sethyus Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Greatings to you all! As it is my first post, I thought I could share to you my first knife ''with handle''. (I've done 2 ''blacksmith's'' knifes before this one) Made a mix of a small Hunting knife and a Seax.... the rivets are far from perfect but hey, you got to start somewhere! 5160 spring steel, sugar maple handle, mild steel hand-made rivets, no glue old-style. See you soon! Sethyus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhyfelwr Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Actually it looks really good, rivets included! I am surprised that you didn't split the maple handle, most of the time when I try and use a soft wood like maple I split them. Especially at first. Looks very decent for a first handled knife. Try working around the edge on the rivet heads, basically rounding them out. Hard to explain but gets easier with practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethyus Posted February 3, 2010 Author Share Posted February 3, 2010 thanks a lot! I will take your advise on the rivets, what would you recommend on wooden handles? like the types of wood? I'm looking forward on taking local wood, we have oak/maple/white cedar/black cherry/ash/beech and black walnut... again, thanks for the advice and all, it's encouraging! off to the forge! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefera4m Posted February 4, 2010 Share Posted February 4, 2010 thanks a lot! I will take your advise on the rivets, what would you recommend on wooden handles? like the types of wood? I'm looking forward on taking local wood, we have oak/maple/white cedar/black cherry/ash/beech and black walnut... again, thanks for the advice and all, it's encouraging! off to the forge! Harder wood is usually better than soft wood for handles. A relative ranking of the wood you have available, fro softest to hardest: cedar, cherry, walnut, ash, beech, oak (depending on oak variety). Maple varies even more in hardness,so without a species I wouldn't hazard a quess. All but the cedar, with some stabilizing, with make good handles. Ranke Wood hardness A lot of knife makers would highly recommend 'stabilized' wood, i.e. wood that has been treated to increase hardness and protect against moisture. This can get expensive and if you want to do it yourself you can to one of two ways. First, Google 'stabilizing wood'. There are concoctions that you can make that will do some real good with or without the use of a vacuum. Second, you can use a commercially available product from Minwax - Minwax® High Performance Wood Hardener. Admittedly, it's not as good as professional stabilizing but it WILL vastly improve the durabality of wood handles (and it works just as well on antler). If you chhose not to stabilize at all you should at least apply a coat of protective finish. Birchwood-Casey Tru-Oil Gunstock Finish works well and looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sethyus Posted February 6, 2010 Author Share Posted February 6, 2010 Thanks, I'll read all about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welder19 Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 Very nice for a first knife! Being a woodworker as well as metal, black walnut is one of my favorite woods to work with as well as cherry and of coarse oak but there are more variety's of oak than most hard woods. welder19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Browne Posted February 8, 2010 Share Posted February 8, 2010 That is a nice functional knife. I'd be proud to call that my first one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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