My friend making a knife (Finished)

[Niels]

A friend of mine felt inspired by the knives I make to have a go himself and I've been helping out.
He knows I post on here and wanted me to post some pics of his work so far. So if you have any tips or advice for him that would be great!





He's handled it with white leather, buffalo horn and yew. And the basic shape is almost done. The blade is a small(ish) stainless leuku.
Thanks for looking!

 

[Goatboy]

Hi Niels,

Well for a start you can see he's had a good teacher. Looks good neat work and the materials are nicely balanced from an aesthetic point of view. Did he decide on the materials and proportions of them?

Think he could be giving you a run for your money in a while

Excellent work, speaking of which are you working on anything at the moment?

 

[Albus Culter]

Very nice. Love the contrast of using buffalo horn rather than reindeer. A pair, leuku in buffalo and pukko in reindeer could be stunning

 

[Mesquite]

Very nice work there, it's going to look great with it's finished. You're a good teacher Niels

Only small criticism I have is the first bit of yew has a very nice divide between heart and sapwood which would have been nice to have continued into the second piece of yew.

 

[Niels]

Only small criticism I have is the first bit of yew has a very nice divide between heart and sapwood which would have been nice to have continued into the second piece of yew.

I can see what you mean. Good eye And thanks!

Hi Niels,

Well for a start you can see he's had a good teacher. Looks good neat work and the materials are nicely balanced from an aesthetic point of view. Did he decide on the materials and proportions of them?

Think he could be giving you a run for your money in a while

Excellent work, speaking of which are you working on anything at the moment?

He got the horn himself, the yew were off cuts doing nothing in my shed.

Only thing I'm working on now is getting my school diploma. Examinations here are in april.
If I pass this I will have the longest holiday of my life (about 12 weeks) before trying to get a degree in something.
Not sure what yet, I'm thinking about doing forestry or something. It's a really tough thing to decide on.

 

[Clouston98]

That's a great effort, have to try this myself sometime soon!

Did he use a belt sander or a file and sandpaper?

 

[Niels]

That's a great effort, have to try this myself sometime soon!

Did he use a belt sander or a file and sandpaper?

Belt sander. I always use files though as I don't own a belt sander. Files take longer but you have more time to discover mistakes which I often need
He is going to use sandpaper to clean it up though. Remember to wear a dust mask if you try this with yew.

 

[Dreadhead]

Some nice work there!

 

[Stew]

That looks like a stunning mix of materials.

 

[Goatboy]

Only thing I'm working on now is getting my school diploma. Examinations here are in april.
If I pass this I will have the longest holiday of my life (about 12 weeks) before trying to get a degree in something.
Not sure what yet, I'm thinking about doing forestry or something. It's a really tough thing to decide on.

I'll keep my fingers crossed on the exams but you seem bright and diligent enough to walk them. Good luck on the forestry, that was my career path, though time and circumstance have changed that. It's a great job which gave me a lot of satisfaction and good memories. Funny but we don't associated the Netherlands with forests but you have about 11% forest cover which is only just behind us in the UK. (One of my forest student chums got married to a Faroese girl and moved there - slight job change for him). Good luck with it all.

 

[HillBill]

Its coming along well, nice choice of materials. I agree with Steve regarding the yew, but its only an aesthetic thing so no biggie

 

[Niels]

I'll keep my fingers crossed on the exams but you seem bright and diligent enough to walk them. Good luck on the forestry, that was my career path, though time and circumstance have changed that. It's a great job which gave me a lot of satisfaction and good memories. Funny but we don't associated the Netherlands with forests but you have about 11% forest cover which is only just behind us in the UK. (One of my forest student chums got married to a Faroese girl and moved there - slight job change for him). Good luck with it all.

Thanks my friend. And thanks for the comments guys.

 

[Niels]

The knife is now finished. He's pretty happy with it, the only issue is that the black dust from the buffalo horn has gone into the white leather.
Which we should have expected. Any clever solutions to this are welcome.







I think he did a good job.

 

[HHazeldean]

Man that is stunning, love the way buffalo polishes up - that is really very nice work there. Is the sheath next then?

 

[Mesquite]

I think he did a good job.

No... he didn't do a good job at all...

He did a fantastic job with it. That is a really lovely looking knife and handle there and it's amazing that it's his first knife handle project.

You've got a new challenger chasing after you Niels

 

[Clouston98]

That is brilliant! Enough said .

 

[Goatboy]

That's a corker Niels!, you're friend must be happy indeed. I really like the little dimple in the horn just before the blade, a very pleasing shape.

 

[Two Socks]

That is great! When the handle is almost shinier than the blade you have done a good job polishing.