I posted here a few weeks ago asking about purchasing knife blade blanks. Was suggested Jantz Supply by multiple people and I haven't been disappointed. Seems like they have good blades and fair prices. I liked the idea of buying somewhat locally as well.

One of the positives of being a teacher is I still get to enjoy snow days. Spent some quality time working on my first two handles. They are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I had a blast making them and learned a lot for future builds.

Anyways, here they are:

#1 - 5" Green River Buffalo Skinner - Laminated walnut and mahogany for the handle and spun some antler pins on the lathe. Walnut and antler were 'locally sourced' :



#2 - Jantz Pattern 40 - Handle is mesquite/antler/walnut (once again, locally sourced). Pins are an old carbon arrow I had laying around. They worked out better than I expected.



Both handles were finished with Gorilla glue. Hopefully these will see some heavy use, so I wanted a somewhat weatherproof, matte finish.

I'd appreciate any feedback y'all might have. Don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings! The eventual goal is to make knives of a caliber that people might want to buy them. Until then, friends and family get handmade, slightly-janky Christmas presents.

Lookin' good!

Enoy!

GWB

They look great! Well done!

Well done. I’ve spent a lot of money with Jantz and a lot of that has been on the Buffalo Skinner.

At one time, I did blacksmithing, forging, etc. I made a lot of knives. Then, at the Fort Worth Gun Show, a guy was selling blades. One was that Buffalo Skinner. I bought a couple of blades and put craft wood handles with copper pins on them.

That’s when I realized that I really couldn’t build a better blade than I could buy. I became a really good Jantz customer and gave away a lot of knives. One XMAS I “built” ten sets of steak knives for friends and family. Sure wish I had worn hearing protection. Huh?

I still have a bunch of blades waiting for me to decide to get started again.

Like most things, their prices have taken a big increase.

I no longer have any interest in building my own unique blades.

Looks good so far! Im also a teacher/coach... we were iced in for 4 days last week so i got some knives built for Blade show. Let me know if i can help ya with anything!

Thanks y'all. I've got a second round of blanks coming in this week. Hopefully I can learn from my mistakes and up the quality. These two are 'good from afar, but far from good', as they say.

Well done….

I like the idea of using old arrows, I love using things I have laying around. I think they look Great!!

When are you gonna make me one?

Gave my favorite skinner away to a kid after killing his first deer this season. I'd buy that second one to give another kid next season. Fine work, keep it up!!

Nice job.