New knives and new designs WIP ( 1/?)

Hi all,

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! 

Family photo after initial grinds. From left to right - puukko, Canadian belt knife, and gentleman's knife. The Canadian belt knives have not been finished grinding as I planned to make them convex for optimal strength and cutting performance.

Canadian belt knives after slack belt grinding to blend the half height grind and hand finishing . I used sand paper on a foam rubber backing to blend any remaining flats . Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of this process as I only have two hands- but it was quite an interesting learning experience. I'll be doing more experimentation with convex grinds but I can definitely see myself doing more of them for heavier use knives.

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!