- Joined
- Jul 23, 2015
- Messages
- 12,521
If you'll make one , for $100 , I'll take it !
Doc, not sure if you are being serious, but you gave me an idea. And after reading your post two hours ago, I designed a new knife specifically with the features we discussed in that thread in mind.
SO! If you really feel that way, I could give you what you want. But we'd have to do things a little differently than I have so far. First what would the knife look like?
I came up with a knife design and concept that will be robust, but very light and fast for it's high strength, will pierce very well, still actually cut, and be easy to carry. Here is the CAD file and how many I can make for the run (grid squares are one inch):
.
I will gladly make an entire run of this dagger, which is over 11" overall with 6" blade length. The steel will be either .210" 8670 or .25" 15N20 (the most appropriate steels and thicknesses currently available at AKS) as determined by majority vote, with black Boltaron sheaths for that price. The only way this run happens, at this price, is if I get at least six people willing to prepay, as I currently have all my money tied up in runs in process consisting of:
1 huge sheet of MagnaCut
3 regular sized sheets of AEB-L
2 regular sized sheets of 15N20
And considering that after the cost of materials, consumables, not to mention importing them, and waterjet cutting, heat treatment, and shipping there is not more than a little profit margin in this for me. So why would I do it? Because it 1) Keeps me busy doing what I love while I await the processing of my stainless steel runs, which require more lead time than my carbon steel runs, 2) doing it for the community I love, and 3) I can squeeze a few Bitty Bitey Baby Birdies and Fried Liver Attacks (XL?) on there, between the handles, which would really be a leap of faith at this stock thickness anyway. Maybe a slim small knife at the top and bottom as well. Will I make any money on these two designs? Who knows? They are weird designs and I make them purely because I like them and believe in them. They would really just be a hope and a prayer at turning a bit more of a profit on the run.
But as soon as I have six people who are willing to act as $100 investors for this dagger run, I will pull the trigger, and what you will get for that price is one of the above dagger designs configured as follows:
Grind
Double edge ground to near zero from the heel, up to more robust geometry at the tip, reflecting what I referred to in my post in the other thread (cited above). It will pierce car hoods, but also work decently for cutting with the first half to two thirds of the blade length.
Handle
Single piece natural wood handle scales, per side, of your choice from the types of wood I normally stock, and a stainless stainless tube up front in the pinhole, and at the rear of the cutout to securely fasten the scales, as well as vertical texturing like I did on my 15N20 zebrawood neck knife (opt out if you want, but this texture does wonders for grip and is still super comfortable as well).
Sheath
Pancake Boltaron Sheath.
Shipped
To your door via Canada Post expedited service.
Because these will be cut by HAI, and heat treated by Andy Pomorski, the time from when the steel is ordered to when the blanks are in my shop can be as little as 4-6 weeks, and I cannot remember ever having been made to wait longer than 8 weeks for these two service providers to process my blanks. I fully expect to have the investors' knives completed and shipped before August.
Green/Grey laminated wood(Frogblanks)
Zebrawood
Black Palm
Red Palm
Indian Ebony
Padauk
Oak
Maple
Chakte Viga
I believe others as well, I have to check
Zebrawood
Black Palm
Red Palm
Indian Ebony
Padauk
Oak
Maple
Chakte Viga
I believe others as well, I have to check
I will get the steel ordered and set the run up right away as soon as I have six people who prepay for their $100 dagger. That way I am at least guaranteed to break even on the run, even if nothing else on the sheet sells. And if anyone wants to upgrade to different handle material, or composite handles, that will be an option as well, but the preorder will only be for the base price, and any upgrade costs will only be due on completion (and given what I typically offer and charge for upgrades you would have to be pretty creative and come up with something unexpected to make your dagger cost more than another $50 on top of base price).
Who will be the six willing to make this run happen? Okay friends, thanks for reading, and good [insert local time of day].
And D DocJD , thanks for making a comment that kept me up past my new bed time.
I'm going to bed now because I have a watermelon slicing machete to make in the morning.
