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.

thanks for the jantz suggestion, great looking blade!

love the look.