These are my favorite days for working on knives. Here's what I came up with.
I got to glue up last night at 2:00 am. (A little) stormy again today so I finished it up and added the lanyard. This is my first whole knife, except for heat treat. This was a circ saw blade with tons of rust pits. But I was itching to do something and I am away from my home and own shop. But I have a little bit set up here. All I used were hand tools except for an electric drill only because I couldn't get a hole forged through the tang for pins.
I incorporated the original diamond shape from the center of the old saw blade and used it as a finger guard and place to push for the forward "gut hook." At the back of the handle are saw teeth under a little brown epoxy I might file out and shape into the handle if she holds a decent edge. I like the handle up and away from where the edge would meet anything and especially up off the table. But I think the hook near the front finger guard is going to catch on everything. I can cut that off though along with the "forward gut hook" and still end up with a more traditional profile.
It's rough (intentionally) but the handle held some surprises. It's alder and as I was sanding it the red behind the bark started popping out and added a unique touch to the ugly blade. With some cooking oil rubbed in it really shined. I like the colors and want to experiment with the blade shape for quick field dressing in a couple of days. Overall rough and rustic looking with some pretty cool embelishments. Can't wait to try it.
It was fun to get away from the whole heat treat puzzle for a minute and just let the creative juices flow again. Hope the blade shape catches some interest, while probably not something I'll do regularly.
I got to glue up last night at 2:00 am. (A little) stormy again today so I finished it up and added the lanyard. This is my first whole knife, except for heat treat. This was a circ saw blade with tons of rust pits. But I was itching to do something and I am away from my home and own shop. But I have a little bit set up here. All I used were hand tools except for an electric drill only because I couldn't get a hole forged through the tang for pins.
I incorporated the original diamond shape from the center of the old saw blade and used it as a finger guard and place to push for the forward "gut hook." At the back of the handle are saw teeth under a little brown epoxy I might file out and shape into the handle if she holds a decent edge. I like the handle up and away from where the edge would meet anything and especially up off the table. But I think the hook near the front finger guard is going to catch on everything. I can cut that off though along with the "forward gut hook" and still end up with a more traditional profile.
It's rough (intentionally) but the handle held some surprises. It's alder and as I was sanding it the red behind the bark started popping out and added a unique touch to the ugly blade. With some cooking oil rubbed in it really shined. I like the colors and want to experiment with the blade shape for quick field dressing in a couple of days. Overall rough and rustic looking with some pretty cool embelishments. Can't wait to try it.
It was fun to get away from the whole heat treat puzzle for a minute and just let the creative juices flow again. Hope the blade shape catches some interest, while probably not something I'll do regularly.
