Alrighty then INGO members, its time to get this thing going.
After fighting off the flu along with my family members I was able to get some work started on the first ever handmade INGO knife.
To recap, the knife we are going to build is as follows;
Hunter
Stainless blade
Wood handle (it was actually a draw, but I have a plan)
8 1/2" overall length (more or less)
with bolsters
& a leather sheath
So what I am going to do is try and give you as much detail as I can so that if you decide to do this yourself you can give it a shot.
I am by no means a professional or know it all, but I have made a few knives over the past few years. I welcome any and all input. If you have ideas or suggestions feel free to post them along the way.
Lets start with the design of the knife.
I have (like I said) made a few knives over the past couple of years and I have developed my own method for making knives. In this post I may deviate from my normal routine so that I can share with you how you can do it at home.
Normally I develope a pattern and transfer that to a piece of mild steel to use in future knives. In this case we are going to transfer the design directly to the blade steel and go from there.
I designed a hunting style knife by drawing it out on a piece of printer paper.
The design ended up being nearly 9" in overal length
The next step is to cut out the design
The steel we will be using is CM 154. This is a very good stainless that I use quite a bit. Normally I use CPM 154, but this is what I had at the time.
Laying the knife pattern next to the steel you will notice that the knife is longer than the steel. That's because we are going to make a partial hidden tang model. Trust me, you'll like it.
Now we put some Gorilla glue on the steel...
Then using my finger I smooth it out over the entire surface of the steel.
Having done that I place the pattern on the wet glued steel and press it on and get all the air bubbles out.
Now we have to wait until the glue dries and then we will proceed.
Here is a picture of the handle material we will be using. It is stabilized Maple Burl. I am sure this will look really nice, and we will be using a mosaic pin to hold it on the knife.
More later....
After fighting off the flu along with my family members I was able to get some work started on the first ever handmade INGO knife.
To recap, the knife we are going to build is as follows;
Hunter
Stainless blade
Wood handle (it was actually a draw, but I have a plan)
8 1/2" overall length (more or less)
with bolsters
& a leather sheath
So what I am going to do is try and give you as much detail as I can so that if you decide to do this yourself you can give it a shot.
I am by no means a professional or know it all, but I have made a few knives over the past few years. I welcome any and all input. If you have ideas or suggestions feel free to post them along the way.
Lets start with the design of the knife.
I have (like I said) made a few knives over the past couple of years and I have developed my own method for making knives. In this post I may deviate from my normal routine so that I can share with you how you can do it at home.
Normally I develope a pattern and transfer that to a piece of mild steel to use in future knives. In this case we are going to transfer the design directly to the blade steel and go from there.
I designed a hunting style knife by drawing it out on a piece of printer paper.
The design ended up being nearly 9" in overal length
The next step is to cut out the design
The steel we will be using is CM 154. This is a very good stainless that I use quite a bit. Normally I use CPM 154, but this is what I had at the time.
Laying the knife pattern next to the steel you will notice that the knife is longer than the steel. That's because we are going to make a partial hidden tang model. Trust me, you'll like it.
Now we put some Gorilla glue on the steel...
Then using my finger I smooth it out over the entire surface of the steel.
Having done that I place the pattern on the wet glued steel and press it on and get all the air bubbles out.
Now we have to wait until the glue dries and then we will proceed.
Here is a picture of the handle material we will be using. It is stabilized Maple Burl. I am sure this will look really nice, and we will be using a mosaic pin to hold it on the knife.
More later....