My knife builds

[rifletuner]

I have posted a few of my knives in the past, but thought I would start a thread to keep all my builds together.

This one is pretty different design to anything I have done before. Its inspired by a guy on another forum who had something like this custom made for slicing ribs of pig carcases. The design intrigued me, so I decided to make a version of it for myself. Its designed to be gripped with both hands if required, but I can easily work with it in one hand.

Towards the end of 2020, covid related shortages were starting to hit and some knife steels were in pretty short supply here in Australia and I grabbed a length of what was available at the time, thinking it might be my only chance for a while. So I ended up with a meter of 5.25mm CPM 3V. Then I realised the knife I was planning to make was a bit beyond me at that point, and the steel sat around unused for around 18 months.

To use some of the 3V up, I thought this project might be just the thing. I have never used 3V before, and boy was this build an experience. Its extremely abrasion resistant, and it really shows in several steps in the making process. I assumed it would be similar to the stainless steels I normally work with, but in hind sight, I should have done a lot more finishing work pre heat treat. Because once this was hardened, I found it has been VERY difficult hand sand.

The blade is a full flat grind, with the normal distal taper on the blade. Since the steel is so thick, I tapered the tang to take a bit of weight out of the back end and help the balance of the knife. That leaves just a small section towards the centre of the knife where the handle meets the blade which is the full 5.25mm thickness. It worked out pretty well I think, as the balance feels good. Handle material is black micarta with red G10 liners and brass Corby bolts, so it should be pretty solid. Because it is intended to chop through bone in processing animals, I only took the edge down to 1mm thickness which should be pretty durable.

The last photo shows the sanded finish on the blade which has the scratches much more visible than would normally be the case when I finish a knife. I tried for 2 days to sand the bevel to an 800 grit finish, but in the end I conceded defeat and just gave up. Even when I put an edge on the knife it was harder than normal. I will usually start grinding the secondary bevel with either 240 grit, or 400 grit. For this one, I started with a 120 grit belt, but after 20 passes on each side, it was barely making an impact. I had to go to a 60 grit ceramic belt just to get the edge started. But that did the job, and its come up with a pretty nice edge.

 

[Louro]

Cool, looking knife.

 

[supernova35]

Beautiful, any other pics of your work?

 

[rifletuner]

Beautiful, any other pics of your work?

Definitely more to come

 

[rifletuner]

This one is inspired by the Half Face Blades Crow Scout. Full tang, flat grind blade in 3.8mm Elmax. Handle is camo G10, with G10 pins and carbon fiber lanyard tube. I still need to make a kydex sheath and sharpen the edge, but otherwise its done.

 

[rifletuner]

This is my first try at a chefs knife. Pretty happy with how it came up. The knife is NitroV steel, with G10 handles and G10 liners & pins. I ended up just grinding a full flat bevel going to a zero edge, so will see how it performs on food prep. It should slice pretty well.

I made it with 4mm steel and as a full tang, so its a little heavier than a lot of custom chefs knives - they tend to use 2.5mm steel and make them as a hidden tang. But there is a lot of material removed from this one in the process, so the weight is pretty good I think. I gave this knife to my step mother for Christmas. She is a trained chef who has worked in the restaurants or catering her whole adult life, so it will be interesting to see how she likes it.

Sorry about the reflections in this photo. I could not find an angle for a good shot where I didnt have reflections of me or the camera on the blade.

 

[rifletuner]

This one is a full flat grind in Elmax steel with G10 liners & pins and a carbon fibre lanyard tube. Handle material is an Australian native wood called "bendee" which has a hand rubbed finish. Design of this knife is inspired by the Bark River Gunny Hunter. It has a few stuff-ups, but mostly happy with how it came out

 

[jonboy]

Good looking knives.

 

[Louro]

Nice looking knife. Keep up the good work.

 

[rifletuner]

Finished my second chefs knife. This is made from SF100, a UK steel somewhat like 12C27 and AEBL. This was from what I believe was the first batch of SE100 into Australia. It’s a popular steel with British knife makes, so I wanted to give it a try.

Between my son and I, we had 5 or so knives heat treated, and every one from that batch warped to a greater or lesser degree. I tried to hammer out the warps, but it just wouldn’t budge. So I spoke to a friend of mine about it, and he offered to take a look. In the end, my friend re-heat treated and retempered all the warped knives, plus did HT on 2 others my son made from the SF100 that I was worried about sending to my usual guy for HT.

Anyhow, this knife is a chefs knife from now straight SF100, with died and stabilised maple handle and black G10 liners and pins. The handle came up well, but it looked like I murdered a smurf on my grinding bench while I was doing the handle shaping. This is the first one I etched my makers mark into my self after I got an etching tool & stencils had made up.

 

[rifletuner]

This boning knife is the first one I have made in this style. Steel is 2.5mm Elmax with a flat grind. There is just a little flex in the blade because of the thinner steel. Handle is Richlite with G10 liners and pins.

 

[WBrim]

Those are great looking knives! Very cool to see.

 

[rifletuner]

Those are great looking knives! Very cool to see.

Thanks mate

 

[WBrim]

That second one in particular (similar to the half face blades) just looks great. I think I saw you’re not in the US? Do you make these to use yourself, or do you sell your work?

 

[rifletuner]

That second one in particular (similar to the half face blades) just looks great. I think I saw you’re not in the US? Do you make these to use yourself, or do you sell your work?

Hi mate. Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. Glad you like it.

Yes, I am in Australia. I am making these essentially as a hobby, but with the goal of getting to a standard that I am happy to take money from people for my work. For the last few years I have been giving them to people I know who hunt a lot to get feedback, or I use them myself. I want to hear how they perform as user knife whether its good or bad so that I can improve.

Send me a PM. I am happy to send you that knife if you dont mind paying postage. If you use it in the field, I would love to get photographs of the knife in use. Thats the best form of testing in my opinion.

 

[WBrim]

Hi mate. Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. Glad you like it.

Yes, I am in Australia. I am making these essentially as a hobby, but with the goal of getting to a standard that I am happy to take money from people for my work. For the last few years I have been giving them to people I know who hunt a lot to get feedback, or I use them myself. I want to hear how they perform as user knife whether its good or bad so that I can improve.

Send me a PM. I am happy to send you that knife if you dont mind paying postage. If you use it in the field, I would love to get photographs of the knife in use. Thats the best form of testing in my opinion.

That is incredibly generous of you! I would gladly take you up on that offer. PM incoming

 

[TxxAgg]

Wow those are pretty nice! Really like the first and third!

 

[rifletuner]

Wow those are pretty nice! Really like the first and third!

Thanks mate

 

[rifletuner]

This is my third chefs knife - all the same basic pattern. Its 3mm SF100 steel, with Richlight handles and G10 liners & pins. The tang is tapered back to about 1mm thick. I almost used brass pins and wish I did as the black G10 doesnt give a good contrast against the dark handle material. The bevel is ground to about .3mm before sharpening and came up very slicey.

 

[rifletuner]

I decided to try a Puukko style knife, but made it as a full tang knife rather than the traditional hidden tang style. I was planning for the grind to be a more traditional saber / scandi grind but buggered that up, so took it to a full flat grind. The plunge lines are a bit cocked up, but the handle is to short for me to move the grind back any further. So I will have to live with rubbish plunges. I am just going to carry it in my hunting pack for a while to see how it performs, so its only myself that I will be upsetting.

Its been a while since I cut out the shape, but pretty sure its S35VN steel, with black linen micarta handle and red G10 liners and pins. Also made a kydex sheath