20160221

ANOTHER CUSTOM MADE CHOPPING KNIFE


Last week we delivered to a good customer our biggest cutting tool so far, a big chopper knife we have been working on the last weeks.

The Gibor was designed and made following the customer requirements:

  • A heavy as possible blade designed for heavy chopping
  • A curved and wide handle that would suit his hands
  • Narrow, convex grind
  • Micarta scales with copper pins

After some sketching we made a wood model to test the geometry and the ergonomics of the knife before cutting the steel blank:

Hand made outdoor knife by Nash Knife maker for Bladetricks


Once checked, we were ready for waterjet cutting the precision ground flat stock O1 tool steel:

knife maker Bladetricks high quality custom knife

With the blank in the workshop we are ready to make the knife:

Custom made outdoor blade

Time to cut the micarta scales and adjust them to the blank's shape:

Bladetricks Nash knife maker perfect fit micarta scales

To increase the adherence of the epoxy glue to the metal some extra work has to be done on the handle section of this full tang knife:

knife making scales gluing epoxy micarta blade

Time for grinding the blade:

Knife maker heavy duty custom chopper convex grind

Bladetricks custom hand made heavy machete chopping knife wip

Once ground and sanded, the knife was heat treated in our electric kiln. This is how it looked like right after the second tempering cycle:

Bladetricks heat treated knife

We decided to age the blade; it looks like we spoiled the knife, but the final result worths it:

Bladetricks aging the blade on a custom knife

The excess of rust has to be cleaned and stabilized before gluing the natural micarta scales with epoxy glue and pinning them with wide copper pins:

Knife maker Bladetricks custom big chopper knife micarta scales

24 hours later the epoxy has cured enough and  we can give some texture to the canvas micarta:

Bladetricks knife making custom micarta sculpted scales copper pins

The micarta is then varnished in order to protect it from the dirt. We want the scales to remain grippy in all conditions, so we barely sanded or polished them. It's time now to laser engrave the Bladetricks logo:

Knife maker Bladetricks laser engraving logo

The Gibor heavy chopper just needs some sharpening and it will be finished:

Custom hand made knife grind and cutting edge detail by Bladetricks

Theis beast is shaving sharp now. This is the final result:

Knife maker custom heavy chopping machete knife

Custom made heavy outdoor chopping Gibor knife specs:
O1 tool steel, 8 mm thick
OAL: 330 mm
Cutting edge: 196 mm
Full tang blade, convex grind, secondary bevel
1275 grams
Kydex sheath

Knife maker custom Gibor large blade



Knife maker custom kukri knife by Bladetricks






Bladetricks Knife maker  custom hand made heavy duty chopping machete kukri outdoor knife natural canvas micarta scales copper pins kydex sheath