A few of my recently finished knives - small maker from Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England.
- Thread starter FloWolF
- Start date
Thanks buddy - I'd have written something then but it had already taken ages to get my phone and Imgur to play nicely together so I ran outa time for waffle
I work stock removal methods rather than forge.
The chef knife, which is not quite finished in the photos, is from 2.5mm thick Sandvik 14C28 hardened by a specialist to 61/62 HRC, which I then convex ground post heat treatment freehand on a basic 2x72 grinder with an added water feed. Handle scales are lightly spalted beech 'stick wood' I collected, seasoned and stabilised myself, with bolster detail in dyed, stabilised silver birch from the tree side of a burr/burl, liners are dyed leather, with copper sheet for aesthetics and to move the balance point to under the first handle pin. Pins are simple home made mosaic pins.
The next ones up are pretty much a miniaturised and edited 'Woodlore' pattern (with sharpening choil added) hence the 'wodlo' moniker (yeah I thought I was being cute). Steel for these is ~3mm 26C3/'Spicy White', and was again HT by a specialist, in this case to 63HRC before again wet grinding and sharpening on the 2x72 using ceramic and Trizact belts. These are very steep/sharp angles and the grinds all vary a little, as I wanted to find out what this steel was like at these edge angles, and also wanted to play with doing a bit of convex and mixed bevel grinding. Handle material silver birch burr with pale/white rot spalting that I collected, seasoned, dried and stabilised, the dark one and some of the bolster detail is of very dark spalted beech wood a friend sent me from his firewood pile, the other bolster material is blue resin with alder cone, and another piece of the multi-dyed, stabilised straightish grained birch burr end. Liners again are dyed (reclaimed) leather, simple home made 6mm mosaic pins and riveted lanyard tube. The tangs have been drilled and lightened beneath the scales.
The last bunch of knives are in 2.5mm 12C27M apart from the curved mushroom knife which is in 3mm. Bushcraft knives I had cut from sheet by laser to fill up a steel sheet I was having my first ever round of mushroom knives laser cut from about 6 years ago, and are half length tang but full tang style, hardened to appr. 58 HRC, and finished in some lovely reclaimed oak flooring wood, and one in dark blue clear resin with large cones and a blue dyed birchwood bolster piece that was cast in place with the block. Plain stainless pins on 2 of them, the other 2 have simple home made 6mm mosaic pins, and they all have 6mm riveted copper lanyard tubes.
The mushroom knife - I started making mushroom knives and have made and sold about 40 in total mostly quite fancy full tang ones, but the one in the photos is the second iteration of a much smaller stick tang design, and this one features blue glow resin in the bolster tube around the blade, handle is of some lovely grained ash I collected years ago, I chose a 5 or so inch round log of it, quarter split it turned to spindles and stabilised for the job, turned sections in a mushroom-ish shape on the lathe, and lanyard wire loop secured in the butt end with the cleaning brush.
I try to do as many of the processes involved as I can, which is tough as I have tiny crowded spaces only to work in and not much useful time to do it and I'm a pretty beat up 54 y/o with a knackered back and a mostly home schooled very hyperactive 7 year old lad heheh. I got a 3 burner gas forge for basic HT but I cannot replicate my HT guys results even nearly, and it isn't safe to run it in my workshop, so off to a knife HT specialist they go he's spent many years learning just this. All my casting and stabilising and wood sourcing I do myself - I refuse to buy wood, especially imported/exotics and my mission really started with my trying to show off the beauty in wood you could just find kicking around, if you treated it right and stabilised or resin cast it, there's a world of delight hidden inside especially once the spalting and decay have started to set in! My ethos is to make minimum negative impact, and even though I use resins and such that aren't biodegradable, I make all my stuff with the intent it lasts a lifetime.
I'm sure I left loads out but you're probably starting to be sorry you asked by now heheheh!
Cheers again!
Shaun/FloWolF
Here's some of the mushroom knives and the first of those half-full-tang bushcrafty knives I finished, that were all outline cut by laser from a single sheet.
I think I shared the bushcraft knife here already some years ago maybe. 12C27M ~58HRC, handle is white pigmented epoxy with Common Rustgill (Gymnopilus penetrans) inclusions, blackthorn wood for bolster and butt detail.
The other knives are the same steel, slightly lower hardness, mostly here handled in very well seasoned cherry 'stick wood', bolster detail where present is again blackthorn, the other knife is again some fungus I have forgotten in a tinted clear resin and with a glow in the dark background. In some cases I used tube rivets for all the handle pins but mostly just for the lanyard and main 2 pins - I had the magnetic hardened cone tools made to do it especially for these mushroom knives, the idea being it made it easy to lash the knife up to a long stick to collect out of reach mushroom away up a tree. The one with the line of copper pips - one of my mushrooming customers asked me to put a scale on the handle for his own IDing purposes so I fitted these 10 copper pieces at 1cm intervals for hm. Brushes are always boar bristle apart from the blond pair which are some awful synthetic stuff as they were for a vegan customer - to be fair I could likely have gotten better ones but I'd already been searching for a couple of weeks, but they're just not stiff enough for my liking.
Cheers me dears! ',;~}~
Shaun/FloWolF
Just to add, all the ~30 blades I had cut out from that one sheet, I beveled and honed by hand with files and abrasives on a home made wooden based filing jig, and the only position I could work in with it was at home clamped to the big table with me knelt on the ground in front of it all pushing the files. Good fun for my first ever round of knife making (!), it taught me to never do that again especially with laser cut steel, as that hard edge trashes files and abrasives, and my knees just aren't made for that much worshiping anymore!
I think I shared the bushcraft knife here already some years ago maybe. 12C27M ~58HRC, handle is white pigmented epoxy with Common Rustgill (Gymnopilus penetrans) inclusions, blackthorn wood for bolster and butt detail.
The other knives are the same steel, slightly lower hardness, mostly here handled in very well seasoned cherry 'stick wood', bolster detail where present is again blackthorn, the other knife is again some fungus I have forgotten in a tinted clear resin and with a glow in the dark background. In some cases I used tube rivets for all the handle pins but mostly just for the lanyard and main 2 pins - I had the magnetic hardened cone tools made to do it especially for these mushroom knives, the idea being it made it easy to lash the knife up to a long stick to collect out of reach mushroom away up a tree. The one with the line of copper pips - one of my mushrooming customers asked me to put a scale on the handle for his own IDing purposes so I fitted these 10 copper pieces at 1cm intervals for hm. Brushes are always boar bristle apart from the blond pair which are some awful synthetic stuff as they were for a vegan customer - to be fair I could likely have gotten better ones but I'd already been searching for a couple of weeks, but they're just not stiff enough for my liking.
Cheers me dears! ',;~}~
Shaun/FloWolF
Just to add, all the ~30 blades I had cut out from that one sheet, I beveled and honed by hand with files and abrasives on a home made wooden based filing jig, and the only position I could work in with it was at home clamped to the big table with me knelt on the ground in front of it all pushing the files. Good fun for my first ever round of knife making (!), it taught me to never do that again especially with laser cut steel, as that hard edge trashes files and abrasives, and my knees just aren't made for that much worshiping anymore!
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Just by way of blurting it out as seems to be the way here's how I cam to be a knifemaker:
I've long been AuDHD but went undiagnosed for years, I'm just in the process now although there really is no doubt.
This has meant that I have been both really clever and really stupid, and altogether strange to a lot of people, especially in my youth, and conversely I hadn't the foggiest clue what most people were about. Bloody mysteries the lot of 'em!
I ended up self medicating my social and other anxieties with alcohol, and it worked for years until family life going haywire had me hitting it hard, and I became a full/real alcoholic, and started having a series of breakdowns.
In the end, after quitting the drink and doing well for a while I had the mother of all nervous breakdowns and my world shattered into kaleidoscope fragments for a solid 12 months and I ended up working with spalted wood I found just to regain some grounding and focus.
Once I'd managed to focus all the nerves and calm down that ebergy, I then taught myself silver soldering and jewellery making, learned all about stabilising, resin casting, vacuum and pressure casting/stabilising processes, blademaking, heat treatment and so-on and now I'm beat or I'd be using it all to make a pretty little income heheheh.
Anyway dry some ~8 years now, still not right in the head by a long shot but keeping myself busy at least eh! ',;~}~
Shaun/FloWolF
I've long been AuDHD but went undiagnosed for years, I'm just in the process now although there really is no doubt.
This has meant that I have been both really clever and really stupid, and altogether strange to a lot of people, especially in my youth, and conversely I hadn't the foggiest clue what most people were about. Bloody mysteries the lot of 'em!
I ended up self medicating my social and other anxieties with alcohol, and it worked for years until family life going haywire had me hitting it hard, and I became a full/real alcoholic, and started having a series of breakdowns.
In the end, after quitting the drink and doing well for a while I had the mother of all nervous breakdowns and my world shattered into kaleidoscope fragments for a solid 12 months and I ended up working with spalted wood I found just to regain some grounding and focus.
Once I'd managed to focus all the nerves and calm down that ebergy, I then taught myself silver soldering and jewellery making, learned all about stabilising, resin casting, vacuum and pressure casting/stabilising processes, blademaking, heat treatment and so-on and now I'm beat or I'd be using it all to make a pretty little income heheheh.
Anyway dry some ~8 years now, still not right in the head by a long shot but keeping myself busy at least eh! ',;~}~
Shaun/FloWolF
One day, one hour, one minute and one second at a time if necessary...... Keep up the good work...On the blades and yourself.... I'm a friend of Bill myself... My last hurrah was 1/11/94.......Stay strong !
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2005
- Messages
- 7,495
Looks like a great start! Welcome to the forum, and thank you for sharing your work! Congrats on the eight years sober, as well!
I have much to stay strong for, and drinking again would kill me quite quickly and it would end my life even before that - it's a no-brainer, as they say. Cheers!
Thank you. Really wish I could do more work but all I can get done are a few knives here and there. Currently I'm lacking time, space, health, and brain space, and probably money too, but that's all, so I'm *almost* set!
Cheers ',;~}~
Shaun/FloWolF
Heh, cheers! Yeah I'm all about the mushrooms. The first knives I did were inward curved blade mushroom foraging knives, and the very first one was handled in white resin with amethyst deceiver and lilac fibrecap mushrooms included in it, and I just added some more amethyst deceivers to a resin cast today that already had some green elf-cup fungus stained birch wood in it, and most of the wood I use otherwise is spalted wood full of patterns left by decay fungi that I hunt for then prepare/stabilise myself. Fungi are pretty amazing. Plus some of those things are damned tasty!
The handles on your blades are awesome..... Great looking work....I like that your knives look friendly too!!!
I don't think even the biggest KAREN would find it offensive if you pulled one out and used it.....
Great job all around.... Keep coming back
!
I don't think even the biggest KAREN would find it offensive if you pulled one out and used it.....
Great job all around.... Keep coming back
!