What the heck is this?

[Frank J Warner]

I call it "The Chopper."

This unconventional design was just an experiment using an old piece of file steel from my Dad's junk pile. The objective was to see how strong I could make the steel. I didn't spend a lot of time on it except for annealing, shaping & drilling, heat treating and final sharpening. Didn't polish it much at all.

About all it's good for is hacking away at stuff, like the 2x4 in the picture. That turned out pretty well; was able to slice cigarette papers after mutilating the 2x4.

Blade is either 1095 or W2 (not sure which)
OL: 10-1/4"
Blade is 5" long, 15/16" wide, 1/4" thick.
Hollow grind; full tapered tang with filework on top of the grip
Handles are black ash burl with brass pins.





-Frank J Warner

[floridafred]

I like the way you dropped the handle around the filework. Looks good.

[Stephen Galperi]

It's cool!!

[whv]

nice experiment, frank.

[C.M. Arrington]

Nice ! Looks kinda like the big brother to the Spyderco Kiwi.

[Keith Montgomery]

I think it looks really nice, but I would question how well it would work as a chopper. That deep hollow grind looks like it will limit the amount of penetration into the wood. It does look strong though.

[Jason Cutter]

1095 or W-2 will work, and work hard ! That is a very slick design and complete package. I agree about the hollowgrind, but I am a flat grind, convex edge character... But the steel is 1/4inch thick, so it would work. The edge would be plenty beefy. You obviously get grind lines pretty bloody straight ! With your skills, I reckon you could add a similar profile grind for a false edge or second edge on the spine to make it even more wicked !! The handle is superb, frankly. (Pun intended)

Just wondering, was this forged at all ? I'm trying to figure out how you got the hump / top guard in. When I grind old files, I have to follow the existing shapes unless I forge it out.

Cheers. Jason.

[Frank J Warner]

Just wondering, was this forged at all ?

No, Jason, no forging on this one. It was piece of file steel that my father had saved for years. Somewhere along the line he'd managed to have the cutting edges ground flat (he was a professional machinist), so I started with a near-perfect, precision ground billet of steel.

So it was pure stock removal on this one. The trick was annealing so I could drill and rough-shape the blade, then heat-treating back to killer hardness, without ruining the steel.

I use a jig similar to the one described in Terzoula's book to help me with my grind lines. My father and I argued for years over the value (read "cheat value") of jigs like this. In the end, he won the argument, and I'm now a big believer in anything that makes the job go quickly and smoothly.

-FJW

[aiiifish]

Frank, great looking knife. Impressive work.

[Coutel]

Frank....I really like this knife.... style is great....its different .

Kevin.