Finished a couple of knives

[Ky-Flinter]

I finished up a couple of knives recently.  I tried some new things and asked a lot of questions along the way, so thanks for all the input, especially from LRB.

For the first knife, I bought the blade blank, it's 1085 and it was awful ugly, had a blood groove, and notches along the spine.  I cut off all the ugly and ended up with a slender 7 inch long blade.  It's polished bright, but I may put some cold blue on it to tone down the shine.  I made the S guard and domed cap for the tang and peened it in place.  The antler handle was soaked in vinegar and straightened.  I filed a spiral groove in the handle to improve it’s grip.  The sheath has a rawhide liner, covered with elk skin from a cow I killed in Ky in 2005.







For the second knife, a good friend hammered the blade from an old file on the forge at Fort Boonesborough and left it annealed.  I finish filed and polished the blade, then hardened and tempered it (that was a trip!) and it seems to hold a nice edge.  I left the temper color on the blade, but it will wear off eventually.  The handle is whitetail antler, straightened some after a vinegar soak.  I filed narrow parallel rings in the handle.  It has a through tang, peened over a steel cap.  The bolster is poured pewter.  The sheath has a rawhide liner, covered with elk skin from a cow I killed in Ky in 2005.







Again, thanks to all that helped me on these projects.  I welcome comments or suggestions for improvement on my next attempts.

-Ron

[jrb]

They look very nice.
I did'nt know thick antler like that can be straightened and i have a bunch that have a slight sideways curve in them i thought i could'nt use, so i have a few questions , if you don't mind.
How long did you soak them for?
How long do you leave them in a vise?
They must harden back up ok and not re-bend ?
Thanks very much!
John

[LRB]

  Very, very nice clean work. On both. The S guard is very well executed. Excellent job on the butt washer and peened through tang. The second knife is as impressive as the first. You should be very proud, that is exceptional work for a beginner, and as good as some pro work I've seen. Well Done!!!! My only suggestion would be to age them a little. Of course, just using them would do that after a while.

[Tim Crosby]

 Ron, those are really neat, Well done.

   Tim C.

[C Wallingford]

Looking good, Ron. I agree with LRB, a little ageing would help. Just my opinion.

[Dennis Glazener]

Ron,
Nice work, especially like the first one with the S guard. But both really need some aging in my opinion. The darker the better. Nice work.
Dennis
 

[cmac]

Nice work! I agree with the aging. The only negative thing I see is the temper on the 2nd knife

[Pvt. Lon Grifle]

Very nice knives and fittings. Will be fine hunting knives.   Regards, Lon

[Ky-Flinter]

Thanks for all the kind comments and suggestions.  I've always been of the school that something just made, should look new, but as LRB said, they will gain some patina with use.

JRB,
On bending antler, you can do a search here on "vinegar antler".  There are several posts on the topic.  I soaked my pieces in store bought vinegar for about 10 days to 2 weeks, then pressed them in a vice, using pieces of oak to protect the antler surface from the vice jaws.  It is hard to crank the vise but the antler will straighten and the antler surface will still get scuffed up pretty good, as it is soft.  I left the pieces in the vice for a week.  By that time the antler is hard again and does not bend back to the original shape

-Ron

[jrb]

I'll be giving that a try , THANKS! again Ron.
John