Great piece Denis. I'd buy one! I'm not into guns, but I love my knives!

 

Now that is nice Denis , and the handle looks fine to me , where do you buy the blades from ?

 

It looks very nice Dennis, perfect for skinning possums....opps thats right you guys protect em, come over here and skin as many as ya want!!!

 

It looks very nice Dennis, perfect for skinning possums....opps thats right you guys protect em, come over here and skin as many as ya want!!!

nice fur in possum skins...........you only get to keep the skins on the ones they don't catch you with tho.
Best thing about NZ ..........you can't tell an Oz possum skin from a NZ one, once its tanned.

 

Very cool!!! I used to make knives way back in the late 90's, early 2000's. Lots of fun! I used to use O-1, 1095, 1084 that I heat treated myself, and also 440C, ATS-34, 154-cm, A2, D2, S30V and some others. Some guys are using denim jean material to make Micarta and are getting some wild patterns!! One of these days I may get around to trying to make my own Micarta, but I haven't made knives in years.

There are several knife supply houses in the US. Jantz Knife Supply and Texas Knifemakers Supply are 2 of the bigger ones off the top of my head.

 

There are several knife supply houses in the US. Jantz Knife Supply and Texas Knifemakers Supply are 2 of the bigger ones off the top of my head.

thanks Taz...........thats 2 more I can put into my little black book for future reference.

Denim is popular to make DIY micarta from, but a restricted colour palette......

He He .........what I didn't realise when I started out, was the significance of the fabric being 100% cotton ............I discovered that the hard way , with my first attempt...........

 

Yeah, its usually paper, linen or canvas for micarta.

Found this tutorial online, not me doing this!
My first attempt at making denim micarta (pic heavy))

I wonder if you could use pigments to dye the epoxy in the home made micarta?

Nick of Time Textiles Ltd - Bottom Weight Camouflogue Print Woven Fabric

Nick of Time Textiles Ltd - Denim Plaid & Stripe Woven Fabrics

A twill may work as well?
Nick of Time Textiles Ltd - Solid Cotton Twill Woven Fabrics

Nick of Time Textiles Ltd - Solid Canvas Woven Fabrics

 

I wonder if you could use pigments to dye the epoxy in the home made micarta?


You could, but it gives a very defined colour interface between the layers. at the colour changes.

part of the effect of the fabric micarta is that the resin reflects the fabric pigmentation & generates a gradation in colour intensity as each fabric layer
is shaped & thinned at its borders.

Its another reason why the fabric needs to be able to completely absorb the resin into its fibres.

Paper micarta works the otherway in that the resin is usually coloured & the paper creates the colour gradation by lightening it.
Some linen micarta is made that way too.these are all low contrast patterns.
the high contrast & multi-colour patterns are all done with heavier grade pigmented fabric.

Heavier ( thicker/coarser) textiles give a more blended edge to the layers, thinner fabrics give a sharper edge to the contrast.
I guess this is why paper & most linen micarta are single colour low contrast patterns & canvas micarta is typically more colourful/higher contrast.

Some have tried to dye canvas/denim for more colour variation, but there are reports that 'after-market' fabric dye systems have interfered with the resin reaction resulting in a failure to harden.

It was a fun exercise for me & one I will try again.

 

I am a sucker for blue colors, so I was looking at doing a denim set of scales, but I pretty much got out of knifemaking. Market went way downhill, and with working 3rd shift, I was too sleepy to be working with high speed belt sanders, MAPP gas torches, etc.

I used a lot of linen micarta handles for knives, and I really liked the canvas stuff before I stopped. Great grippiness to it without being rough! If I can find good quality preground blades, I may make some up, but most of the preground blades aren't the greatest heat treating on them and they end up somewhat soft and won't hold an edge well. I also liked the Blue/Black G10 for handles. Somewhat smoother and harder feel to it, but looked awesome!

KnifeKits.com : Designer Knife Kits - Knife Making Supplies - Knife Making Tools has some nicer stuff, I've used a few of their products.
Been eyeing this for a while now, AUS 8A with a nice hard temper to it I got spoiled by S30V at 61 rockwell, D2 at 59-61, etc.
Delta 5 - Fixed Blade Series Drop Point Grind

Jantz has some nice laminated blades, and some harder steel blades as well.

custom knifes - bladesmith Gene Martins showcase of custom knives - Provision Forge

This is a pretty sweet blade. I got one of these and finished it with a nice stabilized wood handle. Blade is fairly thick and convex ground, but it gets stupidly sharp! Blade tang is fully hardened, so you will need carbide bits to drill it for pins or rivets for the handle.
Kanetsune Damascus 9" Overall Takumi Tsurugi Blade for KnifeMakers - Knifecenter.com

 

Ohhh yeah
more Knife porn sites TAZ............

S30V & D2 are great knife steels.
But
they are 'slumming' used as fillet knives & not the best type of edge for that job IMHO...........the D2 of course would not like the salt water & would require a lot of TLC to keep it looking nice.

I have a pair of Kershaw leeks, one in S30V & the other in D2 laminated with stainless .............lovely blades...........nice folders.

The cryo-quenched AUS8 is not a bad blade at all , the cryo-quenching really makes a difference with the blade metallurgy.
Mine rings like a bell when you tap it................so its hard.

As you well know TAZ ( but others might not) ,its not just the base steel chemistry that makes a great knife edge..............its the heat treatment temps, soaks & quenching that develops the optimal properties from the steel microstructure.
The same blade steel from different makers can have very different properties.

If I was going to make a filleting knife tho I would be tempted more by an AUS6 cryo-quenched blade than by an AUS8.
The AUS6 is not quite as good for edge retention ( not much in it ), but better corrosion resistance in S/water.

 

Very nice job Denis,

I need to build a handle for a cold steel kukri, and was thinking micarta. Probally just going to buy blanks and go the easy route.

 

Yeah, D2 tooka wickedly sharp edge and was almost stainless, made a great hunting knife. I was using S30V for other knives, including kitchen knives. PITA to finish cleanly after heat treating and took a while to sharpen, but the edge was awesome and held it for a while. Only did 1 fillet knife with 154-cm, but it was thin and a PITA to grind because the blade kept flexing. AUS-8A is what Cold Steel used in many of their knives and it takes a wicked edge and it pretty tough, as long as the heat treating/cryo is done properly. I had Paul Bos doing my heat treating when I was making knives with tool or Stainless steel. I did my own HT with torches on Carbon steel, but I usually broke more knives in testing to see how the HT went. I also liked to use a water quench and heard the dreaded PING a few times

I'd rather have a so so steel with the heat treating and cryo nailed down spot on than a super wiz bang steel with a so so heat treat!

I think I am going to order up one of the SG4's and a "hand ground" 1095 blade from Texas knifemakers supply and see how they are. I talked to Darrel Ralph a couple times back when I was building and I believe his stuff will have the proper heat treating and cryo done to it! Did up a few of his 605 folders when they first hit the market, steel was very nice!!

 

Yeah, so I just ordered up 3 blanks One of the hand ground 1095 blades (I love Carbon steels!!), one of the SG4 Drop Points and another bare blade, plus some Barbwire Micarta and synthetic ivory, paper micarta, etc. Should be interesting!!

 

I refuse to accept any blame for the re-emergence of your knifemaking addiction Taz

............have fun........let us see the results.

 

Very nice job Denis,

I need to build a handle for a cold steel kukri, and was thinking micarta. Probally just going to buy blanks and go the easy route.

DIY 'Micarta' is not so bad to make

100% heavy/heavyish cotton fabric, polyester resin , wrap in oven greaseproof paper & clamp heavily between 2 good solid boards.

just make sure to lay down plenty of newspaper on the table before you start 'glassing' to cope with the resin squeezed out by the clamps.
- remove from the clamps & paper as soon as hard , lay back on the board, & then don't touch it for at least 48 hrs to gain full hardness before shaping.

 

I'm blaming you Denis!!! I've wanted to do some of the kits, but I had gotten some of the cheaper ones in the past and the blades just really sucked. Steel was soft, didn't hold an edge, grinds were ugly, etc. Hopefully the higher end blanks are nicer! I just wish there were nice fillet knife blanks out there with more of a saltwater style to them!

I used to have to grind the blades outside with a Grizzly Grinder. Its a single speed, 3200 SFPM IIRC, so it is a fast machine. I used 36 grit ceramic belts to hog out the profiles and set the workbench on fire a few times and the pile of metal shavings would often glow when I hogged out 15 blanks back to back. And I found out that Titanium gets WHITE HOT and can bounce around!! I had fun with it, but when the knife companies started to do more collaborations with the high end custom guys and the factories started using better materials, the custom market really dropped in early 2002/2003.

I will post up pics and stuff as I go along, may try to find some pics of my older stuff, too!

 

HWK, Texas Knife may not be too far away from you! They also have neoprene rubber you can use as well.

 

I'm blaming you Denis!!! I've wanted to do some of the kits, but I had gotten some of the cheaper ones in the past and the blades just really sucked. Steel was soft, didn't hold an edge, grinds were ugly, etc. Hopefully the higher end blanks are nicer! I just wish there were nice fillet knife blanks out there with more of a saltwater style to them!

I will post up pics and stuff as I go along, may try to find some pics of my older stuff, too!

Some of my early blades would not hold an edge very well either..............until I worked out who did good heat treatment & who to avoid.

The better quality kit blades from the recognised reliable sources are pretty good these days, especially since the cryo-quenching techniques & the steels to optimise them were developed & have become more common.

once you get into the cryo-quenched blade steels its much more reliable in blade performance to work with kit blades than shape & heat treat yourself.
the kit blades are prety sharp out of the box , but there is plenty of room to develop your own edge tapers for super sharpness to suit the duty you want the knife for.

OK Taz , I'm pretty safe with the blame ..........I'm a long long way away from you...............besides I'm just a DIY tragic.........if its within my capabilities to do a half decent job of it I build rather than buy. Lots of pleasure in using things you have put your own elbow grease into.

 

I actually found some pics/scans of some of my knives!! Most of these are older pics or even scans of my knives before I had a digital camera, so the polished blades look kinda black from the reflections.

This is one of the Kanetsune blades I got from knifecenter. It's 15 layer Damascus with Blue Steel in the middle IIRC, burl handle, maybe Madrone?

Belt knife with black linen micarta handle:

D2 blade, Mokume Bolster and Desert Ironwood handle:

Ivory Micarta, ie white paper micarta handles, I think both were S30V, one may be O-1?

Devon Thomas High Carbon Firestorm damascus neck knife with drilled and anodized Titanium handle scales.

Little blue neck or belt knife, blue G10 handle with a Turks Head knot and crossed hollow paracord handle. No idea what the steel is, maybe 1095??

Bird and trout type knife, it was a thinner blade stock, maybe 3/32 and I think ATS-34 or 154-cm, red micarta handle. The handle section was drilled out a ton to balance where the guy wanted it. A little wider blade than on most B&T knives, but it worked out well.

8" S30V chefs knife, G10 handle:

 

Awesome

Lovely work there TAZ.

You got some nice wood for some of them.

The rounder cross section handles bring out the micarta patterning better don't they.
Doesn't show as nicely where you use a squarer handle shape for blade stability in the hand like needed in my knife in the OP.

I'm going to try & salvage my original DIY micarta handle scales by soaking it with CA to try to deal with the polyester 'pilling' when I get closer to the final shape.
might work.........might be a waste of time...........worth a try.

 

Thanks! I was able to get some nice Ironwood from a guy out in Arizona I believe. I think they were able to harvest fallen Ironwood, but couldn't cut down an Ironwood tree or something. Some regulations about it, which is a shame because a lot of the wood is gorgeous!!! Nice and hard, and you just need to buff it, no stabilizing needed! Some of the ironwood I have seen is just wavy figure, but places that were selling it were taking pics of the individual pieces (blocks or scales) so people could pick the figure they wanted, but they were getting over $40 for a set! The top pic has some Madrone burl I think and it may be stabilized. It's been a while! Ironwood and Curly Koa were some of my favorites, but Cocobolo, Bocote, Zircote, Purpleheart, Snakewood, Curly Maple, and Mesquite also worked well for me.

For shaping, I usually ended up ordering thicker Micarta than I would really need just so I could shape it out more. A 1/4" thick piece sometimes just needed the edges rounded out and not much shaping. If you shape it, it can become too thin. A 3/8" or 1/2" thick piece is much more fun to sculpt, shape, round, etc and ended up fitting the hand better, even though I would sometimes get it down to just over 1/4". Wider handles changed things up a bit, too. It took some trial and error to play with it and I loved the way shaping and contouring would change how the knife felt and then it would just click and felt awesome in the hand!

Somehow I forgot to put one of my favorite pairs up!

Left knife is a D2 blade with black and red Micarta for the handle. The blade was eventually bead blasted with a very fine glass bead media. The right hand knife is a little O-1 utility knife with brown canvas Micarta. This Micarta worked a bit differently and was harder to work, but with a little elbow grease, ended up very smooth and clean! A while back, several knifemakers got together on a chat system called PalTalk and used to chat for hours in the evening. One of the guys had an idea. The various knifemakers donated knives for a swap. These 2 went out as my contribution. I got a knife from Ron Clairborne that is L6 with a stag handle, awesome little knife! L6 is an incredibly tough steel and often found in older saw mill blades. It's incredibly tough, but has a fine grain structure and takes a wicked edge and holds it well, but is also easy to touch up.

 

They deserve to be a favoured pair.
Very Kool

I have a little blasting gun that I use with collected used media that I size screen myself to get the particle size I want for the finish desired.
I use it on rod bits I make myself after fine sanding........a lot quicker than polishing smooth to hide the grit scratches...... He He.
I bead blasted the s/s tube spacer I made to take up the gap between the reelseat & the butt join to get the rod length I wanted on the Synit GOM3 I'm building at the moment ( slowly ).
(waiting on the particular soft epoxy I want to use to arrive.)

 

The blasting looked great! I had a friend who was a knifemaker and like 20 minutes away from me when I was in college, so I did a bunch of knives in his blaster at his shop. He mixed glass beads and some other stuff to get a very silky, matte finish. It hid the little grit marks, but not much else!

We are going to get slammed with a Hurricane this weekend, and then I will be busy at work for the next week or so with students arriving, but I hope to start up this set of 3 blades soon!!

 

Is that the Darrel Ralph Modern Skinner?? I love his designs!! I was going thru knifekits.com and saw that one! I talked to him on some of the knife forums when he was collaborating with Camillus back in the late 90's/early 2000's. Did several of his Arc Light neck knifes as a kit and added handles to them for customers. Love his Mad Maxx stuff, too. He does great, clean designs!! I trust his HT/Cryo stuff, which is why I am looking at the kits designed by him. I did some of the first DDR folders when they hit the market. Smooth, sharp, took and held a nice edge!

 

I wish I had the skills you guys have! I just dropped off the ironwood blocks and two Mule Team blades to have handles & sheaths made less than an hour ago with a guy that does really nice work. If I tried it I'd ruin the blade and the handle material