New Whittler for Me

[dancan]

I was looking for another whittler so I decided to order a blade and handle it myself after seeing all the nice knives that have been posted and all the helpful tutorials and advice that many have shared so I order a couple of Polar blades .
Since I'm putting a tool together I figured " How hard can this be ? " , if I didn't like it I'd split the handle and start again .
I found a piece of dry ash , lots of shaping and sanding , ran a 1/4 inch auger through it , made the brass bolster and handle fit the tang , mixed up some epoxy , put it all together , let it cure , more sanding and finished it with some Danish antique oil and tung oil .

I've learn't the following ,
It is hard to hold a block of hardwood by hand while drilling a 9'' long 1/4'' auger through it .
It is hard to to have a 9'' long 1/4'' auger come out the other end where you wanted it while holding the wood by hand .
It takes time to file things to get them to fit .
It takes more time to get them to fit properly .
Clean and flatten the blade before assembly , not after .
When I factor my time and the stuff I bought to get this one together in a work tool condition , I've realised that the knives the the builders and assemblers are making are actually good value .
Thanks for all the good knife tutorials and info .

 

[juttle]

A good choice of blade there, the Polar blades are excellent quality for the price!

All round, a good looking, no nonsense, tool, well made and should last a lifetime, well done! Time now, methinks, for a bit of leatherwork.

Well done!

 

[Totumpole]

That's a beauty, nice grain pattern. Do polar blades not have a secondary micro bevel (well the one I got certainly did) - really couldn't get mine nicely sharpened to single bevel scandi

 

[dancan]

Thanks for the kind words .
I'd agree that the Polar blades are great value for the money (and there are other blades as well) to make a working knife but they do need some work to get them cleaned and flat on both sides .
The grind is wide so I'm pretty sure that a small micro bevel is required for edge strength , I hope stropping will take care of that .
I've got a Polar 95 to put together next so I'll spend a little more time on fitting stuff together and I have enough leather for a sheath but I see a few more blades in the future .