Thread: Alittle Sidetracked

Well I got side tracked from my razors when I seen a cheap 440C knife blank on the bay that I liked the look of. I usually try to stay away from cheap chinese knives, but this one said made in the USA until I received it and it had a Made In China sticker on it. Anyway figured since I had it might as well make a handle. The wood is a weird Desert Ironwood burl that I thought looked interesting. The handle is alittle on the small side even for my small hands. Actually turned out pretty well and it took a pretty decent edge and held it so far after testing it out. I actually paid more for the wood than I did the knife. After this one I seen a picture of a Puukko knife online that I really like everything about it. Doesn't happen to often where I like everything about something and not want to change something so I decided to try and copy it. Well I couldn't copy the blade since it was a custom blade, but I had everything for the handle. It had a Amboyna burl/Ebony/Horn handle. I did another hidden tang knife and it wasn't too bad considering I didn't have the right tools so figured this one wouldn't be any different. Well when trying to drill the horn I noticed when I would pull the bit out the horn would swell up to twice the diameter of the bit when it cooled. Never seen that before, but since never worked with horn like this not a big surprise. No problem removed the horn from the bit and continued on until the bit stuck and the horn swelled and fused the bit into the horn. I apparently didn't tighten the chuck enough. So part horn handle was out of the question since I didn't have anymore. Well I decided to go with Amboyna burl/Ebony/Amboyna burl instead and since I couldn't copy the knife as much as I wanted I did some file work on the spine for extra grip. That was just the beginning of the pain. First knife I bought the sheath, but figured how hard could it be to make a puukko knife sheath with no leatherworking tools besides some needles and thread. All the videos I seen made it look easy enough. Well after multiple puncture wounds to my hands I finally got it sewn up and made, but it was quite ugly so I will redo it. Making a sheath turned out to be alot harder than I thought with no tools. This time I will get a few more tools. Now to get back to the razors that are sitting around.

I just realized something. You always hear about gateway drugs and how they lead to other things, but this site has lead me all over the place. I keep hearing people talk about turning brushes, woodcarving, making knives and razors and a ton of other things and it is making me want to do them all. This site and everyone on it is a bad influence on me.