# Christmas gift knife v2.0



## milkbaby (Dec 27, 2017)

Last year I made a small kitchen utility knife to give to my dad for Christmas. He usually uses an old crummy serrated steak knife for everything, so I thought it would be cool to give him something that cuts much better. I'm pretty sure he only used it between zero to two times because he told me it was "too sharp". 

This year I made him a wooden knife that wouldn't be "too sharp" with the hope that he'd use it for cutting sandwiches, brownies, cake, or even open envelopes. I would've made a different design steel knife but been too busy at the paying job to even start one.

What I gave dad last Christmas (third knife I ever made, not very good :O)







Dad's Christmas gift knife v2.0:






Started as a 1/2 x 1 1/2 stick of red oak from the home improvement store:






After some hacksawing and belt grinding it's somewhat stabby shaped:






I got a little carried away and charred the handle with a propane torch then brushed it with a wire brush. Really grippy handle, probably will try this again if I make a hunting knife in the future.











I'm kinda in a rut on handle shape but honestly I really like how this coke bottle shape looks and feels in hand.






Oak is fairly open grained, so I wet sanded CA glue a bunch of times to seal the wood. It also helps to give the wood a little more durability.






Performance oriented Kato style grind!  :lol2:






If I could go back and do it over again, the one thing I'd change is to not char it so high up toward the blade. Otherwise I'm pretty happy how it came out. I'll probably make these regularly as a change of pace and to have some extra knives sitting around...


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## merlijny2k (Dec 28, 2017)

Nice. You should try some wood damascus when you have some more time


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## OneStaple (Dec 28, 2017)

merlijny2k said:


> Nice. You should try some wood damascus when you have some more time



Zebrawood would be perfect for that effect! Haha, I like it.

Tyler


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## merlijny2k (Dec 29, 2017)

They actually laminate very thin layers of wood, press to wave and pattern and then cut to the desired thickness.


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## merlijny2k (Dec 29, 2017)

https://youtu.be/LEOt925Iip4


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## milkbaby (Dec 29, 2017)

Cool video, I'd thought about separate handle and blade material but thought one piece construction was more elegant looking. I've thought about making my own homemade micarta, a.k.a. mycarta, like that guy in the video. The ingenious thing he did was using the bubble wrap to leave patterned epoxy resin gaps between the layers. The finished item looked great!

I made a second wooden knife for another gift. They are fun to make but the edge holding isn't very impressive. I test cut a cake and a yellow squash without issue. I tested on pecan pie and was pleasantly surprised because I wasn't sure the edge would cut pecans but no issue!


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