Thread: The next knife

Like most of us, I have my own ideas on what makes a good hunting knife design. I started with a Mercator, then a Buck 110, then...... 40 years later I bought a Fallkniven phk. On arrival I realized it was a club of a thing, so took to it with a grinder and put it on a serious diet.
Other than the handle being slightly too small, I was pretty satisfied with it, so you can imagine my disappointment when I lost it somewhere in this photo....


I used my pocket knife for field dressing that weekend, but it's not ideal, and so after getting severe sticker shock at knife prices I'm building the next one.

First step is design. I like a blade 4.5-5" long, straight enough for boning and ring gutting, enough belly for skinning, not especially heavy and comfortable in the hand.

A modified semi skinner was contemplated


But it is too deep in the belly and too heavy, so I ended up with this.



which has been turned into a cardboard template, and a piece of 4mm O1 is waiting for the saw. I'll play with the template a bit before any cutting happens, but I'm fairly sure this is where it will end up.if

You have pretty much dawn Jack the Knife, made by @Nga.
It must be the right design...
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....fe-jack-45178/

Looks like a good shape. reminded me of this knife I never found available here:
Buck 539 Open Season Small Game

Originally Posted by ROKTOY

You have pretty much dawn Jack the Knife, made by @Nga.
It must be the right design...
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....fe-jack-45178/

Pretty much - I always liked that design. I think I've fined up the point a little, and maybe slightly less sweep - or just a longer blade. They are both similar to the PHK,
https://fallkniven.se/en/knife/phkz/


so the design has followers, certainly.

I figure that for $27 of steel, $10-20,000 of my time and some materials I'd like to have a crack. Owning an engineering shop has it's own set of drawbacks.

Nice pattern alright. If you have a machine shop maybe taper the tang etc, 4mm is pretty thick and will feel clubby I reckon.

Originally Posted by Tentman

Nice pattern alright. If you have a machine shop maybe taper the tang etc, 4mm is pretty thick and will feel clubby I reckon.

@Tentman very similar to my old meat hunting knife I gave to your young friend.

Later. I found a pic:

Originally Posted by Tentman

Nice pattern alright. If you have a machine shop maybe taper the tang etc, 4mm is pretty thick and will feel clubby I reckon.

I was intending to taper the tang, and put a gentle taper on the blade going forward as well. I can see a fair bit of time on a linisher in my future.

I got John Worthington (Ripi knives) to make me a custom knife for my own size and shape. Essentially a Bark River Canadian but sized to my hand using a cardboard template.
CPM3V and micarta handle. Love it.

I quite like the look of these made by Innerwild. Check out their website.

Originally Posted by ROKTOY

You have pretty much dawn Jack the Knife, made by @Nga.
It must be the right design...
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....fe-jack-45178/

Yep pretty close to my design mate, good spotting. We spent months in the hut at night figuring out the best shape for the all rounder and after multiple test builds and lots of feed back
having sent to a few hunters and us and deer cullers the final shape was done and I made 450 of them sold world wide for a few years, I do have 2 left in the draw for sale.

a couple pf points from my perspective , i think 4mm is to thick. my preference is 3.12 mm or 1/8th old money, and i don't think 01 is a great steel for knives . i would be happy to send you a piece of steel , carbon or stainless . cheers john

Originally Posted by john worthington

a couple pf points from my perspective , i think 4mm is to thick. my preference is 3.12 mm or 1/8th old money, and i don't think 01 is a great steel for knives . i would be happy to send you a piece of steel , carbon or stainless . cheers john

That's very generous of you John, thank you.

I had intended to taper both the tang and the blade, so in plan elevation the steel would be a very long diamond section. I appreciate 4mm is clunky, and when the grinder was through there wasn't going to be much -if any, of the blade left that thick. Do you think there is an advantage to running a constant thickness along the spine ? (assuming grinding time is discounted - I'm not doing this professionally).

having done I guess a few hundred deer and many sheep goats several tests stand out for me re knifes and shape of the blade - test one stand alongside deer and open up back leg - does the knife slide down the back leg cleanly towards the tail or does it have to sharp a point that wants to dig into the meat - second take out the deers ring gear - does it go in correctly to do the job or to short to fat - again take out the front wind pipe and trachea - to big a blade to wide to short ?? - open up front legs does the blade run along cleanly between skin and meat and give you a nice neat cut - most hunting knifes I see that guy who made it has never ever gutted a deer - 5-6 inch bowie style cant go wrong - the old bushmans friend was perfect - most knives I see are to short way to sharp a point and way to wide

Originally Posted by Ross Nolan

That's very generous of you John, thank you.

I had intended to taper both the tang and the blade, so in plan elevation the steel would be a very long diamond section. I appreciate 4mm is clunky, and when the grinder was through there wasn't going to be much -if any, of the blade left that thick. Do you think there is an advantage to running a constant thickness along the spine ? (assuming grinding time is discounted - I'm not doing this professionally).

i would taper the tang for sure. the blade it depends on what sort of grind you choose hollow or flat/convex . the problem with the thick stock and a flat grind is the blade gets thick fast with sharpening .

the old bushmans friend is still available to buy brand new....