| I've been making or modifying knives for the last twenty years. When I am making knives I use a process called stock removal.The knives are first designed on paper, mocked up out of wood and if it feels good, transferred to a piece of steel. Most of the shape is rough ground on my old 12” wheel grinder, or with a 4” angle grinder in a vice. Then it is finish ground on a 4x36 belt grinder to 120grit. The final finish before heat treating is to hand sand the surfaces to 220grit. |
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| The blades are stamped with my name and steel type (sometimes in code) as well as having handle pin holes drilled and countersunk before heat treating. I harden the blades by heating them to 1500-1600F and quenching in oil. The O-1 steel is then ready for immediate tempering, but the ATS-34 and 154CM may be further quenched in an acetone bath cooled with dry ice. Depending on what hardness the final blade needs to be it is either hand tempered with a MAPP gas torch or placed in an oven for an hour at the appropriate temperature. The O-1 blades that are treated this way and tempered at 400 Fahrenheit end up with a hardness about Rc 58-60. I aim for that hardness because it is a good middle point between edge holding and ease of sharpening. Most of the custom knives are a bit harder, Rc 60-64 depending on the steel. |
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| After heat treating they are ready for the finish, either polishing the blade, or simply removing the scale from treating. Next comes the handle, a hardwood usually. The handle material is chosen, cut to rough size and flattened on the blade side with the belt grinder. After drilling holes for pins the handles are pinned together and the blade end finished. Everything is then ready to be cleaned and put together. Instead of using an epoxy like JB-Weld I use E-6000B, a black colored rubbery contact adhesive available from auto parts stores. The pins are bronze brazing rod, and they are spread at the ends with a ball peen hammer. That way they will stand up to a great deal of abuse. |  |
| I make several standard designs. The basic woods knife is a 7 inch drop point. It is available in 1/16 or 3/32 steel, with a variety of handle materials. I have also made an 8 inch version of the knife from 3/16 steel. Handles on the knives shown are Maple, Mahogany, Manzanita in the first picture, Ironwood and Lignum Vitae in the second. |
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| The knife that I started out making years ago is a very simple design. I am still creating it from 1/16, 3/32 and 1/8 inch steel. Here you see the 8 inch version, Osage Orange, Elk (antler), Ironwood and Maple handles. |  |
| Here's an example of a Beck design, I now refer to this pattern as "BB". They are made from 3/16 O-1, the upper one has a Olive Burl handle and the bottom knife has blood wood. |
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| One of my latest designs I refer to as the "ET" knife. Those being the initials of two friends who have the first two of this design. The one shown is 7" long with a 154 CM stainless steel blade and Osage Orange handles. |
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| Here you see my version of the Tracker knife designed by Tom Brown Jr. and featured in the movie “The Hunted”. This one is ground from an old Chevy leaf spring, with brass pins and Purple Heart handle. I actually made this knife sometime before the movie came out, and it is closer to the original design in my opinion. Those used in the movies were crafted by "TOPS" and in my opinion the handle is very uncomfortable, at least on the T-1 model. The smaller T-2 model is too small to be effective for all it was designed for unless used on a kids scale. The T-3 actually fits my ideal size and weight, just needs some regrinding to get the bevels correct. I do have one of my versions in each of my "OS" bags, and recommend that everyone should look into getting a similar knife because of its many uses. Because of legal reasons, I no longer offer a "tracker" knife. |
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Please check out the currently available knives here. If you would like to order a knife contact me about pricing. If you are interested in having a custom knife made, send me a full size sketch with blade thickness noted and handle material first and second choices listed. I will send you a quote ASAP. Last Updated December 12, 2009 Joe Beardsley | P.O. Box 585 | Angwin, CA 94508
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