Firesteels!

Hi all,

Somewhat of a delayed post, but for those who haven't seen my other site yet, I've been working on a batch of some firesteels, and have slowly getting completed. I will be experimenting with different handle materials, and this round it's canvas micarta, next batch I might put some of that denimite and hardwood to use. The stainless steel ones are also pretty fun to work with, much easier to crank out too. That said special attention needs to be made when choosing the alloy those. Don't use 304 stainless if you're doing anything that needs to be machined easily, don't ask how I know haha. All in all these have been a fun project, and I think I will be doing these more often in the future!

As it stands right now I have 1 micarta and 1 stainless steel one available from an order that fell through, but will be posting more as they are completed. To go with these I also done up a batch of hardened O1 strikers that double as scrapers, which in hindsight I think could be more compact, but are still very functional in throwing sparks. The most effective striker I feel would be the spine of a knife or saw, but in a pinch these are great and more effective.  It also has given me some ideas on upping the functionality, maybe making something along the lines of a simple kiridashi or woodworking striking knife to increase the functionality beyond scraping and as a striker, but those will be a later project .

Anyhow, here are some pics of the process and some finished products - enjoy! (more photos will be added soon)

  

Now in a variety of colours and flavours!

(not the best photo but the best I could do with my phone one handed)

Stainless firesteel with a prototype bottle-opener also in O1 and leather pocket sheath

New website!

I've decided to take the plunge into knife making as a hobby and will be starting my knife making operation Rain Owl Bushcraft! I'll be posting my personal projects here but when I have anything for sale that will be the place to go.

http://rainowlbushcraft.weebly.com/

Cheers and all the best,

Peter

First Commissioned Knives (4/4)

Finally all done my first batch of knives! I'm happy to say that this one probably has the best stitching on the sheath, so practice makes perfect! After much trial and error from past projects, I found using a stitching chisel to layout the spacing followed by drilling the holes on the drill press does help greatly with aligning the alignment. From here on out I'm going to be fulfilling some custom orders but  I'll try to work in personal projects when I can. Don't have too much else to say about it, so on with the pics!

First Commissioned Knives (3/4)

Hi all,

Just a quick update on the commissioned knives, haven't been able to work on them as often as I wanted due to work and job searching, but I'm making progress! I finally finished the third knife - probably the most complex of the set given that it has a matching ferro rod and kydex lined leather sheath, but I think it turned out well.  This time around I used the stitching chisel alone to punch the holes for sewing, I think that's the way to go for the best consistency in stitching.  Again, the steel is O1 and the handle materials are natural micarta and vulcanized fiber. Anyhow, enjoy the pics!

First commissioned knives (2/4)

Hey all,

Finally got around to finishing 2/4 of the knives done and delivered, and I'm glad to say that the recipients are really happy with their knives! I don't have too many pictures of the process as it's somewhat difficult to take pictures while your hands are full/ filthy. I'll need to figure something out something if I'm going to do a proper work in progress. The knives I finished were the small EDC blade in cocobolo and the denimite cheese knife, both of which I think turned out pretty well. I finished the handles to a high grit ( 2000+ for both) in order to bring out the character in the materials and finished them both with tung oil and paste wax. Both sheaths were done up in vegetable tanned leather. For spacing the stitches, I used a two pronged stitching chisel, which was a big improvement in consistency over the divider calipers that I have been using in the past, and have been using a diamond profile stitching awl to make the holes, that I found allowed for a more consistent and overall better product. The sheath for the EDC was a simple pancake style sheath. For the cheese knife, given that it had a somewhat unconventional shape to keep things compact I decided to draw from how japanese knife sayas were designed, hence the cocobolo retaining pin, which allowed for a very secure and snug fit in the sheath.

I braided some red cotton skein to tether the retention pin to the sheath so that it wouldn't get lost - not too sure if I would do that again - maybe try a different material?