Had a feeling someone would ask.
But first, the reason I put the pictures here, is because I've often mentioned this knife when talking about clearing brush, compared it to kukris, and of course mentioned its primary purpose- coon hunting. (Warning! Do not click on this link if you may be offended by frank descriptions of hunting animals.
the possum's coon hunting page )
Oh, I forgot to add, this knife is just a "beater". It's not my best work. Maybe once I make a few more and am happy with the design, I will use ivory & gold for the handle, and finish it better. It's 24" overall, 2 1/4" wide at its broadest, and has around two feet of cutting edges due to the sharpened false edge. I ground the blade from a bar of 1/4" 5160, and had Joe Walters do the heat treating for me. We were trying to get Bainite at around 56-57 Rc, but we think there was something very strange about the way this piece of steel is behaving. Weight is 28 ounces, (1 3/4 pounds), and the mass is distributed so it is very agile & quick for a knife of this size, and yet has tremendous cutting power at the tip. (a result of the distal taper & balance.)
Joe paid me some handsome compliments when he recieved the bare blade for heat treating, so I think I 'll let him do the talking, (Hope ya don't mind, Joe.) rather than toot my own horn. Though it does handle and perform even better since I also attached some subtle counterweights under the butt of the handle. The tang was also drilled out & the guard is hollowed underneath to reduce dead weight.
"Your blade has excellent lines and geometry. There was no warpage at all because everything was ground so evenly. I've heat treated big blades by full time knifemakers that weren't nearly as well done as yours--most people just can't seem to get the waves and dips out. Which leads me to believe you must have filed the blade flats by hand or else you're just that good on the grinder?
I also like balance of the blade--very light and quick for such a large blade. The only thing that looked like it might cause a problem is the shape of the butt of the handle. That sharp angle against the heel of the hand might feel better rounded off. It won't look quite as nice that way, though!"
I did take his advice and round off the butt edges a little more, and the wide walnut scales also help out.
This is my interpretation of the Sheffield style. The swell center locks into the hollow of my palm, and the crevice between my middle and ring fingers. The "faceted" shape actually feels very comfortable during use, since each little ridge pretty well lines up with the finger joints. Notice how much swell there is at the butt. My old Bowie had very similar lines, but it actually flew out of my hand on several occasions, so I decided to make this one more secure. The butt actually sticks out the back of the hand far enough that the flare does not rub on my wrist or heel of the palm during normal use. The handle is symmetrical because I often use it edge up for certain tasks.
I did give the blade more belly than what "looked right", but I found with my old Bowie I cut far more often than I thrust. This also gives me more material to accomodate all the sharpening it will recieve. You probably can't tell from the photos, but it has a wide convex edge. The edge geometry at the rear third of the blade is not thicker than an average butcher knife. The edge thickens towards the belly, (where 90% of the chopping will take place) but is still just thick enough to prevent damage.
I'm already designing my next one, and making some changes.
