The 'hawk is the more "neo" of the pair, a 15" War Chief in 1/4" 4140, with the top and bottom rivet holes left exposed to allow for lanyard options. The knife is forged from 1/4" x 1 1/4" 80CrV2, with a 7" blade and a false edge on the clip. Both have hemp-over-leather handle wraps and black oxide finish on the steel. There is a leather slab on either side of the tang underneath the hemp to bulk up the handle. The edges on the leather were heavily beveled prior to wrapping to keep the corners of the handle from being too square. Three strand Turk's head knots in black round leather lace cover the ends of the wrap, and the whole wrap is impregnated with marine epoxy. The customer will be making his own sheaths.
Canvas micarta scales would be my choice. How/why do you change steel? B
ReplyDeleteThis one actually has a hemp-over-leather wrap now. I wasn't being able to send the in-progress picture to the customer via e-mail for some reason, so I put it up here temporarily. :)
DeleteAs for changing steel, I don't do it often. I really like 5160 and have had happy customers with it. 80CrV2 (which is what this one is forged from) came along from Aldo Bruno the New Jersey Steel Baron, and he talked about it with me. I gave it a try and like it. Similar performance and heat treatment to 5160 with better edge retention. I keep things simple, so my steel choices are low-alloy carbon steel alloys that perform well with a simple heat treatment.
Let us know how well the 80CrV2 steel performs. I like the cord handles......have used paracord on knives many times! Thanks, Bill
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