A knife for my nephew

[Sam Harper]

My nephew had been asking me to make him a knife with an antler handle, and he sent me some pictures of some Bowie knives so I'd know what he was talking about. This was a little out of my comfort zone. I usually do fully tang knives with scales. But this time I decided to try a through tang knife with a butt cap and a pommel nut. I saw some videos of people (Kyle Royer especially) making take-down knives by bedding the tang in epoxy, so I gave that a shot, too.

The only thing I couldn't do was make the pommel nut since I didn't have a lathe. I tried doing it with a drill and a belt sander, but I just couldn't make it work. But I found these bronze cap nuts on Amazon, and they look good and work just fine, so I used those.

I also wanted to use Birch Casey's Plumb Brown on the guard and butt cap. I couldn't get the browning to look even even after five rounds. I'm okay with the rustic look, though, and my nephew was pretty pleased with the knife.

Oh, I also had a really difficult time getting that Hamon line to look good. I tried all kinds of things and finally quit when I arrived at this.

What a frustrating knife this was! But it was still fun to make.

[luciusx5]

Turned out really nice! I know your nephew is glad you stuck with it. Sometimes frustration can be a great teacher.

[mj seratt]

I think it looks great.  I don't much care for that color, either, but overall I'm very impressed.  (Not that I'm a critic).

Murray

[tippit]

Beautiful job!

[Sam McMichael]

I think it is a great looking knife.

[KSCATTRAPR]

Thats really neat, I'm sure he will love it!

[ron w]

Well done

[Gdpolk]

I like it. Just needs a rawhide sheath made from one of his harvests to top it all off.

[Sam Harper]

I borrowed my nephews knife recently to see if I could improve the polish on that Hamon and make it look better. Here's what I ended up with.

[LC]

Great looking knife!

[luciusx5]

I love it! Great looking knife and well crafted. Lucky nephew!