Adventures in Knifeland: On the Bench

So Erica tells me that my title is lame and that I am stealing her "thing". But if you look back at my blog you'll see "the workbench" there first. So I don't care :)

I know that you don't see a whole lot of my work on this blog, but I tend to think of it as more "guy" oriented. However, I've been thinking about general marketability lately, and think that I should probably be aiming more towards kitchen knives and folding knives than the hunting knives that I have been making. That doesn't meant that all of these are kitchen or folding knives mind you. Just that I think it would be a better idea in general.

I'll go in knifological order here:

I decided that I didn't like the hand on my knife AR36

Not that it doesn't look pretty good in this picture (handle is coccobolo and brass), but it didn't feel right and the balance was all wrong. Believe me, that makes more of a difference than you might think. Pick up your favorite and least favorite knives in the kitchen if you don't believe me.

Anyway, I decided to remake it. It's not done yet, and I think that I might do some wood burning on the handle, but haven't decided what to burn yet. This is what it looks like now:

The wood isn't quite so fancy, but I think it feels waaaaay better. The handle is now fruiting pear and brass.

Next is AR39, which was a big Machete last time, but didn't quench right, so the edge didn't hold.

It's a lot smaller now. But it holds its edge.

The handle is sycamore and purpleheart.

Then we jump forward to the current knives.

First, a new big machete-like thing....

AR52

The handle is curly maple, and it's a pretty big knife - that's my hand, not Erica's in the picture.

And lastly we have a couple of knives that just came out of their second forging session:

I'm not quite sure what they will look like in the end, but I am enjoying making them.

Any suggestions?

That's all for now,

Adam