Rifletuner

Thanks mate 👍 Its great to see it in action. That was my first ever knife from Magnacut steel. Thanks mate 👍

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Its part of point 20 "You should be able to answers specific questions regarding how and where the blade was heat-treated. And if done in shop, what procedures and equipment were used". A lot of people heat treat their own, but I get mine done by a heat treat shop local to me. I would like to do my own, but I need to sell a few more knives to afford the $6000 to $9000 for a heat treat oven. Thanks mate

The assessment covers all aspects of the knife. Take a look at this checklist: https://akg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FULL-DOC-Assessment-Checklist-for-Guild-Membership.pdf It gives a full breakdown of what the assessor looks at. Plus it saves me typing a detailed answer 🤣🤣🤣 I dont know what the scores usually look like. I actually didnt think to ask. I really thought I would be getting 10 to maybe 15 for each knife, so was pleasantly surprised. Full membership will take me a while I think. I already have an idea of the knives I want to build for that test, but I need a mill for that step. I think probably it will be a couple of years before I am at that stage. But its funny how you progress over time. I have been making knives since 2016, but it was really the lockdowns from 2020 that got me spending a lot of time making knives. So the last 4 years has been the bulk of the time I have been at it. And when I look back at the knives I have made, the serious development has been in the last 2 years. Hopefully I will be able to get out and do a few training sessions with good knife makers to focus on the things I need to do for the full member assessment.

Thanks mate. I appreciate it 👍

For the last 18 months I have been working towards becoming a member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild. The Guild has two categories of knife makers, a Probationary Member and a Full Member. There is a third category Life Member if selected & voted for by the membership, but there are only a handful of these. At a high level, you can think of it in terms of a Probationary Member being an entry level knife maker, and a full member is an advanced knife maker. Thats not a perfect description, but its near enough. To advance to these levels, there is a formal checklist of requirements (see here if interested https://akg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FULL-DOC-Assessment-Checklist-for-Guild-Membership.pdf). To get to Probationary membership, you need to present 3 knives for assessment and achieve a mark of 10 out of 20 for each knife. Once you are a Probationary Member, you can sit for Full Member a minimum of 12 months later and need to achieve a minimum of 18 out of 20 for each of the 3 knives, but there are also specific things you need on the assessment knives that are not required for the probationary test. I have been working for a while to get 3 knives to have assessed, but I keep on picking some fault and deciding its not at the standard required. Occasionally I have a really fantastic knife finished that I am super happy with, but its promised to someone with a very close deadline, so I cant hang onto it until I have the other knives I need to make up the set of three for assessment. Anyhow, I finally booked a date to go see Adam Parker, one of 2 Guild assessors in Vic, and a guy with over 30 years of knife making experience. Adam is between Geelong and Ballarat, and with the traffic on Wednesday, it took me 3 hours each way to go see him. I had a couple of knives that I recently finished, plus I was planning to use a kitchen knife I just finished a day before the appointment. But I found a few scratches on the blade that I wasn't happy with, so at the last minute I took a survival knife I finished a few months ago to make up the required knives. At the end of the assessment process, I ended up scoring 16 out of 20 for the survival knife, 18 out of 20 for the bushcrafter, and 20 out of 20 for the hunter. So as of Wednesday, I am a Probationary Member of the Australian Knifemakers Guild

Thanks mate 👍

Thanks mate. Appreciate the feedback. Hey, mate, thanks I really do appreciate your comments. I am mostly self taught, and I enjoy trying to get better. I post my knives on a couple of forums as it has been a helpful way to find what people like or dislike in the different designs I have tried. I do take peoples feedback on board, and it is one of the things that has helped me improve over the years I have been doing it. I enjoy making them, but my main goal is to keep improving.

Thanks mate 👍

Thanks Dave 👍

Thanks mate 👍

Thanks mate

This one is 3mm NitroV steel, with a full flat grind and a tapered tang. Handles are Spotted Gum, with red G10 liners, brass Loveless bolts & brass lanyard tube. The pattern of this knife draws very heavily from the Bark River Gunny Hunter. I had some Auctioneers Promise red oil and gun stock oil sitting here and have been thinking about trying it on a knife handle for a while. I had been a bit nervous about the red oil in particular as I didnt want it to dominate the colour of the handle timber by darkening it too much. I was initially a bit underwhelmed with the spotted gum after I hand sanded it, as it just looked like a very plain piece of light wood. I hit it with one coat of red oil and it was amazing how it brought the figure out in the wood. I stopped after a second coat of red oil, then gave it 14 coats of the gun stock oil and think it came up great.

Thanks mate 👍

Thanks mate 👍

Thanks. That is definitely what I was going for. I like wood handles a lot, but its hard to beat the practicality of a brightly coloured synthetic handle.

So after making my last attempt at a night visible knife, I was asked by someone to make the same knife for them. I wasn't entirely happy with the last handle material, so did some some more searching online and found what seemed like a good alternative and ordered a set to try. This new handle material has decent luminosity - the best I have found so far. I would rate it similar to good luminosity on a watch. The material is a little softer than I would like. Its fine for use on a knife, but I have to watch it when I grind the shape on the handle as the belt rips material off quicker than I am used to. The blade is 3mm NitroV with a tapered tang and a distal taper to a pretty sharp point. The handle is luminous Chinesium with an orange G10 liner and Loveless bolts. I was also asked to make a Kydex belt sheath, so did it in orange in keeping with the high viz theme. It was only at the last minute while I was taking photos that I realised I got a bit ahead of myself at glue-up of the handles and forgot to engrave my logo on the blade. I will get a friend to laser etch my mark because I dont like to electro etch the blade once the handles are on.

Thanks mate 👍

Most high carbon Damascus is etched in a ferric chloride mixture, then often given a finish etch in coffee. The first time I tried making a knife with stainless Damascus, I tried Ferric, but it didnt touch it. Despite trying for increasingly longer periods, Ferric brought out virtually no pattern at all. The last two knives I have actually successfully made from this stainless Damascus, I have used hydrochloric acid for the etch. It does much better, with some pattern emerging within the first minute. Now I am just trying to work out how long to leave it in the etch, so thats still an ongoing process.

Another variation on a knife I have made a few times now. I am going to have to come up with a name because I think I will be making a few more soon. Second time working with Chinesium VG10 Damascus steel. This was a 3mm billet, and the layers are slightly off centre which is a bit of a pain. Guess I cant really expect quality control from Chinese production. Luckily it has enough core steel to sharpen up with a good edge. Last time I etched Damascus, I left it a bit too long and it etched pretty deep. This time I etched it for much shorter periods. Its probably a little under done this time. I will maybe split the difference next time. The blade is a full flat grind with a tapered tang. Handle is African ebony with thin red G10 liners, mosaic pins and a hand rubbed oil finish.

Its Chinesium and I dont really know what its supposed to do. I just bought it off the photo which made it look pretty bright in the dark, but it didnt turn out that way. For all I know its radioactive waste from a Chinese nuclear submarine encased in resin - but probably not since I expect that would glow better. 🤣🤣🤣

Hey, thats it. Exactly the sort of thing I had in mind when I went looking for luminous handles 👍

Thanks guys. Appreciate all the comments 👍

So this is another version of the knife I made last year. I wanted to see what I could do with the profile. I bought a set of Chinesium handle scale material that is supposed to glow in the dark, so thought it might make a a handy knife for breaking down animals if you are taking a shot on twilight, or spotlighting, thermalling, whatever. It turned out okay, but its not nearly as visible in the dark as I had expected. The photo below is deceiving as it makes the handles look very visible, but to the naked eye it doesnt look anywhere near as visible.. Anyhow, the blade is NitroV with a full flat grind and tapered tang. The handles have a .5mm black G10 liner and Loveless bolts.

Thanks mate. Yes, SF100 is similar to AEBL. I haven't used that particular knife, but other knives Ive made from SF100 have performed pretty well.