My Dave Budd 'British' knife

[Albus Culter]

My new Dave Budd knife

I was inspired by the knife making competition to get a blade from Dave and make up a knife. I'd like to thank Dave as he was such a pleasure to deal with and really helpful.

Hears my blade as received from Dave.

I'd asked for a stick tang little neck/whittler blade and I wanted the BCUK logo I had seen on another of his blades. Lets just say I'm very happy with it (understatement).

I decided I wanted to make a British knife to do Dave's blade justice. As such the wood is Hazel Burr and the bolster and spacer are Red Deer antler pieces. As spacers I've used some scraps of veg tan leather. I also wanted to try and pin the wood (which I've never tried before) so used some 4mm brass rod.

The wood drilled. The spacers and antler cut. I had to drill the tang for the pins. This was not an easy job. One ruined cobalt drill bit later and the job was done

All assembled and clamped up with lots of epoxy

Rough shape cut out

Lots of shaping and sanding later and I'm happy with it

And the finished knife. A coat of oil to bring out the grain.

Again I'd like to thank Dave Budd for his great work and help. I'm really pleased with my finished knife. It needs a neck sheath now and I have a great little knife for walks in the woods and whittling a stick or two. It's also a great British knife. English Blacksmith, English Hazel and Scottish Red Deer. Not sure where the leather was made but you will have to let me off with that one.

Your thoughts and comments guys - and thanks for reading this far

 

[Dave]

I really like that. Unique, and the satisfaction of knowing you've got your own labour invested in it.

 

[Pignut]

Very nice work!

Sent from my GT-P3110 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Macaroon]

That's a stunner - really nice piece of hazel there and a lovely shape; you should be very pleased with that - Great stuff!.................atb mac

 

[Ed]

That's lovely

Ed

 

[kawasemi]

....and your sequenced photos are excellent for learning.

kawasemi

 

[Albus Culter]

Thanks guys for all the comments

 

[mountainm]

Lovely job

 

[Fatbob]

Really nice knife, love the grain in the Hazel

 

[Albus Culter]

Yeh, Hazel is not a wood I've come across used for knives before (I hope there's not a reason for that). There was quite a lot of soft wood in the large block I had so had to pick the piece I wanted out of the block.
However the burr swirl looks really good.

 

[Dave Budd]

Lovely work Glad you like the blade too. I've never tried hazel burl either, maybe I should get some cut this year and see how it seasons.

Is there any particular reasonyou wanted to pin a stick tang? Talk about making life difficult for yourself

Your leather may also be English. Where I buy mine from they tell me that the shoulders of 3.5mm veg are Beligum (or Dutch, I forget?) but the sides are English. I buy sides mostly

 

[Bartooon]

Lovely looking knife all round! As a complete numpty when it comes to this sort of thing, I can't work out how you cut out the slot for the tang to fit into so that you get a tight fit, especially when the hand-forged tang is not perfectly symmetrical.

Somebody please enlighten me?

 

[Niels]

That's one lovely knife you made there! I really like it. I like the handle shape too, it's very elegant.

 

[Bumbler]

Lovely pice of work there. Anyone would be proud to carry that one on the belt

 

[crosslandkelly]

Great job there. That Hazel burl is beautiful.

 

[ReamviThantos]

Great post, as noted above very good set of detailed sequential photos to educate. Love the knife and hope you are very pleased. Very nice job.

 

[copper_head]

Thats a real beauty, nice work .

 

[Elen Sentier]

Oh I do like that! What a beautiful piece of work. And I love that you have all British components, the piece of burl is especially gorgeous. A lovely compliment to Dave's forging

 

[Dreadhead]

great job there! youv certainly done the blade justice it looks the part

 

[Albus Culter]

Lovely work Glad you like the blade too. I've never tried hazel burl either, maybe I should get some cut this year and see how it seasons.

Is there any particular reasonyou wanted to pin a stick tang? Talk about making life difficult for yourself

Your leather may also be English. Where I buy mine from they tell me that the shoulders of 3.5mm veg are Beligum (or Dutch, I forget?) but the sides are English. I buy sides mostly

I've never pinned a tang before, but given its a hidden tang and the handle is sectioned, I wanted belt and braces to ensure it all stayed put. The cobalt tipped drill and the use of the pillar drill at work made decent work (by gods the blades hard) but as the drill broke through it tore the tip up. In future I know to have a suitable piece of mild steel under it to soften the exit. Again, thanks Dave for a great blade. I'm really glad you saw the post and liked what I've done with it.