The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
An attempt to tame Great Nanabozo's anger over canted blades?
Only time will tell if it was successful!
Very good JP! 
Tha's tekken t'it like a duck to watter pal!
Nice work on that ferro rod my friend, definitely a gift to treasure
I think if the Sheffield cutlers were more clued up, they'd have looked to Australia as soon as the Indian Government banned exports of Sambar (something nobody seems to know the reason for). As you rightly say, the difference is huge
I have had some great times in Barcelona Chin, I'm sure you'd enjoy visiting the region
Lots of very interesting things in this thread. I'll start with the off topic (just a word or two). I also have spent delicious hours reading Kipling and Jack London, though never the most famous of the later, White Fang.
I'd love to visit that Republican bar in Madrid. Today we honour José Baroncarino, a Republican refugee who was the first dead of the Paris Liberation, aug '44. They knew what was coming, were great fighters and did more than their share in the ranks of the French Resistance, in spite of the poor welcome they received when they crossed the Pyrénées.
But, revenons à nos moutons - let's go back to the subject .
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I have made a quick picture to compare how the various makers knives cant.
The first I received was the IXL (a clip) and when he saw her, a retired cutler said the blade was "crying".
...
I'm not sure this cant makes the knife more handy when trimming a hoof. Two examples of French shepherd's knife (as used in the Pyrénées), the third is the Hungarian rendition (a very similar pattern exist in France, named Piétin - these are not pruners).
Jj
Forgive my ignorance, but what are 'fallow' deer antlers? Is that the same thing as 'shed' antlers? I like the thought that antlers are shed, since that means the deer needn't be killed to acquire the stag.
Everyone has different pet peeves, and while a canted blade isn't ideal, it's not a deal-breaker for me as long as it doesn't effect the function of the knife. In fact, I've noticed it on many of my Bokers, and I thought perhaps it's more common in German knives. (Is there such thing as a German Lambsfoot?)
I took a closer look at my Wright's Rosewood and I cant find a thing wrong with it.
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Fallow deer is a species of deer, typically found, well kind of all over really. They are actually really beautiful animals with some rather striking sets of antlers.
I had a sneaky snapper with me on my hike yesterday! Think I'm just fluffing up some tinder to make a brew in the top pic, and taking a pic of the same ebony Lambsfoot in the bottom one, something which it seems never ceases to amuse my walking companions!
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Here's the pic!
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LOL, thanks my friend!
That region of Spain sounds great. My friends in the north of Ireland spoke very highly of the hospitality of the Basque folk along the Western Pyrenees of Spain and France, as well.
Yes, I would guess the export ban might have something to do with Sambar deer having been declared 'Vulnerable' in their home ranges in India and Sri Lanka in 2008.
The Australian herds, mostly in Victoria were the results of releases by British 'Acclimatization Societies' from the 1860s onwards. All the early releases were in bushland within an hours drive, or less of where I live. The Game Management Authority estimates the current Sambar deer population just in this State, at 750,000-1,000,000.
The problem regarding utilising some of these Sambar deer antlers as a renewable resource for knife handles is twofold.
Firstly, Sambar are rarely commercially farmed - they are notoriously flighty in captivity. I know of a couple of deer farms that have some, as a kind of game ranch business, but observing the deer even in that situation as a visitor (being fed at the same time each day etc.), they never seem to lose their legendary wariness, and masterful stealth and evasiveness. One of the farms, I recall, did sell their Sambar antler cast offs. I read a story from an Indian paper just the other day, about wildlife officers being investigated for foolishly trying to rope a wild Sambar stag running loose in a school precinct - the stag was a mighty animal, but it still died from the shock of being 'wrangled' by them.
Venison farms and 'behind the wire' operations usually prefer to raise Fallow deer and Red deer.
Then, with regard to hunted wild Sambar antler - many deer hunters may have a special piece reserved for their own custom knife, but apart from that, generally like to keep their antlers intact.
Among hunters, it's no small thing to be given Sambar antlers by another hunter. Other deer species' antlers are not necessarily seen in this way.
Great post JP.
'Crying' is a perceptive way of putting it.
Reminded me in Japan, I was curious to see what an elderly master bladesmith would say about an intricate, tightly patterned, damascus bladed/timascus handled modern folder I showed him a photo of.
'Aieeee', he sucked air in through his teeth, and muttered 'that hurts my eyes' in Japanese!
LOL. Yes, I agree R8shell that hunted Sambar is not really a sustainable way of sourcing antler. I assume in India, where cast antlers were 'harvested', they must have had forested farms, enclosed by high deer-proof fences, so they would be assured of being able to find the cast off antlers from the confined deer each year.
I don't mind a bit of forward blade cant either, although there's a level I guess, where it starts to look barbarous, or sloppy. I generally prefer to judge knives based on hand feedback, rather than by eye, whether a pattern works well, or not, anyway.
'Fallow' in this case, SP, comes from this deer species' preferred habitat of transitional, or 'fallow' ground where improved pasture fringes meet light timber and forest.
Thanks, my friend.
Yes, all good advice.
I don't know if I've ever returned a knife. Hardly worth it from Australia, so I just make 'em work, or give 'em away. Remember, at a local UK retailer, these knives go for around $35-45USD, so that has a strong bearing on the amount of finishing work done. In fact, this really makes them cousins of the sodbuster/mineur knife in a way, in terms of price point. When I was looking over probably two dozen or more A. Wright knives in the Famous Sheffield Shop to choose mine, they all had 'flaws' of some kind. But clearly, many of them are able to serve their intended purposes well, and I usually work over my knives a bit, before use anyway, so it doesn't bother me that much on some. Others I've had a series of frustrations with, but have worked through them in the end, and also learned more about knives because of it.
Nice work, Jack - the cant on that JR looks well within the 'margin of acceptability' - to me, anyway. Thanks for taking the time to put that post together too.
Those knives you're concerned about just look like they started as a standard Wright stamped Lambsfoot blank, and have simply been ground down in the 'nose' area a bit more. It's hard to see in the photos, but given the minimal evidence of a swedge, the regrinding may have happened to the blade after it left the Wright factory. Or it could just be that there's a bit of latitude in style depending on which cutler, or apprentice made it. They look fine to me, honestly. I've done the same with my Ox horn Lambsfoot. The modern Taylors Eye Witness sports a similar blade profile.
Interesting to read your sequence of posts Dylan. I've been through a similar progression of emotions regarding some of my Wright Lambsfoot knives. I've certainly spent more time on getting them the way I like them - with sandpaper, stone and strop - than on most of my other pocketknives, but somehow, I also like them more as users than many other of my knives as well.
That old world charm you mentioned, is a factor for me, as well as those ergonomic and practical aspects.
Great action shots Jack! Do you ever use birch bark as tinder, or for scraped punk? I recall seeing small stands of it in Ireland and England. One of my regular walks intentionally winds through a mixed stand of Canoe birch, next to a few acres of Japanese Monarch birch. I always keep some dried birch rolls in my 'possibles bag'. Burns fantastic.
Greg: that sounds like a great trip, you must have seen some amazing coastline.
Hmm, action shots you say?
I suppose this is some lite action:
trimming down chilli stalks...
I have a number of Basque friends, and have enjoyed visiting the region enormously in the past. I'd like to explore the more remote parts of the region more. The only problem I've found is the language, which just looks and sounds like nothing else I know! Did you not meet any Basques in West Belfast, there used to be loads of them - though their flag wasn't always the most popular! I was once in a bar in Belfast with a load of friends, and only two of us in our company weren't either Basque or Catalan! Weather conditions were ideal yesterday, dry, with just the right amount of breeze, so it only took a second to ignite a bit of jute twine, and get everything going. Those Kelly Kettles are a bit bulky, but they do boil water very fast Great pics of your Lambsfoot knives my friend 
Jack, no need to heaten this, and believe me it is as hot
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then I go home by bus!
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Fine light colour horn on that one Jack! I could get interested in the smaller Swayback in that type of horn. Nice hiking pix and a decent looking walking stick, an item of real value on a hilly walk. Many a sprained ankle is from not having a good stick , also just the job for warding off ill tempered dogs (or people
The stick was made by an old local gentlemen, it has some unusual features I'll have to photograph sometime. I use it pretty hard, but has stayed the course pretty well over the past five years or so. It has been waved at a few ill-tempered cows, as well as the odd aggressive dog! Been trying to photo the bent blade aspect of my Lambfoot knives, it's proved very difficult.
I think they must've been bent/warped during heat-treat and it's amazing they can centre them in the frame, but they do look odd when open... The Large Horn handled knife has a wavy blade in fact and a load of gaps.
I showed them in group with similar sized knives from GEC and a Portuguese manufacture. Naturally, the GEC is far better finished and costs more, the Portuguese horn handled knife was if anything, cheaper and has very good straight blade and very acceptable finish all round. I like the Lambfoot as an authentic and genuine English pattern, unique in its way, but I do wish Wright had the money to invest in newer tooling to up the quality. Inexpensive French, Spanish & Portuguese knives show that it is possible to make inexpensive knives with consistent QC in Europe.
Like something for chopping round corners! I think when a blade comes back from HT that badly bent, it ought to be returned or scrapped. I've really never seen anything like that!
What a great stream! Might even be Otters there
I take it that would be difficult to sharpen to. That's a shame, I own three Wright & Son knives and there all good quality knives. The covers on my Ettrick are mismatched in terms of thickness but the blades are solid.
From my wonders last week.
No bent blades as of yet though! Fantastic pic Donn 
I've admired them for a long time, but buying one was a bit of an extravagance. They're rather bulky for backpacking, but versatile in lots of situations. Plenty of YouTube videos
