I finally managed to get one finished. I've had this outstanding koa laying on a shelf for several months now and it's been driving me crazy waiting to use it. I've been scratching together materials and building equipment for the last several months; grinder, forge, workbenches, etc. This knife is the first in a matching set of 9. I built all 9 blades before I started trying to put any of them together, so that took a little time as well, since I don't get a lot of time to work on them. Any way, here it is. Blade is 1084, bead blasted and cold blued for a matte gray-black finish. Bolsters/pins are stainless with aluminum tubing. If you look really closely at the koa scales, you can almost see a little curl in it. ;) Came in at 8 3/8" OAL, 4 1/4" blade.
(http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg614/tomsm44/DSCN0441.jpg) (http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/tomsm44/media/DSCN0441.jpg.html)
(http://i1246.photobucket.com/albums/gg614/tomsm44/DSCN0437.jpg) (http://s1246.photobucket.com/user/tomsm44/media/DSCN0437.jpg.html)
By the way, these 9 knives are my first try at flat grinding. I like it much better than hollow grinding, which is what I did on the first few blades I made. I plan to stick with this from here on out
Great job Matt.
Nice looking knife!
Great work!
Thanks guys. I'm getting more comfortable with grinding and building these full tangs. I have a couple of hidden tang blades ground out. Gonna give that a try now. Also have most of my equipment together to start forging. Plan to have a go at that if I ever get caught up.