Inspired by Trollsky

If you look on Youtube, you will find a guy in Poland that makes amazing knives. Just do a search for Trollsky.

He makes absolutely beautiful Scandinavian type knives and this little knife was inspired by his work.

Its made of U1004 Carbon steel bright bar

Overall length is: 15cm

Blade length: 6.5cm

The handle is Ebony, Copper and Walnut.

Fist time Jimping and my first satin finish

You know how when you start with something in your head, but the finished product looks NOTHING at all like what you planned.

Anyway, this is exactly what happened to me.

To make the blank I utilized (as I always do) the stock removal method.  I used some 5mm Engineering steel bar (U1004 Carbon steel bright bar) and as you can see the total length was 225mm.  The blade is approx 105mm.

I went for a flat grind with a satin finish.  This is my first satin finish and I achieved it by using a 400 grit belt.  I was quite pleased with the grind.

For the full tang handle I used European Walnut, copper pins, copper lined lanyard hole.

As I mentioned in the title, this was my first attempt, and I very quickly learned, that if you are not experienced, then it is a lot safer to use hand files to do this.  My first try was done with the belt edge, and I completely stuffed it up.  To try and salvage the blade, I ground away the jimping, but this adversely affected the balance of the blade and the handle. 

I had to make the blade significantly narrower and then to try and address the balance, I changed the design to a modified Bowie shape instead of the normal drop point.

Let’s face it, she is not going to win any beauty contests, but it is definitely a very functional knife.

Enjoy the knife Oom Kallie van die Bosveld...

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Sheath Making

My mate is into sheath making, and he volunteered to help me make some sheaths for my knives.  Specifically for the triplets in an earlier post.

The first leather we worked with was a Chromium Salt Tanned leather, and I had the worst ever allergic reaction to this leather.  Beautiful soft leather, but apparently it does not agree with my skin....  I will spare you the photo's.

Anyway, he went and bought some vegetable tanned leather, and it works a treat!  My mate did the design, the gluing, the original belt loop stitching and the three studs you see on the sheath.  I did the stitching and the final polishing.

I think it turned out relatively well.  You will also notice the makers mark etching on the blade went a little better this time around. The knife is a O1 toolsteel (0.95% Carbon), full flat grind with a walnut handle, copper pins, and a copper lanyard hole.

Caping Knife - My First Hidden Tang

So when making a few other knives, I had a bit of steel left.  I decided to use it to make my first hidden tang knife.  With a short broad extremely sharp blade it makes a great caping knife.  The definition of a caping knife is:  "specifically used for caping game animals. The knife is used to prepare the animal hide by preserving the neck or the shoulder mount. A caping knife is relatively small and has fine blades."

It is made of O1 toolsteel.  It is the small blade at the bottom of this photo.

After Heat Treatment

Originally it was going to have a Scandinavian Grind, but I had issues with etching my makers mark onto the blade.  I ground everything back and the blade ended up a flat grind.

The handle is a combination of Walnut, Copper, Ebony, Copper and Walnut, but if you look at the at the handle, you will notice that I ended up grinding the handle a little too deep, and exposed the tang....  Oh well, this is how we learn...

What to do with a broken Gun Stock

My mate had a broken gun stock, so we decided to make the scales for his knife from the gun stock.

It is the first knife I have finished since I started working with the O1 Tool Steel.

The knife is designed to be a good skinner and butchering knife.

After the heat treatment the blade had some interesting markings on it and I decided not to polish them out of the blade.  I think that it made for something a little bit different and unique.

The handle scales as mentioned before were made from a broken European Walnut Gun stock.  The original checkering was preserved.

Again two copper pins and a copper lined lanyard hold finished off the handle