Knifemaking and other cool hobbies...

Chacmool · 05-21-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boerseun

At last! Finally finished the utility drop-edge kitchen blade! With a sheath, for when you're camping, and in a terrible need to cut something. Notice the awesomely nifty bottle-opener on the back. It works, too - had myself a decent hangover Sunday morning to prove it.

Very cool and nifty indeed, Boerseun. Say, don't you still owe me a birthday present...? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

Boerseun · 06-21-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chacmool

Very cool and nifty indeed, Boerseun. Say, don't you still owe me a birthday present...? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

'Course I do! Matter of fact, I think I owe you more than one!

Any case, this week I was at the local pub, and the owner's a very good friend of mine. His wife wanted me to make him a biltong-slicer (biltong is Afrikaans for thick pieces of jerky, or dried meat). So I made it, and finished it, and on Wednesday night his wife gave it to him for his birthday, in the bar. There was quite a few guys around, and everybody wanted one! So now I've got orders from paying customers (they all paid a 60% deposit, for some reason - I think his wife is pimping me...) for 12 biltong slicers, four bowies, six skinning blades, two caping knives, two sets of kitchen knives, two carving sets, and four weird blades that the customers designed themselves.

The one guy ordered a bowie in exchange for A TON OF RHODESIAN TEAK !!!!! . I couldn't believe it! I still can't! Teak is now an endangered species, but these were cut down in the 1800's for railway sleepers! And it's already cut into planks! Rhodesian teak is a hard sonofabitch to work, I've destroyed a few bandsaws trying to shape 'em. But if I had to buy it, old Rhodesian Teak railway sleepers are going for about R15,000 to R20,000 per cubic meter, depending on the condition. That boils down to around US$2,000 to US$2,500!!! For a measly $100 blade!!! Whooooooooooohoooooo!!!

Guess what I'm gonna be doing for the next few weekends?

The value of the total order is around US$3000. But it takes a long, long time to make. These guys better be patient!

...and I've only sold one knife in my whole life, ever!

Who said going to the bar is a waste of time?

I'll paste photos as the process is going along!

Chacmool · 06-21-2007

Congratulations!

Boerseun · 08-27-2008

Another utility drop-edge plus the piece d'resistance, the most awesomest Bowie this side of the Limpopo! (...and a measly little Swiss Army Knife for scale).

I've really got a thing for Bowies. I luv'em. Made it for my own collection, and used leather for the handle. Never used leather before, but in my opinion, it makes a much more handsome handle than wood. Wood also has a nasty habit of chipping when bumping against something when in use, the leather gives and should last much longer.

Also, although you wouldn't say so, the big Bowie on top in the picture used exactly the same amount of steel than the utility blade below it - the utility blade has a full-tang handle, meaning the steel runs all the way to the end. The Bowie's steel stops right behind the hand guard, on which I welded an 8mm stainless steel threaded rod, on which the leather washers I cut out from old sheath off-cuts were pinned. The bright bands you see on the handle are 3.5mm stainless steel I shaped from off-cuts too, and drilled and tapped to screw on to the rod. I packed the leather and tightened the steel band as much as I could, and left it for a week. After a week, I had to tighten the band again as the leather compacted and set. And then left it for another week. The handle compaction probably took me about a month and a half. But all in all, the Bowie was actually a lot cheaper to make than the utility blade below it on the picture! The most expensive part of the bowie was the stainless steel pommel right at the back. It was a solid 50mm x 50mm x 20mm block of stainless steel that I had to work on a belt grinder to get to shape. I also drilled and tapped it, and screwed it on to the rod, being the final tightener to the whole set of rings and leather washers. I'm not sorry for overdoing it in the pommel department, however, because seeing as it's not a full-tang blade, it's extremely blade-heavy. But with the pommel installed, it balances perfectly on the hand guard, where it should. This knife would make a perfect throwing blade, but I'm not about to throw my pride and joy around like a bloody maniac...

And the sheath was made from Wildebeest leather - a bit tougher to work than normal cow leather, but it has a much nicer surface texture for this particular application.

I apologise profusely for the crap quality of the photo; for some reason I've got the only camera in town lacking an auto-focus...

Chacmool · 08-27-2008

Wow, really impressive, Boerseun!

How long did it take you to make each of these? Are you going to sell all of them, or just add them to your collection?

PS I think someone still owes me a birthday gift...

Boerseun · 08-27-2008

Thanks, Chac! Long time no see!

Both blades were made in my spare time, over a stretch of quite a few months. The odd weekend here, the odd evening there, and so forth.

But in actual hours, I guess the utility blade took me around 24 hours to make, and the Bowie in the region of 36. This is, of course, ignoring time wasted in waiting for kilns to warm up (another two hours), annealing and tempering of blades (a full 12 hours), and motivation to get the job done (a couple of cases of beer).

Speaking of birthday presents, it's a well-known fact that newlyweds shouldn't have any sharp objects in their homes!

Chacmool · 08-27-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boerseun

Speaking of birthday presents, it's a well-known fact that newlyweds shouldn't have any sharp objects in their homes!

Haha! Good point! As it happens, my hubby loves knives and he is quite a good knife-thrower...

Geez, it really takes some time to make one of those beauties! How much does it cost to make one? How many have you sold?