On the bench...Tim Knotts Knives.

T.Knotts

T.Knotts

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I'm starting this thread to show things I've just finished or have in the works. Feel free to post comments, suggestions hints, tips or just to BS. As of today (6/29/16) I've completed 4 slipjoints so, I AM NOT an expert...not even close. If I made one knife for all the materials I messed up I would be well into the double digits. But that's life, live and learn.


....On to the knives....This is one I just finished...here is a pic fresh off the bench...it hadn't even been polished yet!!




I took a few pics along the way. This isn't a WIP or tutorial..just a few pics of the journey.

...So it started out with a sketch I had done while I was working on #3 and waiting for something to dry...I'm not an artist, as the following photo attests but it gave me an idea of what I wanted....the plus side of having a crappy drawing is no matter how the real thing turns out you can say "That's what I saw in the picture!"



Now this was #4 and the first one I've done from my own design. I'm sure I've probably seen the pattern some where before but I can't remember where.

I got the blade and liners cut out and got the overall profile of how I wanted it to look.



I made a list of things I wanted to be able to do on a slipjoint and I figured this would be the perfect knife to give those things a try. I wanted to do a crescent nail nick, a shield, lanyard whole, coin edge and maybe some fancy file work on the spine....well I got all but the fancy file work.



The first slipjoint I did was a shadow pattern but it was really just thrown together just to see if I could make one but here I was trying to figure out the parts and puzzle. With this one, I wanted to use brass. Usually I am not a fan of brass but this one seemed to call for it. In this pic it shows the 5/32 washers I made from brass rod and the recess to hold them.



Sharp-eyed readers may say "Hey, that first picture looks like canvas Micarta and the last one looks like black G10! What gives?" Well this gives---



My first attempt at a shield was a FAIL...TO LOW!!! (I did practice a few times before hand and they came out beautiful. I guess she just didn't want to wear black G10). All I had left was green canvas Micarta. Pop the liners off the black...onto the green..cut down to size. Measured many times where I wanted the shield and VOILA! (It really wasn't that easy for me...I cursed many times in the process.)



So now, shield is in, coin edged done, and nail nick is in. Lanyard will have to wait to final assembly.



Much sandpaper and semi-chrome later and I was done....

(Here is a trophy shot. The color of the handle reminded me of an old military tent I had as a kid so wanted something military. I dug up an old book I had about military weapons and when I saw the look on this guys face I had to use it.)











Blade and spring are 3/32 O1 tool steel
closed length 3 1/2" OAL 6 5/16"
Green canvas Micarta with brass hardware
Shield is SS and pinned.
Blade sits nice and centered and very nice walk-and-talk.
I would give the Pull a 7 definitely need that nail nick.
My overall happiness with it is about a 7. Some things that bother me about it. First, if i make another of this pattern, I want the blade to be a little longer. I have a spot in the coin-edging that was just a bit off and that really bugs me. If I was doing it for any other reason than just a test model I would have scrapped the blade and liners and done them again. BUT I did learn a lot and got some things figured out for the next one.

Thanks for looking. Now onto #5. I have vacation coming up so I have a little time to think about it.

Comments always welcome.
 
Lookin good Tim, the coined liners really set it off.
 
Thanks John. Now that it's done you'll get a brief reprieve from multiple texts and photos asking your opinion haha. :thumbup:
 
Looks great to me. It has a very nice "flow" to the design.
 
AntDog said:
Looks great to me. It has a very nice "flow" to the design.
Click to expand...

Thank you Sir. I've had some mixed reviews on the shape. I will say, what it might lack in beauty it makes up for in comfort. It really does feel nice in the hand. I think I might try to refine the design in the near future.
 
Thanks Chris. This was my first go at real micarta, I played with some homemade stuff when I first started making knives. I was surprised to find that it wasn't as easy to finish as I thought it would be. I really like the look and feel of it though.

The thong tube is one of those things you either love or hate. I am a fan of them but due to the design of the knife I couldn't get it as centered as I first pictured in my head. Aesthetics aside it does serve its purpose and the flare holds the knife together nicely.
 
That looks great Tim, I love the green Micarta and everything about it just looks fabulous!
 
Thanks Scott. I was pretty happy in the end with it too. This one went to my aunt at our annual family reunion auction. I carried this knife every since I finished it and really liked it so it was hard to let go. Ide never carried a wharncliffe before and John suggested I do one and try it out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the look but I think the functionality is hard to beat. I'm just anxious now to get back to the nice dry weather of MT and leave the heat and humidity of WV behind!
 
I grew up in a little town called Flemington...about 40 miles south of Morgantown. North Central part of the state. You know that area?
 
T.Knotts said:
I grew up in a little town called Flemington...about 40 miles south of Morgantown. North Central part of the state. You know that area?
Click to expand...

We used to make an anual camping trip to Bowden/Monongahela National Forest. Just east of Elkins.

Fell in love with the area. Blackwater Falls, Stonewall Jackson, Durbin.

I hope to reach a point in life where I can be partially retired there.
 
Beautiful area. I was camping just over the hill from Elkins in a town called Parsons last weekend. I've spent a lot of time camping and hunting the Mon and trout fishing Shavers fork that leads into Bowden. And bass fishing Stonewall. I love going back but I think I'm getting soft because the humidity sucks the life out of me now!

Small world.
 
I've fished the Shavers. :thumbup: We car camped at Revelles when the kids were little. Right off 33 (55) The side of the river coming out of Bowden. The kids were amazed at the ice cold water that came from the springs in the rocks along the riverside.

Did some horseback trail riding and some hiking in the area too. Stumbled across what I can only assume was a poachers shack. An abandoned shack full of deer parts and wild turkey carcasses. It turned my "situational awareness" up a couple ticks. I really didn't want to run into the people that used it. Havin' a right purdy mouth and all :D.

I'm used to humidity. As long as the temp is below 80º-ish, I can live with it.
 
Lots of strange things in them there mountains haha. I used to trounce through there digging ramps (for those who don't know, its a type of wild onion that grows in the mountains) and when I was about 12 I told my dad that I found a good spot that someone had planted ramps in a wood box with a glass top over it in the middle of nowhere...well my dad informed me it wasn't ramps but as he called it "whacky weed" and to stay away from there. He went through all my ramps to make sure i didn't pick the wrong thing haha.

Heres a story you might like....My dad is a big Civil War nut and I would go with him a lot to metal detect on old civil war camp sites (ones that were on privately owned land so no law violations!). My brother and I spent a whole day climbing and looking all over this mountain side just outside of Elkins and when we came back down my dad asked what we found...I told him we didn't find anything but an old cowbell...he asked where it was and I told him I left it on a stump. Well he and his buddy explained that during the first part of the war the Confederate soldiers would tie a cowbell on there belts and sneak up on the the union pickets. They said the mostly new and young union soldiers didn't get to worried at snaps and bumps in the woods when they heard the bell as they just figured it was a cow roaming around. Often...as the story went...the union pickets would come out to catch the cow (for milk and maybe food) and would be captured by the Rebs....Not sure if the story was real or not but I do know I had to climb back up that dang mountain side to find the cowbell! I've seen the cowbell John has on his bench and thought you might like that story. Never did research to find out if it was true or not...but we did find a lot of dropped bullets and a few other things from the encampment in that area. All of that was timbered a few years later and gone now. Good times. Lots have changed there since I was younger.
 
:thumbup: Good stuff, Tim. :) Thanks.

I get a little jealous of those that grew up on the woods and waters. :p

I grew up in Southwest Detroit. 48209 https://goo.gl/maps/dTwihPBJTCt If we wanted to hunt it was BB guns and pigeons off the neighbor's roof. The only woods ran along the eight sets of RR tracks, two blocks from the house and next to the graphite factory. They were about 20' deep on either side and if you were lucky you could kick up a quail or a pheasant. It was amazing to find them in the city but it did happen. Couldn't hunt them but it was cool to see them.

The hike back up the mountain probably was miserable but it makes for a great story and I appreciate it.
 
T.Knotts said:
Thanks Scott. I was pretty happy in the end with it too. This one went to my aunt at our annual family reunion auction. I carried this knife every since I finished it and really liked it so it was hard to let go. Ide never carried a wharncliffe before and John suggested I do one and try it out. I wasn't the biggest fan of the look but I think the functionality is hard to beat. I'm just anxious now to get back to the nice dry weather of MT and leave the heat and humidity of WV behind!
Click to expand...

Please send some dry weather east Tim, I was outside all this weekend and the air was so thick I couldn't cut it with a chopper.
 
When I got back to MT Saturday it was 96 BUT no humidity....it was still hot but at least I could breathe. I usually forget about the humidity around February when it's double digits below zero and I'm shoveling snow. But this year the east coast had a way worse winter than we did. And as far as dry weather...the floods this year have been awful back there...first WV and now I see MD is getting it. I feel for those poor folks.
 
I used to live right down the road from Ellicott City and go there all the time, it's a neat little town lot's of shops, bars restaurants ect... Hard to believe what happened.
 
I lived just outside of Annapolis for 3 years(mid 90s) and my X and I used to go there a lot. It was a nice small town that made you forget you were that close to the city. Sad to see that happen.
 
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