Scavenger Blades

These are yet another, different direction from how I typically make knives; they're stock removal. :) The steel of these is plow disk from my family's farm, which works out to be approximately 1080 high carbon steel. They were cut out, the profiles cleaned up, then they were heated and flattened, I stamped my touchmark, and then they were normalized multiple times. Straightening and stamping is all the hammering they've seen. The rest is grinding.



The steel is about 1/8" thick. I tried out a new handle wrap method with these, one I have seen several different places. There is a slab of leather on either side of the tang, extending the full length. The hole at the end of the tang also goes through the leather. Then I wrapped hemp cord on top of the leather, going 'round and 'round through the hole at the butt end before anchoring it. After tying the Turk's head knot at the front of the wrap using black cotton cord, I sealed the wrap with shellac. It ends up being a very comfortable, slightly flexible grip.

The texture on the steel is rust pitting from lying years and years in the dirt under live oak trees. I love the aesthetics of combining the works of nature harmoniously with the works of man.

The Bowie has a 6 1/2" blade with an overall length of 11 3/4". It also has the first triple strand Turk's head knot I've done in a while. The others have double strand Turk's heads.



The hunter/EDC knives have blades 4" long with overall lengths about 8 1/8".







The quasi-Nessmuk has a blade 3 3/4" long and overall length of 8 1/4"



I'll definitely be continuing this train of thought.