My 2016 KITH Knife

[Dan Rice 1]

Whew, finally got this thing done! I thought I was going to have to withdraw, but I finished the knife yesterday and the sheath today.

I decided to go with a weathered old frontier look for this piece. The blade is forged from a file. The guard and butt cap are welding steel from Tractor Supply. The pins are nails. The handle is a piece of an old hickory axe handle. The rivets in the sheath are copper saddle rivets, also from Tractor Supply. Everything but the leather, fake sinew, and antler button came from a hardware store.

 

I was worried that the rustic, antique effect might end up just looking amateurish, but I think it came out pretty good. The sheath and handle both got a two-tone treatment with black and brown dye to simulate aging and handling. I blackened the guard and butt cap by dipping them in oil and burning it off with a blow torch. The blade got it's patina from a soak in a mixture of ferric chloride, vinegar, bleach, and salt. I was originally trying to devise a home-made rust browning solution, but the etched finish looked pretty good after a soak so I left it at that.

 

A second later, that darn photobombing fly walked onto the edge and got sliced in half.

Edited June 23, 2016 by Dan Rice

[Brian Dougherty 521]

I like it!

[Gary LT 18]

I like it. Good job!

[Wes Detrick 455]

That is a beautiful knife Dan. You pulled that aged frontier look off very damn well!

[Timothy Artymko 39]

Beautiful knife and great job on it! It definitly doesn't look amateurish, you are very deliberate in what you did on it, adn that isn't the mishaps of an amatuer Can't wait for next thursday!