What's on my Bench Today?

Nice

 

I got one handle finished today, and will be finishing another tonight. The first is out of claro walnut of my own, and African blackwood from Myron, and will be pictured in the paring knife thread (you should really go take a look, I'm a bit proud of that one!) once I get finished pictures of it, and I'll put a teaser of the second up here now:



That's koa, bog oak, and Oregon maple from Mark there. I think it's going to be rather pretty myself .

 

Me too.

 

Score!

 

That Koa piece looks familiar Awesome stuff

 

Yep, I was looking at the EDCs. Been in a fever-ridden, broken out in giant itching spots haze for the last several days & had parers on the brain. Those would make nifty little western parers, tho!

 

Oh no!! I hope you feel better soon!

I may try a western handle someday…so who knows? I think you'd be right though .

As for this evening's work…



More handle work!!

 

Like the red burl. What is it?

 

Red mallee, and blackwood…both from Myron at Dream Burls

 

This is all being done in between running my 1700°F round of thermal cycling on 18 blades…I've been at that literally all day. Tomorrow is 1600°F, and hopefully I get to some of the 1500°F and quench. That takes extra long, because after they're through hardened, they each (or in batches on the little ones, thankfully) have to cook in the oven at 1250°F for 2hrs.

Fun.

Anyhow, here's what I have so far. I've got another 5 to go.



Lol.

 

Damn, you make some NICE looking knives! Being they are mizu honyaki, I'm sure the performance is off the charts, as well!

 

I try my friend...I absolutely try!

Here's that handle in a bit more of a 'refined' state!



The ferrule looks HUGE since it's sitting on a tiny paring knife blank, lol. The one that cracked on the spine as a matter of fact. It's only 17mm wide by about 21mm tall. Pretty slim up front. Again, the wood is red malle burl and African blackwood from Myron at Dream Burls!

 

PURRRRRRDY!!!

 

Thanks brother!

So I spent the entire day thermal cycling kitchen knife blanks. I got about half of them through the 1500°F-1250°F cycle. Since I had no more blades to polish, nor handles to make...and it was getting dark for target shooting arrows lol, I decided to forge myself out a hunting knife for next bow season. I was initially going to use a piece of 1" round W1 I'd already broken down a bit, but I found a nice end piece of 1 1/2" x 3/8" thick W2 I felt would be better suited. Three hours of forging later I had a roughed out blade blank with the bevels forged in.

Dimensions are:

Blade length - 6.25"
Blade width - 1.5" at the heel
Spine thickness - .175" (a bit under 3/16")
Medium clip point with a bit of belly for utility

It'll be perfect for processing game of any size really...and I made it thick enough to process wood in a survival/back to basics camping scenario also. The entire profile of the knife behind the choil will be nice and rounded (as I do with my EDC knives), forward of the handle on the spine will be a short bit of jimping for thumb traction, and then a sharp 90° spine up to the clip for striking cero rods.

I'm pretty happy with it overall .

Anyhow, here's a quick video I made on my phone from merged Instagram video and images.

 

Way cool...... Bow hunting season just opened on Wednesday here. I used to shoot on the IBO tour, love to bow hunt.

 

Thanks!! I haven't actively been hunting since I was a child...but I miss it, and being able to make a number of the necessary tools myself adds a sort of old world attraction to it that's been harder and harder to ignore every year, lol.

As for my little hunting knife...I'm pretty pleased with it. I got 99% of the work done during the thermal cycle process on the kitchen knives as well, along with test work on a customer's gyuto. It was a very productive few days!!

Here's a look at its current state:











The entire knife was forged to its finished shape, with very minimal work required to clean up the profile, as well as grind in the bevels and false clip. It was a really fun experience, and a very different process from what I've been immersing myself in for the last months (kitchen knives!!).

Sometimes its nice to just get back to the basics of hammer, steel, and an untethered creative process.

 

Yea buddy!!! Grass roots through and through is what it is all about.

 

Sneak peek at what I've got coming up next! Not going to tell you all a size, but I WILL tell you it's a sujihiki, and if I can straighten it without snapping it, it's going to be something special .

 

is that the sharkbite?