Last month I posted a thread looking for a welder that could make a vise for Knife Making. I posted a few pictures and HainesNYT decided to take the challenge. You can find his DIY thread here http://discussions.texasbowhunter.co...highlight=vise
For making the vise for me I offered to send him a knife. During our discussions, HainesNYT asked if I would consider making a knife for AggieVet instead as her birthday was coming up. When I said sure, he asked for an upswept skinner with a gut hook. This would be a first for me as I have never done a gut hook design before. The process started by making a wood mock up of the knife.
Once the wooden mock up felt good I cut out the basic shape of the knife using a bar of 1084 steel from Aldo. I decided to hold off cutting the gut hook until later in the process. I then ground the blade on my KMG.
After the knife was ground I went back to the bandsaw and cut in the gut hook. With a high speed dremel I then ground the gut hook in with a half inch stone wheel. I then hand sanded the blade up to 400 grit.
I then used the Knife Makers Vice to put some file work on the knife. I choose to put 3 arrow heads on the spine of the blade to stay with the TBH theme since HainesNYT put them on the vise. The blue tape was put on to prevent me from putting scratches on the blade since I had already sanded it.
I then sent the knife off to Lee Oates (Bear Claw Knifes) in Laporte, Tx to be heat treated. He has been making knife for over 30 years and is my mentor. I appreciate all his support and could not be happier with my progress at this stage.
Once I got the knife back from heat treating, I again hand sanded the knife to 600 grit. At this stage, I added a black spacer to the stabilized maple burl scales. After this step I attached the scales using epoxy and added 2 Corby rivets and a mosaic pin.
After letting the epoxy cure for 24 hours, I began the process of lining out how I would be shaping the handles.
Once my marks were on the handle I used the KMG to do most of the shaping and then do hand sanding to ensure it feels good in my hand. I also begin the process of hand sanding the handles until I get up to 1500 grit.
Once this was done I put it under the buffer with pink compound to shine it up. Here is a picture in the sun of the handle but the picture does not do it justice.
With any good knife you also have to have a sheath to put it in. HainesNYT also wanted it to have special meaning for AggieVet so he asked if there was a way to incorporate the Vet Symbol into the design. My wife Lyttle Foot has not been making sheaths for too long but decided that she would give it a try. This symbol has a snake wrapped a pole with a capital V in it. For an experienced leathermaker this design would be touch as there are 3 fiqures all on top of one another. So after doing more research we discovered that the V could be placed under the snake and pole. This really helped and Lyttle Foot practiced on leather scraps for a few days until she felt she had it. At 4 am one night she woke up and decided I am going to get it done. Here is the knife and her sheath. I think they make a great pair.
Here is a good view of the filework.
And one more of the finished knife. Happy Birthday AggieVet!!!!
For making the vise for me I offered to send him a knife. During our discussions, HainesNYT asked if I would consider making a knife for AggieVet instead as her birthday was coming up. When I said sure, he asked for an upswept skinner with a gut hook. This would be a first for me as I have never done a gut hook design before. The process started by making a wood mock up of the knife.
Once the wooden mock up felt good I cut out the basic shape of the knife using a bar of 1084 steel from Aldo. I decided to hold off cutting the gut hook until later in the process. I then ground the blade on my KMG.
After the knife was ground I went back to the bandsaw and cut in the gut hook. With a high speed dremel I then ground the gut hook in with a half inch stone wheel. I then hand sanded the blade up to 400 grit.
I then used the Knife Makers Vice to put some file work on the knife. I choose to put 3 arrow heads on the spine of the blade to stay with the TBH theme since HainesNYT put them on the vise. The blue tape was put on to prevent me from putting scratches on the blade since I had already sanded it.
I then sent the knife off to Lee Oates (Bear Claw Knifes) in Laporte, Tx to be heat treated. He has been making knife for over 30 years and is my mentor. I appreciate all his support and could not be happier with my progress at this stage.
Once I got the knife back from heat treating, I again hand sanded the knife to 600 grit. At this stage, I added a black spacer to the stabilized maple burl scales. After this step I attached the scales using epoxy and added 2 Corby rivets and a mosaic pin.
After letting the epoxy cure for 24 hours, I began the process of lining out how I would be shaping the handles.
Once my marks were on the handle I used the KMG to do most of the shaping and then do hand sanding to ensure it feels good in my hand. I also begin the process of hand sanding the handles until I get up to 1500 grit.
Once this was done I put it under the buffer with pink compound to shine it up. Here is a picture in the sun of the handle but the picture does not do it justice.
With any good knife you also have to have a sheath to put it in. HainesNYT also wanted it to have special meaning for AggieVet so he asked if there was a way to incorporate the Vet Symbol into the design. My wife Lyttle Foot has not been making sheaths for too long but decided that she would give it a try. This symbol has a snake wrapped a pole with a capital V in it. For an experienced leathermaker this design would be touch as there are 3 fiqures all on top of one another. So after doing more research we discovered that the V could be placed under the snake and pole. This really helped and Lyttle Foot practiced on leather scraps for a few days until she felt she had it. At 4 am one night she woke up and decided I am going to get it done. Here is the knife and her sheath. I think they make a great pair.
Here is a good view of the filework.
And one more of the finished knife. Happy Birthday AggieVet!!!!
Attached Files
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