New knives and new designs WIP - Canadian Belt Knife ( 3/?)

Times are busy, but there's still always time for knife making! The scales and knives have been glued together and I've completed the first knife of the batch. There isn't too much that I have done differently from previous knives, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves - enjoy! 

Front of  scale shaped for gluing. From left to right - black canvas micarta, African blackwood, chatke viga, osage orange, natural canvas / black paper micarta.

Attaching scales

The first knife that I completed was the Canadian belt knife that a colleague of mine requested for a fathers day present. Below are some shots documenting the process.

Handle shaping on the 2x72" grinder. The wood is osage orange 

Finishing and sealing scales.

Starting the sheath - this is the first one piece sheath that I've done. 

Stitching the belt loop - extra care needs to be taken in sinking the stitching into the leather prevent the knife from cutting the thread.

Attaching the welt - in this case the welt needed to be built up near the handle to accommodate the handle thickness.

Alignment with finishing nails prior to gluing and stitching.

The whole package done! 

Backside of the completed sheath  sealed with leather conditioner and hot wax.

Latest Knife (sort of) + new stamp

Hi all,

Not exactly a new knife, as I had made two of these several months back and only got around to finishing off this one as of recent. Both are EDC (everyday carry) style pocket knives in 1/8" triple tempered O1 tool steel and micarta scales. I'm happy to say that I've improved between that knife and the last one with respect to leather work at the very least though (both sides of the stitching look the same)! I recently had a custom laser cut delrin makers stamp made by Jeff Mosby from Grey Ghost Graphics down in South Carolina, and I have to say I am very impressed by the turnaround time and quality of the piece, and it didn't break the bank!

A substantial hand stamp - it has surprising heft for a piece of plastic.

I'm amazed that this level of detail actually showed up - not sure if something this intricate can be machined

It's really rewarding to be able to sign your own work, and think it adds a great touch to the pieces. Not too much to show here aside from some finished pics and a few pictures of the process ( whatever I could take without getting grime all over my point and shoot).

Below are pictures of the one I worked on about 5 months ago:

And the most recent one:

(sorry about the grimy fingers)

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