6 knives in four weekends

[Don Krag]

I'll be doing some work abroad starting the end of May and it'll be a great experience to try out some blade designs and actually be there on-hand myself, as opposed to just getting feedback. My goal is to make six similar knives in four weekends. I have three shaped and rough ground, one shaped and 50% rough ground and the other two as billets of steel. I took the design I did for one I sent to a Cpt in the Army over in afghanistan, shortened it, added an upper edge along the forward 2.5" and made the guard come down more to give a positive stop for the hand. They'll all get kydex sheaths. I'll be giving two of these to coworkers going to the DR-Congo with me, one for my Isreali body gaurd I'll have while over there and two to give away or trade for cool Cogolese stuff...or to bribe checkpoint guards.

These will be made from 5160, get a wrought iron drop guard, G10 and/or carbon fiber handles and a black parkerized-bead blasted finish on the blade.
I'm still having a hard time deciding on guard style. I'll probably do a few different to see what works/feels the best in the field. Half with a guard that curves in and smooths into the contour of the handle, and the other half with a simple drop-guard beveled on the inner edges. I guess I need to make up my mind...Not much time left!

Here's the first one, two will have the half-beveled upper, two will have no upper edge and two will have a full upper bevel. The blue line is where the guard will come down. I still need to even up/straighten the grind lines on this one a bit.

Overall length is ~9"
width at ricasso ~ 1 3/8"
Thickness at spine: A hair under 1/4" with a distal taper




KragAxe...soon to become the official blade of the DRC-Africa! Hah!(if they don't all get confiscated at customs)

[Joel]

Definitely sturdy and pointy.  Not my cup of tea, but then it may see uses that I don't(any longer) need to consider.

[Don Krag]

Yeah, I was never into the "tactical" style until I started getting requests a few years back. I've never had much use for something like that until the past year's work I've been doing. We usually end up doing cutting of rope, small wire and light chopping type actions in addition to puncturing anything from plastic to thin sheetmetal. All the things knives weren't really meant to do! The guys in Afghanistan used a larger version of these for chiseling holes in adobe walls to shoot through as well as butchering goats. What a combination! My personal favorite type knife is a small nessmuk style skinner with about a 2.5" blade. I have uses for that style pretty much year-round down here! I also like antique style D-guards.

[Joel]

I've pretty much stayed with the hunter/hiker/utility stuff.  Thickest steel I use is 1/8".  About the only one I build that might fit in that group is my PAK(practical applications knife), which I really designed for off trail use. I stuck some 20 lpi file type checkering on the spine and the butt, mainly for use with magnesium fire steels, but it has other uses also.  Two are over in Irag; strangely enough(to me), both were ordered by Medic types.  Ever since that article was published in Tactical Knives last September, 90% of my orders have been for it.  I suspect maybe folks thought it was my cheapest knife, when actually it's the most expensive of my " standard"  models.

[Don Krag]

Nice knife. Is that the orange G10?

Most of my hunters end up a hair over 1/8" at the spine. That seems to be the ideal thickness with a flat grind to get the final angles/look I want. I like starting with 1/4" x 1" when forging out the TAC blades. After finish grinding they end up around 3/16". The ones I'm making now are split between stock ground and forged so they'll range between ~3/16" and 1/4".

[Joel]

Yeah, it's G-10.  The knife comes standard with that, but I do use other synthetics also.  No natural materials(wood, bone, horn) though. The idea was to make it tough and easily visible if it gets dropped somehow.  Steel is 1/8 inch x 1 1/4 inch 154CM.

[Don Krag]

Cool, looks good. I wasn't sure how opaque some of the newer colors were. I just got a variety of colors in today to use as lining colors with the black/tan. I really like the orange as a thin layer with the black. I did some dive knives for a guy several years back. Solid orange would have been great for that as well.

I finished up the first knife. I went with solid black G10, nickle pins and a bead blasted finish on everything. I was going to parkerize the blade...but I really like the smooth 80 grit bead-blasted finish. I opted for no guard on this one as well. Half will get guards, half not. I'll find out what works best (ie...what co-workers prefer).

[Joel]

That came out really well.  Not sure why you'd even need a guard on this style of blade.

[Don Krag]

Well, here's the three that got finished for the congo. I had hoped for six, but due to having to travel every other week I just didn't have time...that and I completely messed up a nice carbon fiber handle on one of the others! man....all this plane travel is getting old. I think my butt is beginning to permanently take the shape of an airplane seat. I'm not looking forward to 28 hrs in flight next weekend!
 
I went back and re-parkerized the prior attempt at parkerizing, then parkerized the other two as well. What a difference following the directions makes. The "black knife" just seemed to fit the congo theme better as well as added corrosion resistance.  They all took a heck of an edge and tested great on some cutting work. Hopefully we'll actually get to use them for something.
 
All are 5160 blades, G10 handles and nickle pins. They'll get leather sheaths since they currently are on their way to the congo already with the pallets of our equipment and I won't get a chance to form fit some kydex. I had to get creative on packaging my "miscellaneous utility instruments" so they aren't very noticeable upon inspection. Here's a crappy pic, but I only had enough battery in the camera and time before packing for one shot.

My favorite in the hand is the one on the far right with the guard, although the middle one's blade seemed to be the most useful for various cutting, chopping, sticking during testing.



P.S. Ruger Blackhawk, 44 mag, 10.5" bbl

[Joel]

I also like that one on the right....nice blade shape and the guard is useful. Nice pin work too.  A lot of people don't have the patience for it anymore.  I've a friend who makes composite handle materials based on the tutorial I did last year; but he's taken it to new heights.  He made me up some black carbon fiber in 3/8" thickness that I'll be using on a S30V knife I'm grinding.  In the meantime my black and silver efforts this year so far resulted in this Roach Belly in D-2/ebony that resides with a Professor over in Cambridge England.  The knife was originally an English design although we Yanks used it as much or more, plus it was a favorite with the Plains Indians, trappers etc.  It's still around and still useful.

[Don Krag]

Cool, nice knife. Ebony is one of my favorite woods. I had a knife similar in shape and size to that one, also with an ebony handle. It was made from a kit and was what got me started on the whole knifemaking thing...back in 1986 a junior in high school. I absolutely loved it. I used it for everything from hunting to installing new carpet in my car. Unfortunately I left it and some other tools in the car and it was spotted in my parked car, in a remote parking area, and removed by school officials. I'm guessing it became part of the vice principle's private collection. I hope he cut himself.

I have a day layover in Johannesburg and there's a South African knifemaker supply house about 20 miles from where we'll be. I was hoping to get a chance to swing by. If not, I'll be looking for big, thick carvings in ebony and blackwood in the local markets. As long as it's "worked" there are no import restrictions on those two. I was kinda hoping to drop a log section in the crates from the congo...but the USDA had issues with that.

The one I messed up was going to by my personal knife. It has the blade of the middle, more or less, and handle features of the right. I use 1/8" nickle 200 welding rods for pins. The first time I used because it was what I had available for pins. I really liked the looks of them afterward and use them on almost all handles I want a high contrast pin. They will never rust or corrode and are fairly easy to get flush even in synthetics and moderately hard woods.

After working all this G10, carbon fiber and micarta, I'm dreading coming back and having to clean up the shop! Maybe the shop possums and rats will take care of the dust while I'm gone!