All About Pocket Knives

anyone interested in doing a knife maker/mechanic roundtable? Only rule would be it as to be something you made or customized, a rehandle, filework, scratch build, or anything else like that qualifies.

Great idea, Kaleb.
Especially with before and after pictures and explained procedures, as much as possible.
The "how to" of tearing into knives has always interested me since I've been looking at them.

Go for it, guys!

Me likey a lot! Great idea Kaleb, I'm in!

Randy

I'm in, just need plenty of lead time.

Yeah, I'm in too, but would need some advance time to work on something.

I'm not a knife mechanic, but I'm looking forward to the pics and how tos.

I`m by NOOOOOO means a knife mechanic but would definitly follow this thread , great idea kaleb

I'm just beginning to dabble in this fine art, and would closely follow, and hopefully have something to add to it, at some point. Not entirely sure what this "round table" is all about, so, I'll let others ahead of me. All I could do at the moment is a re-post....or a mod of a fixed blade.

How about a regular ROUND TABLE in the near future???

A POS Roundtable would be fun too.
I have saved up some real stinkers!

I agree with Dale! A pos round table wood be just the ticket to cure the winter time blues. Plus I have a large smelly pile of own to dispose of.... er I mean share!

Randy

Yes with some lead time. I have a huge piece of O-1 I have stuck back. I wanted to try my hand at making a fighter with a full tang handle. I have been crawdaddin because to get all the goodie out of O-1 you have to hold a soak at cherry or critical for 30min and I would figure at least 10min for knive size thickness. I have no forge and would have to attempt it with a cutting torch with a rosebud. I am a welder with 32 yrs and am an expert with a torch but still It would be tough but could be done if you don't mess up and keep moving from the spine and dont get a hot spot, turn it white ect. But, if you get O-1 right you will throw the rest of your knives away.
You guys might get me motivated yet! Also I have been hoping to score some thick brass for a hilt off some piece of junk in my travels and some thinner for handle washers but still lookin. I got some Osage Orange from a tree I cut drying but it won't be ready to carve for another 6 months w/o dry cracking. Been thinking of trying my hand at a stacked washer job like a Randle made.
I'm like the old Russian saying when I have'nt made up my mind exactly what I want. " Im slow to saddle the horse, but I ride fast"

Yep ... not really sure what the concept of a "roundtable" is as it relates to a forum (?) but as I have just started pulling knives apart and attempting to put them back together, this will be followed with interest.

how much lead time you all thinking? looks like we only got 5 including myself so far

Brumbydownunder wrote:Yep ... not really sure what the concept of a "roundtable" is as it relates to a forum (?) but as I have just started pulling knives apart and attempting to put them back together, this will be followed with interest.

It would work something like this, all participants put their name in a hat and someone takes charge and draws them out and matches the names up.
I may send a knife I customized to Glenn and he sends one he made to Muskrat Man and MM sends one to me.

Everyone sends out a knife they made/customized and everyone gets one back that someone else has made/customized.

muskrat man wrote:how much lead time you all thinking? looks like we only got 5 including myself so far

A couple months?
Three months?
What works for everyone else?

I dont think I would need more than a month. I just need time to fit it in with all my ongoing projects.

I personally would like to request that we narrow the focus on what we are going to roundtable.

Are we going to redo/Rehandle repair and doll up an existing pocket knife or sheath knife? Or are we trying to make one from scratch?

A month seems fine for a redo but for a grassroots creation I think a 2-3 months would be a better time frame as Im not rigged up like you guys and have a cold barn to work in and deal with weather, and will be using hammer, files, torches ect to make one. I dont have the fancy blade grinders like you guys probably do.

Im good either way, it will be a fun journey and a great time to learn/polish new skills but we also need to be aware of people's varying skill levels and job obligations and such.

I will not be making anything from scratch. I know there are others here that can/do that. If someone wants to do that, that is their call I suppose.

I think generally the thought here would be the taking apart of a knife, and then the embellishment/modification through the use of handle materials, file work, bolsters, etc., much like was mentioned earlier.

I agree with Glenn, making a knife from scratch is pretty difficult for those of us who don't have the equipment to do the heat treating. I have to send blades out to be heat treated and that can add weeks to the build as well as considerable expense.

Good deal. I can hammer forge a killer blade, and being an old welder thats really where my skills lie. But you have to get Zen with the metal and I don't like to do this type thing in cold weather. And, its something that takes time, lots of it to do right and not make a mistake.
I think fixing up an existing one is a way better idea, and tons less work. The only reason I thought this was because Muskrat Man mentioned this in the first post and it was not clear as to what we were going to do.

This is better , let me know what you guys decide for a time frame. Im easy

Well I can work with any time line that you guys settle on. I have not modded a knife since September because of issues with my spine. It was getting hard to walk normal. Had surgery in December. Any way I came out of my neck brace last Friday! The neck brace made looking down at the work almost impossible. Over the weekend I prepped 3 projects A WWII Colonial Pilots survival knife, the Boy Scout version of a Camillus 72 and USA jack knife. I hope to finish them in the next couple of weeks. Its slow going for now. If I over do it, (and I always do), it makes my neck and shoulders hurt. And the big plus for me is I still have most of last years mods! I am saving to get an Etch-O-Matic so that I can mark the blades. As to a scratch build, I don't have any equipment to take that on. I worked as a steel fabricator for 15 years. I can do it if I had the tools. At least I think I can still do it.....

Randy

Ive thought about it and I am going to respectfully withdraw from the roundtable. After rereading the posts I don't believe I would be interested in the pos stinker or whatever redo. I misunderstood the project. And, I am not into most brands of pocket knives that you guys probably are and keep my focus on just 2 or 3 brands
. You guys need an even number anyhow to exchange so I m stepping out.
GLTY and hope you guys create some masterpieces.

The POS Roundtable is different than this roundtable.
I hope all of us who regularly post restored and modified knives here are a bit further along in our skills than turning out a POS!

But sometimes nothing goes right in a rehab project!

well i'm in for a making/embellishment RT if ya'll decide what you wanna do a month leadtime would work for me .

Cowdiddly wrote:Ive thought about it and I am going to respectfully withdraw from the roundtable. After rereading the posts I don't believe I would be interested in the pos stinker or whatever redo. I misunderstood the project. And, I am not into most brands of pocket knives that you guys probably are and keep my focus on just 2 or 3 brands
. You guys need an even number anyhow to exchange so I m stepping out.
GLTY and hope you guys create some masterpieces.

Yeah, the POS roundtable is just a chance for everyone to push their junk knives on to the next lucky SOB. This is something altogether different.

I don't think we've ever done a Mechanics roundtable, and it would be a unique way to for us mechanics to see others' work up close. I have a Sharpfinger mod done by Dale, and it's one of my favorite knives.