The BK2 Camping Knife was created as a primary camping tool with a focus on ergonomics and utility. The design is a fixed-blade with carbon fiber scales secured on the left and right sides of the tang using three steel rivets. This knife is perfect for splitting kindling, using the butt to hammer in tent stakes, and chopping up food to cook over a campfire. The design is simple yet effective weighing around 108 grams, decently balanced at the bolster, and an ergonomic grip that prevents your hand from slipping up or down the handle when in use.

Below are some final shots of the BK2 Camping Knife from different angles to highlight individual design aspects.

I began by taking a 2”x7” piece of precut 1/8” steel and grinding down the burs that had formed from cutting it off the stock piece. I did this by holding it in a vice and using the wire brush attachment for an angle grinder.

Afterwards, I modeled the knife design in Fusion 360 using an image I found online as a reference for the form factor. I used an Autodesk extension called Shaper Origin to export the faces of my handles and knife blade as .svg files and saved another copy of the faces as .dxf files.

I proceeded to use the .dxf files to cut a wooden prototype of the final knife on a laser-cutter and assembled the individual pieces to see how ergonomic the knife was.

After I redesigned the handles to better fit the butt of the knife,  loaded the newly exported .svg files into WazerCam and prepared them to be cut on the Water-jet. I began with the steel for the knife blade and followed up with cutting out the left and right handle guards from a sheet of 3mm carbon fiber.

I followed this up with sanding the steel blade to get a better surface finish. I began by using a 60 grit belt grinder to remove a majority of the defects before moving onto wet sanding using oil and an orbital sander with a 120, 160, 220, and 400 grit pad. Next I added sharpie to the future blade edge and marked a center line using a 1/8” drill bit before proceeding to secure the knife to a sharpening jig. The blade was added using 60 grit sandpaper on a belt grinder and periodical dips in water to prevent discoloring.   

The handles were secured to the finished body/blade using three steel rivets and a flathead screw driver to produce the final result.