engraving antler.

It came out great. Well done.

i'll get a final picture when i get the chance. i'm starting a new puukko today. the blade is from that bed-rail stock and for the handle i'm starting with some nice light mullberry. i'm probably going to go with an all, or mostly leather sheath on this one, and i'm trying to come up with ideas for handle embellishment.

starting some handles for a couple old blades [the crash L6 stock], and the new little puukko:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...uredwalnut.jpg

this is the figured walnut i mentioned before. most of it's boring, but there's some great character and some curling in there. i don't have a working power saw at the moment, so my only recourse is splitting and sanding flush, which is a killer when trying to conserve the limited curly areas [the split follows the curls and i have to grind so much of it away it hurts].

that walnut is beautiful, I know what you mean about having to cut it too. I save every scrap of exotic wood from building bows for my handles. That stuff just doesn't grown on cheap trees anymore :)

seriously. i feel horrible too, because i cut that darn tree down myself 2 years ago, for a friend, and all but a 26" rounder about 14" diameter went into their firewood stall. same with a bunch of fruitless mulberry with some great gnarled crotches.

Looking forward to seeing the end results.

handle for the puukko; still shaping:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_0370.jpg
http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...s/IMG_0373.jpg

i should have used a spacer of contrasting material, because the antler and mulberry seem to run together. i suppose i'll have to do that for the next two.

That sure is purdy.

i learned some things about mulberry:

1.) if it is not dry enough, it does not power sand for spit.
2.) if it is dry enough, it scorches at the slightest touch of an almost new sanding disk.
3.) both states seem to exist in different depths of the same piece, since it has only been seasoning since last fall.

Not having worked with wood too much, I have quickly found that it is soooooo easy to burn it when shaping with the belt sander.

Nice job Candid!

Very nice, Canid!!