Spring is in the air and I'm making the most of what time I can get in the shop! These will be my first offerings through my site and are designs that I've been wanting to do for quite some time. Not too much different from other knife WIP's that I've posted , with the exception being that these were all done with my new grinder and I've been experimenting with some different grinds. The designs that I chose to make this time around were a puukko , Canadian belt knife, and a different take on the city knives I've worked on in the past ( doesn't need too much explanation).
The puukko is a very utilitarian design from Scandinavia that uses a zero edge bevel, which essentially means that there is no secondary bevel resulting in a very keen edge well suited for wood carving tasks and easy sharpening. The only tradeoff is that the edge is more fragile than other grinds with a secondary bevel or convex grind, and has reduced slicing ability in tasks such as food preparation.
The Canadian belt knife is a relatively recent design created by Rudolph Grohmann for D.H. Russell Knives originally based in Toronto in the 1950's and one of the few designs that originated in Canada. I was attracted to this design due to it's unique look designed for ergonomics. Its offset handle allows for a positive grip that prevents slippage forward and a substantial belly for hunting tasks. My take on this design has a much beefier handle than those currently produced by Grohmann knives to allow to fill the hand better and to make it proportional to the larger blade (5") to allow for some heavier uses such as light wood prep.
I'll let the pictures do the talking, but this batch has been quite fun in taking advantage of the capabilities of a proper 2x72 grinder - and I hope to get more batches done in the future!
Laying out profiles on 1/8" O1 barstock |
Rough profiling with a hacksaw ( and drill press in tight areas) |
Center punching drilling locations |
Cleaning up profiles using an 80 grit belt. |
Temporary angle guide for scandi edges - this one is made of pine but I'll be making a more permanent one in the future - probably out of aluminum or steel. |
First scandi grind - success! |
The next steps will be heat treatment and building the handles, then making the sheathes. I'm still in the process of deciding which materials to use, but will likely be using a combination of micarta and durable hardwoods like osage or African blackwood, we'll find out later.
Stay tuned for more!
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