Henry Rifle Forums

a few years ago a friend got interested in making knives .... since then I've given him a bunch of old mower blades, leaf springs taken off of our camper, drum brake hubs and such .... much to my delight, he made a knife for me .... the case was cut from a single sheet of leather .... the handles are made of cherry burl wood .... I have to admit I had to look up the word burl .... it is "scary" sharp .... the blade is regular steel, not stainless so it will take a bit of oil to keep it shiny .... I like it so much that I've ordered 5 to give to our sons and grandsons for Christmas

VERY nice Jim!!
Your friend is a great craftsman....and friend.☺

kind words appreciated .... he's very meticulous and really enjoys making knives .... the blade shown was made from a thick lawn more blade .... I already know the blade is hard, it will be interesting to see how it holds its edge and how difficult it is to resharpen .... its a knife that I have absolutely no need for but I'd be hard pressed to part with it .... its old school in that when you take its grip in your hand, you know you are holding a very solid knife

Nice knife!!!!

Beautiful custom knife there. I have several semi custom blades and I always go for the carbon steel blade such as yours. They take on a nice patina and are easy to sharpen but will hold an edge much better then stainless. Stainless is soft and when sharpening, you really have to know what you are doing or you will simply just roll the edge from one side to the other trying to reach the apex. Carbon steel can take a keener edge and stay that way for a long time but it is easier to sharpen which is what we all want.

Team Roper wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:44 pm

carbon steel blade such as yours. They take on a nice patina

understood .... I really like the shiny look but know that if I use it, it won't stay shiny very long

VERY NICE!

Certainly looks like a fun ,useable blade .
I've made a few blades and have found mower blades to be a crap shoot. Some very good and hardenable , some not so much.
For the salvage steels I much prefer leaf springs for a constant in quality.
Patina is good but if you are worried about rust attacking simple cold blue or barrel brown is simple and easy to touch up if needed.
If not using much best to store it out of the sheath.

he said he was pleased with the way the blade hardened .... I do plan on using it and should quickly learn if it is going to be a working blade

for the last couple of days, she's been a working blade .... chopping various veggies needed to make squash relish and slicing cucumbers to make mountain pickles .... after two days of copping the blades remained sharp but not shaving sharp .... it took me a while to get my edge angle honed in place .... from now on it shouldn't take anywhere near as long to sharpen .... I now believe the blade to be well tempered .... its the first knife I've owned in many years that doesn't have some sort of stainless in the blade .... working with it brings back some really good memories