not another knife thread...

[canid]

starting a light duty draw-knife today. here it is, shaping it out:

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next will be to hot-form the bends for the handle bits, and then to heat treat, make the handles and sharpen.

overall length is 17" before bending. blade length is 5".
because of the thin stock, this will be for light use [no using as a pry bar while shaving]. it won't take the stresses of rough use. the next one i make will probably be twice as thick, suitable for roughing bow staves, debarking logs, ect.

[Camp10]

I have wanted to make one also but I am not sure how to go about the heat treat. It looks tricky to get the blade hard but leave much of the rest normalized. Can you show your quench to this when you do it? I'm looking for ideas.

[crashdive123]

Pretty cool. Now finish that puzzle.

[canid]

basically, i just intend to normalize the whole thing after forming, and for hardening, i need only heat up the blade portion.

since the whole piece is much longer than my forge, i will just heat only the blade over the top of the forge, moving it around to keep the heat even, and then quench.

since i expect this steel will air harden a bit in smaller cross sections, i expect slight hardening of the handle bits, and the heat that is conducted to the portion nearest the blade while i heat treat the blade will probably temper that area back a bit [this is where most of the stress will be concentrated during use].

Crash: that's my lady's puzzle; she'd probably murder me.

[Camp10]

So you are going to quench the whole thing but try to keep the heat limited to the blade edge?

[canid]

you got it.

not only the blade edge, the whole blade, just not the handle bits, since they don't need to be hardened.

[canid]

never spill vinegar on an unfinished knife and fail to notice it overnight:

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there's a pretty good chance it's toast, cosmetically speaking.

it seems to be cleaning up fairly well [thank goodness the scales are stabilized], but we'll see how it comes out.

[your_comforting_company]

I think it adds character.
If there are any oak trees down around you, you can cook up a liquor from the bark to black the blade and you might also consider using pickling lime to neutralize any that soaked into it.

[crashdive123]

Looks like you might be in for a bit of hand sanding.

[canid]

more than a bit, this stuff is a royal PITA to get smooth. at least it takes a pretty low luster finish, so it doesn't take as much polishing.

the discoloration has permeated some residual voids in the grain of the scales. it doesn't look bad, but now i wonder if i should abuse the rest of the handle wood and sand it down, so that it all matches. that might actually look good.

[canid]

I'm taking a couple of these knives by a local sporting shop to see if they'll sell them for me.

[crashdive123]

Good luck!

[panch0]

I am sure they will take them and they will sell quickly. Good luck!

[canid]

i'm not doing much knife work at the moment, owing to other projects, but i have been playing around with a couple handles in the puukko style.

i thought i'd show one.

glued up some thin cherry to two small pieces of padauk, and shaped a piece of slightly figured walnut:
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and cut two pieces of antler down to form the bulk of the handle:
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glued them up and began to shape:
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and this is more or less the contour i'm going for, or possibly brought even narrower towards the front, with a less pronounced flare:
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i think it could use some wrought iron plate for a butt and bolster cap. i don't have a blade to go with it at the moment.

[canid]

i'm working on another with antler, padauk, koa and metal spacers [i'd like to find some nickel, but i'll go with anything light colored and lustrous.

as soon as i can rip some board from this walnut, some of it has some mild spalting [or whatever a more suitable term is for the spalting like effect that walnut gets in it's heartwood] and one side of the half-round is a bit curly/birdseyed. all in all, not staggeringly figured, but not too ugly either. i look forward to working some handles and scales wtih it.

[crashdive123]

That is awesome. It sure will make a dandy looking knife.

[Erratus Animus]

I like that handle as well.

[canid]

bah. i'm restoring a sword for a good friend's wedding this morning, and at the moment i'm hand stitching a sheath. now i know why you can't even get Taiwanese kids to do this without a machine.

[Erratus Animus]

bah. i'm restoring a sword for a good friend's wedding this morning, and at the moment i'm hand stitching a sheath. now i know why you can't even get Taiwanese kids to do this without a machine.

I have those moments. I fudged a bit when I said I cant make a sheath. More like I wont lol.

[crashdive123]

Canid - what ever happened with the draw knife?