- Joined
- Dec 11, 2010
- Messages
- 22
I accept the challenge.
I wanted to let y'all know in advance that I'll be using the same knife as Widerstand; I'm his girlfriend, and have seen how much fun he's had doing other contests, & I'm into bushcraft & self-reliance skills, etc, so I thought I might as well join the fray. I just wanted to say that ahead of time so that you wouldn't see the same knife and think he's entering twice or something like that, especially since I've only lurked the forums, and am just now posting.
Well, I decided to borrow Widerstand's BK 11. I went out to find an oak or maple branch I could cut down, but as I was walking around the neighborhood I noticed someone had trimmed their holly tree and left tons of limbs by the curb.
I brought it back home because it was pouring outside, and started taking the bark off.
I didn't want a 3 foot handle, so I cut it down. (Which reminds me, Md 25v, if you're reading this, I've never been able to baton straight across the grain like your 2nd picture shows, is there some trick to it? I've never been able to go more than maybe 1/3 inch that way. I always have to go through it beaver-style like the image below.)
At this point, I batonned lengthwise and kept shaving bits off until one end was a 1/4" thick plank, and the other end was mostly cylindrical. Either I deleted a couple pictures off my camera accidentally, or I took them with Widerstand's camera, I'm not sure, I will check when he gets back.
Anyways, at this point I had a plan. I knew that the biggest challenge with carving a fork would be not having it split out on me. So knowing that holly has a fine, even grain, I decided to use that splitting tendency to my advantage. Control the split, make sure it doesn't go further than I want by wrapping cordage around it, and bend the tines out instead of carving them. So I set about making some cordage, but there isn't a lot to work with this time of year, and I didn't want to process some tree's inner bark with a li'l BK 11. I remembered where I'd seen some yucca growing near a park.
At first I tried working the fibers by pounding them with rocks, but there was still a lot of non-fibrous goop that was mucking things up.
After some experimentation, I found that scraping the leaves with the back of my knife worked great.
Then I did the standard cordage-making twist maneuver
Decided the handle was still too long, cut it down some more with a rounder edge.
At this point I started splitting the wood to make the tines. I did not baton it, I just aligned the knife with the grain, and gently rocked the knife from side to side.
Sharpened the tines some, after soaking the wood in hot water for a couple hours. I pried apart the tines with a small piece of wood to keep them apart. I also "sanded" some rough spots with the back of my knife.
At that point, I replaced the splints with small green river rocks I had found on the Willamette River earlier. And I was done!
Thought I would also take the opportunity to show off my birch bark bowl and a spoon I made, as well.
Not a ton of intricate carving, but I like the simple look of it and I didn't want to distract from the subtle details of the stones and the cordage that I took a lot of time to make very uniform and neat, etc. All in all, I'd say I'm proud of it. My first fork, too! Usually I'm lazy and just make chopsticks when I need to.
It was nice to see everyone else's work!
Edit: Also notice Widerstand did some work on his BK 11 in between the pictures: sanded the black finish off, & rewrapped the handle. Same knife, though.
I wanted to let y'all know in advance that I'll be using the same knife as Widerstand; I'm his girlfriend, and have seen how much fun he's had doing other contests, & I'm into bushcraft & self-reliance skills, etc, so I thought I might as well join the fray. I just wanted to say that ahead of time so that you wouldn't see the same knife and think he's entering twice or something like that, especially since I've only lurked the forums, and am just now posting.
Well, I decided to borrow Widerstand's BK 11. I went out to find an oak or maple branch I could cut down, but as I was walking around the neighborhood I noticed someone had trimmed their holly tree and left tons of limbs by the curb.
I brought it back home because it was pouring outside, and started taking the bark off.
I didn't want a 3 foot handle, so I cut it down. (Which reminds me, Md 25v, if you're reading this, I've never been able to baton straight across the grain like your 2nd picture shows, is there some trick to it? I've never been able to go more than maybe 1/3 inch that way. I always have to go through it beaver-style like the image below.)
At this point, I batonned lengthwise and kept shaving bits off until one end was a 1/4" thick plank, and the other end was mostly cylindrical. Either I deleted a couple pictures off my camera accidentally, or I took them with Widerstand's camera, I'm not sure, I will check when he gets back.
Anyways, at this point I had a plan. I knew that the biggest challenge with carving a fork would be not having it split out on me. So knowing that holly has a fine, even grain, I decided to use that splitting tendency to my advantage. Control the split, make sure it doesn't go further than I want by wrapping cordage around it, and bend the tines out instead of carving them. So I set about making some cordage, but there isn't a lot to work with this time of year, and I didn't want to process some tree's inner bark with a li'l BK 11. I remembered where I'd seen some yucca growing near a park.
At first I tried working the fibers by pounding them with rocks, but there was still a lot of non-fibrous goop that was mucking things up.
After some experimentation, I found that scraping the leaves with the back of my knife worked great.
Then I did the standard cordage-making twist maneuver
Decided the handle was still too long, cut it down some more with a rounder edge.
At this point I started splitting the wood to make the tines. I did not baton it, I just aligned the knife with the grain, and gently rocked the knife from side to side.
Sharpened the tines some, after soaking the wood in hot water for a couple hours. I pried apart the tines with a small piece of wood to keep them apart. I also "sanded" some rough spots with the back of my knife.
At that point, I replaced the splints with small green river rocks I had found on the Willamette River earlier. And I was done!
Thought I would also take the opportunity to show off my birch bark bowl and a spoon I made, as well.
Not a ton of intricate carving, but I like the simple look of it and I didn't want to distract from the subtle details of the stones and the cordage that I took a lot of time to make very uniform and neat, etc. All in all, I'd say I'm proud of it. My first fork, too! Usually I'm lazy and just make chopsticks when I need to.
It was nice to see everyone else's work!
Edit: Also notice Widerstand did some work on his BK 11 in between the pictures: sanded the black finish off, & rewrapped the handle. Same knife, though.
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5 tines, just to be a pain in the ass.
