The fighter is completed. It features a nice vine pattern on the spine of the knife. The brass S guard is followed by file worked brass and copper spacers. The handle is made of Arizona desert ironwood. This is heavy weight.
My wife is the inspiration for this miniature Scandinavian style Puukko knife. She saw a large 6 inch puukko knife online in a similar style and said I had to make a mini one with a little fat 1 inch blade. It needed to be a neck knife so guys or ladies could carry it comfortably over or under their clothes, and it need a pretty little handle as well. So as my wife's personal genie, off I went to work...
Don't let the daintiness of this little puukko knife fool you. When I was sanding the handle, the blade caught, and flew into the wall of my shop, and buried the blade a half inch in the wall. It's a tough little knife. Now on to the specifics. The blade of the knife measures 1 inch long, 3 inches over all, and is made of high carbon spring steel. The mini puukko knife features a nickel silver guard and white tail stag antler spacer. The handle is stabilized buckeye. This is a through tang construction.The sheath is made of 5-6 ounce leather. The leather sheath was tooled, molded, and dyed. I attached the leather sheath to a braided leather necklace.
I have always wanted to make a knife from 52100 ball bearing steel, so I thought it would be a fun project for this weekend. These particular ball bearings came from a 1965 Pettibone crane. After a lot of research and reading about the properties, proper heat treating and tempering of 52100, I started forging. Not bad, for my first try. I'm actually really happy with the results. The blade of this hunter knife measures 3.5 inches long, 7.75 inches over all, and is made of 52100 ball bearing steel. The ball bearing in the picture is for reference of what the blade is made from.
The spine of the knife was file worked. The knife features a brass guard, brass spacers, and a copper spacer file worked into a nice vine pattern.The tang of the knife was hot fitted into the Arizona desert ironwood handle. It also has a mosaic pin. The sheath is made of 8-10 ounce leather. The sheath was tooled into a quilted pattern, molded, and dyed.
When sunlight hits this lace madrone burl handle, it's like dancing flames. Compared to the Arizona desert ironwood I've been making handles with lately, it's very light in weight, even when stabilized like this piece and it works like a dream. I really like this wood and look forward to making a mini with the madrone this weekend. This particular knife is a multi use drop point design that makes a great general purpose knife.
The blade of the knife measures 2.75 inches long, 7 inches over all, and is made of 5160 spring steel steel. The spine of the knife has thumb notches.
The knife features a brass guard, white bone spacers, and reddish rust colored vulcanized spacers. The sheath is made of 8-10 ounce leather. The sheath was tooled into a basket weave pattern, molded, and dyed.
The sheath is made of 5-6 ounce leather. The leather sheath was tooled, molded, and dyed. I attached the leather sheath to a braided leather thong.
There was such an interest in my last fat bladed mini puukko that I decided to make another one. This miniature Scandinavian style puukko is a little larger than the mini puukko neck knife with the stabilized buckeye handle I made earlier this month. The blade is a little wider and comes in at 1.25 inches long, 3.75 inches overall, and is made of 5160 spring steel. The handle is stabilized lace madrone burl, with a brass guard, and a white tail stag antler spacer. The dime in the photo is for size reference. I don't plan on making anymore of these mini puukko style knives this month.
I try to challenge myself to make different blade types, work with different handle materials, and try new ways of making knives to see if I can find a more efficient way of doing things. Sometimes its just trying a different angle on the blade or working with a new species of wood. Out of these ideas came this miniature cleaver and little butcher's block. I don't want to ever get complacent and just make the same knife over and over again. This would be very boring to me. I make knives for fun and because I enjoy it.
The blade of the cleaver measures 1 inch long, 2.5 inches over all, and was hand forged from L-6 steel. I used a dime for size reference in some of the photos. The handle is made from zebrawood and has 2 brass pins. The cleaver is full tang knife design. With the primitive style you will see minor file marks and tool marks. It is intentional, giving the knife a rustic, not store bought look. No sheath is included because a sheath was not meant to be used with this style of knife. The miniature butcher's block is made of Douglas Fir.
This is a real knife fully functional and extremely sharp.
I've made a few mini bowies before. This is my first miniature Musso style bowie I've tried. I researched different styles of bowies and I thought this one would be interesting to make. The blade of the knife measures 1 7/8 inches long, 3 3/8 inches overall, and is made of 5160 spring steel. I used a dime for size reference in some of the photos. The mini Musso Bowie knife features a brass S guard. The handle is Arizona Desert Ironwood.
The sheath is made of 5-6 ounce leather. The leather sheath was hand tooled in a nice basket weave pattern, molded, dyed, and sealed.
