I can’t believe it is two years since the last post. Where did that time go? Well, the past two years have been super busy with my day job (Web developer) as well as my Hukka Arts & Crafts work. Of course, it is a lame excuse but what can you do? Anyway, I got inspiration, maybe due to the Spring sunlight after such a long time and due to some new knives I’ve got since the last time. First of all, I finally decided to buy Fällkniven S1. I’ve been a fan of Fällkniven since I knew they existed and their knife design is so wonderful. Their blade shapes for clip-point/bowie blade fans are so good. The S1 model is one of the affordable ones and it is such a nice knife. While being a lot like my Coldsteel SK5 compact it still belongs to a class of its own. The handle is even more comfortable and the blade itself is so beautiful.
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Tang modifications and the sheath design
First things first…I got hit by the Covid. Yes, despite three shots, I got it and it has been now two weeks since I had it tested positive. I’m still coughing quite a lot and it is not fun, I have basically not enough energy to do as much as I would like to.
As I’ve been in process of designing some practical details for the knife building phase I noticed that I need to do some modifications to the tang. This will involve some grinding. My current angle grinder is probably not the optimal one but I’ll try to manage it for now. I’ve been playing with sheath ideas a bit as well as the handle. Those two are somewhat dependent on each other so it needs some careful thinking.
Blade blanks on the way
Just a while ago I got a confirmation that blade blanks will be shipped to me shortly. At this point, those are in a pretty raw state and need finishing touches, including sharpening. I’m still prototyping a bit with the blades but closed beta testing shouldn’t be too far in the future.
The next steps for the prototyping are:
- Finalize the first prototype knife. Needs a bit more grinding to be done.
- Start designing sheath. There are two options for the sheath in my mind, but likely I will go with the Ka-Bar style sheath.
- Make handle reproducible. It is easy to make a handle, but I haven’t done those in batches so I need to see how it goes.
Kephart Knife in the works
As soon as I discovered the Kephart knife on the web I knew that is the one I really like. Horace Kephart who made the knife famous was an American traveler/journeyman/writer and many times he is thought to be the father of camping or outdoor skills. Horace wandered through the United States more than a hundred years ago carrying an affordable and simple knife. This knife was later named after him and during the past few years, many knife companies produced their take of the iconic Kephart knife. Ka-Bar & Becker made a great looking modern version of it as Ethan Becker from Becker knives own one of the last original Kephart knives. Anyway, as soon as Finnish knife company Brisa started to sell their Kephart blades I had to get one. It took a quite long time until I started to make a knife out of it. But now it is in progress and should be ready rather soon (I hope).
More handle materials
My stock of curly birch was almost empty so I had to order some more. Now I’m fully stocked for some serious beta testing. My plan is that during this spring (2022) I would be able to finalize the first five beta knives and send those to selected testers. Based on the feedback I would then make needed changes and prepare for the launch. Let’s see how it goes.
Bandsaw in da house
After the last post, things escalated quickly as I decided to get a bandsaw after some thinking. I hadn’t used one in ages so it took a little practice to see how it works and to adjust it.
Since then I’ve used it pretty often to try out various kinds of things. In the picture below is prototype knife blade with some prototype handle (that has changed since then).
The Shed – heat is on!
It has been a while since the last post. I’ve spent quite some time finishing my shed but there is still a bit of work to do by finalizing it. I got electricity there a while back and the heater was also installed. So in short – I’m ready for the cold season. I’ve been thinking a bit of getting a band saw but need to still do some thinking if I really need it or not. I also need more shelves and storage options for all the tools and stuff. I hope I can post pictures when I’m closer of finished state 🙂
Humble Bundle has interesting survival related bundle
I’ve bought several book bundles from Humble Bundle. If you are not familiar with the concept, it works like this. With a small amount of money you get books in electronic format (e.g. pdf or epub). Depending on how much you pay your bundle size varies. Typically the whole bundle is something like 20€. Since I’ve used them earlier I got an email that they have a 22 book survival-related bundle available. I decided to buy it just out of curiosity. There is one book about knives and I was happy to notice that it had good overall knowledge about knives. The bundle is available still for a week so there is still time to get yours here.
Prototyping with blades
I did some initial prototyping with blades and the shape of the 135mm variant is esthetically nicer at least to me. I need to check the measurements for the 115mm version as it might be that I used an older design for it. Anyway for this clip-point style longer blade feels a bit more balanced. I’ve been playing with finger guard ideas as well. I prefer a larger guard but I don’t want to sacrifice the ease of use for it. Fire-steel support is also a must-have feature and I need to think if I make it on the back or somewhere else.
Link page to various sites added
I made a dedicated page for knife & outdoor-related links. You’ll (and I as well) find links to suppliers as well as manufacturers. If you think something is missing feel free to suggest links as well.
