Help! South American knives?

Runs With Scissors

Runs With Scissors

Joined
Dec 3, 2000
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Hey y'all.

I was hopin' for some help here....

My son is studying South America in school (Homeschool) As a more pragmatic part of his studies, the wife would like for me to take him out to make a knife styled from that part of the world. I'm trying to come up with more interesting stuff than just making another machete.

Any suggestions, links with knives representative of that part of the world, history, usage, or miscellaneous bits of info would sure be appreciated.
 
+1 on gaucho knives. Google "cuchillo" for some linkage; Add the name of a SA country for more specificity.
They were often made from half on an old (manual) sheep shears.
 
Chilean Corvo knife?

Originated as an agricultural knife but became a survival/special forces knife.
 
Gaucho and Facon came up real quickly, even using my white belt neophyte "Google-Fu"

I've got an 18" piece of pretty darn thick O-1 to play with. I can also get miscellaneous Cold cut saw blades that are about 3/32 or so...I wonder what thickness would be best suited?.....

If they were made from shears I would think they might would be pretty darn thick in the spine area....

Thanks for the quick help so far....
 
The Douk Douk (French) also likely was used in SA. It was used in all of their other colonies/overseas departments, so I don't see why French Guyana would be an exception. The ones with the colored plasticized handles and stainless blades would probably be most appropriate for export to the jungle. I ran across a website that had these a while ago, but the link has been lost.

EDIT: Didn't quite realized you wanted to MAKE the knife. Although with a simple design such as the Douk Douk, you probably could make one.
 
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An Inca Tumi knife

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The Douk Douk...that's funny. Douk Douk is one of my absolute favorite knives. I just gave my son one of my Douk Douks yesterday...:D

Tumi knife is actually very interesting. It would be awfully hard to deny the similarity between that and the Ulu knives we have here in Alaska.
 
Runs With Scissors said:
Douk Douk is one of my absolute favorite knives.
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Me too. I've got a small El Baraka that is in my EDC rotation. I need to pick up a few (dozen) more, I would love to have one of each kind. For my next I'm torn between a small regular pattern or a small Tiki pattern. I really wish I still had the link for the colored ones though, as they are really cool and come with a pocket sheath and a small sharpening steel.
 
I think the corvo would be more interesting than the others, it is a legitimate design, not some freak thing or antique, and it shouldn't be any harder to make than a straight-bladed knife.
 
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