crooked knives

Jimbo, Excellent web page. I particularly liked the sharpening section. I can't believe that no one else has anything to say on this! I've been reading up on kayak construction lately (wood frame cloth skin type boats). In the three books I have, each of the authors mentions the crooked knife as a replacement for a gouge, curved sole spokeshave, and whittling knife. Ditto the books on traditional canoe construction. Just to top it off, I was in Victoria BC about a week ago and a native americam woman was carving trinkets along the waterfront with a crooked knife. I darn near asked to buy the knife!

Ben Hunt's book (Indiancraft?) has a project involving making a crooked knife, and I've seen several others in magazines like Backwoodsman. Retail sources are difficult to find here in the US. I've seen a few crooked knives at some high end woodworking stores, and the mora ones are available in the SMKW catalog. Guess I'll drop a few bucks and try one out.

Thanks for the informative article!
Patrick
 
My brother-in-law restores and makes replicas for display of the old Japanese cerimonial masks using crooked knives like in the page shown,however, he makes his own from some ground flatstock (o-1) that I gave him in different thicknesses. He also uses them on restoration of some totem poles and other South American antiquities...real museum quality work. I wish I had 1/10th. of his talent.
:rolleyes:
 
Hi guys!

I wouldn't bother making one now. The Mora hoof knife can be converted to single bevel with a dremel pretty easily. It's the top one in the picture. The lower is a Stubai, sold as an Austrian Carver's hook by Lee Valley.
frosthoof.jpg

Lots of work to go with honing and polishing but it's getting there:
mhk1.jpg

Hoodoo has the thin bladed version and when I find some at good prices I'll be getting some of those - they're selling for $10 US.
The Mora spoon knife is also incredibly useful.
 
OK, I lied. I checked the copy of the Smoky Mountain Knife Works catalog I have at home and while they did have frosts knives, they don't have the crooked knives. Anyone know a US source for the Frosts/mora or (other)crooked knives?

Thanks,
Patrick
 
Hi folks,
This doesn't really have to do with knives, but I had to catch Outdoors, sorry. What kind of Kayaks are you into? My mother built a kit boat from Pygmy, located out in your area. Glass over a wood hull, very nice boat. I think it was the osprey. I maintain an interest in native watercraft, and am currently working on a degree in nautical archaeology. Could you post the books you have read about them in the community section maybe.
Thanks.
Lagarto
 
Are you interested in birchbark canoes? If so see here:

JudyK

I sure found it interesting - homemade crooked knives and all..
 
Originally posted by lagarto
Hi folks,
This doesn't really have to do with knives, but I had to catch Outdoors, sorry. What kind of Kayaks are you into? Lagarto
Click to expand...

Lagarto,
First, I've been out of the office for the last few days, so I haven't had the chance to reply til now. I'm not sure if this topic would be welcome on the communities forum, either. I would send you a direct email, but your profile doesn't list an address. how do you want to continue the conversation?

Patrick
 
Outdoors,
Sorry, not sure if this is allowed but my email is lagarto123456@yahoo.com (moderators if we aren't allowed to post personal emails I apologize. If this is the case please remove it and notify me. I won't do it again.)
Lagarto
 
As a fan of W. Ben Hunt since boyhood I've always like crooked knives, and since I grew up around horses I've always used 'slicked up' hoof knives. I still make wooden spoons as gifts using pallet hardwoods (waste not, want not) the crooked knives work as well as a 'scorp' or 'spoon adze' to hollow the spoon bowls.
Speaking of adzes, I noted that Jimbo has some nice handmade adzes on his dandy crooked knife page. I've also made those using old plane irons (blades from a jack plane) screws and washers on a seasoned hardwood tree limb cut with part of the bole of the tree attached. Cut the wood with a flat face to hold the plane blade, leaving a small 'step' above it to act as a stop for the blade, drill a pilot hole and screw the blade on. Sand the wood, stain if desired, oil with tung or mineral oil. I also oil the metal, then wrap blade and wood section with wet rawhide as illustrated. Another nice 'waste not, want not' project.
 
texascarl:

That's sure a great idea with the plane blades! I had been wondering what sort of blade would work to make an adze. Strange but I never thought of blades from old planes. I'd even got around to picking up some leaf spring steel and a grinder to get started - but that's a cheap and handy alternative.
Thanks!
Any more of those good (and for me cheap because of lots of grand-kids) ideas?
 
They look like good deals, Outdoors!
People in rural areas, though, might find a selection locally and save on shipping. Then again if you handle a bunch, you might just end up buying a whole bunch. I did!
 
Jimbo,
Save the leaf spring, we use those to make chisels or 'slicks' (extra large chisels). My father does quite a bit of carving and green woodworking, on occasion we have to remove a lot of bark. A good home-made slick can peel the bark off green logs about as fast as anything.
 
I guess not too many here would know what a slick is - and I wouldn't either except for jsut reading the Lee Valley book of sharpening..
Does it work as well as a draw knife for removing bark?
After seeing a picture - of course I have to have to have a slick...
Keep coming with the good tools - neat stuff!
 
Slick vs. a draw knife: We use a 'slick' as a big chisel...and they're handy. We also use a sharp spade or a long-handled home-made 'Slick' called a 'Peeling Spud' (leaf spring on shovel handle or similar hickory staff. We bend the spring so it meets the wood with a few inches flat on the log, the handle at roughly 35-40 degree angle). Use this spud to bust loose strips of bark from 3 sides of a green log, and let that air-dry for a while. The remaining bark will easily pull away from the wood if you peel these 3 strips away in a month or so. Without the bark on the oak and other hardwoods we work with, you don't have as many problems with bugs.
We use draw knives to peel saplings or to shape smaller stuff we've split out or 'riven' from the larger logs. Dad's rule of thumb...use a draw knife on anything that'll fit in a shaving horse, use an ax or a slick on anything large enough that you have to 'dog' it down.

That reminds me...look up 'log dogs', you can easily make those from rebar or square stock. Mighty handy.

Dad just sold my old shaving horse, which is kind of a shame...I made it from oak, pine and walnut and it fit me just right, but tourista's with money talk Dad's lingo...and there's plenty more tree's in the woodlot. If you're interested in building a shaving horse (and you'd probably enjoy one) there are excellent plans in "The Workbench Book" by Scott Landis.
 
Good points!
I'd always just let wood dry naturally. My buddy now has a wood stove and is needing wood to dry fast so that he can use aspen and other junk stuff left over from some clearing work. He's found peeling three strips as you describe to be perfect.
We have spuds in the logging stores but I've never used one. Strikes me that they'd be a lot easier to use with a D spade type handle.
I never thought of rebar for spikes so I'm learning all the time here - make a lot of sense as buying various sizes of forged spikes gets expensive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top