rawcustom

First off a knife should be stored with it's leather sheath, not in it. Even stainless steels can rust and the chemicals from the tanning itself can lead to this, so leather treatment effects would only be secondary. The rate of oxidation on the blade will have to do with the steel composition, level of finish and surface treatment. A "high end" custom knife speaks nothing as to the steel used. Many knifemakers use basic high carbon steel such as 1095 and many of those would be labeled "high end". O1 is another very popular custom knife steel, and although it has a dash of alloy it will rust like crazy, the same as 1095. The sanded finish will play a major role as well. A mirror polished blade will resist rust far better than a belt sanded finish blade. Although it won't rust as fast, high carbon blades with a mirror polish still tend to stain, and will rust over time in the right environment. Lastly some of us will acid etch our non-stainless blades to mitigate the oxidation issues. Acid etching is the same as gun bluing whereas it requires an oiled surface to fully work. Despite all the extra ramblings, you should NEVER NEVER store your knife in a leather sheath, or your rifle in a leather scabbard. Add or subtract the NEVER's on that statement depending on if you call "Rust" "Patina" and if you call "Stains" "Character". One last note, I prefer waxes on blades over oils. I think you get longer wearing protection from a wax.

Thanks for the compliment Chuck, and I'm glad that awl is finding some service in your leatherworking. And it's a good thing I cleared the board before my boy arrived, since there has been a drastic, but enjoyable decline in my available time. I'll try to return the favor by pushing all of my cowboy cousins in your direction next time they're looking at saddles and tack. I say try, because you never know where a cowboy will end up spending his money...

I just have to second the price point opinion. You are doing yourself no favors by low balling your work. You need to charge a fee that covers your expense and time if you plan to keep selling. The other fact is this, the people willing to seek you out for being the cheapest are always the hardest to satisfy. In my fulltime job the absolute most complaints I get is from a product/service offered to the public for free. FREE as in no cost, zero dollars, and zero cents. The people who seek out the freebies seem to have the natural personality to complain about anything and everything. Charge a realistic price and you won't work yourself out of business and you will be limiting your customer base to educated, typically respectful buyers.

If you are getting a proper quench while heat treating, the blades will be too brittle to use without tempering. If you're blades are not brittle after the quench = failed quench. This could be from soaking temp, quench oil used, quench oil temp, quench technique, steel used and any combo of them.

I have dried a lot of rattlers and like Electrathon said, the scales are pretty easy to just brush off. I have had a harder time keeping the scales on then getting them off.

For other cleaning I recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Ron-Jeremy-Hardest-Working-Showbiz/dp/0060840838

Maybe the last addition to my leatherworking blades.

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I advise against using household bleach on bone. The bleach will break the bone down. Maybe you won't notice much to start, but you will be limiting the life of the bone. A 50/50 mix of alcohol with acetone does a good job of cleaning. Rub with an scotch pad or fine sandpaper as mentioned above. Doubt you will return it to stark white, but you should remove enough residue to keep it from staining. Here's a good read on prep and cleaning bone: http://www.bearmeadow.com/build/materials/bone/html/bone-clean.html

There's a sticky over in leather tools where some guys made head knives. Sounds like you've made knives before so depending on your setup, a head knife may not require a lot on your part. Like anything it all comes down to what your time is worth to you. If you have time and resources (skill helps) than you can get by. If you find you're better off paying someone else for their time so you can spend yours on others projects than guys like me can help. I have to admit the only head knife I made was my own, but I've been itching to make another. After making mine I got caught up in the leather tool knives and went on to make my own skiver and trim knife as well. In fact I have my new trim knife tempering right now since I sold my last one. So maybe if you make your own you'll end up like me and find yourself making a few specialty knives for the trade...rather than leatherworking, only so much time in the day. And as far as the head knife vs the stanley, after you get to using one you'll find it has its perks.

Knife is sold, moderator please move appropriately. Thanks

Maybe this is more of a what than a how, but I'm curious what kind of leather is being used on sheaths such as the pic I've attached. All I've ever dealt with is veg tan, and I can honestly say I'm not well versed on the different types of leather out there. If this is veg tan, it has a finish unlike any I've seen. Ideas? Sheath.bmp

Very nice work on this one, I like it.

I agree with you on this one. Only reason I can see is that often leather items, at least in my trade with knives, often have the owner's name or intials on them, and perhaps this was to distinguish the craftsman from the customer. Even with that stretch I think it is redundant. I haven't designed my own yet so maybe I'll be a hypocrit and go with it as well in the end. I have spent plenty of time coming up with designs and have found it very difficult yo come up with anything else for words or images that will fit in the center and look right, maybe that's another reason for just going with 'MAKER'.

And you can spend $75 on a Douglas handle as well, and from what I've read it's a good investment. But really why spend $10 when you can just wrap an awl blade in $1 worth of duct tape? Did you consider that option, or perhaps finding a branch, drilling a hole and $0.10 worth of elmers glue you have another handle. In short your post is not enlightening or helpful to this thread. I have listed my components and what they will cost and some would rather invest in a quality tool than the cheapest chicom alternative available.

Thanks everyone for the comments! I have a couple posts on blade forums, but my work internet filters every knife forum except knifenetwork.com so I post a bit more there. I am trying to be more active but it seems exhausting to be involved in too many forums. I've been working lately on the leather side of things so spend most my forum time here.

Finally made myself a knife that I will keep. Seems like every time I make one for myself I end up selling it and then hunting season roles around and I am forced to use an old hack job I made when I was 17. Finished the knife up a couple months ago and have been waiting for some slow time to make the sheath. Been researching a lot on the forums, and after picking up some more supplies (excellent customer service from Springfield Leather) and making a few tools (stitching pony, awl, sewing palm) I made the following. Used a saddle stitch and think I will be switching to this method from now on. Also I have to say tooling leather with my Bearman Maul is a much more enjoyable and efficient process over the ball-peen of yesterday. A job can be downright enjoyable when you use the right tools.

Very nice! How do you color your leather so clearly/accurately to get so well defined lines and images?

Tanda4, I try to keep an active stream of pictures posted on my FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/rawknives WyomingSlick, I use this same pattern/material skiver in my knife shop every time I make a sheath. I've used it on veg tan leathers from 4oz-12oz.I'm not sure how showing pictures of skived leather will prove much of anything. Skiving leather is just as much skilled technique as anything else. If you are interested in performance I have listed the steel, Rockwell and professional heat treat service used on this knife along with a link to the manufactures description. I could post more links if you like, but I would encourage you to do your own homework rather than take my word. Elmax is an incredible knife steel and has proven itself to me and many satisfied customers over and over again. No, it's not cheap, even pocket knives that use it start around $150-200. It sells well to educated buyers who understand the investment in better material. I set out to make my leather knives because I wasn't impressed by the commercial alternatives in the industry. I could make cheaper blades, and cheaper handles, but this would not be improvement over what I can buy from Tandy. Besides, I'm not a 'no refund, no return' person. If you used my skiver for a couple weeks and decided you would rather have the 'Made in China' option, send it back. As long as the knife wasn't damaged in your care then I'll refund your money and all you're out is the shipping of maybe $5-6. Making knives is part of my Get-Rich-Never scheme. My prices reflect just enough to keep my business in business. Someday I hope to have a big enough name to actually make some profit, for now I'm more interested in getting quality blades into the right hands to help promote my knives.

I am interested in possible trades on this knife as well. I'm currently in the market for pricking irons, pricking wheels, stitching markers (not overstitchers), quality tooling leather from 4oz to 10oz, exotic hides (even scraps big enough for knife sheath inlays), horse butt for strops, lacing, lacing chisels, 0.8 tiger thread, and stamping tools (I only have a few outside the basics). As you can tell I'm focusing on building my leatherworking tool and material inventory and I'm open to quite a few items that I could use. To sell this skiver for cash is just adding a middle man since I'm going to invest the sale into some of the items listed. This is a great skiver, but I've already built myself one just like it so it needs to move on.

I'm trying to fight off the bug of building yet another leather tool, but I think I'm going to end up doing it. I've been researching swivel knives and got the great idea to build one myself. I will be making my own blades, but in case I make more I would like to standardize the size with the LW blades. Can anyone give me the tang size on the LW swivel knife blades? I am not planning to make it for the standard 1/4" shaft such as the Tandy. I think between my blades and LW there should be enough options. I've got some time to think and rethink my design since I have to get a couple knives done to pay for all these extra side projects first. I'm sure it would be just as cheap to buy a good one from some of the names I've researched, but something is just eating me up to make a carbon fiber swivel knife. If anyone can give me some specs, chances are I'll be posting back in a few months with a prototype. Thanks

To be clear on my pricing those are estimates for the more average materials. Some species can cost substantially more and would be reflected in the end price. Here's some good examples: http://www.ebay.com/itm/knife-scales-desert-ironwood-burl-lumber-exotic-wood-pistol-grips-/310896822882?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4862e50a62 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Honduran-Rosewood-Burl-Pistol-knife-Scales-46-x-1-65-x-5-25-HRB1571-/310832587525?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item485f10e305 And this is a good example of where you would get burned: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WOODEN-STABILIZED-BLACK-PALM-KNIFE-SCALES-GUN-GRIPS-2-x-4-x-1-2-R6-/400671639133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d49e4065d The first two are going to be usable, the last is balsa wood at best and if you want to use it you will need to contract with a professional stabilizing service and drop another $15-$20 before you can start.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SE-Pin-Vise-Double-Mouth-Reversible-Chucks-0-1-8-/181130722227?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a2c3b7bb3 That is the pin vise I got, and then cut it in half. Handle wood can be anything. I have a few knife suppliers I use as well as some local sellers. Ebay has a lot of choices as well but you better know what you're looking at and what to expect. There are many woods that won't work unless properly stabilized and many on ebay are labeled 'stabilized' but aren't. Basically if you are buying stabilized scales or blocks for less than $25 you can bet they aren't truly stabilized. For this project, stabilized isn't required on all species. Walnut would be fine, as well as many other hardwoods, Maple, Hickory, Rosewood, Ipe, etc. A run of the mill, non-stabilized piece will be cheap, and boring to look at, but functional. This one I built from scraps in my inventory, but if purchased would've been likely about $20. I would charge $60 to make one from non-stabilized wood, $90 from stabilized wood, and it could be much more if you want carbon fiber or mammoth ivory, or some other exotic.

I got mine off ebay, although there were plenty that would have worked. The 2 things I looked for was a chuck that would take up to .125" and a head with flats for a wrench.

Just have to say that I've been making and sharpening knives my whole life. Part of my policy with the knives I make is that I maintain them for free for life including sharpening, and most of my local repeat customers I'll sharpen anything else they bring me as well. There is more mysticism and general BS regarding sharpening then there is fact. Your best source of information is the research done by John D. Verhoeven where sharpening was studied scientifically. It's very easy to get caught up in natural hones that according to the price must be assumed to have some imbued great properties, but there is nothing magical about a creating a fine edge. All you are doing is polishing two opposing faces. The evenness and angle in how those faces meet, and the degree of polish will equal your end result. Here's why I like bench stones: Less variables. A huge struggle in sharpening is maintaining the same angle on each pass of the stone. If you hold a stone in your hand now you have just added a new set of XYZ movement to your sharpening method. Can it be done? Sure, but for learning and consistency, eliminate half your variable, half the problem and use a bench stone. Here's why I like Diamond course plates: Fast and Flat. You won't wear them uneven, no dressing required and they work incredibly fast. Working fast is also great because it means you spend less passes on the hone, and therefore introduce less variable angles. I assure you the faster you get your edge established the better it will be. All the extra angles work to round your bevel over and therefore work against your efforts. Here's why I like ceramic: Flat and Finish. Spyderco ceramics give a great finish without much extra time. Their medium stone is considered open coat and they state it may need to be dressed (this must take a lot since mine has stayed flat) but they guarantee their fine and ultra-fine to never need dressing. Can I get equal polish from an Arkie? Yes, but slower, much slower. Can I get equal from Japanese water stone? Yes, but more maintenance in dressing stones, and prepping stones. After a Spyderco UF, a few swipes on a strop with chromium oxide and you have a complete surgery ready edge. There is some debate over a flat sharpened bevel vs an elliptical or convex sharpened bevel. My advise on this is always attempt to create a flat sharpened bevel. Two reasons for this, first I can promise that you will already have a somewhat elliptical bevel if you sharpen by hand because you are not a machine. Second, the argument I have read on this is that the convex offers a longer lasting edge. Let's suppose this is true but you start with a perfectly flat bevel. Over time as you maintain the edge it will naturally wear into an elliptical shape, and it will be easily maintained until the elliptical grows too great from too much worn off edge. This is where it is dull and you re-sharpen. If you start with an elliptical edge, you're going to reach that dull edge a lot faster since you skipped the whole wear into an elliptical stage.