Hi Everyone,

Well, looks like I'm doing it all backwards - first I post two technical posts regarding heat treatment (here and here), and THEN I finally introduce myself...

I hail from Bloemfontein, South Africa, and have only very recently started making my first knife. I need a good skinner for our next hunting season, and would like one that will stay sharp longer than the average "shop-bought" commercial knife - hence my decision to make my own. I have zero experience or knowledge with forging, so decided to stick to grinding for this knife (I would love to learn how to forge, but that will have to wait another year or two, until I've built myself a decent forge). I did need to heat treat the blade, though, so invested in a digitally controlled electric knife kiln.

The knife was made using only a Tormek wet grinder, and hand tools such as an iron saw, a few files, a pedestal drill (with buffer wheel), and lots of sand paper... I made the handle from Lebombo Ironwood, retrieved from an old railway sleeper that was about 120 years old. The steel is from German origin, and is sold in South Africa as Panzer 36 - it is similar to Bohler N690, and I treated it to a Rockwell C hardness of around 59-60, although I have not confirmed this yet.

Anyway, enough of that - here are some photos. Please keep in mind that the knife still needs to be sharpened, and it must also still receive a final sanding and buffing, so you will still see some dirt and light scratches on the photos:

Here is the knife, together with a wooden model that I made whilst designing it:





This will give you an idea of wood to metal fit - I'm quite pleased with how this turned out



Hennie

Wow, excellent work for your first knife. I love the wood on the handle.

Hennie,

Welcome to IFI. That is a truly beautiful knife. Well done.

Mark <><

Great job! not many people would make a full wood mock up of there knife. Good idea, gives you more detailed look of the finish product.

Nice looking first! Im working on a gut hook skinner for my little brother now. I wouldnt have thought about putting the gut hook at the end of the handle. Way to mix it up a bit. I'll keep that i mind for the next one. Keep up the good work.

looks like a lovely considered piece of work to me, to make a mock up shows a lot of patience :0 fair play to you hennie !

The gut hook on the handle is a great idea!

Keep us posted on how it works out in the field. I highly expect you will be real happy with that compared to store bought knives. I like the front part of the blade for skinning. i make my blade a little longer so the part of it closer to the guard is used to cut around the legs, Dirt and stuff are hard on an edge,,that leaves the front part for the inside work....

Thanks for the nice words, everyone :D

Rich, I will certainly give you an "in use" update in a few months - hunting season here in South Africa opens in May, and I hope to have shot something by June...

For the time being, I can report that the combination of a high quality steel, and a slightly incorrect heat treatment resulted in a blade with a Rockwell "C" hardness of between 62 and 63 (tested), so slightly harder than what I wanted, but still not too brittle if not used as a chopper. I have since used the knife to cut numerous pieces of thick leather, and perhaps a dozen 1" x 1" pieces of pine brandering, and the blade is still shaving sharp.

i make my blade a little longer so the part of it closer to the guard is used to cut around the legs

I'm currently working on my third knife, which will be a little caper, made with N690 steel, to use for the more delicate cutting around the cape, legs, etc. (the second one being a "utility" hunter made with 12C27 that I recently completed). I hope to have the caper completed before I go hunting this year - will post pics once it's done.

Hennie

I would love to go to South Africa to hunt :)

I would love to go to South Africa to hunt :)

And I would love to hunt in Northern Canada - to hunt and fish in the Yukon Territory is high up on my "to do" list... funny that we're never satisfied with what we've got...

And I would love to hunt in Northern Canada - to hunt and fish in the Yukon Territory is high up on my "to do" list... funny that we're never satisfied with what we've got...

Honestly man I would also love to go fishing and hunting in northern Canada but the costs to travel that far are pretty high lol. A few people I know have gone to South Africa to hunt and the pictures they shared with me were amazing.