This is intended simply as a step-by-step pictorial of the different stages I went through to create this knife. It is not meant as a tutorial, I just wanted to share some pictures during the making of a knife. There are a great many pictures here, please give them time to load. Enjoy!

First, we must of course start with a suitable piece of steel. This is a length of O-1 tool steel, 1" in diameter. My 6 pound sledge and 250 pound Fisher anvil will shortly be put to work.

This is the first heat. I built this forge, as well as the bellows that powers it. (Although you can't see the bellows here.)

My arm was about to fall off, so I took a breather and a picture. Still a long ways to go!

Forged to shape. (And stamped as well.) It took about two hours to reach this point.

After profiling it and refining the shape on the bench grinder.

Here it's rough ground to 36 grit. I'll take the last pits and hammer marks out as I progress through the finer grits.

After finish grinding to 400 grit. I've got some thumb grooves filed in and the spine beveled at this point. I also put a convex edge on there, and drilled the pin hole through the tang. (Somewhat rough on the convex, but it'll be smoothed out later.)

Obligatory spine shot. Tapers somewhat quickly, which is good since it's about 9/32nds of an inch thick at the ricasso.

The left hand side of the blade. Notice that there's a slight drop to the point.

Here I've just hardened the blade. I used a torch like I do on most of my blades. Although, this is about as large a blade as you can easily do using that method. I do like the temper lines it gives however. You can already see where the temper line will be.

After running a file on the edge to make sure it's fully hardened, I clean it back off to 400 grit.

It's just been tempered here. After two hours in the oven at 350 degrees, I liked the color so I pulled it out and quenched it. My tempering oven is a standard kitchen oven, so I go by color more than temperature...

Ok, after massive amounts of rubbing I finally get to take a break. (And another picture.) This is 400 grit. And I finally remembered to put a ruler next to the blade so you can see what size it is!

Another left side picture. The temper line is showing up nicely, and my convex edge is all smooth and evened out.

Close-up! I think I've put somewhere around nine hours in at this point.

My proposed handle pattern, (including the guard) taped in place to see how it works. Lookin' good!

The piece of 416 stainless barstock which is to become the guard. I've gone ahead and pre-polished the face of the bar here.

Lots and lots of hand filing and I get this. Yes, my slot is a little crooked, but I've got room to spare on both sides so I don't mind.

Here I've roughed in the shape, as well as filing in a pair of grooves running around the circumference of the guard.

All polished and fit onto the tang.

Ready to make the grip. The block is a piece of stablilized curly mesquite from Alpha Knife Supply.

This is essentially like making the guard, except that this is a blind slot.

After filing, gouging, rasping and such for a while, I get a nice square slot. Look at the side of the block and you can see that I've already drilled the tang pin hole as well.

Fitted in place, mated up to the guard and ready for shaping!

I've roughed out the profile from two angles. From the side...

...And from the front edge.

Now I've got it rounded off a bit. I'll do some hand sanding before I glue it on, but only some.

Epoxy time! Sets up quick when the temps are in the mid-nineties...

A little mess, but not too bad. I did not peen the pin, I just cut some grooves into it to hold the epoxy and slipped it in. This is the first time I've gone this route, and I think I will deffinately continue to use this method in the future as well. It was quick and easy, without the possibility of bending the pin or cracking the grip material. It seems to be quite secure as well. (Note that the pin is slightly long so that it sticks out a bit on each side.)

The next step is to very carefully grind the pin down flush. It will get hot super quick and burn the grip, as well as making the epoxy turn loose, so you have to be careful. Then I spent a great deal of time hand-sanding the grip. I've got it up to 600 grit here I believe.

From the left side again. It is essentially finished at this point. Some furniture polish on the grip will do it. I've already laid the secondary bevel on there, so it's ready to be sharpened.

Another spine shot.

In the hand at last!

Specs:
12.75" overall
7-5/8" blade length
9/32" thick
Just over 1-1/2" wide
Grip is 4-5/8" long and about 2" wide at the widest point
O-1 tool steel blade, 416 stainless guard and pin, stabilized curly mesquite grip

There will be more pictures of the finished knife at the end of this pictorial. However, it's now time to move onto the sheath!

I really should have taken a picture before this point... But I didn't. So here it is, already partially cut out of some heavy 8-9 oz. leather.

Fully cut out, plus I've beveled the edges off.

This picture shows sort of where I'm headed with this particular sheath.

I've laid out my stitch lines here.

I drilled all these holes on my drill press using a 5/64" bit. It's ready for some color now!

Freshly dyed black. I've slicked the inside off with some edge-kote which really makes the sheath a great deal nicer. This is the inside so you can see the grooves I've cut to help the leather fold easier.

Stitched and riveted. Now for some molding...

Fully molded and fit to the knife. I also placed a stamp on the sheath which corresponds with the stamp on the ricasso of the knife blade.

The underside of the sheath. All finished!

Now for the finished product!

In the sheath...

I got some reflections in the blade here, but otherwise it's a nice shot.

From the left...

...And the right.

The mesquite turned out nicely.

A nice spine shot here.

If this pictorial has been interesting and informative, then it has served it's purpose! Thank you.

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