Recurve in O1

[RBNchattanooga]

Just shipped this one to a customer in Montana last week. He was kind enough to send me a picture of it in its' new home.

O1 steel; 3/16" thick
6.5" blade; just under 12" OAL
Full flat grind
Blue/Gray/White paper micarta handles w/ stainless pins

[Lee Barnhill]

Very nice. Lee

[jimmontg]

Looks good. I like the layered effect of the different colored micarta and the rounded off pins. A good size and O1 too, a favorite. How did you round off the stainless pins? I have a problem doing that with stainless as it's so tough.

[NCBoy]

Nice work and the guy has a great eye with a camera.

[RBNchattanooga]

Jim - I wasn't crazy about the handle color request, but the finished knife changed my mind. The color combo was at the customer's request so I'm thinking he may have had this picture planned from the start! The rounded pins were kind of an accident that worked out nicely. I hand-finished the handles before buffing. As you mentioned, stainless is tough stuff. The pins didn't sand at the same rate as the micarta so I opted to round them off instead of trying to countersink or match with the exact contour of the micarta.

Thanks for the compliments. I was so pleased with this knife that I've already almost finished one for myself with natural scales & orange/green liners. Ryan (customer) sent me this picture shortly after the first one. He bagged a nice buck a week after he received the knife and was able to use it for dressing! This picture is a little washed out, but it also shows the sheath I made for him. Which.... Sheath specs. Kydex inner with wet-formed leather outer (removable for cleaning). Sent two mounting attachments with it- a leather dangler loop and a large Tek-Lok.

[jimmontg]

Sounds like a great way to do it. Him dressing out a deer with it was appropo. It is funny to me that the handle is what he wanted. I seldom have a customer ask for that except it must be able to handle a dishwasher(?). I made a kitchen set and that was what he wanted. Looked good tho.lol

[jimmontg]

I worked in the metal industries for many years, getting the pins even would not be a problem, getting that nice rounded top to me would be.

[RBNchattanooga]

Dishwasher safe. That makes me cringe! I made a nice paring knife for my mother's Christmas gift last year. It was O1 with a tapered tang and white ebony handles. I told her that it shouldn't be put in the dishwasher. She apparently disagreed with that. It's still holding together, but the handles have swollen some and she called a few weeks back asking how to remove the rust... I guess it's up to the customer what they do with their knife.

I didn't have any science behind rounding the pin heads. I was concerned about smoothing them and making the handles too thin, so I just sanded/buffed/sanded/more buffing until they were smooth and shiny.

[jimmontg]

Tell your Mom to buy some blue and rust remover and some super blue and some 0000 steel wool.LOL