So, this is my second knife, ever. The handle is black walnut with red G10 spacer. Blade is 01. I heat treated and tempered the blade myself. I had it tested, afterwards, three times for HRC and the readings all fell between 48 and 52. I bevelled by hand file, with a guide. Made sure to draw file, to level/straighten the blade as much as possible. Also sanded the lower portion of the blade up to 2,000 grit, starting at 150. Used a home made metal sanding block. The larger surface of the blade was run on a belt sander at 400 grit. In retrospect I'm not sure that was a good choice on my part. Blade has a 25 degree cutting angle on it and is a lenght of 4.75 inches. Let me know what you all think. Thanks!
Nice job! I used (and still use) a lot of black walnut myself. I had so dang much of it. Awesome job on the blade, smooth as glass. One nit picky point (if i may) is, that i see in the middle pin hole there was some tear out. I used to get this all the time as well. It doesn't show up so bad until you start sanding and then it fills with metal filings and turns black (esp. after buffing or oiling). I would recommend using a backer block when drilling and to go through the wood nice and slow. It'll really help with the tear out. I still get it myself sometimes. I have always used wood for handles and rarely used stabilized wood at that. I've always just used small pieces that have been sitting for years in my shop to make sure they're as dry as possible. It's bitten me a couple of times. I just finished a micarta press a week or two ago and I intend on making some funky scale material. I want to experiment with all kinds of oddball stuff like thread and pot scrubbers, maybe steel wool knife handles? Anyway, great looking knife Ezra.
Pretty flashy, especially for a second knife!! If this is what number two looks like I can't wait to see what number ten will look like.
Actually they're mostly used for action figures. I found them on Amazon. Take a look: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003F256QI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Haha thanks! I truly appreciate that. Next up are skinning, and a few kitchen knives, as well as bbq. We'll see how it works out.
Thanks! I should've thought of placing a piece of wood underneath. Live and learn. Micarta press sounds very cool and a steel wool knife handle? That's so cool! I'd love to see that!
I'm not saying i can pull it off (i definitely talk bigger than i can walk) but I've read about scotch brite scrub pad micarta so i thought, hey.. steel wool! It may be very picky and uncomfortable, i dunno. I'll have to get some of those action figure arms.
It’s worth a shot I’d say! Someone asked if I’d make a knife like this for them. I hadn’t quoted a price to them yet but I figured it would take me between 12-15 hours to finish it, plus material, so I was going to quote $250. Too much? Thoughts? I literally have no idea.
I don't know that I'd feel comfortable giving advice like this. Don't get me wrong, i have all kinds of opinions (just ask my wife) but I think it really comes down to stuff that I don't know. Pardon me for saying so but, I don't know how much you can do in that kind of time or how good (i'm sure you're awesome but you see what i mean). Also, I don't know how much you value your own time. This is one that i think is very personal. I value my time highly. Not because i'm good at knife making. Actually the opposite. Because it takes me so long to do something and i know i'll have to give up so much of my "off" time doing it. I have to have my HBO time and time for all my other goofing off and projects. See what i mean? I think that those are some of the big factors. Otherwise, i certainly don't think $250 is too much for a custom knife. (i know, "what kind of help was that? right?" - sorry dude)
OK, this probably won't work for everyone, but I use a formula which factors in the total length of the knife for cost estimation. Based on a simple full tang, 1/8" x 1.5" carbon steel with with a micarta/synthetic handle I use $10 per inch. If the OAL is 10", then I start at $100 and go up depending on the upgrades. High-end stainless cutlery steel, I start a $15 per inch (for 3/32" x 2") stock. Exotic scales, stabilized wood, and mosaic pins and the like are up-charges. Most knives I make are about 12" OAL stainless steel, or $180 to start. Again some extras might be $40 for a stabilized wood block, $10 for brass, nickel silver, stainless etc. That puts an 8" (blade) chef's knife with a beautiful stabilized wood handle around $250. When someone asks "how much for a...?" I can give them an estimate right away. For all I know I may be selling for too little. However, I will assume that if I was selling for too much, I probably wouldn't have many knives on order at any given time. It's important to note that I am in no way making a lot of money from labour. This business is a labour of love. Everything dollar made goes back into supplies and I keep all of my receipts to prove I don't make a penny at the end of the year. Hopefully this is helpful. Dan
Very cool! Really appreciate the insight. Formula is a fairly efficient way to handle this. And fast! Thanks Dan!
LOL no worries. No need for apologies. I really appreciate all the help. I guess valuing time is a very large part of all of this. Like Dan I’m not in it to make a living. Mostly just a hobby for me too. I’ll figure it out though. I usually have YouTube going with all the bushcraft and home stead videos going. Myselfreliance is such a great channel to watch. Very calming.
For me, I put value on my time not because I'm good at knife making, I'm actually still in the basic stages of it all (though getting much better). But because I'm still a beginner, it means that my time IS still MORE valuable doing other things I'm better at (house reno's, woodworking etc.). It's an odd thing to think, i know but I need to assess the return on all my time investments only because I have so little of it for hobbies. I love knife making, don't get me wrong but - I will never make a living at it. I can't really envision the day I even sell one. I have been commissioned but really it's just friends and family being nice. I couldn't take their money. Maybe that's just me being a sucker. My advice has always been more from a "don't do what i did" angle. I've been addicted to YT lately. It's actually one of the time killers I was talking about : ) I love My Self Reliance. I'm so jealous of that land. Though I wouldn't want to be off grid during this heatwave (Ontario). I'd have never found the courage to even start knife making without Trollsky and even Dan's site was (is) incredibly helpful. These guys don't know how far reaching their influence is. (sniff... emotional moment there... : )
I "intentionally" made it so the WiFi in the house doesn't reach the shop. That way I spend more time in there doing and less time watching. For hands-on bushcrafting kind of stuff I subscribed to the Bushcraft Bartons channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/bushcraftbartons Another Canadian that doesn't have a problem being out in the snow and cold doing things. (Sorry for mentioning snow when you guys in the east are burning up.) Dan
Right now the biggest thing keeping from the shop is the temperature. Without AC in the shop, I was literally seeing stars from the heat over the weekend. I figured it was time to wait for a break in the heat at that point.
Ugh yeah, that weekend was brutal. I'm so glad it'll be the only time we see those temps this year (fingers crossed)!
