Oxtail chopper chops Christmas cheer chop-chop

The customer who bought the oxtail chopper sent me this feedback and gave me permission to re-post it.  I love getting to see my blades put to work.  :)

"Eight foot Christmas tree.

 You probably recognize this.

After a short time.

 

All ready to go.

My wife reminded me that our city would dispose of the whole tree for free. What fun would that be. Maybe I shouldn't have eaten that big turkey, cheese, avocado, bell pepper, and tomato sandwich first.

 Too much fun. This blade really bites when I pay attention enough to chop with the sweet spot. Tried a couple of different techniques.... one with big, deep, hard biting chops, and one with more, but lighter, faster, shallow, chipping type cuts. Both were fun. The first made faster inroads, and mixed my sandwich up. The second was easier and not as tiring.

 Have a great beginning to the new year."

Biohazard Outbreak Response bush sword video

I put together a little video with the bush sword last night.  I don't know that it has much new info, but it gives an impression of the size in hand.  I'm 6' 2" for scale.

Oxtail sheath

The fellow who bought the oxtail bush sword requested a Kydex sheath, so I built this before shipping it to him.

It takes a lot of rivets to make a Kydex sheath for an 18" blade!

Biohazard Outbreak Response CQC Blade - Resident Evil inspired

This is a blade design I've been wanting to do for a looong time.  The initial inspiration came from the large blade used by Chris Redfield in the video game Resident Evil 5 (sold under the name Biohazard 5 in Japan).  I'm not a gamer, but have my finger on the pulse of the gaming world a bit.  I spent a long time scouring the Internet for a good picture of the knife and found nothing that showed a good profile shot of the blade.  Finally, a good picture showed up in my Google Images search.  I made a pattern, heated up some 80CrV2, and got to hammering.

The blade is 14 1/2" long and very pointy.  The tip drew a few drops of blood while working on it, before there was ever an edge on it.  The top side is a false edge.

The in-game knife has slab handles and a handle shape somewhat similar to the MercWorx Goliath.  At some point I will play around with translating the video game handle design into something comfortable for the hand in the real world, but on this one I went with an integral socket handle with coyote tan paracord for the main wrap and black two-strand Turk's head knots, impregnated with West System marine epoxy.

And a coyote tan Kydex sheath with some provision for straps.  In the game, Chris wears it in a heavy leather sheath over his left shoulder and does a funky combination cross draw, strike, and re-sheath in one smooth motion that would be essentially impossible (certainly difficult) in real life.

And it feels badass in the hand.  :D

This is definitely a design that I will be returning to. 

Because those damn zombies just won't kill themselves. 

This one is for sale in the Available Work section.

http://helmforge.blogspot.com/2011/09/available-work.html

Oxtail Saber Bush Sword

This is one of my last bush swords to be forged from 5160.  It's in the oxtail saber style that makes for a graceful, powerful chopper.  The blade is 18" long, with a false edge on the top side.

 The handle is an integral socket wrapped in black paracord with two-strand Turk's head knots fore and aft, all impregnated with West System marine epoxy.

 

This one is for sale.  Check the Available Work section. 

 

http://helmforge.blogspot.com/2011/09/available-work.html

15" bush sword

A fellow contacted me about getting a bush sword a little while back.  I had a few in progress that weren't spoken for yet and this was the one he picked. 

The blade is forged from 80CrV2 steel and is 15" long.  The clip is a false edge, but thin enough that a secondary bevel could easily be added to make it fully sharp.  The cord wrap is olive drab paracord hardened with West System marine epoxy.

His plan is for a Kryptek camo Kydex sheath built by an ex-Army Ranger he knows.  :)

Feedback from Special Forces soldier

I always appreciate feedback.  This came in from the Special Forces soldier that ordered up the cord-wrapped Benghazi Warfighter that I photographed on the hood of a Scout here: http://helmforge.blogspot.com/2015/04/swat-wakizashi-and-knives-for-usmc-and.html

He sent me this recently and I got permission to post his pictures.

"I wanted to let you know that my Benghazi Warfighter is amazing. It's a very capable blade that I've used many times camping so far. Here is a pic of where it's normally mounted, on the bottom of my Hill People Gear kit bag that is my little go bag and chest rig."

 

I rather like his rig.  The blade is out of the way, and more accessible from both hands than behind-the-back scout carry. 

 

 

This last one is obviously reversed in a mirror.

 

 

Looking forward to building his next blade.  :)