Big Recurve fighter craziness

Well with spare time and both my KITH knife and the poon/muk off at heat treat right now, i decided to do something i have wanted to play with for a while. I had some ideas for a fighter style knife and put pencil to paper last night. The knife was not originally drawn as a recurve but the more i ground the more i felt that it needed to be one. It actually feels a lot better in the hand that it looks like, and if you grab the two choils with your first two fingers it gives a very nice choked up grip. Gripping farther back with just your first finger in the one finger groove, the grip is more of a chopping style and the back swell and dip at the butt sits in the center of your palm. This one is 3/16 1084 and just under 11 inches long. Blade of just under 6 and handle right around 5 inches from plunge to butt. So far i am pretty pumped with the way my grind lines worked out on this one. As always any comments positive or negative are very much welcomed. I see that i have posted a few on the go projects at the same time, while working on them all, and hope this is ok. I dont want to clog things up but figured we have a small enough core group and low enough thread count that you guys may not mind. and everyone likes pictures of sharp or pointy things right . If this is a problem at all then just let me know Myth, i am fine with it if we have to consolidate them into one thread, or you would like me to post future knives under one thread, just adding new knives as i work. Whatever is best. Anyway, here is my latest WIP.



I may knock some of that hump off the handle later, but right now it still feels pretty good. Time and scales will tell.

 

Looks awesome Grayzer!!! I also think you should leave the hump in the handle gives the blade its own personality

 

Thanks Steve, I like the hump and plan to leave it as long as it is not uncomfortable once the handle is shaped.

 

I like the hump and would probably nickname this knife "the grizzly" just because of it's distinct hump. Keep up the good work and posting your WIP!

 

This knife is one that will never see scales or finishing now. I got it a bit too thin pre HT and the edge came back looking like fried bacon. Nobodys fault but my own, but after really looking at it, i am 99% sure there is no way to salvage it. I will keep the hardened black anyway as i may use it as a pattern later on.

 

Oh man that's to bad... How thin was it ground?

 

Way too thin lol. Probably 20 thou or so, maybe even thinner. I knew it was too thin but figured I would ht anyway and see what happened.

 

Sad Grayzer, if it makes you feel better I have two botched blades that were toasted too much and now make excellent templates!

 

Could you adjust your profile of the blade? Grind a little off the edge slow and easy with lots of water. A 1/4" would give you a lot of thickness at the edge.

If that will not work you could do what I do from time to time and pound the tar out of it.

 

That's funny Brad and reminds me of a knife I made and the friggin bolster's came loose and unfortuneatly for the bolster it was already a bad day for me. I beat the crap out of that poor bolster and later realized I actually liked the dimple look on brass !! never could do such a nice job on dimpling a bolster again if I tried !! anyone know the proper way

 

20thou is thin but I don't think it's to thin. The last couple I heat treated were at least that thin on the edge with a full flat grind and they turned out ok. Maybe by chance could have it been the heat treat or quench?

The bolster story reminds me of my Dads reaction to most stubborn things lol.

 

I would think 20 thou would be generous. It's 1084 and I have been told quite a few times not to get under 30 thou with 40 being better. I don't know the exact ht process used because it was sent out. I will have to mic it later and see what it actually is, but I know that the belly of it was damn near sharp. In reality even if it didn't warp I would have been down to full zero before I got the ht pitting and decarb off anyway.

 

Well I took Brads advice and carefully reprofiled the blade, taking about 3/16 off the edge, this thickened the edge up so once i went back to a 100 grit to skin off the decarb it all came out straight. The blade is a hair smaller that before but still seems good. The only issue now is that somehow the odd shaped handle i designed doesnt fit even one piece of handle material i have in my stockpile. Of course hey lol.

 

Glad to hear you can save your blade Grayzer, I can't wait to see it finished

 

can you post a pic of what you have now Brandon ?

 

Glad to hear you could save it. I always feel sick when I have to scrap a blade after all that work

 

I will try to get a pic put up tonight of that one and a few others that i have on the go. Our Archery club has been setting up our local 3D shoot this week every day after work, so im basically never home before 9:30 or 10:00. The shoot is this weekend and for anyone in sask or manitoba that shoots.... I feel its one of the better ones in the province. Full 40 target course, with pretty much all new Reinhardt targets, tons of door prizes and large registration prizes and novelty shoots too.

 

sounds awesome Brandon, after meeting the other day I should have done my trip in reverse !! maybe next year I can make the shoot !