The "Ask Nathan a question" thread

ElCaptain said:
Will it have a choil? The HDFK choil is amazing and I don’t think it’s gotten enough credit. Beautifully done. It adds so much functionality to a larger blade to be able to comfortably choke up on it.
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nope.
But I do appreciate the props wrt HDFK- the finger bay was a surprisingly challenging feature to get right
 
I have a question that has likely been covered, so forgive the repetition.
Why do we not see such hard use knives, so well suited for field service with non conductive handles? A frame tang design with micarta or terotuf slabs/pins. The tang would not be rat tail but recessed by 3/16", it would retain more than enough strength.

A 5" FK with this design handle would be perfect. So many instances where inadvertent contact with wire or emergency need to disrupt current. Without the need to carry dikes "just in case".

Bill
 
lmalterna said:
I have a question that has likely been covered, so forgive the repetition.
Why do we not see such hard use knives, so well suited for field service with non conductive handles? A frame tang design with micarta or terotuf slabs/pins. The tang would not be rat tail but recessed by 3/16", it would retain more than enough strength.

A 5" FK with this design handle would be perfect. So many instances where inadvertent contact with wire or emergency need to disrupt current. Without the need to carry dikes "just in case".

Bill
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My guess is that’s it’s such a niche item it’s not commercially viable in quantity. But there are tons of knife makers who could easily make one for you.
 
Big DJ said:
Hi Nathan I'm wondering if you think the DEK preorder knives will start shipping soon and will they be shipping based on our position on the list?
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They will start to ship by the end of the year and we ship them as parts are made and only loosely based upon the order in the list but we try to ship in the order that the orders were placed.
 
lmalterna said:
I have a question that has likely been covered, so forgive the repetition.
Why do we not see such hard use knives, so well suited for field service with non conductive handles? A frame tang design with micarta or terotuf slabs/pins. The tang would not be rat tail but recessed by 3/16", it would retain more than enough strength.

A 5" FK with this design handle would be perfect. So many instances where inadvertent contact with wire or emergency need to disrupt current. Without the need to carry dikes "just in case".

Bill
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Those knives exist, they're just not CPK. You are looking for a Busse or Bussekin (Swamp Rat or Scrap Yard) with a Resiprene-C handle. Lots of great options.
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Those knives exist, they're just not CPK. You are looking for a Busse or Bussekin (Swamp Rat or Scrap Yard) with a Resiprene-C handle. Lots of great options.
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I'd be worried about the lanyard tube conducting...you can wrap any handle with a couple layers of electrical tape, easy peasy.
 
Electrical tape turns to goo in heat or around chemicals like insect repellent. Rubber tape like used on submersible water pups works but adds girth.

Just seem like the materials are already popular. CNC machining is in use so inletting the recess to create the lip to cover the tang would be simple.

Insulating the hand from the tang for electrical current, heat or cold.

Just seems like this might be a point of separation in the competition for sales.

I know I would be ALL over a FK2/S35vn/non conductive scales with 5" blade. With a sheath it could come in under 400.00.

Bill
 
What about the handle screws? The aluminum barrels are great conductors?

And someone should probably mention arc blast...severing a conductor under load in open air is HIGHLY inadvisable. Electrocution may be the least of your worries.
 
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lmalterna said:
Electrical tape turns to goo in heat or around chemicals like insect repellent. Rubber tape like used on submersible water pups works but adds girth.

Just seem like the materials are already popular. CNC machining is in use so inletting the recess to create the lip to cover the tang would be simple.

Insulating the hand from the tang for electrical current, heat or cold.

Just seems like this might be a point of separation in the competition for sales.

I know I would be ALL over a FK2/S35vn/non conductive scales with 5" blade. With a sheath it could come in under 400.00.

Bill
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most of my customers want a full tang and the ability to see the tang is a good thing. my scales are attached with fasteners and pins. It is possible to pull them off and replace them, which is a good thing. Eliminating the exposed tang and fasteners would not be a benefit to most customers only a few. Doing multiple versions of the same knife is a non-starter for me. I prefer the scales on tang version to an electrically insulated inleted version so that's what I make.
 
benchrest308 said:
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist sorry if this has already been asked, but I'm curious about your education background/history. Your knowledge and previous work experience is remarkable; curious how you got started down the knife maker path.
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When I was a kid I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. I also had a penchant for knives and sharp objects. I made my first knife when I was about 12, it was a crummy dagger made from a file on a bench grinder. I was one of those kids that grew up outside a lot and spent as much time in the woods as I could. One of my favorite tools was a machete. I had two, and I attempted to reheat treat the one that was soft and wouldn't hold an edge in the wood stove and quenched it in a bucket of water. surprisingly it didn't turn out much worse than what it started as, I'm pretty sure it wasn't heat treated in the first place.

I was working as a bicycle mechanic when I graduated high school in 93 and went to North Carolina State University. My aesthetic skills were stronger than my math skills so I went into the School of design rather than the School of engineering and got a degree in industrial design, which is product design. I have been working as a bicycle mechanic, but there were more bicycle mechanics than there were bicycle shops near the NC State campus so I found work at a local manufacturer who needed some design and engineering work and a machinist. When I graduated we moved that machine shop down to a facility we were opening in Georgia where I helped set up a pretty big contract manufacturer and worked there as a design engineer for years. About this time I put my own shop together and I was doing tool and die work and fixtures and fab work. I bought my first CNC in 2001 and it was pretty much the only CNC in town. I moved back to North Carolina to work as a design consultant for an engineering contracting sales rep company. This is where I really got into advanced plastic product design and mastered the CAD side of the CAD cam tools. We used my machine shop for prototype and development work for years until building our own lab. We got a couple haas mills and a big router and started some production too. Before long we were manufacturing quite a bit I had a crew of people and we were building stuff. My own shop had also grown to have pretty substantial capabilities. I was tinkering around with knives this whole time. At some point I started changing over our capacities to be production oriented rather than prototyping and started producing knives in volume utilizing ergonomic insight developed in a career making handheld products and advanced metallurgy learned over the course of many years of interest and reading but very little formal education on the subject. I moved away from that consulting position gradually over time and here we are. My shop has five machining centers and we produce a variety of products but the majority of our work now is knives.
 
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