New Striking Knife

[Jim Koepke]

Nice work. I guess with the chisel type edge it can still be used to mark out dovetails.

I agree with the unhandled knives being a bit uncomfortable. That is how my first knife was made. It did not take me long to fit it with a handle. It is a bit on the short side. That and its thickness is why my second knife was made from a saw blade.

jim

[Robert Rozaieski]

WOW! An old thread has been brought back from the dead . I forgot about this one.

Hi Rob
Just wonder why your knife has two ends. Is one for marking with the grain and the other for across the grain?

You guessed it right. The knife end is for marking across the grain, e.g. tenon shoulders, and the awl end is for marking with the grain or on end grain, e.g. dovetail pins.

Nice work. I guess with the chisel type edge it can still be used to mark out dovetails.

Actually, I use the awl end to mark dovetails. I find that the awl has less tendency to catch and follow the grain when marking along the grain than a knife. As for the end grain, knife lines are too fine in end grain for my taste. The awl line is easier to see since it is wider and shallower than a knife line. Knife lines tend to disappear altogether in some end grain. The awl scratch is much more visible. Since marking dovetails leaves the mark in the "keep" part of the joint anyway, the width of the line really doesn't matter. I keep the saw completely on the waste side of the mark, so I could use a magic marker really.

I agree with the unhandled knives being a bit uncomfortable. That is how my first knife was made. It did not take me long to fit it with a handle. It is a bit on the short side. That and its thickness is why my second knife was made from a saw blade.

jim

Honestly, after using the knife for awhile now, I can honestly say that I rarely hold it (the knife) by the wooden handle. I will hold the handle while marking with the awl end sometimes, but typically, when marking with the knife end, my hand is much lower down and directly on the blade. I really don't see that there would be any comfort disadvantage to the unhandled variety. I do think they would be a lot more time consuming to make, however, if one was going to start with a wide piece of tool steel. Removing all the steel around the awl would likely be a good deal of work.

[David Weaver]

Bob, can you see any disadvantage to having a 1/8" piece of steel to start? I've never seen a knife like this in person, and I can see that 1/8" would be trouble on purposely tiny dovetails (or pins rather), but elsewhere it shouldn't hurt. If it does, it could always be ground down/tapered on a belt sander so that the rest of the thing is still 1/8" thick above the blade.

I think I could make one of these, including hardening the knife edge, in about an hour, with or without a belt sander. The hacksawing and filing will involve some sweat, but it may not even be necessary to sweat much for someone who has a good hard drum sander or a small belt sander with a solid roller.

It probably wouldn't as nice on the first try as the one adam makes, though, and maybe hardly worth the effort when they come in carbide from enco for $2.

[Robert Rozaieski]

I think an 1/8" piece of steel would be fine for most marking tasks. If you wanted to make London pattern dovetails, you could just make the awl end very fine. The awl can fit in tighter spaces since it does not need to be held vertical to mark (i.e. it doesn't have to fit through the smallest opening of the pin like a knife would).