Ratot - my own design

Hi there,
havent been around for a while, have been psychologizing a lot, not leaving any time for my dear hobby. Since I managed to get away for a few hours only, I forgot to make enough pics. My bad, I'm sorry.

But... here we go. A knife for a friend:
In the last days of 2016, I have started a new knife, based on my own design. You may have seen it in this article.
And now, in 2017 I have continued working on it. I guess we can say, im working on this knife for a year now :D:D

The idea behind this knife was to make a  uncommon all-around knife. Since it is made from a 3mm thick material, it should take abuse (wood chopping/splitting, camping use, etc.) pretty easy. I know, lot of people in the US enjoy thicker blades, like 5mm+ (0.196 inches), but I believe, for a regular use, 3mm should be just fine.

Blade material: O-1 tool steel  (1.2510 in the EU) 50mm wide, 3mm thick
Heat treatment: My little gas forge
Hardness: ~60 HRC (2x230 C cycles)
Handle: Kirinite Cyclone
Pins: Loveless screws (brass)
Lanyard hole: 10mm brass tube

 The design is a funny one: it has a very strong and wide blade.
When you grasp the grip firmly, you have a perfect rest for your thumb in that arc on the spine, that way, you can put almost your whole body weight on the knife .
I had to file down approx 1mm from the handle, to fit the width of the Kirinite.

 Rough scratch marks from the bastard file I use in the filing jig.

It is a pretty hard job to sand it to 240 grit, can't wait to have my own belt sander. (it is being made)

Finished heat treatment, lovely colours, gold with blue.
From this point, I have sanded it to 120grit, than to 240grit, drilled the holes in the tang, and drilled the handle too.

Here you can see the pre-assambled handle, with all screws in for test-fitting.. The Kirinite is already cut to proper length, and the shape is marked on the inside of the Kirinite.

Rough shaping was made with the grinder, then I started sanding the Kirinite w p240 sandpaper.

I almost forgot about my Dremel... I'm glad I did remember, it is in deed a very handy tool, when it comes to creating the contours in Kirinite.
It saved me a lot of time and elbow grease too.

Dremel+drum sander: Easy shaping
(don't forget to use PPE, I had mask and safety goggles on)

From this point on, it took me at least 45 minutes with the dremel. I had to shape all the edges, creating a nice grip to the knife.
I cant imadine what I would have done without the rotary tool.

Ultra fast epoxy (I suspect it was 5min, doesn't write on it) was used to glue all the parts together.
I have firmly thightened both screws, and secured the front and the end of the handle with some clamps too.

Well... Here we are currently.
The knife is glued w epoxy, the screws are sticking out all the way, and the shine you can see on the handle is...... yeah, you guessed: Epoxy.
I have to sand this lucker again.

Im pretty afraid of cutting the screws, wouldn't like to hurt the Kirinite. It would be a shame to ruin this perfect material. (did I ever mention, that I'm in love w Kirinite? :)

The knife is ready, I have put my fear aside :D

I cut the pins w the dremel, and grinded the pins down. Unfortunately I have slipped twice, you may see the litle scratches on the pics (next to the pins)

I have sanded the blade to p240.
I used the same grit on the Kirinite, + sanded it slightly to p1200, and used my Dremels polishing wheel on it.
Dremels polish isnt quite efficitent on such a big surface like this handle.

The edge is made with the Lansky sharpener, I went for a 20 degrees angle.

 The seath is made of 1.5mm thick Kydex, pressed on the blade.
Unfortunately I have cut it a tiny bit small. Just a tiny bit, so if you are not careful enough, the edge might reach the eyelets, endangering the edge.
















A few pictures below about the knife with a good camera:
Both the handle and the blade where buffed by its owner, since I had no buffing wheel back then.