Hello all. Firstly, the design of this blade was inspired by Bearded Guy's cable welded damscus knife. This is, in no way, supposed to be a copy. I really liked the design, and wanted to give it a go, though I believe his turned out far better than my own. 

Now then, the knife is 10-1/2" overall with a 6" blade, 1075 steel. The scales are black walnut, with no stain (I absolutely love the look of the stuff!) 3/16" brass pins. The blade itself turned out thinner than I would have wanted, but I was cautious with the heat treat, and tempered it appropriately (I think) at two cycles of 425° for an hour per cycle. It retained hardness quite well, and is moderately flexible. 

I must thank Thomas Powers for introducing me to the technique of draw filing. I believe it has allowed me to be far more accurate, and achieve more crisp lines for the plunge line and ricasso. I still have a LOT to learn though. 

Any thoughts, comments, or critiques would be appreciated. Thanks for looking!

What are you skinning that requires such a large blade? The skinners I'm accustomed to seeing are much smaller than that and usually sport a drop point instead of a trailing point. I'm not trying to knock your knife, it's not bad looking, I'm just making a couple observations. 

Michael Cochran

I have skinned a few critters in my time, and I tan the hides as well, for leather mostly, not furs. That being said, any hole in the hide really impacts the product, as you have to work around it. I liked this design because the tip is plenty far back, reducing the chance of accidentally poking a hole. Drop points have the tip a little too close for comfort, in my opinion. As for the size... Yes, I agree, it should be smaller. I wanted it to be a little more wide and less long than it ended up. Hence why it became a little thinner than planned too, i tried to pull too much out of it i think. Yet another sign that I have a lot to learn.

Like I said I wasn't trying to be obnoxious. I was just curious.

Do you ever sell your leather or do you use it all yourself?

No, I appreciate the input. Thank you. 

I typically use the leather myself. I'm not very good at working with it though lol. I need to learn how to make sheaths, but mostly I use it to make arm guards for archery (to protect against string slap) and as a traditional backing for bows. I've never thought about selling it to be honest. I only have a supply of it during hunting season after all. 

I have thought about trying to make my own leather but the one time I tried didn't go too well. I had a guy give me a cape off a deer he decided to mount differently than he originally planned. I cleaned the rest of the meat off that I could and hung it up like I was told to. When I took it off the plywood to work it my 100 lb dog I had at the time brok into my shop I was building and stole what he thought was a rawhide treat. I'd like to try again one day.  

I feel your pain, same thing happened to me, but with the neighbors dog. Figures, the one day I forget to shut the shop door! Haha. Were you planning to chemically tan or brain tan? I have no experience chemically tanning, but with brain tanning, the magic happens when you smoke the hide. That's when you can color it (depending on the wood used) and control the softness of the leather.

I didn't have the brains and wasn't gonna buy the chemicals. I'll have to find the directions I was going by to remember the full details but what I can remember was to flesh it salt it. I don't recall the rest of the process.

1 hour ago, Michael Cochran said:

I didn't have the brains

I'm kinda short on brains, myself. 

1 hour ago, JHCC said:

I'm kinda short on brains, myself. 

My job has left me feeling like that all week.  

The knife: Looks to be well executed. Well done Will. I personnaly prefer straight blades and handles for the most part, especially if it is to be used unsighted as I have a better visualisation of where the point is but that's merely my preference.

Tanning: I only ever tried once, Half a dozen trout skins, it didn't go quite as I intended. I had some succsesfull, however I inadvertantly made parchent rather than leather. I made my own tanning chemicals for free ( A Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus based solution, I'll let you work out where I got it from.  the strength and curing timing probably needed some tweeking. )

Smoggy

Thank you. This knife probably wouldn't be used unsighted (for gutting I assume you mean) I agree with you, I prefer a MUCH smaller blade for that. You nick a bladder *one* time, and it makes you reconsider your knife size haha. It would be mostly for skinning and fleshing. I've never tried using trout skin though. Seems kind of fishy...

 

The old folks in the Alaskan village where my grandfather was born made outer parkas from salmon skin, to keep out the rain.

Great looking knife, glad i could inspire someone. I still got lots of learnin to do myself. The blade isn't too big in my opinion, just needs bigger critters. Hahaaaa. Good job. Keep at it and if ya want, i can post some dimensions of my cable skinner if ya want. Copy away, it ain't gonna hurt my feelings none. I probably copied it off someone else anyway. 

Bearded Guy

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. But yeah, I would like to see dimensions of yours. 

As the fellow members have said before, it would be truly difficult to come up with a genuinely new design for just about anything, tongs, hammers, knives, etc. but I still felt it was necessary to say that I did not intend to just copy your design. Your skinner turned out really nice btw, I loved the antler handle. 

JHCC

That's interesting. Must have taken quite a few salmon skins to make a whole parka! 

"...I've never tried using trout skin though. Seems kind of fishy..."

Sharkskin seems to be a favourate with bladesmiths the world over for hilts. I suspect even the Fins use it and some of the old blades probably have the odd tail to tell......maybe that's were the term scales comes from!

"... The old folks in the Alaskan village where my grandfather was born made outer parkas from salmon skin, to keep out the rain. "

It was the old folks up thataway that I got the tanning solution, solution from JHCC.....it's a no brainer!

Check these sites out for making and working with leather.

Leatherworker.net

Taxidermy.net

 

I skinned a cow and that knife would do just fine for that, or a deer. I agree, point out of the way. Nice job. 

6 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Sharkskin seems to be a favourate with bladesmiths the world over for hilts

If I remember correctly, that's what katana hilts were wrapped in. Or was it ray skins? Japanese techniques always seem to elude me.

BIGGUNDOCTOR

Thank you for the info, I appreciate it. I will definitely check those sites out. 

Marc1

Thank you. Never had the opportunity to skin a cow, but boy! That would be a lot of leather!

I keep trying to upload a pic for reference, but it aint lettin me.... i will take some measurements and upload a few pics when i get back home next weekend. Im currently stuck in Houston helping my sister move and don't fly back home til Saturday night. 

Yeah, finally got it to upload. Hope this helps for a reference for now. 

Bearded Guy

That knife is smaller than I thought it was. Those pictures on your post are deceptive! Or maybe I just didn't look hard enough haha. Still loving the antler handle.