Goat Knife

J. Neilson

J. Neilson

Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
3,621
I may get grief for this but, I've told enough folks about this, so I had to post it. As most know, Tess, Danny & I live on a small homestead-style farm raising our own food (meat is my job). Well, we had this goat that I had a running year and a half war with. My workshop is in 100 year old bank barn, the animals are downstairs and I'm upstairs. Well this goat spent it's first winter in a pen directly under my grinders where he kept "thunking" the beams. Thank goodness the grinds still came out straight. We use to go at it regularly. That was before the "stress relief" system. ;) Then, in the spring, after many escapes, this same goat broke my thumb (actually it was my fault, never punch a goat in the head, not my brightest move). Needless to say, I won the war and I swore that I would make a knife from one of his horns. Well, here it is and yes this is one I made for myself that I am not selling. OK George, you've got the other one, let's see it.

goat%20knife.JPG


Tess is finishing the sheath as we speak and I will proudly be wearing this knife at the Cheasapeake show this weekend.
:D
 
Oops, here's the specs.
This "Tracker" has a hand-rubbed, 4 1/2" blade of 5160 high carbon steel with the forged "flats" intact. The guard and pommel are bronze with a steel pommel cap. The handle is goat horn with a throat of green maple burl and black/green spacers.
 
So that's the famous Goat!

Excellent combination. That goat aught to be proud. Great work J.

Dan
 
it came out really nice J. so was that the goat jerky you brought on your visit? i like the maple its a nice deep green. did you stabilize it yourself?
 
That is an awesome knife with an equally awesome story to go with it.

It's good to be at the top of the food chain.:D

Tom
 
J, Guess you showed him. Don't kick a cow in the head. Didn't break my foot but it sure didn't bother the cow. Thats a really good looking knife you ended up with and I wouldn't sell it either. How was the goat horn to work. Is it hollow?
 
Darn, here's another one I almost missed. I got to get my head out of the HT postings for awhile. J., I like it. In fact that curve looks well suited to me. You like doing those long spacers and they look good on the design of knives you seem to like making.

RL
 
Beautiful knife J.N.!!!
Talk about resourceful, lol, raisin your own meat and knife handles at the same time!!
 
Thanks guys. The goat horn was hollow when I got done with it. It had alot of hard fiber material in it as a core that I had to dry and tear out. Other than that, it worked easily. The maple is wood I had stabilized by K&G. I do normally use alot of "throats" (spacers) on my knives for accent, on this one though I needed it because the horn was getting kinda thin on the tip and I wanted to keep a good grip. This is going to be an EDC for me.

Still got more jerky, too.

Dan, I can send you a tip for a neck knife. Otherwise you'll have to wait for the next goat I'm stupid enough to argue with.
:rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by J. Neilson


Dan, I can send you a tip for a neck knife. Otherwise you'll have to wait for the next goat I'm stupid enough to argue with.
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

can't past that up, I'll take it J :D
 
J, If you get another goat I got an idea on maybe growing the horns straight. It its a youngster when you get it try fastening some pvc pipe to the base of the horn if you can get it to stay on. Maybe a couple dry wall screws.......
 
Cool, great shape all around and realy came out great. Love seeing horn of any type on knives, it's my favorite handle material.
 
J,

I got a good chuckle when you wrote about punching the goat in the head! Reminds me of my cousin. He lives on a small island off the coast of Maine, which I won't divulge it's whereabouts - you'll see why in a minute. He is an old-school lobsterman and homesteader too. He had a goat once. He also had a very nice crop of marijuana growing right next to his garden. One day when he and the wife took their boat to the mainland for groceries, the goat got loose and ate almost his whole crop. When my cousing got home and found out, he strangled the goat with his bare hands.

He said it was the best feeling he ever knew. What is it about goats that absolutely incense some people?

:D
 
Originally posted by Raymond Richard
J, Guess you showed him. Don't kick a cow in the head. Didn't break my foot but it sure didn't bother the cow. Thats a really good looking knife you ended up with and I wouldn't sell it either. How was the goat horn to work. Is it hollow?
Click to expand...

J,

Man. What a beautiful knife. I agree with everyone else, I'd never sell it, either.

I guess this is a good time to pass around my hint for dealing with snakey, ornery, hard-headed critters. And no, I don't mean in-laws. When I used to have to get in a pen with cattle that rarely were close to people, I carried an old, weathered axe handle. The end had rotted out of the axe, but the rest of it was nice and solid. It was light enough to swing, but heavy enough to deter. Worked like a charm.

James
 
Great lookin' knife J and a great story to carry along with it. While I'm convinced that sheep are about the flat-out stupidest four-legged critters God ever made, my suspicion is that goats get the nod for being the most purely ornery.
 
Dan, it's on it's way.

Thanks all. I honestly could go on all night with stories about this stupid goat. I've always liked them but, for some reason this one was just a real pain in the A**. Cows are much easier. I think the thing about goats is that they're just too damn clever for their own good. I mean, hell thse things can figure out latches and such. I guess I just worry about becoming the fourth smartest one here.
:D

I used to use a piece of 2x4 but, I like the axe handle idea. When I really went nuts, I'd grab him by the throat and hold him against the electric fence (2200 volts) and scream at him "how do you like that you &%#$((%^%&Y()**$@(!!!!!!!!"

Ray- ouch!:eek: :D
 
:D :D e-mail me with the shipping cost
I can pay that at the least:) :) Thanks J
tell Tess. the sheath came out nice too :)
 
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