I posted this on daily doings of a bushcrafter at Bushcraft USA and it was said I should post it as a thread, I thought that was a good Idea. So here it is on here too.
I've been wanting to make myself a bushcraft style knife for years. I finally bought a length of 4mm x 30mm x 500mm O1 tool steel of eBay and started.
So a couple of weeks ago I spent an hour or so shaping it to this point mainly using a hacksaw and files. I also used a bench grinder a little bit too.
That's where I got to last time, I only took one photo of it.
So I finally had a chance to get back to it yesterday.
I finished off the spine. Good old Trizact belt!
I drilled a couple of extra holes and a lanyard hole, although I'm not 100% sure I'm going to use it. I'm going to be using 2 3mm brass pins and good glue to mount the handle. If I do it'll be 6mm brass
I then started to shape the handle, I really like that Japanese saw, cuts through wood like butter!
All I intend to do is shape the front of the scales before gluing them on. I like a curved end to the handle, obviously you cant do that part once its glues and pinned.
Just like that.
Should be good, I like a thick handle. Thin handles make my palms hurt.
I do all this in my Mum's garage as I live in a flat and don't have one, I left my countersink at home, so I improvised with what I had to hand, my reduced shank 19mm drill bit. Worked a treat, bit of a hexagon shape, but really all it was for was to clean up the holes and wont be seen. I'd already used a 6mm drill bit to countersink the 3mm holes for the pins.
I then took it home and sanded it with some 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper with WD40 on it to clean it up a bit. Needs more but I'll do that later.
Feels Nice in hand
Those groves should fit my chunky fingers just about perfect, even if I do say so myself.
I didn't have a length in mind, just similar to my goto bushcraft knife the Enzo Trapper which is a fixed blade I love!
Next is to knock up a jig to file the bevels and that'll be the next step. I'm thinking something like a high scandi, almost a full flat, but not quite, something like 1cm from the top of the knife. I fully intend for this to be a user and as I want something to fill the gap between my scandi's and full flats. I saw the as a good time to have a go at making one.
Edit: I forgot to mention that that wood is recycled, its an off cut of my workbench I made a few months ago from old balance benches from a football club a mate works at, really good quality wood!
I'd used an off cut before as I made a little detail knife out of a blunt file, I just drilled a hole and put glue in and the blade, its a really grippy wood, especially with raw linseed oil on.
Useful little knife.
I've been wanting to make myself a bushcraft style knife for years. I finally bought a length of 4mm x 30mm x 500mm O1 tool steel of eBay and started.
So a couple of weeks ago I spent an hour or so shaping it to this point mainly using a hacksaw and files. I also used a bench grinder a little bit too.
That's where I got to last time, I only took one photo of it.
So I finally had a chance to get back to it yesterday.
I finished off the spine. Good old Trizact belt!
I drilled a couple of extra holes and a lanyard hole, although I'm not 100% sure I'm going to use it. I'm going to be using 2 3mm brass pins and good glue to mount the handle. If I do it'll be 6mm brass
I then started to shape the handle, I really like that Japanese saw, cuts through wood like butter!
All I intend to do is shape the front of the scales before gluing them on. I like a curved end to the handle, obviously you cant do that part once its glues and pinned.
Just like that.
Should be good, I like a thick handle. Thin handles make my palms hurt.
I do all this in my Mum's garage as I live in a flat and don't have one, I left my countersink at home, so I improvised with what I had to hand, my reduced shank 19mm drill bit. Worked a treat, bit of a hexagon shape, but really all it was for was to clean up the holes and wont be seen. I'd already used a 6mm drill bit to countersink the 3mm holes for the pins.
I then took it home and sanded it with some 600 grit wet and dry sandpaper with WD40 on it to clean it up a bit. Needs more but I'll do that later.
Feels Nice in hand
Those groves should fit my chunky fingers just about perfect, even if I do say so myself.
I didn't have a length in mind, just similar to my goto bushcraft knife the Enzo Trapper which is a fixed blade I love!
Next is to knock up a jig to file the bevels and that'll be the next step. I'm thinking something like a high scandi, almost a full flat, but not quite, something like 1cm from the top of the knife. I fully intend for this to be a user and as I want something to fill the gap between my scandi's and full flats. I saw the as a good time to have a go at making one.
Edit: I forgot to mention that that wood is recycled, its an off cut of my workbench I made a few months ago from old balance benches from a football club a mate works at, really good quality wood!
I'd used an off cut before as I made a little detail knife out of a blunt file, I just drilled a hole and put glue in and the blade, its a really grippy wood, especially with raw linseed oil on.
Useful little knife.
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