Thread: Various Knives

Elios Gun shop in South Dunedin and depending on what time you are going through you could stop in at my place in Lawrence

A Heavy Hunter away to go on safari next month for elephant tail. Aged Giraffe bone over cb buffalo horn bolster on the 1075 blade in closed top sheath with attached honing steel.

A Mini Skiner away to a NZ customer to be forwarded on to a family member in Czechia so that is another country added to those where my knives have found new homes. maple burl with a little spalting over the CB Buffalo horn bolster and in an open top sheath. Initials on the sheath and name engraved on the blade.

An EDC with aged giraffe bone over curve buffalo horn with stainless and black G10 spacers on the x pattern stainless damascus. A snake knot lanyard with silver rings and white bead will assist in retrieval from the edge stamped deep pouch sheath.

Some knives for a local customer with the handles from an old Totora verandah post he had. I cut, oven dried, and stabilised them for a handle that is not effected by varying atmospheric conditions with all having brass bolsters. There is a pair of 9 inch pro chefs, a pair of 8 inch filleters, a pig sticker, Tahr hunter and a Chamois knife. The pig sticker is in a deep pouch sheath with the Tahr and Chamois knife in horrizontal closed top sheaths.

The knives are nice, but I reckon it's time to get back to that Lee Speed!

Originally Posted by makka

The knives are nice, but I reckon it's time to get back to that Lee Speed!

I did do that the other day and have it sanded to 600grt. Have a load of firewood to put away tomorrow and then it will be filling the grain. Waiting for some more alkanet root to arrive so I can make more red oil for the first tone coats before I get to the finishing of it. Will be delivering it to the owner end of april so need to stay on it now to make sure to get it done in time for that.

Excellent. I will be interested to see the difference the alkanet makes to the colour.

Sanded from the 120 grt through 320 and 600 and the first wet sand at 600. will do another at 600 and then go to 1000grt.

Had a box of long awaited handle blocks and scale sets arrive this morning

Red and Yellow Cedar burl


Amboyna burl


Tasmanian Blackwood with broken fiddleback.


Spalted Hackberry

The first of the knives with the new batch of spalted Hackberry away today. I love the way the colours and patterns remind me of the old time maps and globes. A Professional Hunter with the spalted Hackberry over curve backed buffalo horn on the 3/16 1075 HC blade and carried in the initialled and border stamped cross draw sheath

The second Professional Hunter with spalted Hackberry over curve backed buffalo horn in a plain pocket pouch sheath is on its way to a new home.

A 1075 J T Ranger with scalloped OD canvas micarta in cross draw sheath
and a 1084 Light Hunter with Totora handle and blaze snake knot lanyard in plain sheath.

question for you...been pondering this all day.
Ive got two if not three old wooden handled skinning knives possibly green river possibly ex freezing works....very old and very easy to get and keep sharp..only issue I have is not a fan at all of curved skinning blades....how hard would it be/it it feasable/possible to heat and reshape blade to straight??? without having to go whole hog and heat to red and beat them to pulp and start again???

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

question for you...been pondering this all day.
Ive got two if not three old wooden handled skinning knives possibly green river possibly ex freezing works....very old and very easy to get and keep sharp..only issue I have is not a fan at all of curved skinning blades....how hard would it be/it it feasable/possible to heat and reshape blade to straight??? without having to go whole hog and heat to red and beat them to pulp and start again???

Cold working destroys steel so no you cant move metal into different shapes without heat and enough heat (red at least) so it will move under the hammer without cracking so what you contemplate would ruin the blades. It is the heat treating of good carbon steel that makes them take and hold an edge and a correctly heat treated carbon steel blade will hold an edge but still be reasonably easy to keep sharp.

For me this is all the curve that a skinning knife should have and the way I worked toward making then since 1968 when I was given an old green river skinner with the big upswept blade to kill a few sheep on the high country station I went when I left school school. Hated the design and that was when I started critical analysis of knife design and working on better (for my use) shapes in both blade and handle for easy and safe use and handling.