He wanted a similar pattern to the SERE knife I made for the airman at the beginning of the year. I forged 3/4" round 5160 into a blade approximately 8" long with a spine 1/4" thick and a cross section that tapers from the spine down to the secondary bevel (or as some folks call it, the primary bevel. :D ). Essentially a full flat grind except that it's forged and filed instead of ground.
You can see how closely it was forged to its final dimensions. Not a whole lot had to be ground away to clean up the profile and not a lot had to be filed to complete the primary bevel.
After my typical triple quench in canola oil and triple temper cycle heat treatment I use on 5160, I cleaned off the oil and cut out a slab of leather for either side of the handle and cut a hole to match the anchor hole drilled through the tang. A little patience, a little tape to temporarily hold things in place, and I started wrapping the hemp cord around the leather. It anchors at the end of the handle through both the steel and the leather. Then I tied the two-strand Turk's head knot a the front of the handle using black cotton cord.
And then plenty of amber shellac to seal things and create a natural composite material in place on the handle.
After the shellac was nicely dried and hardened, I sharpened it to shaving sharp (giving it its secondary (or primary :D ) bevel. Here's what it looked like right before being packed away and dropped in the mail.
I would consider this to be part of my Primal/Tactical lineup, but leaning a bit more on the primal side of things.
just for those wondering this composite type handle is very comfortable. the shellac that soaks the hemp wrap has a very "grippy" feel almost like krayton rubber handles. I've used the above knife wet, with slipperly hands and I never once felt like I was going to loose control of the blade. I have also noticed the leather slabs under the wrap seem to lessen shock when chopping or batoning with the knife. The handles retention is outstanding and "It just looks cool"!
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