Nice work. The stainless one that was pre hardened did you have to do any forging type work to that one or was it more of a cutting and grinding to shape deal. Stainless is a whole different kettle of fish I believe.
Yeah, stainless is a complicated material to harden correctly. It not only involves heat treating but cryo with liquid nitrogen as well. Adds to the cost and not exactly easily obtained here where I live.
That was purely a “stock removal” build, the only heat treatment used was to soften the tang so I could drill the hole for the handle.
Has yours been “blooded” yet? I gave one to a mate to field test for me as he was doing a bunch of deer hunting. 12 months later, the only time he has used it was to cut up some dog tucker when he visited me at home…
As for me, I haven’t been hunting for a while, so no… Yet. However, the intended recipient who’s present that was, has been using it as a fishing/utility knife at least weekly (uhh it’s good to be retired) - going well.
@JizzFlinger , Decided to have a go at forging something along the lines of that Rat7 you suggested.
Started with a piece of old spring from my lead road-train trailer cut at about 24 x 15mm, (should be 5160), I’ve used it before for big, heavy knives, it makes good blade steel.
After initial annealing, it was then forged into a piece of flat bar, then further forged into the basic bade shape including bevels.
A rough grind to shape and then thermo-cycled 3 times before heat treating. This was followed by 2 x 2 hours @ 200C tempering. Then further grinding to refine shape and the bevels.
The blade finished at 200mm, (332mm over-all), 5mm thick at the spine with a blade depth of 40mm.I put a tapered tang on it to keep the weight forward for chopping.
I decided to try it out splitting firewood, (ironbark) and then placed it between a couple of pieces of timber for a flex-test. ( I put all of my 85kg weight on one heel)
The blade came through the testing with flying colours, there isn’t a mark on the blade after being beaten through the ironbark a number of times, just a bunch of smaller pieces of firewood. A test piece that I cut off the blank had to be flogged really hard with a large hammer 90 degrees, then turned and hammered the other way before it finally broke. The matrix was very fine, hardness testing shows the blade to be somewhere between 60-65 HRC using test files.
Would you like me to proceed? Same handle material as your skinner?
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Crikey, Im getting a stiffy jist thinking about it. Yes please, go right ahead. I like the durability of the linen micarta/G10 stuff. What other patterns and or colors do you have on hand?
I went with the 5 colour G10, only stuff I had that was in a sheet large enough to cut the scales from.
I used G10 tube for pins and profiled finger grips into the handle, feels great in the hand. Balance point is right at the front of the handle and by placing your index finger in the notch in the ricasso, you can choke up on the blade for a bit of “precision” work.
There is a bit of “hammer texture” left in the blade from forging, grinding it out would have made the blade too thin for a chopper, so I left it alone. Had to etch my makers mark ( Bison ) in as some nitwit forgot to stamp it while it was hot, pre heat treat… 
I’ve nick-named this one “Huey”, as in a tough, solid, workhorse chopper.
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That’s a beast Dan, good work 
From one extreme to another, forged this one out of the 5160 while I had the fire going. A Master-bladesmith mate of mine in the U.S would describe it as “bird and trout” knife. I suppose here you’d call it a “bunny” knife? 4" blade, micarta scales with G10 liners and a bit of file-work just to set it off.
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I like it. I like it a lot. Could you profile the handle down to a fair bit? like say making it 20% thinner and bevelling it? I suppose its a bit late for putting a Blaze Orange liner below each scale eh? That would make it easier for me to find when Im ̶i̶n̶e̶b̶r̶i̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ I mean when the sun goes down.
I know, I don’t ask for much. I really like the forging marks though, thats such a nice feature to have a bit of the process showing. It shows that a human made it.
I like that “bunny” knife too. Its almost a bit “Canadian Belt” style.
Yeah, a bit late for changes to colour. As for the size, it’s a nice comfortable fit in my hand, (4.25" wide, 8" from base of palm to top of middle finger), at the moment but I can refine it if you want. The scallops on the bottom are quite deep already so your hand really wraps around it well. Balances at the front of handle, so, blade heavy for chopping.
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Latest out of the workshop. 115mm long x 2.2mm thick blade in 1084 H.C steel.
Brass guard and pin with case head embellishment. Hidden tang in W.A. Jarrah.
Was going for a Scandi grind but stopped short and put a secondary edge grind on instead.
It could easily be taken down to a Scandi on an oilstone as the edge is quite thin.
It’s a nice light knife that handles well. I’ve knick-named this one “Ol’55” in deference to the .38-55 case.
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Here’s the finished Tanto, it’ll be on it’s way to it’s new owner tomorrow, hope he’s happy with it.
The stabilised Mallee burl handle scales polished up nicely, as did the 80CrV2 blade.
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That has come up sweet mate! 
Cool! Do you do the vacuum epoxy stabilising yourself? Is it as straight forward as it sounds or does go wrong easily?
@JizzFlinger , Not at this stage. I buy my stabilised timbers from a fella in W.A.
By the way, “Huey” is on it’s way to you. Posted yesterday.
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Stabilising timber isn’t hard but it is time consuming and rather expensive to set up for and the phenolic resin isn’t cheap either.
I’ve set pieces in the oven but then decided to vacuum bag the impregnated Timbers and put them in a water bath as it’s easier to control the temp for proper setting.
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Tanto looks great, Dan. Scabbard came up really well too! 
More pretties… 2 x sets
…and another set by @danmac
…similar but different and unique. One of a kind and there is not another one ever like it! Ha!
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