As my knife-making skills are getting better I decided to start working on a medium-sized one for my father so he can use it when he is working in his little farm.
Of course, it all starts with an annealed file. This is an Bahco-Oberg file I got from a friend who found it at a yard sale. After drawing the initial contour and applying the angle grinder as well as the belt sander I have a decent starting blank.
Here you can see that it’s about 21 cm long. I have started filing away on it using the filing jig I built inspired by Gough Custom’s video.
As this one is for my father, who taught me basically all I know about working with my hands, I wanted to make it a bit more special by adding some filework to the spine. I had practiced a bit on scrap material I had laying around and in the end I think it came out quite decent for a first time.
The next image image shows a dry fitting of the olive wood scales with brass pins.
This is what it looks like after the heat treatment. I still get a fair amount of “bubbles” on the blade after quenching the steel in used cooking oil (a mixture of sunflower seed and olive oil). I should really invest a bit in a more appropriate quenching agent.
After sanding the blade up to 800 grit and fastening, sanding, and oiling the scales, this is the end result:
Of course it has to go with a custom sheath.
And the etched Triskele to denote our Galician heritage.
I hope you liked it. I’m already working on a few smaller projects for which I will use some of the beautiful boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) I brought back from my last trip home.
