The Wolds Worst Knife Maker

[twomoons]

The other day a fellow came in to the shop and picked up a gun that I fixed for him and he didn't have any money. Upshot was he traded a 10" Bowie style knife with a super fancy sheath. The bowie blade wa sa solingen and since I know what the blanks run I gave him what it would cost for me to order in a blade for the whole outfit. The knife had an Elk antler handle a full 9" long and about 1 1/2" around and the lower 1/2 was wrapped with buckskin braid. You couldn't get your hand around the handle and it was WAY too long so I figured to take the elk antler off and put on a smaller handle.

I tossed the knife onto a wooden chair to work on later and the handle dropped off! I took off the buckskin and the handle had been superglued to about 3/8" of tang that remained on the 10" blade. The whole works had then been covered with DUCT TAPE and then had a thin layer of buckskin glued on. There was 3/8" of tang to hold a 10" blade in place assisted by Red Green's favorite fix.

Now this is a good blade but whoever butchered this job should be shot or have his grinder taken away. I took the guard off the blade and tig welded on a new tang. I then re fit the guard and fitted and pinned on some new curly maple handles. I will reshape and sharpen the false edge and jimp the back of the blade and sharpen the knife and it should be a good blade now. I simply can't imagaine someone doing all that work to the sheath and then botching the blade that badly.

Oh I did draw and re temper the blade when I did the tang so this one should sharp up like Bill's monster buck cutter.

[twomoons]

Here it is part done. Still need to jimp and polish and finish the handle.

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[jimh]

ok, for us knife illiterates, ........ what is "jimp the handle" ?
oh and for the record, i have no issue exploiting my ignorance on these kind of matters ;D

[twomoons]

Here you go, the fancy file work along the choil and the back of the blade is called jimping. In the backround you can see a chunk of the original handle with glue slobbered on, you can see just how much tang there was on the blade, enought to hold it together to sell. By the way he wasn't much of a sheath maker either. As I was working on the blade last night I pushed it into the sheath and the belt loop fell off... you guessed it, glued on! The sheath on further inspection is made of bucksking glued over cardboard and all the decoration is glued on. The beads are strung on dental floss so at least I get clean teeth out of the deal.

The handle is still in the finishing process and will need to be wet sanded and more coats of finish rubbed in. The handle is book matched fiddle back maple from a fiddle maker, no less. The full tang goes through to the end and 5 steel pins hold the handle on along with a thin coat of acraglass. The joint of the handles is invisible and everything is fitted tight. I shortened and modified the blade to get rid of the clip point and as soon as my emery stick comes in I will finish the polishing.

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[jimh]

i thought you had a typo when you typed jimped and meant to say Pimped!
so i thought to myself, ok he's pimping it out trying to make it look like something Red would like. then i thought, no he's typed that a couple times now, ..... must be a real word and mean somthing, .......now i know!

[twomoons]

There really is no logical reason for the file work other than it looks neat. Some say it was done to make an opponants blade catch but that's like the BLOOD GROOVE... mostly BS. Blood grooves are a more or less moden invention copied from the old swords that had lightening fullers forged into the blade, it gives you more strength with less weight and material. I have probably been wasting my time with this but I just can't let it go without making it right and making it different than stock.

[twomoons]

Well it's about done. I scrapped the fancy sheath and salvaged the buckskin covering. I reshaped the guard to match this leather covered wood sheath. The sheath is wood covered with scrap leather from an old coat and brass from an old wall plaque. My total cost for maretials is 25 cents. The brass stud will go either on a frog or through a buttonhole. Now I have a fancy shiny toy to hang on the wall.

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[jimh]

that finish on the scales looks good in that photo. how many coats did you use?

[Jack]

Looks nice!
And I can't see any duct tape at all!

[twomoons]

That's the finish they posted here with armour all. I think there are about 8 coats, it's hard to take a photo as it's so shiny the reflection washes it out.