Freitag, 25. Juli 2014

Experimental bushcraft knife design-integral bush Barong


This is something I currently have in the making. I was thinking hard about my way of knifemaking, and while I like to make ornamental and artisan concept knives, even spiritual knives, I certainly lack the talent for eloquent ornaments like the ones by my love. What I HAVE a talent for, however, is brutal backwoods beaters that can support your weight;-) but look dead ugly. Now this knife was admittedly inspired by Dan Koster`s Muck camp knife and a Barong in my collection. One of my latest bushcraft knives put to painful questioning here has a slightly offset angle of the handle which makes chopping and whittling a cinch. But the straight edge line makes it a bit difficult to actually use all of the edge when cutting on a flat surface. The Barong style has a curved edge line making for a better compromise when using it for kitchen tasks without compromising whittling and chopping prowess (or so I hope;-)). Now it is not thought socially adequate to carry a big and hefty Barong on your belt around these parts, so the blade has to be under 12 cm in length, which is fine for me, for most of the time I do not need anything larger. The blade also has a very gentle convex bevel, which in unison with the wide blade will make for an excellent slicer even with a 4 mm spine. For steel I used super-tough train wagon leaf spring steel. It does not take the highest of all tempers, but is tough as grandpa.  Forging it was a bummer, that I can tell you!;-) The blade is selectively tempered, of course. I have to correct the tang a bit and drill it out some more for balance, for I want the balance point on the index finger. Scales will presumeably be Corsian "pepper" juniper wood or G10 / micarta, in either case with mosaic pins and red G10 liners... we´ll see... and I want to design a decent kit sheath for scout carry mode for it.

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