Here in Michigan, our firearm deer season opened yesterday, Nov. 15th. I made a knife for me last year but it made it just past hunting season and someone wanted to buy it. Cash is king, so I sold it. Which left me in need for a hunting knife for this deer season.
This is what I came up with. It's a tad larger than my ideal preferences for a dedicated field dressing knife, but the idea was to make it a little larger to handle a few more camp type chores. I chose 80CrV2 steel for the blade, ground thin for its toughness and edge holding properties and curly koa for the handle. For the rest of the fittings I chose as maintenance free materials as possible.
Last year, I made a guardless hunter. This year I went with a guard....for no other reason than just to do it different this time. I like both.
I killed a decent 7pt buck yesterday morning around 8:15 and shot a nice big doe at 5:00 in the evening. The knife took care of both deer easily with no chips, rolls or flat spots (as I would expect of any quality knife steel) and still shaves hair exactly as it did before I started.
I did forget to take my camera yesterday but I think my dad snapped a few with his phone. I'll check on that. In the mean time, here's the knife.
Specs:
Hand forged from 80CrV2 steel
8 1/2" overall, 4 1/4" blade, .175" thick at the ricasso with full distal taper
Heavily rounded spine and ricasso edge
Rounded, filed thumb grip
Black g-10 guard and collar, double line cut
Stainless steel thorn and vine spacer
Stabilized Koa handle
Stainless checkered finial screw
Any and all comments/discussion welcome.
Beautiful knife,I really like the file work on spacer and how it contrasts with the guard.
Great knife John what gaurd material did you use? Or how did you blacken it.
Scott
Scott, I think the guard and collar are black G10. Makes getting it really dark fairly easy <img src=' http://www.americanbladesmith.com/ipboard/public/style_emoticons//wink.gi f' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />. Unfortunately, from what I understand, G10 isn't exactly forgiving when fitting it up to the shoulders and you have to really hit the mark for that precise fit up.
As usual John, love the knife. I'd be really curious to see some after shots of the knife. Going to be making one from the same steel with my boy this winter for his hunting knife. Hopefully I can get the edge geometry right along with the HT so it cuts as well as yours.
Jeremy
Jeremy Lindley, Apprentice Smith
