Hillzula

MHill, that is one inspiring blade. You make it look easy! This is something I have always been interested in. Thanks for sharing!
 
I don't know if you guys are bored of this or not, but I thought I would pass along something new. I'm no knife maker, but I'm trying. My uncle asked me to make him something. I told him "not a chance" until I get some equipment, mainly a belt grinder. Well, he showed up here on Thursday with a piece of 5160 1/4" steel and one of his old Elk racks.

So, full of guilt, I got started.

Word of caution, don't ever hand file 1/4" steel. It sucks.

Here are a couple of pictures of the jig I made for the file to get the bevel and the plunge line started.

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The Elk rack I'm going to cut into scales.

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Here is a picture of the knife. I've finished just the main convex bevel at this point. I need to get to work cleaning up the scratch pattern.

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Ok, I got to hold this blade, and I must say,

AWESOME WORK!!!

I loved it, and it was a pleasure to check out.

Good job, Mhill, good job.

Moose
 
Stsparky, Right now I'm a stay at home dad, coaching select baseball. I was a speculative real estate developer. Yup, looking pretty dumb right about now. Before that I was VP of Operations for a construction company. And, before that I was a project manager for commercial and residential construction.

Moose, I appreciate the words. Did Jeff tell you it's part of the "Boat Anchor" product line? The knife you held is in need of some serious help. I took on way too much with the bone scales. It became evident quickly I was in trouble trying to shape the bone with a file and sandpaper. This one I just posted is better. It still has some serious flaws, but I learned a lot from the one you held. For one, I'm really learning how to get my sand pattern cleaner with a sanding block.
 
You have a talent for working with your hands. My family does property management and I'll check to see if anyone in the company knows folks up in your area who need an extra hand.

-Sparky

PS we've all done oddball jobs.
 
I actually have a General Contractors License here in Washington. There isn't a bone in my body too good to strap on the bags and go to work. Funny part is, I was going to school for architecture and quit because I was making so much in construction management. All my architect friends are working. All my construction friends are sitting at home. Damn that lack of foresight.
 
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Mike? My architect buddy does a web comic for a living. Don't kick yourself too much over the economy.
 
MHill, Brother you have talent. I think if you had your own shop, you could hold your own with all the other custom makers out there. Keep on making them.
 
The 1/4" piece of 5160 is slowing starting to look like something.

I'm trying to learn from my mistakes of my first one. Bottom line, it was way to thick in the blade. I tried to do a full convex from spine to blade, but it was just too thick to be a slicer. This one was going that same direction. I got the files out and went back to work on the bevel. I took some more of the thickness out and blended it in.

The guys over in the makers forum pointed out that I might have slightly rounded the edges where the scales are going to be applied. This is going to hurt my fit and finish, much like number 1. I've tried to straighten them out and get the edges crisp.

I also added a thong hole and chamfered the holes to try and eliminate some weight. One day I'm going to learn how to taper the tang. As I played with the knife I didn't like the fact that you couldn't really choke up on the blade for any detail work, so I went back in and added a choil.

Hopefully the micarta will show up on Monday and I can get a basic shape for the scales and send this off for heat treatment. I suck at installing scales, so when I put up those pictures, maybe I'll get some pointers.

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When you put the scales on, use black liners and tons of epoxy. It'll cover up most glue lines and problems with fit and finish.
 
dude i want one!!! will you ever sell these or are u just teesing? what would you charge for something lik the 1st knife you made?? i love it and you make me want to try and make a knife!! nice work
 
Thanks guys for the comments.

Dylan, it'll give that a try with the black liners. I've really spent a lot of time on this one, really trying to clean up the mistakes I made previously. It's a lot of work trying to get the contours I really want with a file. Slowly, I'm starting to figure it out. It's just a slow process. I appreciate your suggestions. You're making some amazing knives, so you know I'll listen.

rm, I'm not selling anything. I just wanted to know how to do it, so I went for it. Now I want to know how to do it better. So I'm trying it again. "you make me want to try and make a knife", that's exactly why I keep posting these pictures. I don't have the equipment, just a few basic hand tools that almost everyone has in their tool box. A few files, a hacksaw and a cordless drill.
 
I have spent a couple of days now working off and on, on a custom knife I am trying to make with the hand tools I have. After these couple days I have tremendous respect for what you are doing and say you are one hell of a craftsman. If mine even turns out half as good as yours I will post a picture if not I am going to keep it to myself. Thank you for the pictures of encouragement you keep posting though.
 
MHILL, I really like the design of this most recent knife. I'm a big fan of a big bellied drop point. You really have done a great job. It is a project that I have thought about tackling, but I need to do much more research before I get started.
 
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