Queen Steel Knife
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I guess I have had about a half dozen hunting knives in my lifetime this one being the first. It started out as a tackle box knife and my Dad had one just like it. In an act of stupidity I snapped his blade using it for a pry bar. There's a story about a knife that a kid broke being stupid I just don't recall the whole thing, might even be a song about it. This one was lost for about a year way back and it was found in an old tire hanging off of a fishing pier at our fishing camp. It was submerged in salt water for a while and messed it up pretty bad so it was put away. It must have fell in the tire while we were cleaning fish on the deck of the pier. It has been sitting in my window in my shop along with some other junk so I decided to bring it back to life. I tried to get one of the knife makers that are on a fishing forum I am a member of to give it a try but none were interested so what the heck I'll go for it. The leathers just fell off and I have some white ash that has been stabilized here in the shop so I cut a couple of halves out and glued them on. I thought about walnut or maple which I have also but this ash is hard stuff. I've never shaped a knife handle so this might be interesting. This thing is approximately 48 years old, I never throw anything away that might be useful later.
The halves before gluing
JB Weld
Overnight in the clamps
Today
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This wasn't too painful, still have all ten fingers and one belly button. The blade is pretty sharp so I wrapped it with cardboard and tape when I got started. I have seen some videos of knife makers handling bare blades but I'm not ready for that. About thirty minutes with an 80 grit belt and I was ready for 120 with about 1/8 inch of stock left to sand. The 80 grit will take it off faster than you can put it back on. About an hour with 120 I switched to 320. That's as fine a belt that I have so I hand sanded with some 600 and I'm going to call it good. A few coats of Tru Oil and I'm done.
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Five coats of Tru Oil later. The salt water bath it took messed up the pommel being it's aluminum but the blade is good. Still holds an edge. I have a friend that makes leather stuff and will get a sheath made this fall when I see him opening weekend of dove hunting in Pearsall. He's made me suppressor pouches and a sheath for another old knife I rescued.
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@bigfoot Nicely done!
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@rr2241tx
Thanks, wasn't as hard to do as I imagined. I have messed some stuff up with a belt sander before. I made a couple of pieces of furniture with that ash. There was a lumber yard down here in Seadrift that had any kind of hardwood you could think of. For pen turners and knife makers it would have been paradise. One of the heirs to the yard reopened it and was selling the hardwoods for $1.00 a linear foot, didn't matter if it was four inches wide or twelve. Most of it was 5/4 thickness but some was full 2". A buck a foot. I almost blew the tires out of my truck with the first load and went back for some more pieces and the girl wanted me to make an offer on the whole stack. I hem hawed around and didn't do it. You couldn't tell what you had until you sent it through a planer it was so dirty so I hesitated. Cobb Lumber burned to the ground right after that.
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@bigfoot My son would have worn out my truck if he’d known. He makes wooden clocks and kinetic sculptures in his spare time. I try not to think about how much purple heart I’ve bought for him. Maybe he has a scrap I can use.
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This is a mantle clock he made for me last year. All the parts are hand cut and it keeps time as well as a Seiko. There's some brass pins and bushings but the frame and works are wood. I think the dark wood is babinga and the white gears are birch. Don't remember what he cut the hands out of.
He's made several more traditional wall clocks with pendulum regulators that are powered by suspended weights or traditional key wind clock springs. His current project is really a stunner but apparently I let the video clip of it get lost in cyberspace. I'll try to get another copy when he gets home from Seattle.
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@rr2241tx very cool.
