PA Backwoods

**Lazerboy2000** · 08-14-2009, 01:21 PM

Hey guys,
I've had the pleasure the past 2 weeks of meeting Bobbywett and then having him help me make my own 1st knife! It was a LOT of fun and I really learned a great deal. I enjoyed seeing him work and he did an excellent job explaining each step and why everything is done as such. After explaining, I would then get to try my own hand at forging, grinding, sanding, filing, shaping, and polishing. It turned out far better than I could have imagined and we are both very happy with it.

Specs:
5160 Carbon steel
10.25" blade
9 5/8" cutting edge
.25" thick
15.5" overall
Curly maple handles with red mahagony stain and 3 coats of Tung oil.
Blade is hand polished to 600 grit and a ColdBlue finish.

Cutting the 5160 at about a 45 degree angle to help save some work

Forging away!

Flat grinding the tang for a perfect taper and straightness

Attempting to grind in the taper and beginning point of the blade. I didn't quite have the hand, so Bob did most of the grinding here.

Using some small hand files to put some filework for both asthetics, thumb grip, and a transition from handle to blade

Lots and lots and lots of hand sanding! Started at 100 grit and worked up to 600. I think it took about 3+ hours!

Here we have the scales cut to shape and glued up with some ugly pins just to hold it in place

Here's Bob shaping up the handles on with his belt sander. It burned the woods since we were using old belts, but we managed to get it all out. He did a really nice job with the contours and although its a beefy handle, it's very comfortable

Applying the Red Mahagony stain. We put 3 coats of the stain, and then 3 coats of high gloss Tung Oil

The Birdseye Maple turned out absolutely gorgeous and even has hints of Tiger Stripe along the top and bottom of the handle. I really love the deep grain that is shown

Here's the post bobby made in the knifemaker's forum with several photos of me working, and explaining each step.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=662233

Here are all of the photos I took.
http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/b...ife%20Project/

Here are just a few videos we shot showing the great cutting ability it has and an excellent heat treat!

Finally here's Bobbywett's blog with his other works. Although he's a fairly new knifemaker with only about 30 knives under his belt, his work is excellent and he's always striving for perfection and attempting to improve each time. I highly recommend him and you should definitely look into getting a knife from Mr. Robert Wetten!
http://bobbywett.wordpress.com/

**Lazerboy2000** · 08-14-2009, 01:22 PM

Today I met with Bobby's father-in-law, Paul, to start working on the sheath. All I can say, is that it will be awesome and compliment the knife very very well. I don't want to ruin the surprise by giving out too many details :p

Then again, this thing is so damn pretty it doesn't need a sheath!

I really love the hamon on it as well. Turned out great for a 5160 blade!

Also here's a shot of the filework I did. This shot was taken before it was all polished and cleaned up. Not perfectly well done, but it still looks nice and for my 1st time its not bad

**Lazerboy2000** · 08-14-2009, 01:22 PM

I wanted to add these photos of it finally 100% complete with sheath. Robert's father-in-law, Paul did a great job on the sheath and it both compliments and fits the knife perfectly.