A DIY blade for Morseth Fans

Wow. Good to have you back Steve. Great knife. :thumbup:
 
Hi Guys:

Thinks for the kind words. This one was fun, but a lot of work. I don't usually make them with blades this long. I mostly do knives with blades under 4" since they can be used as EDC's.

Leatherface, I'll send you a dozen!

Sarge, I agree with you about the blade design and ricasso. I've never seen a finished Morseth knife. Perhaps the blade is this way because that is what he special ordered. I don't know if the blades were intended to be Puukko's or American style hunting knives with hidden tangs. It's size alone made me go with more of a hunting knife design.

I'll finish this one over the next week or so and make a leather sheath for it.

Then I'll start on the second Morseth blade that I have. Again, it's size says a design other than a Puukko. Maybe I'll go with a single finger guard design and a more decorated handle.

The stabilized block of wood for the handle came from Knife & Gun. Presentation grade for $25.00. It was hard and heavy and was great to work with. I've never seen a prettier piece of wood.
 
Steve Poll said:
I don't know if the blades were intended to be Puukko's or American style hunting knives with hidden tangs. It's size alone made me go with more of a hunting knife design.
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I read somewhere that Morseth's knives were a favorite with hunters.
 
:mad::mad: :mad:

So far I've made three file knives, assembled one Lauri blade beautifully and now....TOTALLY screwed up on one!!! GAWDERNIT!!!

I thought I'd put one together with about a one inch piece of Ebony, a white and black plastic spacer and a piece of Purple heart. Seemed a nice enough idea when I dreamed it up, looked nice when I held all the pieces together....

As soon as I epoxied them onto the tang and tried to shape them....

YECH! the Ebony's too long, my brass spacer is too small, the plastic looks like heck and is outta proportion, BAH!!!

If I were smart I'd just sit on it and look at it in a week or so with a fresh perspective. Fortunately...no one ever accused me of being smart....I think I'm gonna hack that handle off with a hatchet and dispose of all evidence that I even tried.:mad: Maybe I can hide it from myself until I simmer down a bit...Every time I look at it I feel my blood pressure come up thirty points....:o

Given another lifetime or so and I will have butchered enough smaller blades to get started on one of my Morseth blades.

(Gorgeous pics of yours, BTW Steve!)

Hatchet mike, off to do the dirty mission...:grumpy: Darn...an' that was five bucks worth of Purple Heart too....
 
Yo steve...I checked my mail today and I cant seem to find the knife in the box...wonder what happened??


RWS...Gotta be better than my endevor...I have most of it down as of now and after I get caught up a bit I am gonna go back to my leather handle thingy..

One thing perplexis me though...When doing the rivet at the end, do you hit the rivet itself?? or do you need a tool to do so??

RWS>..send it to me...I will give it a good home...I am there for ya...PM me and I will send ya my address since Steve must have misplaced it:thumbup:
 
No human eyes will see the results of this endeavor!!

NEVER!!;)

Thankfully, I consider my wife to be angelic, so she don't count.


Might try stacked Birch Bark for round #2. At least it's a cheap, plentiful natural resource if I botch it again...
 
RWS every poultry farm breaks a few eggs. No worries. Now we know you're human, and you've learned one thing that doesn't work. Experience is the key. Now get up dust off and get back on the bike.
 
Hi Runs With Sissors:

You have reminded me of my Puukko failure. I was able to salvage it in the end, but I learned alot from that one.

I wanted it to have a full length peened over tang with an ebony handle. All went rather well until I tried to peen the end of the tang. I beat the he** out of it and gave up because the darn tang was hardened. I ended up cutting the butt of the handle off square, drilling into the flat end of the butt and pinning a nickle silver pommel on. It completed the knife, but it sure wasn't what I intended.

Moral of the story is test the hardness of the tang before building the knife. If it's hardened, heat it and soften it up.

I've attached it's picture for the heck of it.

Why don't you try to salvage your Puukko project? It might work out OK?
 
:) that one came out NICE looking in the end! Now I'm embarassed to show my efforts....:o


After cursing up a blue streak for a couple hours, stomping around and snarling I finally concealed it from my self, and went to bed. Woke up this morning with a fresh perspective. It actually fits my hand really well, and I was able to laugh at myself a bit. Thought about finishing it as a reminder of what NOT to do, but....I think I'm gonna have to call the handle a complete loss. Good news is that I'm gonna be able to get two handles out of my other piece of Purpleheart, so I'm really not out hardly anything, except time.

And if I learned something, then the time wasn't wasted either.


Thanks for the kind words y'all. Had to vent a bit somewhere, and my family wasn't appropriate for that one....:) :o
 
Purpleheart?? sounds pretty...Anyone got a finished pic of what purpleheart looks like???


Gotta make me a Puukko!!!


THEN I gotta get me 1.1 Pure Hog Island Boas...GRRRRR I dont charge enought to support my habit's!!!!!


THEN I gotta buy a better stitcher...

THEN I gotta get me a woman<~~~she better be able to sew!:thumbup:
 
I've had purpleheart handles before...real beautiful stuff. bright purple, and mirror reflective when sanded fine and oiled.

http://www.woodworkerssource.net/Me...CTGY&Store_Code=WS&Category_Code=Purple_Heart


I'm really happy with the Lauri blades I got from Northcoast. I'm planning on doing a few more, just for fun. (It woud seem I'm pretty justified....I've done four of them with the same design and I keep givin' 'em away or sellin' 'em to friends and family.) So far I've managed to keep my Maple Burl one a secret...

If I turn out a successful purplewood handle, I'll be posting PLENTY of pics...:D
 
Leatherface said:
Yo steve...I checked my mail today and I cant seem to find the knife in the box...wonder what happened??


RWS...Gotta be better than my endevor...I have most of it down as of now and after I get caught up a bit I am gonna go back to my leather handle thingy..

One thing perplexis me though...When doing the rivet at the end, do you hit the rivet itself?? or do you need a tool to do so??

RWS>..send it to me...I will give it a good home...I am there for ya...PM me and I will send ya my address since Steve must have misplaced it:thumbup:
Click to expand...



Hi Leatherface:

I think I know what happened. The box was just too big to fit in your mailbox!

Edit: Forgot to answer the peening question. Make sure the tang is SOFT. After all handle pieces are in place and epoxied wrap the blade with masking tape, clamp it in a padded vice and start hitting it with the small round end of a large ball peen hammer. You will find that after several whacks you can control how the tang will mushroom over. A metal pommel is needed under the peened tang. Some file work will finish the shape of the peened over tang.
 
ahhh Steve...small mailbox??? Dude I am in the south as well...you could drive a UPS truck into my mailbox!!:D


Just whack the tang?? hmm on the site about leather handled knives he was talking about a rivet on top of the tang "I think"...Made sense to me, but I do like the idea of hitting the tang very hard...

Gotta research a bit



DavemailboxboyB
 
Leatherface said:
Just whack the tang?? hmm on the site about leather handled knives he was talking about a rivet on top of the tang "I think"...Made sense to me, but I do like the idea of hitting the tang very hard...DavemailboxboyB
Click to expand...

Now you've stumped me. Puukkos have hidden tangs, and full tangs.

The full tangs are secured either by peening the end or threading the end of the tang and screwing a pommel nut down on it to hold the handle together.

If you find out what was meant by "rivet" I'd be interested to know what it is.
 
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