Gerhard Gerber

I keep coming back to this thread, JMO, those imperfections on the handle, specifically the pommel somehow completes this knife to my eyes.

Looks like you're nailing it....carry on, maybe you'll inspire me to pull out the finger

Exact reason why I haven't built anything better, waiting for those two ideally sized cutoffs of tubing I could score.......

I have an improvised and very rough "knife vice" my mentor gave me, and a very nice one gifted to me by a local knife maker. Problem is the crappy old one can take a blade 80cm wide, while the nice new one is the same size as this one and can't accommodate the kitchen knives I make. Very well thought out design, I especially like (what looks like) the spring-loaded retainers for the clamping surface.

Slightly dreading tomorrow, colleague is coming over to make knives for his boys, the NR-14 Russian scout knife is the chosen design.......his wife is Russian I got a 14 year old kid to grind an acceptable bevel, but another friend in his early 40's just couldn't manage a few weeks ago. Had him practice on mild steel first but just couldn't get the bad habits while engaging the belt out of him.

Show us your bamboo! Looking at the blade again today I thought it needs a D-guard.......

That is quite amazing!

Thanks for that Alan. I only tempered the Vanadis blades for 1 hour at 150C, the rest got an extra hour at 170C. Like you said, party trick, I'm scared the bottle breaks, but I am a bit surprised my D6 blade didn't stay above 60HRC after tempering. Have to give the guy props, considering my experience with an experimental Vanadis10 blade I'm amazed he got such a smooth finish on them. Considering the results with a sub-optimal heat treat this steel is just something else.

I gave a local knife maker some of the D6 and Vanadis10 I got from my mentor, thinking he had an electronic kiln to do the heat treat. So the weekend I heat treated 3 blades for him, followed the recipe for D6 as best I could and the results seemed good. The knife maker in question has considerable experience, but he's a bit of a know-it-all and his quench tank may or may not be aligned with magnetic North He was expecting 64HRC at least, and as far as I could tell that's not possible with D6. Sunday he collected the blades just before he left town, he was happy with the resu

Heat treated 6 blades Saturday, spent the morning finalizing bevels on a cleaver from old circular saw blade and that was first to go in the quench from 845C. Did an edge quench and all seemed well so I dunked the whole blade in to cool the spine. Left it for a few moment, reached in with pliers, might be incidental but the moment the pliers touched the blade I heard the loudest !PING! I've ever experienced. Massive crack just behind the middle of the blade running up from the edge almost to the hamon and then horizontally almost to the front of the blade First 80crv2 blade performe

Do I need to normalize a blade if no forging is involved? My 80crv2 is actually 4.5mm, stick tang and thin hollow grind

I've never found cold gun blue to be very durable, and I would rather not have it rub off on my food. I have great results with coffee on 52100, very dark and durable, less so on 1070 and useless on 5160 just like seemingly everything else.

I had a novice trying his hand at grinding bevels last Saturday, didn't last long before I took over. Also started grinding two very awkward blades and my fingers had more than usual "interactions" with the 36 grit belt. This is a very timely reminder how dangerous these machines can be, I got a chill when you mentioned overalls, Winter here so I was actually wearing an overall coat. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Thanks Garry. I've had a request, which included a fishing lure (resin encased I guess) for the handle, but I do not have very educated clients and sometimes it feels like they would like to pay by weight, ergo a filleting knife should be cheap I would use 14C28N which is the only stainless I have and also the most expensive steel I've bought so far, and where I would expect in your money NZ$235 for that fact alone, most people would be unwilling to pay more than NZ$150. My answer is I'm going to make myself one and use it

Bear slayer looking good @Garry Keown! You mentioned the previous 2 were a barter arrangement, in general are people willing to pay for filleting knives?

If I was living in the US of A I would be a poor man with A LOT of guns........nice!

Started work Saturday on taking apart my friend's inherited knife to replace the blade. With reading glasses on I realized the middle part of the handle is bone, not some plastic as I first suspected. Got the pommel nut out easy, glue gave us a bit of a fight but we got the tang out without breaking anything. Copied the tang onto paper and designed a new blade, cut that out of a piece of 80CRV2 and ground the bevels. There's a potential issue with how the handle will go together that we need to sort out, he had somebody weld in a new thread on the end of the tang, and coming S

Freely available here, and the buddy I mentioned stocks the whole range in his shop. What he takes for a stomach upset is just oil in a little bottle, not the spray can type. Google lists the medical uses, but as far as drinking it: I'll ask my buddy where he gets his information from. Ballistol does react with UV light, my grandfather had some issue with his ankle so my dad put his UV light on the ankle to sooth the pain (???), not knowing my grandfather had rubbed on Ballistol. He got what amounted to a very severe sun burn in a few minutes.

I've been using a very cheap bachelor's oven with baking pans of various shapes & sizes full of swimming pool filter sand, monitored by an equally cheap multi meter with a thermal couple. I stick this in the sand with the blades, takes a bit of fiddling while it heats up, but it's relatively easy to get it settled on a stable temperature. I find the idea of a large amount Canola oil (which I use to quench) at close to 200C very scary At this stage me equipment allows max OAL of 40cm, I could forge something longer but heat treat and tempering not....bothersome

Reminds me of guns, use it a lot I have a friend who is a Ballistol evangelist, takes a teaspoon in half a glass of water for upset stomachs.

Zip, zilch, nada, nothing & niks for several weeks, barely done with the last round of covid when I dared ask the doc about some other issues that seemed to set off a medical avalanche They are now done with me and whatever else is wrong will be ignored. Saturday I hope to start with a project that I would not normally consider, but it's a barter arrangement and I really like my end of the deal. Good friend wants to put a new blade on that I consider to be a German style hunting knife that he got from his grandfather. The existing blade is rather small and worn out.

I'll put money on it they feel great in the hand and during use? I can well understand some people might not like it, IMHO that's where function (and uniqueness) trumps (traditional) form, I like them!

During my down time I came to the same conclusion, before I attempt another folder I'll have metal templates laser cut. For my first folder I had a wood template from a kit that I could use to scribe the outline. Every time I try a paper template it gets too hot and burns the paper....or the water messes up the template while trying to cool it. Super glue instead of contact adhesive helped a bit, but I have several WIPs that will likely never get any further because I don't believe I can accurately stick another template to the steel.

It wouldn't be solid all the way through, but I bet it wouldn't take much to find an Oryx horn that would work perfectly. There are differences between cow and bull Oryx horns which would make one or the other easier to get a suitable piece from, but guestimating from the photo I believe most Oryx horns should still be solid far enough back from the tip to get that diameter.

Sir Mister Loose I can't help but wonder how amazing the stuff was that kept you away from that blade for 20 years, for me it would be a lifetime achievement. Very cool, can't wait to see it finished.