Trying my hand at a TOTW patch knife.

[Dandyfunk]

Well since I have been in the mood of trying to make stuff I thought that I would try one of these knife kits. This one is call a patch knife by Track of the Wolf. Per the instructions I was to countersink the rivet heads flush with the handle wood. In the picture that is what you see. It seems to me that the handle will be too thick for the size of the knife. What do you guys think?

 

[44-henry]

Your handles are definitely too thick for my taste. I would shoot for .25-.375 starting thickness and work it down from there. I would also skip the rivets and go with pins instead.

 

[freekforge]

^^^^^what he said^^^^^^

 

[Leopard cur]

You could countersink a bit deeper, then sand down to the rivets to make it thinner. If you countersink deeper make sure you have a small washer between the rivet head and your striking surface when you set the rivet. That handle is going seem a lot smaller once you get it shaped anyway. Just make it comfortable for your hand, don't get discouraged.

 

[Dandyfunk]

Pins?? what type of pins. My first plan if others agreed that it was a bit thick was to countersink them deeper and take it down. But now I am curious about the pins?? Df

 

[Rifleman1776]

Looks pretty thick to me. Just sand down to suit yer taste and hand comfort. Some advice. Make the knife a little distinctive. There are many of those around, very popular patch knife style. At our last shoot guy next to me and I couldn't figure out which knife was his and which was mine. Mine was older and dirtier, and sharper.

 

[44-henry]

If it were mine, I would reshape the blade somewhat. This can be easily done if you go slow with your grinding so as not to overheat the blade and remove the temper. I think it has the potential of being a nice looking blade and, as was said earlier, would look different than all the other ones out there.

As for pins, 1/8" mild steel would look pretty good on it I think, brass would be fine also. Some would go larger or smaller, but it is really personal taste and as long as the handles are secured with a good epoxy either will work fine.

 

[BrownBear]

I've kind of come full circle on handles. Skinny looks good and feels good in the hand.... Until you're doing a bunch of shooting and get grease all over your hands. Was me, I'd finish it thick, maybe even figure a way to get some HC/PC texture on it if there is such a thing. Skinny little slick handles SUCK with greasy hands.

Don't like it after all that? You still have wood to play with, so get some more pins and take it down further. You can always take wood off, but you can't put it back.

As for shape of the blade? Try it first, too. You can reshape later, just as with the handles. I've used this blade a lot, and have no qualms about it functionally. For dress-up you might check on the fashions used by everyone else.

One compliment and one criticism on that blade. The steel takes a whale of an edge, which you need for cutting patches. But fashionable though small knives might be, I'm betting you're going to find it too short for cutting lots of patches with a single swipe each. You'll end up sawing, because quicker than you can imagine even a good knife that starts out sharp is going to dull surprisingly fast when it comes to cutting fabric. My general purpose knife with its 5" blade has become my "patch" knife, while the little guys are all rattling around in a drawer somewhere.

None of this is fashionable, I know. But it's sure practical.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Mine is a shooting box resident and used only on the range. Works well for me. Takes and edge and has a degree of safety pointy blades don't offer. Looks ain't a consideration. I see a lot of those with crosshatch patterns cut or filed in to give a better grip. My hands don't get dirty when I shoot bp so I don't need that. :shocked2: :wink: :rotf:

 

[Dandyfunk]

Thanks for the comments, while I may regret it later I did plane the handle halves down. Just did not look right to me. Df

 

[Dandyfunk]

Here is an update, I used five minute epoxy dyed it black with some paint, thinned the handles because they did seem out of scale for the blade. Here is a pic. Just waiting on the epoxy to dry then its off to shaping land!!

 

[jamesthomas]

I would have just glued it first, then shape the handle, then PIN it. Now your going to have to re-pin it because after shaping the handle the pins will be either sticking up above the wood or in thinning the tops of the pins will be shaved off. That handle needs to come down to around half of what it is now, JMHO of course.

 

[Dandyfunk]

Here it is with all the width and tang shaping complete. All that I have left is the final hand shaping an sanding.

 

[Dandyfunk]

Thanks Killer for the advise, I feel pretty confident that the rivets will hold. The wood is glued on with 30 minute epoxy and the rivets are set with JB weld. I have large hands and left the overall handle thickness at 5/8". It feels quite good to me now, only time will tell with use if it is wrong. Df

 

[Dandyfunk]

Hello all, I thought that I would show a couple of pictures of the finished knife and sheath. The sheath is attached to my possibles bag strap. It places the knife at my chest/belly and is very comfortable to use. Most of the sheaths that I make are not contoured to the blade, I prefer the type of sheath with an inner block cut to the knife shape, however this knife's shape will not work in that design. Lietz is my last name. This was my first attempt at knife making. I have bought another TOTW kit and will start it soon. This has been a fun project. Df

 

[M. De Land]

Let's see the knife!
Ooops there they are, my puter is a bit slow at posting all the pictures.
I used the same blade to make mine. Mike D.

 

[M. De Land]

I think on my next one I will turn the handle around and use the base of the antler as a finger guard and not split it in half. Mike D.

 

[Dandyfunk]

That looks very cool!!