F1 Blank

[leon-1]

Well, this is a first attempt at making a knife (well not really as I did not make the blade), the Scales are Striped Ebony with a black vulcanised fibre as a spacer and it has Nickel Silver Mosaic pins. It still isn't finished as it requires sealing and polishing so it still looks a bit rough (it actually looks rougher in the picture than it does in life) and then I can get the sheath for it made.

If anyone has any pointers for making the sheath (mainly wetforming), it would be appreciated if you can post them. Likewise if you have any points on the knife itself I would like to hear them.

I chose the F1 blank because the F1 is a bombproof knife in my opinion and I wanted one which would be personalised to me. The Ebony was a whim as I have Desert ironwood, Zebrawood and cocobolo sat here at home, but I thought that the Nickel Silver pins would look nice with it.

The balance of the knife is right back in the hand which should give me a reasonable control when using it.

The only powered tool that was used on this was a cordless drill for putting the holes in the Ebony scales, the rest has been done with a sanding block and some warding files (not the correct tools for the job, but they are what I had to hand).

EDIT: I forgot the saws firstly was my Opinel folding saw (used to split the block of Ebony and do the initial trimming) and secondly was a junior Hacksaw used on the mosaic pins.

 

[TheViking]

That's an amazingly good looking knife leon! I really like it. :biggthump

 

[hootchi]

Looks delicious chap. Well done. :biggthump

There's something scandi about it...

 

[leon-1]

Andy you should see the pictures of it when it just had a couple of lumps of wood resined to the sides, it was laughable

 

[leon-1]

Looks delicious chap. Well done. :biggthump

There's something scandi about it...

Cheers Hootchi, that was the effect that I was trying to get, the handle itself is more or less barrel shaped with a bit of contouring, If people are interested I can put up other pictures of it up when it is finished.

I wish I had got more than the ones I have whilst I was constructing it

 

[Andy]

I really like it.

I think the F1 would be a perfect knife if only the handle was a little more rounded. Your way would let me do that

So you have pics of it in the making that your not sharing with us. This just isn't on

 

[Adi007]

Brilliant work! :biggthump :You_Rock_

 

[peterkm]

Great project - inspiring!!!
Where can you buy the blanks and how much are they?

 

[leon-1]

I really like it.

I think the F1 would be a perfect knife if only the handle was a little more rounded. Your way would let me do that

So you have pics of it in the making that your not sharing with us. This just isn't on

Andy the majority of the pictures are after I have finished specific stages, If you want to see them I will post them , but I intend on doing another one in the next couple of months and will take more pictures and put in more detail as to what was used (lessons learnt from this one included) ): .

On the sanding side of life for this knife I have worked from 40 grit upto 2500 grit and to be honest whilst I was doing that you don't really miss out on much. I now have a rasp and am thinking about a pillar drill to make life easier, but apart from that I will probably do most things the same.

My next major problem is the sheath since snufkin has given me some tips on finishing the knife :biggthump

Also there will be the boat knife coming, so that will be a little away from standard since I have plans for that ):

 

[Brian]

Very, very nice mate.

Brian

 

[leon-1]

Great project - inspiring!!!
Where can you buy the blanks and how much are they?

Peter, you can get blanks from Trek Direct and Outdoor Supplies (they appear to be the cheapest), but you will be looking at a minimum of £55 if I recall correctly (that's after postage). You will get good service from both companys (I have used both for other things before now).

I only know of one place to get mosaic pins from and that is Brisa, but I know there are other guys on here that will be able to tell you others. There is even a thread on British Blades where one of the guys makes his own, Martyn put a lot of good information into that thread.

This one was a first attempt so it is still a little rough around the edges and I have learnt a lot from making it, so the next one will be better

 

[Adi007]

Wow! F1 blanks cost nearly the same as a complete one with handle! I guess with Fallkniven looking for a buyer they are apt to become rare too now.

 

[leon-1]

rb asked if I could put up a more deatiled shot of the mosaic pins and the handle profile so here are a couple

in the last one you can see what I mean about the finish being a bit rough allthough it does show that I matched the grain pretty well

The next one that I do the tang will be fully finished before the slabs are attached.

 

[Hoodoo]

Nice work! Those pins are gorgeous! :biggthump

 

[leon-1]

Nice work! Those pins are gorgeous! :biggthump

Thanks Hoodoo, I cheated a bit with the pins as they were slightly too large for the holes in the tang, so I fitted them into the bit on the drill wrapped them in wet 'n' dry and clamped my fingers around the outside and hey presto thinner pins.

Then to fit them, as they were a very tight fit, I once again used the drill to effectively screw them into the scales and through the tang, I had already resined the holes thouroughly so they got a nice even coating as they went through.

I cant take credit for the pin design as I didn't get a choice in what the design for the pins was, I just asked for Nickel silver pins and this is what Dennis sent (thanks Dennis they are spot on).

 

[leon-1]

Wow! F1 blanks cost nearly the same as a complete one with handle! I guess with Fallkniven looking for a buyer they are apt to become rare too now.

Neil1 and I were talking about this, we think the extra cost may be due to the F1 blank being both a laminate and the fact that there is slightly more steel.

The NL knives that Fallkniven make are laminates and cost considerably more was one of the reasons that we came up with, the other was that the tang on the production model is smaller than it is on the blank (not as deep from the spine down). I am not sure if this really justifies the cost, but they were the only reasons that we could see

 

[Snufkin]

As regards the price, F1's usually come with a thermorun handle, that can't cost more than a couple of pence to make and put on. And their sheaths, while perfectly functional, are hardly works of art.

 

[rapidboy]

Really nice pin's and matching the grain shows real attention to detail ,(I have expensive ,hand made custom knives that are let down by mismatched scale material).

I was trying to buy some blanks from the US and they should work out cheaper but the recent news about Falkniven has made the seller get a little funny and i think he going to back out in case the blades get really collectable. :roll:

 

[leon-1]

rb, the mismatching of scales was something that I have seen also, that was why I bought the block and split it myself.

You also get a large ammount of satisfaction when it all comes together. The grain on this matches at the front of the handle near the ricasso, across the spine and at the butt of the knife. Sick as it may sound I got a certain satisfaction out of getting this aligned ):

I will make another one, but on that one the finish will be better, all I need to do now is get some more money for it as a project and a couple of bits for tooling. I may get a belt sander and make a jig for it and I will get more photos of the next one in construction phase.

 

[Tvividr]

Very nice work leon !
RB there should be no problems getting the blade blanks yet. At least that is what my distributor (here in Norway) told me some weeks back when I bought my last batch of blades.