Custom TBS Boar bushcraft knife.

[Jamesey1981]

I've wanted to make a custom bushcraft knife for ages, but as yet I don't have a forge to harden the blade.
A while ago Shocker, (a member on here) posted a link to the blade blanks that the bushcraft store sell, so I did some research and decided on a Boar blank in 5mm thick Bohler N695 stainless, a very high carbon stainless steel, it does in fact have more carbon in it than the carbon steel option!

I like curly birch for knife handles, I think it looks fantastic, so I ordered some, cut into suitably sized pieces for scales since I don't have a table saw or band saw and cutting a small piece straight would be a challenge, along with some red vulcanised fibre liner material and some rather pretty mosaic pins. I'm not a fan of lanyards, I never use them so instead of two pins and a lanyard tube I've used three pins.

I was going to make a sheath for it, but it turned out that I could buy a nice leather one for about the same as I could buy the leather to make one, and my woodwork is better than my leatherwork.

Here's what I started with:


After a lot of shaping, here's what I now have:


All it needs now is a few more coats of oil on the handles and a sharpen and it's ready to go.

I did most of the work with common tools, the only tool I would call slightly specialist was a belt sander, and mine came from Lidl so it's not out of most people's reach, the rest was stuff most people will have if they've done any decorating or DIY.

I will be adding to this thread as it gets finished off, and I have filmed the build and will be uploading it to my youtube channel when it's finished if anyone would like to see what goes into a project like this, I'll post a link when the video is live.

For those that are thinking that they would like to do something like this but don't think they have the skill I would say have some confidence in yourself and give it a try, I am by no means an expert woodworker, and this is the first knife I have worked on. It has taken me a while as I was taking care with it and learning as I went along, but I'm very happy with the way it's turning out and if I can do it anyone can.

[dazthechippy]

hi Jamesy, im a chippie and really like what you've done here, love the grain on that

you're right, its all about being confident and having a go - if it goes wrong, start again..

top tip - when on your travels look for builders/chippies doing work and ask if they have any offcuts - most of them give offcuts away as it saves disposal aggro..

tree surgeons are a good one too, I'm always scrounging round them although you need to let it season...

stair spindle offcuts are a handy size for lots of things, I've made loads of priests for fly fishing pals and use one made of mahogany..

me, I put mine in the wood burner if not useable for anything else, saves firewood....

[Jamesey1981]

Thanks Daz.
We have a wood reclamation place near me so that's where I get most of my bits and bobs, bought the birch online though as I wanted a really nicely figured bit, I did buy a honking great lump of some sort of tropical hardwood (I think it's probably mahogany) from the reclamation yard for next to nothing though, that'll be used in my next project, and they have a really good free bits and bobs section where you can usually get various off cuts and bits and pieces that they don't reckon are worth selling but are plenty good enough to be useful.
A good bit of the frame for the workbench in the photo was free from there and the rest was left over from some DIY, the only thing I paid for specifically for the bench was screws!

I also have a shed fallow antler that I'm probably going to use for my next knife, I'm going to make a kiridashi from an old file and the white antler will look lovely with the dark pattern on the metal.

[korolev]

Be careful working with hardwood, some of it can be nasty, especially if using power grinders/sanders. Use skin/eye protection and a respirator.

http://www.wood-database.com/wood-artic ... -toxicity/

[Jamesey1981]

I always wear eye protection when doing near enough anything, I'm pretty much blind in my left eye so if I damage my right eye I'm in trouble!
I have dust extraction on my tools, and if I'm working with anything that's particularly dusty I wear a mask and generally work outside, I always use my belt sander outside, the dust would coat everything in the shed in seconds.