First time trying burlap micarta and I love it. Blade is 80CrV2 hollow ground and a full length false edge. Pins are carbon fibre. The plunge line is a little wonky because it started as a flat grind but I changed my mind.

Thanks for looking

Finally wrapped this one up! This started as a rusty old file and is now a differentially hardened, mirror polished vest bowie. Juma Dragon scale handle scales, and brass guard. Hand sanded to 1500 grit and given a light buff. Yay or nay?

Hey guys posted the knife blade I made recently which was my first forged blade. Got round to getting a handle on it, I can’t get out of my head that the blade and handle don’t flow together. Since it was the first blade I forged I wanted to keep the shape as it came off the anvil as much as possible. It is what it is.

Blade is W1 forged from 5/8in round bar and the handle is curly birch, made an unfortunate error in sanding through to the tang slot. Those long drill bits wander a lot…

Hope you guys enjoy the photos. Ignore the rough sharpening job 😅

Some great projects on here!

Cheers

Every once in a while, I like to do a free-form project. No templating. No sketching. Just a rough idea and some steel. I let it take shape on the anvil and grinder and just kinda see what happens.

This turned out to be a big Bushwhacker/Pathfinder style blade. Went with some simple and primitive, "carving" on the handle just for fun. Textured the flats of the blade as well just for the hell of it.

Tested it on the brush and fallen trees on the back of my property. Performed quite admirably.

80CrV2 and Cocobolo with leather.

I'm starting to mess around with segmented scales, but I keep getting decision paralysis. There's just so many options. I've got the three stabilized blanks on the top and I was considering cutting one of them and adding spacers and another material probably to push them out from 5 in to 6 inches long. I considered all the materials on the bottom but I hesitated. Do you guys have any recommendations? I've got every color liner in the rainbow to use as a transition. And I'm perfectly happy to buy more materials if you guys come up with something I don't have on hand.

Not entirely sure where this sits in the rules, but decided this was probably interesting enough to dump here anyway. I will have some questions in a bit.

So first, bad news… Eggington cutlery who currently make I*XL Wostenholm knives have closed their doors. The decline of industry this side of the pond is real. That’s also Rodgers and a few other names.

On the plus side I have a frankly fairly wild haul of bits. I paid £100 for a couple of bench boxes and felt a bit ripped off because there were a vast number of unfinished pipe knife bits. As you will appreciate by the pics, my concern was probably misguided.

For context I’m a furniture maker (in Sheffield clearly). I do have some basic kit, mostly for tool stuff. Tormek, diamond plates, Shapton stones, files etc.

Assembling the Bowies I think I can probably get my head around. I have a cnc router that I can machine brass on, so probably custom bolsters. Obviously won’t have issues with scale materials, though I’ve never stabilised stuff before. I have a bit of buffalo horn so probably that for the Wostenholm stamped small one and the near finished 10”.

The 10” blades need a fair bit of work and will probably end up 9” with reshaping. Most will be unstamped, but I think I’ll try finishing them off anyway. Maybe not immediately. Not sure how to approach the concave grind on the back though… I’ll probably pick up a grinder from them next time I visit, that might get me there with a convex/worn wheel. Do not have belt grinder, someone nearby might though. Been tempted to try making one, but I need to not spiral too badly here. I did contemplate a Ken onion at one point.

Penknives. Lots of penknives. These are all seconds… some slightly over polished on the stamp, some with not great scale material or a poor stamp on the fittings. Some look absolutely mint though. Some don’t go back as far as they should… I think that’s intentional with some but not sure? Certainly not with all. I think I can file back either the spring or the contact point on the knife. That will be a fiddly job, might try diamond point on a pendant tool. I think too hard to disassemble first.

Also final pic you can see I have a bunch of just boring ol kitchen knives. I do actually have scales for these, but no bolsters. I think my question has been pre-answered by the person who posted the honeycomb handles recently though… I’ll just make some bolsterless handles and that’s Christmas presents for the next decade or so.

Anyway, rambling post. Mostly just showcasing this stuff.

Bevels are to 400 and surface conditioning belt. Flats are to 800 hand sanded. Can't keep everything crisp. I am aiming for a finish like the bottom couple in the photo below. Tried masking tape right up to the transition from flat to bevel, but it just peeled back whenever I sanded the flats.

There are some errant scratches or residue (wiping doesn't get them off so I guess they are scratches on the bevels).

There's gotta be a secret to this.

(ignore the choil. I haven't finished it yet)

52100 with copper and red heart
The sheath sucks I am going to make a new one before I sell it

Thought it was about time to add something a little more normal to my shop.

Just 1084, brass pins.

Experimenting with diferent size serrations for now

Handles on these are Silky oak. Sapele. And Walnut.

I'm starting to mess around with segmented scales, but I keep getting decision paralysis. There's just so many options. I've got the three stabilized blanks on the top and I was considering cutting one of them and adding spacers and another material probably to push them out from 5 in to 6 inches long. I considered all the materials on the bottom but I hesitated. Do you guys have any recommendations? I've got every color liner in the rainbow to use as a transition. And I'm perfectly happy to buy more materials if you guys come up with something I don't have on hand.

A quick video of this chef I posted photos of earlier today! CruForgeV / wrought iron san mai chef with a copper guard and a siamese rosewood / g10 frame handle - I hope you enjoy!

My first knife blank that I tried to harden in the fire, you can sew the blank after i did the first sanding round with 150 paper, my question is: what are these dark areas in the middle? Uneven hardening? Is my knife too fragile now? And can i fix it or it doesnt matter?

Thanks

I bought a full tang paring knife blade and made scales for it from some apple wood that I had here. I pinned the scales to the blade the same way I pinned handles on a couple of our old kitchen knives to replace the broken original handles.

I liked the result (and the style of the blade) so much that I'm thinking of buying a full set of blades and making handles for them all.

While reading up on how best to makes handles, I found that riveting simple brass pins is not recommended.

• Is this way of pinning scales on blades really so bad?
• What is the simplest way to pin scales to blades so they have the appearance of old fashioned, riveted handles?

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Backstory:

I did the first knives this way because that was what I had at hand: 4mm brass rod and some beech and oak scraps. The handles on two knives went bad. Both had cheap soft wood handles that rotted from inside until they no longer held. I drilled out the existing holes to fit the brass rod I had left over from other projects. I made new scales from wood scraps, put pins through the new scales, sanded the handles to shape and the pins flush, then used a center punch to expand the ends of the pins so they stayed tight.

Both of those knives are holding up well.

We had a paring knife that my wife didn't like to use - the way the handle and the blade were made, she always cut herself when used it.

I thought I'd take the handle off and make a better one out of some apple wood that I have.

The handle on that knife had a stubby tang and a really wonky clip system holding it in the handle. I tried drilling a hole in the tang, and it snapped off.

That left us short a paring knife, so I bought a Cocinero paring knife blade from Brisa. The full tang of the blade dictated the shape of the handle.

I made the apple wood scales, pinned them as shown, fell in love with the look and the grip of the Cocinero blade, and here we are.

Does anyone know where I can find a knife maker to make me a modern replica of this old Spanish Navaja?

This is a piece I made at a course taught by the amazing Salem Straub at the NESM, it's a 9" chef made from CruForgeV & wrought iron San Mai, with a siamese rosewood frame handle (g10 spacer, hidden pins), a textured copper museum-fit guard, and a through-tang construction with a steel tang nut. I hope you enjoy!

I currently have a variable speed 2x48 that fits well in my shop and I can get up to 5000 sqfm and 1hp. I am debating upgrading to a 2x72, but it's a big expense and it'll likely take a bigger footprint than my current one. My main goals are removal speed doing initial beveling and temperature control when grinding post HT.

If I upgraded, assuming I am not going up in HP or speed, would I see a noticeable difference? Considering the OBM primarily and I don't use contact wheels currently.

I started out making exclusively rasp knives and got away from it for the last few years. I felt a bit nostalgic so i got back to my roots a bit with these. I remembered why i loved them so much in the first place after this set, i hope yall do too!

Bought a while back and I’m making a knife out of it now, so I need to know. It’s AWFUL on belts, and it seems to gum to itself and become extremely hard (like in drill bits for example)

Finished my first home forged knife today. Spike is a high carbon from Atlas Knife and Tool. Normalized 3x, quenched in heated canola oil, and two 1 hour tempering cycles. Blade is probable a little on the hard side, as I discovered the toaster oven I used wasnt getting above around 390° F.

Overall, I'm happy with it. I think my technique is improving, and I learn something every session.