My next project

I wanted to make a hunting knife that would be a great knife for skinning and processing the prey into useful cuts.

I managed to find a supplier of O1 tool steel flat bars. The steel contains 0.95% Carbon is 3 mm thick. It is an absolute pleasure to work with. Apparently the O1 tool steel is great for keeping and edge.

I have cut out the blanks using the stock removal method, and I am again using a Scandinavian Grind (aka Sabre Grind). I really like this shape and I may turn this into my first production shape.

The plan is to make them all full tang using indigenous NZ hardwood (Remu and Manuka) as well as deer antler.

On a recent hunting trip, I was lucky enough to get some deer antler from the farmer to use as handle scales. This will be a first for me, so lets keep our fingers crossed it works.

 

When i looked at the results, one knife did not look as i wanted, so I decided to try my hand at flat grinding....

I think I need a little more practice....

 Next is the heat treatment stage, and the results are below.

I will start finishing them soon and also add the handles