Dramatic skies and a nice new knife

Mentor

Mentor

Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
3,124
Hi All,

I went for a great hike along the Bruce Trail and through the Kolapore Uplands near Blue Mountain last weekend. The sky was dramatic, and I snapped a few photos.

The sun was shining when we set out, and the temperature was great. This is one of my favourite local trails, and I wanted to check out the results of some recent maintenance work on a bridge across a marshy area.

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This year's mushroom growth was spectacular, and the forests are full of them:

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Arrived at the boardwalk / bridge over the marsh. Here's a nice, pleasant view:

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Looks pretty tranquil, eh?

Well, here's what was coming from the other direction:

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Awesome. These clouds were downright black at one point, and when the wind started to pick up, I decided to wander back to the trailhead. Ruby, as usual, was entirely unconcerned about the weather. The took the opportunity to go for a swim and chow down on some grass. You can see the impressive new boardwalk (built with volunteer labour and materials!) in the first photo:

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My cutlery for this hike was my JK ACEK. It came in handy for carving up wild apples to share with Ruby and clearing a few branches that had fallen across the trail. I also used it to process a walking stick (no pictures, alas) made from a downed branch. The scandi portion of the blade is amazing for this sort of thing. It sails through wood.

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***

New knife content in the next post!

All the best,

- Mike
 
I also took the opportunity to do a bit of work in the shop this weekend, and I finished off two knives.

The first was a small, flat-ground knife that could serve as a paring knife or a companion blade for camping. The handle is the neatest part. I was in BC a few weeks ago, and I had the opportunity to go for a wander along the coast of Vancouver Island. Being a coast, there was plenty of driftwood to be found. It was light, sun-bleached, grey, and worn down by the waves. I decided to bring a few pieces back to see what they looked like on the inside, and whether they would make for good knife handles. As it turned out, they did!

This piece was grey on the exterior, but after plenty of sawing, sanding, and polishing, it revealed a rather complex colour scheme. I was worried that it would be too soft to work with, but it set up nice and hard and soaked up a few coats of Danish Oil.

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So, take notice all of you west-coasters! You live adjacent to a treasure trove of knife handle material.

I thought that this was a great (and suitably W&SS-ish) way to commemorate my trip to BC.

Here's the other one I finished off. A carbon steel blade with a rather traditional design, bocote handles and mosaic pins. It is nice and thin, and does amazing things to vegetables in my kitchen.

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Thanks again for looking, and all the best!

- Mike

PS I should clarify that while I have made quite a few knives using stock removal, these two were based on blanks.
 
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The two pics showing the opposing skies, are crazy. One side is beautiful and calm, the other so menacing.
 
Doc13 said:
The two pics showing the opposing skies, are crazy. One side is beautiful and calm, the other so menacing.
Click to expand...

Definitely crazy. You could probably have sat on the boardwalk, looked towards the sun, and pretended that the weather was perfect ... right until the rain started. :D

I love it when the weather makes for interesting hiking.
 
untamed said:
Natural, understated elegance; absolutely superb! I'm especially liking that handly-looking camp companion in the middle! :thumbup:
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Much appreciated! It's a pretty cool little knife - it's actually the same knife in the first two photos, though the second one shows it at an angle, and from the other side. I'm going to see if I can use a piece of the same wood to handle a larger camp blade, and then make a piggyback sheath for both of them.

All the best,

- Mike
 
Great pics.

You should have seen that bridge before we undammed it.

Must have dropped the water level ( on one side) almost 2 feet.
 
Sparljo said:
Great pics.

You should have seen that bridge before we undammed it.

Must have dropped the water level ( on one side) almost 2 feet.
Click to expand...

Were you part of the maintenance team? I saw the signs posted around the trailhead, but I had to be in BC that weekend and couldn't take part. Kudos to you.

And yeah, the water level is definitely down! In the past, I have seen the bridge partially submerged. The new structure looks nice and sturdy.

Perhaps you can clear this up, though: Why were some planks left longer than the others?

Again, thanks for the work,

All the best,

- Mike
 
Im not sure why they did that.

I was only part of the team that tore down the dam.

If those planks are still sticking out next time I go through there, Ill cut them off.

Assume they ran out of power or pre cut all the boards or something.

I dont think its intentional in the design ;)
 
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