Got a nice knife? Let's see it.

Thanks, RedRocker! My wife's cousin even wants one! I'm going to be busy just making blades and sheaths for family and friends.

I've hammered on this knife in order to prove out my heat treat. I've heat treated steel (many types), as regards to tool and die work, and have the same set up here at home. This prototype knife exhibits the properties of a knife that I like.

Holds its edge, good impact resistance, tough in torsion, no edge chipping from over hardening (or under tempering).

Good steel. Not for sale.

Love it, 'Dog!

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Here's a new one I picked up from John Doyle...little trailing point with buckeye burl scales.

there was an inmate here in west that would pull out the pins and make it up from whatever blades/options you wanted.
Not sure if he still does it, but I could look it up if interested. You had to give him all the parts so a donor knife was needed unless he already had the parts from a previous build.
It was a booming cottage biz, many folks want a different combo than what the standard fair is.

You have to email him and ask, i check the older newsletters and see what it is I want then email and see if it is in stock. It is a very off way to do it but it is a one man show I think so it is not all automated and online etc. My order when fast and he shipped the item quickly so no complaints really. can be a tad slow to respond but just the way it is with smaller places I guess.



oh and nice work Stromdog

Beautiful knife, Stromdog!!

+1 on that. Care to share any details on the construction -- which steel did you use, what was your HT process, etc...

he mentioned 1095 carbon steel but unsure about the HT.

Thanks for the good words, guys!

I designed this knife after waking up with severe shoulder pain one night (I'd just had surgery on it). I don't know why I did this, but I just started sketching on a piece of paper and came up with it. I took all the best features of all my field knives and tried to combine them into this one design. Of course then I had to try and make it!

It's 1/8", 1095 steel with a heat treat I did myself. My wife has a glass fusing kiln, which works well for heat treating. I brought the temperature up to 1500 degrees F, held it there for 5 minutes and then quenched in canola oil whose temperature was 110 degrees F. I then tempered the blade for two hours at 500 degrees F. The heat treating charts say that this should produce a hardness in the 58-60 Rc range.

The scales are stabilized maple burl and they're attached to the full tang using epoxy glue and 3/16" brass Corby bolts. The lanyard tube is 1/4" brass. The blade is 4 1/2" long, drop point style (my favorite due to its tip strength), 1 7/16" wide (spine to edge) and has been ground scandi-vex. I like this grind as it is very tough owing to the amount of steel supporting the actual cutting edge. I also like it as it is quite simple to achieve using a 2" belt sander with the backing plate removed. A "slack belt", basically. The slack belt provides the convex contour and it's a simple matter to hold the blade at a constant angle while moving it across the belt. There is no secondary bevel. I finished the edge off by using a sheet of 600 grit wet/dry paper placed over a computer mouse pad to achieve a true 0 degree edge. All work was done with the blank in its annealed state with the final edge being fully refined after heat treating. It is incredibly sharp!

My wife has a 12" diamond grit lapping machine on order, so I'm going to see what kind of a finish I can put on the next knife. This blade just has a 3M Scotchbrite finish which is fine for a field knife, as it's going to get beat up in use anyway.

I have another one in process and I'm going to make a few changes: thumb jimping on the spine and deepen and lengthen the finger choil. Once I finalize this design, I'm going to have a water jet cutter run me out 20 or so blanks so I can build enough to satisfy the friends and family that want one and still have some left over to maybe sell to folks that like this type of knife. I may try to make one in 5/32" (.156") thick stock and would like to try working with 0-1 or D2.

It's a great design for an all around camp/bushcrafter knife, and would work well for field dressing game, as well as skinning.

Spyderco's Butch Vallotton Sub-Hilt Folder

You no likee?

That's pretty cool for a Spyderco.

SniperX, I like the new sig line.

The sub-hilt handle is okay I guess but I don't like odd-shaped blades ... I like plain boring old drop points.

Thanks, and I think Spydercos are fugly too and like this one.

I'm not a fan of the hole in the blade either but other than that, it is a regular plain blade. I never liked the ugly Spyderco knives looks but they are great knives. I have an original first year police model I never carry.

Spyderco do make good quality knives and are very responsive to customers too ... they produce a number of knives specifically to comply with the restrictive UK regulations, such as the UKPK which is a very nice knife.

just ordered a 5.11 double duty, has a little tickler on the end...might be good to "poke" boxes with

I will say the one I ordered looks way better in person, the whole HOLE thing goes away in a hurry. The thing just FEELS like a 500 dollar folder too.