Dave Budd blank handled at last!

[jus_young]

Well I finally got round to spending some time on the knife that I had promised my son he would have for the meets this year. Dave Budd had kindly produced a blank for me at the Cornwall RV last year, I have to confess to a bit of a liking to the forged look and it appears to have rubbed of on my son, so with a bit of time and a few curses this is what I have come up with

3938

The first curse was his choice of wood for the handle as he had to have oak. The piece I came up with was most definately hard. The first attempt went wrong as the stick tang did not bond in straight so had to be removed and I started again. Second attempt went much better.

3940

The blade length is 75mm or 3 inches and overall length is about 165mm or 6 1/2 inches. The sheath is a 'make do' item at the moment as the leather is only 2mm thick and really needs to be at least 3mm to get a bit more stiffness so an order to LePrevo is on the cards soon. The sheath has been treated with Ben Longs leather dressing that the falconers on hear will know well.

Below is my knife and the boys for size comparison. All in all I rather enjoyed the process and probably looks like I will end up doing a few more :)

3941

3942

[rossbird]

I like the idea that Dad was instrumental in producing a knife for his Son.
Something, I'm sure you will both will both take pleasure in.

[dave budd]

That's a fine looking knife there! Well done T^ (took you long enough :p ) It gets addictive once you've made your first doesn't it?

Oak is quite hard but comes up nicely. Depending on hoe soon you think you will get you thicker leather for a new sheath, you could stiffen that one up by melting some solid beeswax into the surface. If you saturate the leather in beeswax it goes hard like kydex, but just a coating (so warm the sheath and paint melted wax on with a brush) will stiffen it and leave the surface glossy. Just a thought

[Mang]

I bet you feel satisfied with that, nice one! Did you just use any old piece of seasoned Oak or was it prepared in some way?

[Roadkillphil]

Nice one fella T^

[jbrown14]

Absolutely lovely.
Be proud!

[jus_young]

Cheers folks.


That's a fine looking knife there! Well done T^ (took you long enough :p ) It gets addictive once you've made your first doesn't it?

Oak is quite hard but comes up nicely. Depending on hoe soon you think you will get you thicker leather for a new sheath, you could stiffen that one up by melting some solid beeswax into the surface. If you saturate the leather in beeswax it goes hard like kydex, but just a coating (so warm the sheath and paint melted wax on with a brush) will stiffen it and leave the surface glossy. Just a thought

Yep, it definately took a while and if wasn't for the fact that meet season is upon us it probably would have been lower on the list as work tends to take priority at the moment. Thanks for the tip Dave, I will bear that one in mind.


I bet you feel satisfied with that, nice one! Did you just use any old piece of seasoned Oak or was it prepared in some way?

It does give you a nice feeling having produced something like this and even more so that its for the boy. The look on his face was worth it. He has given me a list of other 'wants' now including a hammock and tarp :D

I obtained the oak from the college where I teach part time so it was probably a kiln dried timber.