knife set backs and solutions

Without the ability to forge or punch my own blade I have been seeking one that I can adjust to lend itself to my design.

I have chosen this knife as it has a simple handle to remove and I can re-use the rivets to secure my handle to the blade. I really like the shape and the length of this blade, and the shape and length of the tang will give support to the rivets when attaching the handle. I have rounded the point of the blade using the metal grinder as the only purpose of this feature on a blade is to pierce, an action that I don't feel is a necessary addition to a child’s utensil and therefor I will be removing the unmerited danger.

Having developed what I thought would be the final prototype of the knife before milling the handle this has not been a success. There was a couple of problems with this iteration. Firstly, the positioning of one of the rivets did not lend itself well to my handle and it would have to be removed, therefor reducing the stability of the blade. The second problem was the width of the handle. After taking to some adults about the handle their main feed back point was that it was too thick, and this being said it would definitely be too big for a child’s hand. Although the chunky handle is a popular feature amongst other children’s products I think my design may have taken this a little too far.

The final, and biggest issue as the blade. The thickness of my chosen blade was much skinnier than the handle and there for was unable to reach the surface the user was cutting on. This was really unfortunate as I had carefully selected this very versatile blade and had curved the end point.

To combat this issue I have tweaked my model in order to make it skinnier. I have also chosen a much deeper blade but as a compromise I have also adjusted the underside of the handle so that it was not necessary to use a huge and intimidating blade. The tang of the new blade is significantly shorter than that of my first choice however the off set rivet holes stabilise the blade. The point will still need to edited on this blade. This model has come out very well as a 3d printed test however due to these set backs the handle will not be able to be milled until Monday the 17th, which is less than ideal.