New one

[bardster]

Had a morning off so went out in the shed to work on a couple of knives. Got one almost finished so thought I'd share

The blade is a brusletto Middelalder and the handle is apple. Its left a little rough as its a camp user for a viking re-enactor

[bardster]

Still got some sanding and polish needed on this one.
Not sure about the handle - doesn't really flow with the blade - any comments gratefully received

The blade is another brusletto - forgot which one and is 8cm long.
The handle is Burr Elm with a horn spacer. I drilled through the horn then made the hole a tight fit for the tang - slightly insetting the ricasso. After gluing it up I drilled 3 3mm holes and squared them off in the elm - again the tang was a reasonably tightish fit. after clamping it all up and waiting for the glue to set i shaped and sanded the handle.

[spamel]

I'm far from being an expert, so I don't want to cause any offence by making the following comment, but it looks like the handle is very large in diameter, which may be why it doesn't flow into the blade. Now, I ask purely to satisfy my own curiosity, is it possible to chamfer the bolster to make it flow? You could keep the handle for the most part the same diameter then.

Apart from that, it looks like a good job, when I get back from Iraq I intend to start putting handles onto ready made blades, so I'll be after constructive criticism myself then. I'll let you have the first shot!!

el

[ggfh666]

If I were you I would make the front of the handle much thinner.
This will make the blade fit better.
If you sand/file the wood away in a gradual way in a nice slope from the thickest bit to the narrow bit at the blade, you'll end up with a nice belly on the knife. I think.

[bardster]

hmmm.... are they that bad?

[mikesknives]

there not bad,i think the first one looks an excellent little knife for the purpose its intended and while the second may be a little aesthetically challenged its definatly got potential to be a thing of beauty a little more off the front to ease the transition of handle to blade and it'll be fine.
the saying goes something along the lines of a journey starts with just one step and they certainly look like steps in the right direction.

cheers

mike

[mikesknives]

i've just looked at the second one again and i would (imvho) take the top of the handle down to level with blade spine and then thin the sides from about two thirds down the handle. leave most of the horn down by the choil alone but take a little more wood from behind it and create a kind of quillion.i think that might look quite cool.

mike

[ggfh666]

hmmm.... are they that bad?

You asked for comments;-)

No! they're not bad.
The second one could be better looking that's all.
The blade /handle ratio seems a bit off...

[Edgehog]

Nice work there!

I think if you take some inspiration from the lovely flowing lines of the first one you'll get a better visual balance on the second one - seems to be what the others are suggesting.

Keep em coming & enjoy the process

[bardster]

Cheers guys - it was the lack of comments that worried me - i thought they were so bad that people just didnt want to comment. I would rather has critisism than no comments at all. Gonna work on the second one a bit more and reshape it inline with some of the ideas.
again thanks for the constructive comments