Jziegenbein

One downside to College is being cut off from my shop, so I've been trying to make the most of my brief summer. I finally got back into the swing of things after a couple rough test pieces to give my muscles a chance to regain their memory. I'm really pleased with how this came together, it went surprisingly smooth the whole way along.

The blade is 5160. The handle is thuya burl with wrought iron fittings.

6.5" blade

4.75" handle

11.25" OAL

Thanks to you all for looking!

Stunning!

I unfortunately haven't had time for much of anything besides school and work for the past few months, but I've finally finished one.

The blade started out as a large bearing race that i split and treated like 52100, 5 normalization cycles and 3 oil quenches followed by tempering it at 400F twice for 2 hours.

I did some chopping, cutting, and flexing with the blade and a mockup handle just to be sure, and it performed as well as any of my knives. It wasn't very pretty though, with a bit of forge scale smattered along the flats, so i etched the whole blade in vinegar over night. or i thought i etched the whole blade. Somehow only 4/5 of the blade got etched and there was a nasty line running across the blade. So i etched the rest of the blade and did a few mustard etches and wiped it with some FeCl since i didnt have much to lose, cosmetically.

The fittings are copper, which i patinated to match the blade, dabbing with FeCl and then with vinegar. The handle itself is redheart. I must say i was surprised at how vivid red this wood is. it's surprisingly light, and the dust stains everything. Fortunately it washes away with water. I left the handle a bit thinner than usual, and it's one of the most comfortable handles i've made, i think. The tang is peened over the pommel.

The blade is 9.5" long, with a bit of accidental recurve.

The handle is a hair under 5" long

so that gives it an OAL of 14.5"

I'm really pleased with how this knife turned out. It's fairly light and fast and it chops better than any other knife i've made.

anyways, enough jibber jabber. Here are a few pics. I still have yet to make a sheath for it.

thanks for lookin!

ohhhhh an eating set would be a fun change. that gets my vote.

also, whatever the theme, if it's within my capabilities, then i'll definitely be in.

that's looking sweet! i like the shape of the eye especially. what steel is it?

fine is an understatement, i couldn't do that sort of shaping with any amount of forging or stock removal

oooh i like that, especially the handle shape. i can just visualize the kind of control adding the extra meat at the front end of the handle would give for fine, tedious bladework. bravo!

my knife is finished

Jared Ziegenbein

had one of my buddies take some real pictures of this. they're quite a bit more crisp and detailed for some reason

Thanks for looking

yes, definitely! i would be super pleased to have the luck of winning such a fine knife!

Whoa! now that is a beautiful piece. the grain flows so well from the blade to the guard to the handle and the textures all match. and the colors. and..and... and... i want it

seriously though, post some more of your work, feel aside. i for one wouldnt complain to see more of your handiwork around here

if that's your first, then congratulations! you've surpassed my first 4 knives already

Stick with it man. starting at your age, you're bound to produce some great work!

Sam you crazy mofo.... that is too freakin cool!

Just to clear any confusion, here's the updated list as far as i can tell.

1. Petr Florianek

2. Serge Panchenko

3. Luke Shearer

4. Josh Burrell

5. Alex Naumenko

6. Ethan Perry (Ethan P.)

7. N. Runals

8. JJ Simon

9. Orien MacDonald (Orien M.)

10. kyle o'donnell

11. Jacques Delfosse

12. Noah M Legel

13. Casey W Daniel

14. Matthew Marolt

15. Jared Ziegenbein

16. Anthony Crnic

17. Leif Svendsen

18. Antoine Marçal

19. George Ezell

20. Scott A. Roush

21. Dave Stephens

22. Mark Schneider

23. Don Abbott

24. ryan stevens

25. kevin hopkins

26. Jaroslav Lett (Hloh)

27. Geoffrey Swyka

28. Jake Cleland

29. Michael Lenaghan

30. Bret (a last name would be good)

31. Christopher Price

32. B. Norris

33. Troy Christianson

34. Stephen Stumbo

35. Kip Kaiser

36. Luke Sorensen

37. Geoff Keyes

now that is just downright sexy

nothing to be ashamed of here! that's a beautiful little knife!

thanks guys! I've sure had fun with this KITH already, and the real fun hasn't even started yet!

I finally finished the final touches, overall i'm very happy with how this turned out. My (atrocious) carving is a bit on the messy side, but i cleaned up the scratches as best I could. I don't know how the resident carving fiends can stand it. I about pulled out my beard it was that tedious

I'm especially pleased with the fit on the guard. This is the first time i can say i've gotten it fit with no gaps whatsoever.

The blade is just a hair under 6" long and the handle is 4 3/8", making the OAL 10 3/8"

But enough of my yammer, here's a few pictures of the finished product.

once again, pardon the less than satisfactory pictures. I'm no photographer. Thanks for looking

That's just indredible, fantastic, and impossible all rolled into one

needless to say, i like it

I can honestly say i've never seen antler used quite like that. VERY cool idea and execution!

Thanks man! the concave pommel was a bit tricky when I was peening the tang, but I like the effect of it too

finally hit something of a drawback on this one. It was only a matter of time

I cleaned up the glue, trued up the shape of the back end, which had glued a little misaligned, and cut the end of the tang for peening.

unfortunately, the epoxy hadn't flowed into the middle part of the handle very well, so during peening the handle jarred itself apart. I'm glad this happened, as it showed me a weakness earlier rather than latere

So I applied a much more liberal coat to the inside of the wooden part and through the rest of the handle, and set it to cure again.

This time it survived the peening process easily. The pommel had to be resanded and re-etched a bit.

And a bit of a closeup on the peened tang

Now I just have the simple task of carving the antler

a bit more work done on this.

a nice cup of dilute FeCl with the Wrought Iron peices taking a bath

a close up of the guard and pommel, etched about 30 minutes or so

everything shaped and sanded to 600grit and etched

guard and pommel taped off for gluing

delicious epoxy

and here it sits for the next day or so, pardon my messy worktable.

after a few tedious hours with needle files and my drill press, I got everything fitted. The oak slabs are mortised to fit the tang, pinned together with short bits of brazing rod, and glued together

a few minutes with the belt sander and staring into the light got rid of any gaps between the spacers

And it's finally beginning to take shape! I've done a little more sanding down past this point, and am just about to etch the guard and pommel

sweet work! that wood really popped with some sandpaper and stain!