Rob Bayley DB Knife... Progress Thread

[JonathanD]

I'm a big fan of Robs knives. His modern designs and unique style is very distinctive and continues through all of his range and custom models that he makes. I happen to like his original S4 with plain edge and the Compact Raven models, which are small, flat, yet surprisingly hand filling and really comfortable in use.

I've wanted his take on my knife for a couple of years now, but with his own unique style playing a major part in the design, specifically the Compact Raven.

Rob was great and sent me loads of different drawings and versions of the theme. It was quite difficult to get the lines of the thumb ramp to compliment the modern clean lines of the Raven. The first take on it seemed too organic and curvy for our liking, and to me looked too Nessmukky...

In the end we settled on this one, which is pretty much one of the original drawing Rob did for me with a few subtle changes....

Rob has cleverly incorporated a double thumb ramp which allows for more control options when using two handed push cuts. This never occured to me before and it looks great.

I'll update the thread with progress pics as I don't believe anyone has done that with Robs knives before. The first one is the cut blank....

 

[ex-member Raikey]

ooh am gonna keep an eye on this one,..

it looks lush already,...

 

[Ph34r]

Looking awesome. Do you still plan to use your DB as main or will you switch to DR when it comes?

 

[JonathanD]

The knife Stu makes for me is as near to perfect as I could ever get for my everyday-epic-adventures-in-the-wilderness and will never be replaced as my main user. Robs knife will certainly see a lot of use, but I wanted one of his knives more because of his own unique design style, that's why it's not an all out copy of the DB.

 

[Mesquite]

Interesting JD.

Just wondering on the thumb point having that little ridge just on the bolster will be a tad annoying? My own personal choice would be to do away with that and have a smooth line all the way through the same as your DB.

 

[JonathanD]

Interesting JD.

Just wondering on the thumb point having that little ridge just on the bolster will be a tad annoying? My own personal choice would be to do away with that and have a smooth line all the way through the same as your DB.

I know what you mean. I tried it out with some card mock-ups and it worked just fine. It's difficult to explain how I use the ramp without showing you, but the bump works for me. I use it more as a forefinger crook too, so the double ramp and bump actually improves the control and locks the knife into my grip even more. It wouldn't work so well on the my original knife as it is much longer in the blade and handle, but it works well on the Ravens compact design.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Couldn't you just get SM to make a DB a bit shorter so it is effectively a DR? Then RB wouldn't have to make a DR which just looks like a stunted DB. IMHO.
MNO more acronyms I can think of.

 

[JonathanD]

Couldn't you just get SM to make a DB a bit shorter so it is effectively a DR? Then RB wouldn't have to make a DR which just looks like a stunted DB. IMHO.
MNO more acronyms I can think of.

Now you see BB, the RB/DR is completely different from the SM/DB, so SM couldn't make a DR as there is more to it than just a shortened DB, a shortened DB would look like a shortened DB made by SM. What I wanted was a RB/CR with a hint of DB in the design, therefore a CR/DB hybrid... the RB/DR. JD.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Now you see BB, the RB/DR is completely different from the SM/DB, so SM couldn't make a DR as there is more to it than just a shortened DB, a shortened DB would look like a shortened DB made by SM. What I wanted was a RB/CR with a hint of DB in the design, therefore a CR/DB hybrid... the RB/DR. JD.

AHHH makes much more sense now.Ta JD. If you hadn't of explained it, I'd have just thought the DR was a smaller DB.
It doesn't look very sharp.

 

[JonathanD]

AHHH makes much more sense now.Ta JD. If you hadn't of explained it, I'd have just thought the DR was a smaller DB.
It doesn't look very sharp.

.... unlike my wit!!!!

 

[JonathanD]

Amazingly Rob has been working on this over Christmas, and here are the results so far:

Blank ground...

Parts machined and all ready for assembly. Rob makes all these in house himself...

Slabs on and rough ground...

 

[Robbi]

now that looks stunning !

one day when i'm rich and famous, i'll have one of his knives !!

 

[SimonM]

Nice...looks like it will be a good user.

Simon

 

[JonathanD]

As for the sheath. I was going with the BG style one like this...

But decided that the fully stitched version looks neater (the knife in this pic is the Saxon)....

 

[luckylee]

mate that is looking amazing, can't wait to see that finished, what a blade, i can see this getting very popular indeed.

 

[Mesquite]

It's looking good JD

 

[Stew]

Nice!

I think your double ramp will be fine as long as the junction isn't too sharp. The first one was definitely too curvy!

He takes good pictures too!

 

[bb07]

Now you see BB, the RB/DR is completely different from the SM/DB, so SM couldn't make a DR as there is more to it than just a shortened DB, a shortened DB would look like a shortened DB made by SM. What I wanted was a RB/CR with a hint of DB in the design, therefore a CR/DB hybrid... the RB/DR. JD.

My head is starting to hurt.....

 

[ex-member Raikey]

yum yum,...

Stu

 

[JonathanD]

Nice!

I think your double ramp will be fine as long as the junction isn't too sharp. The first one was definitely too curvy!

He takes good pictures too!

Yeah, the first one was way too curvy. That was my fault.

I'm confident the double ramp will be fine. In fact I think it will work better than the single one. We shall see.