Deer Field Dressing Knife

[MigPlazArc]

Pictures 1 and 3 appear identical, picture 2 looks like the handle tapers more than 1 and 3. Is that a different knife, or is it a trick of the photo?

They are all the same knife... It's the way I took the picture. I hade to take the pictures at an angle because it's so shiny that it hives it that brownish look in the pic...

alll three pics have the same nick in the blade, so I'd presume it's the same knife. what'd you use for steel stock and are you planning on hardening it? I've been curious about knifebuilding for a while, but I haven't actually done any yet. well, apart from the time a friend and I forged a sword out some flat stock on his great-grandpa's portable coal forge. good times.

Haha gotta love the good old times... Like it says in the first post 1.25" wide, 12" long, and 1/16" thick. I had it sheared at storm steel...It's 304 grade because they don't have 316. No I'm not going to harden it...But if I was how would you do that? Never done research on it...
I built two throwing knives awhile back, but I guess I didn't think about trying to harden it...They both bent so I gave up on them after bending them back every 2-5 throws.

12" seems kind of long for field dressing - I like a short blade some where about 3" - 4" for working in tight spaces. Plus it folds up and is easy to fit in my pack

Yeah it might be...But if it is we have a Super Cut 50 so no problem lol. Gotta start long and shorten because it's really hard to put back on

That looks like a pretty nice start. What alloy of stainless is it?

304 Stainless

In my opinion ya need to grind down the curve further to get more of a point cause using it for field dressing poking through the hide and anything really ya need a good sharp pointy tip on it.

Maybe I should sharpen the back side too.

What did you use to sharpen the knife? Do you have a belt grinder.

6" double disc bench grinder. We have a belt sander... I'm gonna use my mom's knife sharpening rod thing to fine tune it.