Fabrication of a Kephart Knife.

Thanks. I haven't read either in a few years and got my wires crossed.
 
Nate’s Knives said:
They look so basic…no offense.
Click to expand...
The devil is in the details. Tapered tang, and the taper on the blade from just above centerline to spine. The handle isn’t flat either.

I just have the KA-BAR version and it handles much differently than it looks.

It looks like an Ontario kitchen knife or a duct knife but is far different. You can’t see it in pictures, but you can feel it as soon as you pick it up.
 
Last edited:
eveled said:
The devil is in the details. Tapered tang, and the taper on the blade from just above centerline to spine. The handle isn’t flat either.

I just have the KA-BAR version and it handles much differently than it looks.

It looks like an Ontario kitchen knife or a duct knife but is far different. You can’t see it in pictures, but you can feel it as soon as you pick it up.
Click to expand...
I’m gonna have to find and handle one. Y’all have my curiosity going.
 
`The BK-62 is a very stiff and sold knife, in your hand it feels like a Japanese ko deba, but with better balance.
 
``
Arathol said:
That was the Kephart, designed by Horace and made for him by the Colclesser Bros. Nobody knows for sure where Sears got his knife.
mkDl6R1.png
Click to expand...
As I understand it, Horace Kephart had is knives made by area blacksmiths. Colclesser started making them when they were mentioned in Kephart's writing in Field and Stream Magazine. Colclesser Brothers' stock in trade was axes, shovels, and picks
 
Last edited:
Ran across this:

survive.phillosoph.com

Kephart's Summer Outfit - The Phillosoph Blog

There are a number of topics I intend to cover in the near future. The starting point for many of them begins with Horace Kephart, so it is prudent to begin with looking at some of his recommendations for outfitting. Here is his list of clothing and equipment for summertime trips in the North...
survive.phillosoph.com
 
eveled said:
The devil is in the details. Tapered tang, and the taper on the blade from just above centerline to spine. The handle isn’t flat either.

I just have the KA-BAR version and it handles much differently than it looks.

It looks like an Ontario kitchen knife or a duct knife but is far different. You can’t see it in pictures, but you can feel it as soon as you pick it up.
Click to expand...
The Kabar version is not really much like the one carried by Horace Kephart. Its was designed using a Colclesser Bros knife owned by Ethan Becker.
The original had the upper part of the bade convened to the spine, the handle was oval, not flat, and was shaped sort of like a bottle. Its 3/4" thick at the butt, tapers to 1/2" right before the blade then swells back out to form a guard of sorts.
Kind of like this
OAJenQN.jpg
K7KAget.jpg

EECWJUN.png
KxsT3lZ.png
 
transmaster said:
Ran across this:

survive.phillosoph.com

Kephart's Summer Outfit - The Phillosoph Blog

There are a number of topics I intend to cover in the near future. The starting point for many of them begins with Horace Kephart, so it is prudent to begin with looking at some of his recommendations for outfitting. Here is his list of clothing and equipment for summertime trips in the North...
survive.phillosoph.com
Click to expand...

 
In my part of the world, Wyoming, there are historical knives carried by the Mountain Men, and later the cowboys. Mountain men did carry some sort of fighting knife, Bowie, Arkansas Toothpick, maybe a Henry. Some sort of utility knife was carried by both Mountain men and later cowboys, which was a knife with the now politically incorrect name of the "scalping knife." It had a blade of 5 to 6 inches.
This is a modern replica of one of its designs. It is a very useful camp knife.

1771900403521.png
 
Many of the mountain men carried Sheffield butcher knives, much like the later versions from Green River versions which were available a few decades later.

(Modern replicas were also released by Cold Steel and Russell later on.)

I don't have time right now to search for images of my old Sheffield knives which are on another machine, but these are similar in pattern.



coldsteel.jpg


DadleyFinal_001.jpg
 
Blues said:
Many of the mountain men carried Sheffield butcher knives, much like the later versions from Green River versions which were available a few decades later.

(Modern replicas were also released by Cold Steel and Russell later on.)

I don't have time right now to search for images of my old Sheffield knives which are on another machine, but these are similar in pattern.



View attachment 3114898


View attachment 3114900
Click to expand...
Actually, the Sheffield knives were copies of the wildly popular Green River Knife, which first made its way west in 1840.

A couple modern day versions of the trade knife
jwHgjJs.jpg
NjyP7hn.jpg
 
I misremembered the original dates of the Green River apparently, but Sheffield was sending their knives to the Chouteaus of St. Louis at the behest of the American Fur Company in the 1830's and 1840's according to Carl P. Russell's book, "Firearms, Traps & Tools of the Mountain Men".

I have an old I. Wilson butcher knife in the closet somewhere that is representative of the type, but I have no way of dating it accurately. They weren't particularly scarce on auction sites back when I was more involved in studying the tools of the period.

(Modern replicas assembled for fun from Ragnar's Ragweed Forge back in the day, and from the Russell company.)


DadleyHawk3_001.jpg
 
After the Civil War, c.1865, the Western US was flooded with reground butcher knives from the Chicago meat packing industry. Western sporting supply stores would purchase crates of these worn knives for cheap, grind them to something useful, refinish the scales, and you have really good, and really cheap, field utility knives.
 
It's a pretty typical looking spear blade, imho

Don't know that anyone would call it a Kephart per se
 
Blues said:
It's a pretty typical looking spear blade, imho

Don't know that anyone would call it a Kephart per se
Click to expand...
I guess I just don't understand. That blade appears to be the same shape (minus the serrations) as the Russel knife you have posted.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top