So I keep tinkering around making knives, maybe its an obsession, maybe its just an excuse to hang out in my man cave and escape reality, whatever I have some available, well one is available now, or at leat will be this afternoon once it receives its final sharpen, it was sharp but as I was putting the sheath together I nicked the edge with a drill bit, as you can see in the photos, so this morning I polished the nick out and now need to resharpen it before it goes out, the others are a bit different...
These other knives are a variation of my neck knives, a mark 2 if you like, you see the idea behind the neck knives came from a request from a well known hunter down in Ross, I made him one and sold the remaining stock, then Josh James posted a video oh himself using the neck knife, and I started getting orders for a kiwi bushman neck knife, so I made a dozen, filled the orders and I have a few left, these blades are finished in that they have been cut, shaped, drilled and rough polished, but I have not handles them yet and thats because I have a choice for you in handle materials:
G10, 1 mm thick in either orange or green (or one each side) - this makes the knife very slim
Micarta, 3 mm thick, in what they call natural, which is a red colour - makes the handle ticker but with better grip
Curly maple, 2-4 mm thick, very pale gold, almost white colour, hard wood - good grip but will stain with use
and then I make a kydex sheath, I have black or orange, once finished I sharpen them and do an internal paracord wrap for extra grip and put a length of cord for a necklace on them.
These I am selling for $75 including shipping in NZ, and you get to customise the handle and sheath, they are all roughly 125mm long with a 50 mm drop pint blade and are made from 3 mm thick O1 tool steel that has been professionally heat treated to 58 on the rockwell scale.
Oh, and I probably won't be bale to get them finished until late May.
This other one is one of my GBK recurves, I actually made it for myself to replace another I sold, but I now need a new sharpening system thats coming from Russia (I know, just about as far away as it could be), its the biggest one I have made yet with a full 6 inch blade (150 mm) and a 115 mm handle. Its made from 4mm thick O1 tool steel that has been professionally heat treated and double tempered to rockwell 59 C.
The ergonomic wood handle material is very special - its lignum vitae, the hardest and rarest wood on the planet, it grows in the Caribbean, it has a hardness on the janka scale of hardness of 4500 lbf, the highest the scale goes to, by comparison pine is around 700lbf.
Shaft bearing on submarines used to made from it, the old British truncheon was made from it, and so to was Merlins wand, according to legend.
What I can tell you is that it is a pig to work, its damn hard, sinks in water, is naturally oily, but takes an amazing finish and has a very distinctive, but not unpleasant, aroma, oh and its colour changes slightly over time as its oils slowly comes to the surface, because its so oily it will prevent staining from use, it also feels fantastic in the hand. Its also damn hard to get and is insanely expensive when you can get it!
I coupled this with green G10 liners, stainless and brass loveless bolts and a stainless lanyard tube.
I made a hybrid green kydex and leather sheath and have included a diamond rod sharpener in its own holder attached to the sheath, the sheath has a tension adjuster on it, but its extremely tight already and you may not need to play with it, the belt loop is set up on the right hand side but with my hybrid sheaths you can unscrew it and reattach it for left hand carry.
The total weight is not light, at 566 grams in the sheath with diamond rod its a serious package, but its strong enough to be able to handle battoning, light chopping, skinning, butchering, food prep, carving...well you get the picture. In short this is the best knife I have made so far. The photos I took before I have repolished the blade and before I give it its final sharpen.
Price on this is going to be $225, that will include shipping in NZ with a tracking number.
Shelley
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