Guardians of The Lambsfoot!

[Bartleby]

A very nice version you have made there Chin! It looks right handy. It will be interesting to read how it does when you put it to use. I wager it will have great ergonomics. Most impressed!

 

[Jack Black]

A very nice version you have made there Chin! It looks right handy. It will be interesting to read how it does when you put it to use. I wager it will have great ergonomics. Most impressed!

+1 Clearly a lot of thought gone into that design, and its execution

 

[screened porch]

+1 on the brilliant concept and execution, Chin.

 

[r8shell]

I returned four days later and we handled and finished the knife.

This is it, my first knife: a fixed blade 'Lambsfoot'.

Thanks Christian!

This knife looks back to the classic Lambsfoots and the knives of Smith's Key in its design inspirations:

Black canvas micarta handle with red liners. 420 stainless pins. Tapered, full tang:

The classic swayback palmswell for indexing the blade angle and handling comfort:

Radiused scallops to facilitate pinch gripping the blade:

Flat ground blade to nearly a zero edge, like the classic era, forged blade Lambsfoots. It's ten thou of an inch, or 0.25mm thick behind the edge. Full swedge to reduce spine width:

Deep cryo'd D2 tool steel:

Wow! That is amazing. I'm very impressed!
Did you put a handle on the "mule" as well? You could turn it into a matching Ettrick.

 

[herder]

Great story and wonderful handmade knife, Cambertree!!!
Also neat to hear that you traded services and gained a new friendship.

 

[WhittlinAway]

Wow Chin! Fantastic design and execution. Thanks for sharing the story and the pictures from start to finish.

 

[Cambertree]

Thanks so much for the kind compliments, my friends.

Yes, it goes without saying, I'm really looking forward to using this one more fully.

Wow! That is amazing. I'm very impressed!
Did you put a handle on the "mule" as well? You could turn it into a matching Ettrick.

That's a great idea, r8shell, and I wish I had it at the time, when I had access to Christian's grinders!

If by a 'handle' you mean, crudely wrapped with paracord, so I could hold onto it while I sharpened it, then yes. But I removed it shortly after, as it looked embarassing next to the other knife, LOL!

I'm still having fun thinking what to do with the mule to get it in shape as a test blade. But it's fully heat treated and hardened now, so it would take quite a while to do anything but minimal regrinding using just my benchstones and hand sanding it. I think the D2 would blunt a file quite fast. But I really like the idea of a similar treatment of an Ettrick, maybe with handles slabbed out of Sambar antler tips.

At the moment, the truncated blade looks like a rather worn Lambsfoot, on the way to becoming a spey. But it might be interesting to see how it goes with that little hint of belly.

----------

Regarding the finished fixed blade Lambsfoot: I was looking at place names or landscape features in Sheffield or Yorkshire to go with a name for this model.

Or maybe just the 'WoodsWalker'...

I like the 'Endcliffe Lambsfoot' too, after the woods near Sheffield, but I'd just have to OK that with Paul (pmew), as I recall he suggested 'Endcliffe' as the name of the forum knife last year.

 

[Bartleby]

Muttonleg.

 

[Cambertree]

Muttonleg.

It has that certain ring to it, hey.

 

[spycycle]

Wow Chin, a great knife with some real sweat and tears put into it (no blood, I hope!). Nice work, I hope it serves you well for many years to come!

 

[Bartleby]

It has that certain ring to it, hey.

It does do the descriptive bit, as a fixed blade it becomes a leg rather than a foot, and the shape at the butt end (which I think is really going to make this brilliant for a lot of tasks, btw) is somewhat like a joint of mutton....

 

[r8shell]

It does do the descriptive bit, as a fixed blade it becomes a leg rather than a foot, and the shape at the butt end (which I think is really going to make this brilliant for a lot of tasks, btw) is somewhat like a joint of mutton....

I've heard a knife referred to as a "shank", but that's not usually meant as a compliment...

 

[Bartleby]

I've heard a knife referred to as a "shank", but that's not usually meant as a compliment...

A muttonshank. I kinda like that even better!

 

[Cambertree]

The Lambshank!

On second thoughts, might give the wrong idea!

 

[Bartleby]

The Lambshank!

On second thoughts, might give the wrong idea!

Perhaps, but it does sound the best so far.

 

[Bugdoc]

 

[Jack Black]

Regarding the finished fixed blade Lambsfoot: I was looking at place names or landscape features in Sheffield or Yorkshire to go with a name for this model.

Or maybe just the 'Woodswalker'...

I like the 'Endcliffe Lambsfoot' too, after the woods near Sheffield, but I'd just have to OK that with Paul (pmew), as I recall he suggested 'Endcliffe' as the name of the forum knife last year.

I walked through Endcliffe Woods with Herder

In the days before TVs, every adult had a party-trick (some of us still do), and my grandfather's rather lacklustre contribution was titled 'Sheep on Hallam Moor'...

'Baaaaa'

He never was much good at party-tricks that Granddad (the other one could still do hand-stands into his 70's)!

Hallam Moor is the source of the River Porter, and takes it's name from the ancient name for the Sheffield area - Hallamshire.

A name will come Chin, give it a while

Muttonleg.

Perhaps, but it does sound the best so far.

 

[Will Power]

Great event Chin, looks in fine fettle too so why not The Fettler? Very good quality and finish, that's the mark of a really fine knife in my view.

 

[Cambertree]

Thanks for the kind words Spycycle, Tom and Will, my friends.

Wow Chin, a great knife with some real sweat and tears put into it (no blood, I hope!). Nice work, I hope it serves you well for many years to come!

Spycycle: Both blades have given me a couple of little lovebites already, while assessing sharpness with my fingertips.

At the moment I'm running the 'Lambshank' and mule with a coarser grit edge, very lightly stropped a few times on 3 and 1 micron diamond pasted smooth side leather. Both blades pop arm hair with alacrity, but still have that 'aggressive' micro-serrated, bitey kind of feel in paper and cardboard. (I've sliced through all the stray cardboard in the house, it seems.)

This steel in this geometry and heat treat is a very impressive cutter, and still sharpens and takes light stropping very nicely too, with the abrasives I use.

Chin, that's simply amazing! Hobby only, or should we look for you on the manufacturer's pages?
Tom

Tom, it's amazing what can be done with a fully equipped shop with grinding platens and jigs, and flat discs, and precise heat treating equipment and protocols. It was a heady, almost intoxicating feeling to look at a sheet or billet of fine steel before you, and realise you could scribe out and make almost any knife concept you want.

But make no mistake, pretty much all the fine, symmetrical hand grinding of the swedges and handle shaping was done by Christian's practised hands. I did the design, some of the rough grinding and the sharpening and finishing - and a lot of learning and asking questions.

I'd love to eventually build up to having that setup and making some more variant models, but I'm solidly in the hobbyist, hand sharpener, and student of edge tool history category, at the moment.

Great event Chin, looks in fine fettle too so why not The Fettler? Very good quality and finish, that's the mark of a really fine knife in my view.

Thanks Will, I like that suggestion, my friend. There's some interesting meanings for 'Fettler' I've just been reading about. I especially like the root word, Fetlen, from Middle English for 'to shape, prepare, make ready' apparently. Definitely one for the short list!

I walked through Endcliffe Woods with Herder

In the days before TVs, every adult had a party-trick (some of us still do), and my grandfather's rather lacklustre contribution was titled 'Sheep on Hallam Moor'...

'Baaaaa'

He never was much good at party-tricks that Granddad (the other one could still do hand-stands into his 70's)!

Hallam Moor is the source of the River Porter, and takes it's name from the ancient name for the Sheffield area - Hallamshire.

A name will come Chin, give it a while

Nice one, Jack, and sound advice, my friend.

Hallam is also an industrial suburb in the east of Melbourne.

I must admit, I'm warming to the 'Lambshank' as a nickname.

I was chuckling, thinking of the name 'The Crookes and Hallam Lambshank'...

 

[RichardBay]

Your knife is beautiful. And I like all the names.
But I would name it the Guardian, after this thread.