What is your best work in 2020?

[Matthew Parkinson]

What was your year? 

This year was not what  any of us expected going into jan 2020. 

All our plans changed with the state of the world, as events canceled my travel was curtailed and I spent far more of this year at home and in the shop. I should have been productive, and in  once sense I was. I have had a good year, my sales were far better than my fears, I filled my orders on time and managed to keep stock made for the online sales. Even so I  worked Far less than normal.  

 

 

Best of 2020 ?

What is your best work of 2020? Show me! Show me what you are most happy to have done in the last year, learning a new technique or working with a new material? 

 

For me only a few pieces come to mind. 

First is this pair of knives, in mosaic damascus. A local videographer asked to come in the shop and do a mini doc, back in feb, it sounded like fun so i said yes, Evan cam in the shop several times a documented the build on the Koa handled knife, we were slowed by the lockdown so i actually finished the Black handled one first. The video came out great and he just did a 9 min short version for AWE-me  on your tubes well.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd08VFqmUmo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oANq5Kz0Cok&t=68s 

 This set of knives was made for the Damasteel invitational, in Jan i was pretty excited to go to chicago for the event in May, but by the end of march it was clear it would not happen, so damasteel moved the event online. That was an interesting experience and one of the highlights of my year. It was such a unique event that I wrote an article in Knife magazine about it.  

 This was my first time working with this material. I have forged other stainless alloys and am familiar with the particularities.  I forged all the knives (other than the bread knife that was stock removal )  and did all of the heat treating in-house. Damasteel is an interesting material both like and unlike the damascus we make. Sense it is ba based on powder The lines of the layers are not as crisp as carbon damascus, the contrast is bold and the stainless aspect is impressive, the incredibly fine grain of the material makes it cut far more like a carbon steel than almost any stainless I have ever used,  I keep one chef in my kitchen it looks exactly like i made it after 9 months in my kitchen,( no patina!) and I have been extremely impressed with its performance. it is also costly, easily the most expensive steel I have worked with that I didn't make. 

That was my year show me yours!!

MP

[Alex Middleton]

Great thread Matt!  This is by far my best:

Lots of first for me in both the Damascus making, and the fit and finish.

[Garry Keown]

These would have to be up there as much for the new techniques tried as anything else

 

 

 

[Joshua States]

Whoa! Where did that dagger come from Garry? I don't recall seeing that one before. Nice work there. 

 

A quick shout out to all the makers who might be intimidated by what you will see in this thread, and choose not to post. Don't be. Don't let anything stop you from taking a bit of pride in whatever you have achieved this year. Post it up. Take a bow. 

 

This year was a combination of trial and error with some successes along the way. Luckily enough, I have a few more successes than errors. Most of my work in both categories, is documented elsewhere on the forum. Here are a few quick shots of two of my faves from this year.

 

A general purpose field knife with crazy activity in the W2.

 

 

 

A dagger (seems to be a popular item for 2020) that took me over a year to build and was finally finished in June.

[brian_newberry]

These two, both with birch bark, antler and brass are my best this year. The smaller one is my first pattern welded steel, 15N20 and 1084. The other is just forged 1084.

[Conner Michaux]

These 3 are the best out of the 7 or 8 knives I’ve made. nothing impressive but I’ll get there eventually  

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2020 by Conner Michaux

[Garry Keown]

1 hour ago, Joshua States said:

Whoa! Where did that dagger come from Garry? I don't recall seeing that one before. Nice work there. 

 

 

This was a WIP I started some time back but ditched the Khukuri as I wasn't happy with it and carried on with the dagger. Lots of first for me on this one. 

 

[John N]

Ive been 'workshopless' for a lot of 2020, so have not been very productive at all this year.

 

Managed to get a few kitchen blades done though, none of them 'pushing the boundaries' of my skill set, but trying to improve with each piece.

 

This is the last one I finished a couple of weeks ago. It had a 'knifeyness' of its own when done, one of those rare things you make that looks like it has always been there!

 

It was pleasing that I put a picture on instagram, and it was purchased by a very well known craftsman who I know has deep respect for tools. Quite a compliment as he has had knives off me in the past.

 

All the best for 2021 to everyone

 

[Gary LT]

What the hell.....!

Spent a lot of this year making to sell “affordable” knives to buy materials to upgrade tools. Rebuilt two belt sanders, welding forge, bought a porta-band saw also.

Began working a seasonal job in October, so time was limited.

I have a few I am pleased with as small as my shop is. 
A) Kingwood Puukko, (shown before)

B) Sheath for an 18th century Bowie (shown last year?)

C) Domed Pin Knife, (will score 3 fine lines on the bolster and finish). 

I do some commissions time to time, so I’ll save these for show if needed.

 Picts follow in order!

Gary LT

 

[Alan Longmire]

I haven't had much shop time this year, as it turns out that when you make engineers and planners work from home rather than hang out in the office all day they get about 500% more productive, thus proving, as we all know, that meetings are a total waste of time for everyone involved.  Not that I'm complaining, it's good to have steady employment in these rough times!  

 

Anyway, I've switched tracks for the last year. No tomahawks or fancy pattern-welded swords and seaxes, I've been working on perfecting (or at least making well) the simple slipjoint folding knife.  Once I'm satisfied I may start adding pattern-weld and fancy scales, but for now I'm concentrating on clean and simple.  I've also added stainless to the repertoire, since the average folder buyer is not used to carbon steel and the accompanying rust issues.  I've made one a month or so of different patterns,  but I've settled on a sort of mini-barlow design I made up as a good gentleman's pocket knife.  Little buggers, about 2" closed.  There's no size reference in the photos, but my name stamp is 6mm long, just under 1/4 inch.

 

 

 

Brass liners, nickel silver bolsters and pins, AEB-L blade and spring, walnut scales.  No screws, no bushings, no washers, no nothing that wasn't on a 19th century pocketknife except for the alloy.  This one snaps open and closed with an authoritative click, and the spring won't break your thumbnail.  

 

Not impressive compared to the fancy hawks and stuff, but it's been a journey for me to get used to precision fits.  I feel sure I'll snap soon and crank out some migration-era stuff, but for now this is what I'm up to.  Not too fiery of beard, but I'm thinking this could easily scale up into a folding seax...

 

[Faye]

These two knives are my most recent and by far the best knives I've ever made. 

The chef knife has reindeer antler and sterling silver, two materials I've never worked with before.

[Jaro Petrina]

[brian_newberry]

4 hours ago, Alan Longmire said:

 

 

Sweet folder! I have made a friction folder, the slip joint is on my to do list

[billyO]

1 hour ago, Faye said:

The chef knife has reindeer antler and sterling silver, two materials I've never worked with before.

Wow!  Nice chef's knife Faye.  I never thought a knife from a farrier's rasp could look so good...

Edited December 29, 2020 by billyO
por speling

[Faye]

1 hour ago, billyO said:

Wow!  Nice chef's knife Faye.  I never thought a knife from a farrier's rasp could look so good

Thank you. 

[Rob Toneguzzo]

Some of mine from 2020

Edited December 29, 2020 by Rob Toneguzzo

[Sean Blum]

These are my two finished successes for this year including my first damascus.

[MacKINNON]

Copy of  Chinese Qianlong period sabre.

Blade is from hand smelted titano-magnetite. Japanese construction and hamon with Sankrit and Manchurian script carving. Scabbard is sectional veneer overlay in three woods with lacquer finish. Mounts are gold plated brass, hand pierced and carved. Hilt is New Zealand nephrite jade.

Sole authorship work. Wouldn't make another one ;-)

 

(Don't laugh at the stand. It's just my workshop, jury-rigged go-to )

Edited December 29, 2020 by MacKINNON

[Alan Longmire]

Holy crap, that's impressive!   I hope you got a small fortune for that, that's a heck of a lot of serious work! 

[MacKINNON]

Still waiting to find a freight company that can get it to the customer in the States. Well, one that doesn't want to charge a small fortune.

These pics were just from the first full fit up. Tweaking and extra polish was done after this.

 

[MacKINNON]

This one is close to the historic original. The prototype scabbard was a bit more gaudy. This one has a blade and will have to be finished sometime this year.

 

t

Edited December 29, 2020 by MacKINNON

[Dave Armour]

My favorite of the year 9” 80crv2 with stainless bolsters. Handle is translucent resin with shredded us currency in it. 
 

[larsjacobsen]

Learning to grind fullers and making stainless / damascus san mai 

[Kreg Whitehead]

Here are a couple I am fond of. 

The damascus is alabama.....the hamon blade is some w2 I edge/brine quenched

[Bob Ouellette]

I think my best piece is this 8" chef's knife. It's 1084 with a buffalo horn bolster and dyed and stabilized maple burl handle.