Crowd-funded one hundred dollar 6" custom dagger than can stab car hoods and even cut too. ;)

David Mary said:
By the way those of you who jumped in, please state your preference in this thread for your preference between:

.210" 8670
and .25" 15N20

Thanks again
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I have no preference and happily leave the choice to you or the other entrants.
 
Understood. 15N20 is a great choice. If it were totally up to me it would be my choice for two reasons, the increased wear resistance for little loss in toughness, and the slightly thicker stock availability.
 
And Martin is with .25" (15N20) as well (by PM), so looks like based on my one vote for 15N20 in the thread, two no votes, and Martin, that is four, which is a majority out of the initially planned six spots. Done.
 
Okay gentleman, all invoices are out those of you who jumped in on the thread, and your entries are in the book. If any of you feel like fancying things up a bit, you can see your options here, and I will let you know any upgrade costs (which won't be due until completion) that may be involved before anything is finalized.

Services Offered - What are your options on a David Mary custom knife?

To make the ordering process as convenient for you as possible, here are the options you can select when having me make a knife for you. Anything in strikethrough is not an option, at least not yet. Materials on the list are those I will work with, but their presence on the list does not...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com

I'm going to get the steel ordered once everyone is paid up, and since I'm heading out to the shop after I get my coffees loaded up, I would guess that will be tomorrow.

Some of you I'll be serving for the first time, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to do so. Enjoy the rest of your day guys!
 
Thank you everyone! I don't have a credit card, and AKS requires one for international orders. But I have a friend who does, and who is kind enough to facilitate orders for me. I have given him the link to the steel and specified which sheet, and sent him the cash, and he said he can have it ordered for us this evening. Okay back to making coffee, so I can get outta here. It's his brother's watermelon machete I'm making today and I want to have it ready to ship tomorrow. :)
 
Okay so I took a little longer at home to finalize the CAD files, and send an email to the waterjet shop and Andy.

As expected I did manage to fit 3 Fried Liver Attacks on there, but the Bitty Bitey Baby Birdie was a no-go because of the blade angle, so we will see the birth of the Smallish Swimmy Snippy Sniper. I got my two small blades one at the top and one at the bottom, and I have programmed in some pin slots without blade profiles (because I need at least .125" between parts) and asked Andy to cut out the sections I highlighted in green and heat treat them as well so I will have a few extra small blanks to shape by hand once I receive them.

With heat treatment we're going to be target 61 RC for the small stuff, and 59 for the daggers.

So I think the run will be at least a break even, and I will have a few interesting small super thick fixed blades on top of a handful of extra daggers to get around to once the other orders are complete. Thank you again friends for helping get this humble project off the ground.

NOW I will go to the shop.

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David Mary said:
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):

View attachment 2189655


.
View attachment 2189665
View attachment 2189671
View attachment 2189672
View attachment 2189666
View attachment 2189667
View attachment 2189668
View attachment 2189669
View attachment 2189670

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.

View attachment 2189656

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

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.
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I'm in, if I can make the arrangements . Very busy today , but will try to sort out tonight .

Flabbergasted that you are calling my bluff !

Never expected to own a custom , let alone "inspire" a special run !

Is it too late to specify 3V and DE with your special serrations on everything ? :p
 
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