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Gentleman's Belt Knife

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LRB

75 Cal.
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Or riflemans knife if you prefer. Just finished a couple of days ago. 9 1/2" 01 steel blade, iron guard, sterling silver ferrule and butt cap. Through tang peened over cap. Grip is curly maple with chip carving. I will be making a sterling silver throated center seam sheath with a brass belt hook to complete the outfit when time allows. Hope you enjoy a look see.





 
A beautiful creation! :hatsoff:

I'm not a "knife" guy, in particular...never had a use for one with a blade much over a few inches long, but looking at those long-bladed re-creations is fun! I suppose if I had lived "back then" and perhaps would have had to have relied on one for self-defense, I'd have one on my person with a much longer blade! :wink:
 
Very Nice -- too nice to hide in a sheath -- also it's a BIG knife :grin: .
 
What a beautiful knife! I've only built 3 so am pretty ignorant of knife construction, so have a couple of questions.

Is the "handle" one piece or 5 pcs and the portion of the blade inside the "handle" is what shape and what shape is the hole in the handle?

Also what is the correct terminology for the parts of your exquisite knife?....thanks.....Fred
 
Hi Fred. The grip is one piece. The tang inside is tapered from 1/2" at the base, to 1/4" in width at the butt, and also slightly tapered in thickness in order to get a good tight fit of the guard as it approaches the blade shoulders. The guard is carefully fitted to maybe .015 from seating, then hammered on down tight using a wood block and a hammer. The hole inside starts as a round hole, then is filed out to an oval to fit over the tang, then the remaining space is epoxy filled to just shy of the butt cap. The tang is then peened over the cap which has been filed out to a very close but loose fit slot to the tang. The top edges of the slot are slightly beveled to give the peen more purchase. If you need more details, just ask.
 
I'll pester you with a few amateur questions too while we're at it! On most of your knives I don't see any kind of shoulder or bevel. It appears as if the spine flows right into the edge. Do you use a very gradual convex edge, or is there a bevel that isn't easily seen?

Also, how do you get your peened tangs so consistent? Generally when I peen a tang it mushrooms out and cracks around the edges. I would love to get a nice round, flat button like that.

Thanks in advance!
 
Thanks for the info. Didn't think a plain, wedge shaped blade could be made into such a beautiful knife.The curled ends and outline of the guard lend double points of interest on an already well designed knife. Did you use ferric nitrate for the grip color?

Have you discontinued making LRs?....Fred
 
In peening the tang, the slot needs to be fitted to just slide over the tang without more than light finger pressure to seat it. The up edges of the slot are slightly beveled. The tang must be trimmed to leave just enough to fill the slot bevels, plus a tiny tad more to over ride the slot edges. The tang in that region must be soft enough to peen well. To prevent cracking as you peen, the edges and corners of the tang are beveled and or rounded. It is a sharp 90° edge that usually cracks. Try to peen down evenly all around and in the center, then dress off the excess height. Many light to moderate hammer blows do better than just a few hard blows.
I run a fairly flat bevel from the edge, up about 1/3 to 1/2 the blade width, then blend almost flat, but slightly apple seed. A straight edge set in the middle will show about .010 to .015 of light on each end depending on the blade width and thickness, and what the blade will be used for. Some even less, and some more. I leave a flat parallel area near the guard, or near where flat slabs need to be fitted, but try to blend the flat where it is not easily noticed. This flat is very handy to true up a blade in a drill press vise, in order to drill handle slabs at a reasonable 90°. It also allows easier tight fitting of a guard. When drilling for pins in a slab with an irregular surface, I super glue it in place on the tang with a few tiny drops, lock in the vise, use wood wedges to keep it from dropping down, then drill my holes using the holes already in the tang as a guide. A little heat, or just a smack with a wood block will knock the slab loose.
 
Fred, I used Fiebings spirit based leather dye. First a coat of med brown to high light the curl. This was well washed off with acetone before it sat too long, then coated it with Fiebings British tan dye. This is all after whiskering three times with 0000 steel wool. It then got three coats of MinWax Antique Oil Finish, which I have used for many years with great results. Each coat is wiped back as soon as it begins to set, which is only minutes. I wipe as through trying to wipe it completely away, but it still leaves a coat behind. On the chip carving, I had to wipe each chip out with Q tips. This stuff is great on knife grips, but I found it too hard to manage on gun stocks, as it sets so fast it is difficult to make it blend where you have already been. I have seen stocks finished by others that were some how able to do it, but just not me.
Maybe one more LR, but I'm about over those. Too much time involved.
 
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