more!
A trail knife on order for a local who is heading out into the field to tag mountain lions. He wants a camp and trail knife that he's comfortable with if he (unlikely, but...) needs to have at a critter. 5160, .230 though the tang with a distal taper and full convex.
a couple neckers, and the SERE edition of the LBK. more on that in a moment.
The trail knife:
The LBK. I have been doing this design in 3/32 15N20 for regular use, but due to an order I'm working on, I wanted to try and see what I could do for a thicker spined piece. The tang is .218 all the way through, with a distal taper from the thumb ramp to the tip that hits .170 about 2/3 of the way down. It's heavier than I'm used to making at 8.5 ounces. I'll get another .25 to .30 ounce off if I pop another pair of holes into the tang.
My attempt to show the taper:
Once it is pinned up and has walnut on it, I expect to get it to a finished weight of just shy of 9 ounces. Compared to the average 15N20 blade, which runs about 4.25 to 4.5 ounces, it's a bit of a beast.
Yet- I've managed a slimmer grind profile that I usually manage on the 15N20, and the knife as a whole is feeling fantastic.
Overall it's 9.5 inches, so an inch longer than the regular LBK spearpoint. Blade is 4.5 inches.
In the background you can see another one that's still in the 40 grit stage, without the index finger cutout. I'm not a personal fan of them, but they have a place- mostly personal preference, but it's a good indexing tool, especially in gloves with cold hands.