First post. Ahhh, this is always a fraught experience for a n00b to any special interest area. Well, not that you care but some background might help.
I started making knives just a couple years ago. I started with no experience and learned what I do and how I do it from doing it which means a few mistakes were made and lessons learned. I'm certain that I do many things that some will call wrong or sub-optimal but I trust you'll all be nice about it and help me along rather than troll me with chides and burns.
I've made maybe 10 knives so far. I like to work with amboyna and thuya burl for scales and I use Alabama Damascus and Two Finger Knife damascus blade blanks. Seemed to me that if you're going to make a knife make one using exotic materials that I'd never be able to afford if I wanted to purchase something similar. All my kitchen knives that I've purchased are nice, some are exquisite but all are pretty unexciting. The knives I make are at least to me exciting and interesting. Of note, I do not use rivets/pins of any sort. My scales get attached directly to the blade using 2-part epoxy and high pressure clamps and long curing cycles. After all the problems that I've had with rivets I decided early on to attach them in a way that would require the complete destruction of the scales in order to remove them. It's also a hell of a lot easier to shape them without having to dodge clamps.
I don't use much in the way of power tools. The biggest tool I use is a drill with a sanding roll that I rough shape the scales with. Otherwise, everything is done the hard way, with a file and sandpaper. Wood is finished with 20 coats of boiled linseed oil that is hand rubbed in with steel wool after an initial sanding by hand. When the fire jumps out of the burl then it's done. Takes a good 20 hours per knife but the manual aspect of it is what I like. Keeps the hands busy.
What I'm curious about here is what one would call something like the knife below (better pics now)
other side
Materials are Thuya burl scales, Alabama Damascus 416 layer blade. No rivets.
I started making knives just a couple years ago. I started with no experience and learned what I do and how I do it from doing it which means a few mistakes were made and lessons learned. I'm certain that I do many things that some will call wrong or sub-optimal but I trust you'll all be nice about it and help me along rather than troll me with chides and burns.
I've made maybe 10 knives so far. I like to work with amboyna and thuya burl for scales and I use Alabama Damascus and Two Finger Knife damascus blade blanks. Seemed to me that if you're going to make a knife make one using exotic materials that I'd never be able to afford if I wanted to purchase something similar. All my kitchen knives that I've purchased are nice, some are exquisite but all are pretty unexciting. The knives I make are at least to me exciting and interesting. Of note, I do not use rivets/pins of any sort. My scales get attached directly to the blade using 2-part epoxy and high pressure clamps and long curing cycles. After all the problems that I've had with rivets I decided early on to attach them in a way that would require the complete destruction of the scales in order to remove them. It's also a hell of a lot easier to shape them without having to dodge clamps.
I don't use much in the way of power tools. The biggest tool I use is a drill with a sanding roll that I rough shape the scales with. Otherwise, everything is done the hard way, with a file and sandpaper. Wood is finished with 20 coats of boiled linseed oil that is hand rubbed in with steel wool after an initial sanding by hand. When the fire jumps out of the burl then it's done. Takes a good 20 hours per knife but the manual aspect of it is what I like. Keeps the hands busy.
What I'm curious about here is what one would call something like the knife below (better pics now)
other side
Materials are Thuya burl scales, Alabama Damascus 416 layer blade. No rivets.
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