Ambidextrous, Modular, Eco-Friendly, Neo-Tribal...

[Stormcrow]

...Camp knife!



This little sucker was a number of firsts and pushed my skillset ahead. It also ended up not in the least the way I had originally intended. I'm much happier with how it turned out.

The blade is one I forged and heat treated a year or so back from a brand new piece of leaf spring drop (never been on a vehicle), quenched in veggie oil. The spine is rounded, and the cross section is thickest at the sweet spot for chopping, making it blade heavy and great for chopping wood.

It was originally going to be my first through-tang with a threaded pommel. It had a larger guard, a bodark handle, and a steel threaded pommel. Things didn't line up as nicely as I would have hoped, and the bodark cracked anyways, so I smashed the handle off, took the threaded section off, and set it aside with the intention of finishing it later.

Finally, many moons later, I started working on it again. There were other projects I should have spent the time on, but it's hard to fight when the Muse rides you. I roughed out a mesquite handle with my primitive adze, then sought to clean up a small imperfection on the choil. Of course, I screwed up. So, I reground the guard down to a bolster and made a generous rounded choil. I decided to shorten the wooden portion of the handle down and add a section of stacked leather.

It began looking to me along the lines of some Japanese hunting knives I had seen. These seem to always have wooden scabbards that are rectangular and give no hint of the blade shape inside. I decided to give it a try. I found a piece of unknown hardwood with interesting grain (my shop space is rented in a former architectural woodworking millworks) sitting on a pile of scraps to be thrown away, cut it in two, hollowed out one side for the blade, hollowed out both sides for the handle to fit in, and wood glued them back together. It was my first time trying to make a wooden scabbard. I think I did all right. You can drop the knife into the scabbard (not jam it in), turn it upside down, and shake it and it won't come out. Pull the handle while giving a bit of a push with your thumb, and it pops out easily.



The means of wearing it on your belt is adapted from a leather sheath system a buddy of mine did for a knife I made for another friend of ours. The sheath fits down into a hanger (frog) with the belt loop(s). As you are walking around, the sheath sits like any other belt sheath. When you are ready to climb into your vehicle, the sheath slips out of the frog very easily, so you don't have to undo your belt or sit with the blade in an awkward position. Climb out of your vehicle, pop the sheath back in, and away you go. In this case, a lip around the top of the wooden scabbard fits tightly down into the frog. The frog is made from a simple three strand braid of hemp cord, stiffened with orange shellac. The handle and scabbard are both heavily coated with orange shellac. Shellac is an old wood finish made from a certain kind of insect shell dissolved in alcohol. It is very easy to swap from carrying it on the right side to carrying it on the left. You simply turn the frog round.





The blade is shaving sharp. I have a customer who saw it and wants to buy it for his father.

This has nothing except the epoxy holding the handle together that is not biodegradable or recyclable. Not that I set out to do that, but realized it afterwards.

[Tai Google]

I like it. Nice job.

[Stormcrow]

Thanks, Tai! As much as I've admired your work through the years, it really means a lot to hear that.