critique knife!

[bluegrass in ga]

Just finished this one up today. This particular knife will get passed around to a few Mastersmiths and Journeymansmiths just so they can beat me over the head with all the things I didn't do right on it! :bounce: I'm actually looking forward to the beating, I just love soaking up knowledge and wisdom from better and more experienced knife makers than myself. Afterwards, I'll wrap it in leather and either auction it off or sell it so that all the proceeds can go to our new church campagne, right now we meet in Allatoona high school. I'm hoping to do 4 knives a year in hopes that they will help contibute even a little in establishing a church and more importantly furthering the Gospel. As always, thank you for looking. Danny
Blade: forged 1084/ hand satin finish
guard: 416 ss
handle: dyed curley maple

 

[Gahagan]

I think it looks great.

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

And what would we critique? Meaning, pointing out the negative...there is nothing visable in the pics that i can see that isn't perfect! Did you solder the guard, if so it's about the best soldering I've ever seen, beautiful blade! Seriously, it's very nice, Rex

 

[bluegrass in ga]

Thanks guys. Rex, I press fit my guards and fill in the back with jb weld then smooth out around the guard in the front. Danny

 

[J. Doyle]

HI Danny. Since you asked I'll tell you what I think, for whatever that's worth which isn't much.

First what I like:

The knife has great lines and profile. The handle looks well done and definitely not blocky or chunky. The blade has a nice practical shape with what appears to be a very good hand sanded finish. Nice guard fit up. All around a great looking knife.

My critiques: only a couple and very minor and maybe as much personal preference as they are a right vs. wrong issue.

My eye keeps getting drawn to the ricasso to blade edge transition. I don't think I like how the edge drops straight down to the heel of the cutting edge. Maybe a more rounded heel or an angled drop would make a cleaner look?

The guard point, or the actual quillion part of the guard looks thick and chunky and maybe a bit short. Hard to tell from pics but there might also be just a bit of a "flow" problem in the transition from the handle into the curved part of the guard. Often a problem area for many, myself included.

I might like to see a false edge or clip on the top of the knife.

Again these are very minor and maybe are just my preferences. Great looking blade just the same with very nice craftsmanship. I hope no offense is taken.

John

 

[bluegrass in ga]

Thanks for the critique J. This is my first attempt at a JS presentation knife, so I'm definitly looking for some honesty. I hope to learn alot and keep movin forward. Danny

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

Thanks guys. Rex, I press fit my guards and fill in the back with jb weld then smooth out around the guard in the front. Danny

Danny , Can you explain, "Smooth out the front of the guard", I love the press fit, tedious but all guards are!

 

[McClellan Made Blades]

HI Danny. Since you asked I'll tell you what I think, for whatever that's worth which isn't much.

First what I like:

The knife has great lines and profile. The handle looks well done and definitely not blocky or chunky. The blade has a nice practical shape with what appears to be a very good hand sanded finish. Nice guard fit up. All around a great looking knife.

My critiques: only a couple and very minor and maybe as much personal preference as they are a right vs. wrong issue.

My eye keeps getting drawn to the ricasso to blade edge transition. I don't think I like how the edge drops straight down to the heel of the cutting edge. Maybe a more rounded heel or an angled drop would make a cleaner look?

The guard point, or the actual quillion part of the guard looks thick and chunky and maybe a bit short. Hard to tell from pics but there might also be just a bit of a "flow" problem in the transition from the handle into the curved part of the guard. Often a problem area for many, myself included.

I might like to see a false edge or clip on the top of the knife.

Again these are very minor and maybe are just my preferences. Great looking blade just the same with very nice craftsmanship. I hope no offense is taken.

John

I partly agree with John here, well with the clip, or flalse edge, that would look pretty sweet on this blade, as for the heel of the cutting edge, I've seen that on several knives lately especially when they do a deep grind, now I don't know if that's a new thing or something I never noticed until here lately, I generally round that area on mine, because my blades are curvatious! And a straight line anywhere on mine would stick out unless it had a utilitarian reason for being straight. I think the lines on this one flows very nicely.

John, could you better explain what you mean about,

"The guard point, or the actual quillion part of the guard looks thick and chunky and maybe a bit short. Hard to tell from pics but there might also be just a bit of a "flow" problem in the transition from the handle into the curved part of the guard. Often a problem area for many, myself included."

I know we are dealing with pics here but I see a chance to learn something here, Thanks Bud, Rex
Danny, Do not change anything, this is for discusson only, we all learn from each other in the DAWG POUND! I still love this knife!

 

[J. Doyle]

John, could you better explain what you mean about,

"The guard point, or the actual quillion part of the guard looks thick and chunky and maybe a bit short. Hard to tell from pics but there might also be just a bit of a "flow" problem in the transition from the handle into the curved part of the guard. Often a problem area for many, myself included."

I'll do my best. I'll use two of my own pictures as examples. Also I would like to note that the suggestions I made were based on my own experiences when I had my own knives critiques as I struggled with the same issues.

Also, I'm not using this to say that my knives are perfect and above critique because they are not. The pics here are strictly visual aids only. And if anyone wants to critique, by all means feel free to do so please.

First, I'll address this part: "The guard point, or the actual quillion part of the guard looks thick and chunky...

In the picture below, #1 in red is the area I'm talking about, notice that the point of the guard, also called the quillion is really thin. This helps keep things looking sleek and not chunky and adds to the overall balance and flow of the guard.

Next #2 in the photo below deals with this ...there might also be just a bit of a "flow" problem in the transition from the handle into the curved part of the guard...

It is often difficult to make a smooth flowing and seamless transition in this area as when grinding and sanding the wood handle wants to sand away faster than the metal of the guard. This leaves a dished out area in the handle that can be seen and felt. It disrupts the flow of the knife and the feel of a seamless fit. I don't know for sure that he has that going on as it's difficult to tell from the pics but my picture at least explains what I'm talking about.

In the next photo, you can see what myself and many others do to combat the problem of the wood sanding away faster than the guard material and that is to intentionally leave the wood of the handle proud, that is sticking up evenly all the way around the guard. The trick here is to make it even and look like you've done it on purpose. This also helps negate any issues if the handle shrinks or expands a little down the road. This is a popular practice when using ivory as well.

I hope this helps clear up my meanings and my wordings.

 

[bluegrass in ga]

Alright,where to begin. I guess first for J. I absolutely see everything your talking about. In the transition area from the ricasso to the handle, yes, there is a little bit of a finger relief, so there is a small break in the handle which draws your eye to it. As where your handle has no finger relief so it flows straight through the guard and is even with the ricasso. I think my pics make it look worse than it really is. My guard is definitly not as thin as yours at the bottom, I will definitly consider that in the future. The bottom tip of the guard is .500 from the bottom of the blade. I'm not sure if there is a standard for this dimension, but if there is I would really like to know it. I'm not really sure why I made the back of the blade straight at the bottom, it just kinda came out that way, another point taken. As for the false edge, I do dig on em and I definitly like doing them, I just dont do every clip point blade I do. I usually do false edges on bigger blades, might have to give a shorter blade a try though. I think I covered everything, oh yea, thanks for all the feedback J.

Rex, my guard installs are a pass down from Ed Caffrey through Brad Singley. I'll do my best here without good visual aid. I taper my tangs from the back of the ricasso all the way to the tip, just like tapering a full tang knife. Then I mill a slot in my guard about 15 thousands smaller than the tang at the shoulders. Then I take a 1/4 mill and cut out almost all the slot, except about an 1/8 - 1/16 in the front. Now, you should be able to slide the guard almost all the way up against your shoulders. Put the blade in a vice, and with proper tooling, force the guard all the way down against the shoulders. Pull the guard off, clean it up. Re- install the guard when ready, I usually fill in the back with jb weld when final installing the guard, which usually causes some squeeze out on the front of the guard, I take q tips and wd-40 and wipe off all the excess squeeze out and then just smooth out around the front of the guard. I know it sounds confusing, pics are worth a thousand words, sorry I dont have any good ones. I'll insert a pic of one of my typical tangs and a better pic of a finished guard. Danny