Fillet knives in progress!

This is something I am trying. Working up 3 knives at once. So far they are shaped out and refined to near finish dimensions.
These are all AEBL stainless at 63 rockwell hardness. Length is 180 to 185mm.

 

Looking forward to the finished knives!

 

Nice!

 

Filet knives?

 

Yep, I had one order, and wanted one myself. So I thought I'd try doing a batch of three and see how it goes.
One will be ironwood, one oak (for me), and one may be ebony with nickel silver I am thinking, but that could change.
The order and mine will have sheaths for sure.
Below is the first short fillet I did with a sheath, so something like that sheath for these larger knives.

 

Work in progress on these fillet knives. Rough grinding done and just started to refine them at 80 grit. They have decent tip flex at this point. 120 then 220 grit to finish refining the geometry and final flex. Then polish with 340.

 

ha! i totally missed the title where you said they were fillet knives.

 

Couple of flex pics after final grinder refinement. This is about how I like them.
This one I took a tad thinner for a request.

Now on to hand sanding!

 

Woo! That will get it done.
You are killing it lately Mark.

 

Thanks Jim, I appreciate the encouragement.

 

Sanded, ready for logo. They always demand a drop or two of blood before they are finished... :\
I kind of like the smokey logo, but it will be cleaned up...

 

Cleaned up.

 

Nice!

 

Looks great.

 

Thank you Jim. I used to work in Chandler!

 

Finishing up this first one, which is an order. Still needs a bit of light sanding and what-not.

 

Nice!

 

Congratulations on a real looker Mark.

 

Thanks guys!

 

Well, I finished this one up including sheath. And then during the final buff life stepped in and there was a failure.
It isn't going to affect the use of the knife, but as far as a customer order, it is a catastrophic failure of sorts.
Ironwood. What can you do. Usually it is VERY stable. But a little hidden knot can do it in. And the best figured ironwood is usually knotty to some extent.
It usually won't affect integrity, but this one was just in the wrong place.

I played with the sheath design and on the third iteration I settled on one I like. I might modify it still a bit, but it's pretty close to what I want.
I think I want more of a taper toward the tip to match the knife shape.
This way is kind of big, but it does protect the blade very well. It's a toss up, looks vs function.

So now I am on to making a new one for this very patient customer.