I Done Made Me A Khukri!

[ndoghouse]

Yep! Finally but it aint what ya might think. I made it outta rock! Its a Kamidog null-chirra cause i was doin good just to get the blade done. Physix don't allow knapping into cavities (fullers) like Kamis do so its a villager Bilton im supposin! Maybe a villager Gentlemans Belt Knife?

It sports an antler handle carried over from Alaska by my mom on a semi-recent sight seeing trip. I cant afford to go to Alaska and come back too (i prolly wouldnt) so she said she would bring me back a piece of antler so well there it is. Its much cheaper for me to just shoot sumpin here and use it but she did it anywayz...She got ripped off but its all good now and i wouldnt tell her no different

The other side!
Its tied on with elk sinew and cemented on with my special recipe of pine pitch, dog hair, hide glue, charcoal, and....cant tell ya the rest er it wouldn't be secrit would it!

The butt cap is a lil piece of Zebrawood.

The blade is made from a piece of whats referred to by knappers as Black Butter. Its the diamond standard of obsidian you might say (knapps like butter!). The rock was given to me by a really special friend from Eugene OR and is very sought after because of its knapability and villager finish we might say. Its not glass shiny like glassy obsidian but has a matte finish because it has a cryptocrystalline structure that makes it more durable (think pattern welded steel) than regular obsidian glass and was optimum for tool making by the Aztecs to the modern knappers today. Anyway. Hope yall like it. Enjoy!

 

[Bigfattyt]

Very cool!!

Some of the really big Clovis spear points were found in my neck of the woods (central WA),

Including the Rutz Clovis point, a little over 9 inches and, I think, the largest Clovis spear point ever found.

 

[Bawanna]

That's gorgeous. The zebra butt cap is brilliant, never thought of covering up the end like that.
Ton of time involved knapping that I suspect. Weeks? Maybe months?
Really nice.

 

[Berkley]

Awesome! Beautiful work.

 

[davidf99]

Fantastic work.

 

[pugs75]

Dude that is bad As_ , you knocked it out of the park there for sure.

 

[ndoghouse]

Thanks yall!
Fatty: Im learning to make them Clovis now. I have a few pieces made now but they are not fluted yet. Im going to a knap-in in Louisiana soon so im going to flute them there. Theres Clovis scattered all across the continent from east coast to west coast. Whats interesting is they originally thought they came over from Europe across the Bering Straight but evidence now shows that they more likely came over in boats and landed on the east coast. Since they would have been going against the wind shows that they were pretty advanced sailors and knew how to tack upwind. The history is really fascinating.

Heres a small one. I shattered it when I fluted the other side. Oh well.

This one was made of glass. It looks like there's a crack in the middle but actually what happend was the tip broke off and got fluted backwards. I prepped it up and fluted it from the front and the crack is where the two flutes meet. I got real lucky there!

This is my fluting bench. I can flute them without the rig too like the old boys did but I cant get it to travel all the way to the tip. The rig allows you to get incredible force on it.

Yeah Bawanna that worked out pretty good. I epoxied that on. Im curious how durable it will be. I started to put a pin in it then peen it out a bit just for grins but I was ready to get it done. I thought id carve a ring on it too but same thing. I wanted it done. The blade only took a few days but I prolly spent a few weeks on it just on and off when I felt like it.

 

[DaFatKid]

Awesome!

 

[Bookie]

You are quite the craftsman, Kamidog. You and I should get together sometime for a "what the Hell, let's build somethin'" session and just see what we come up with.

 

[Scara]

Beautiful blade. I wouldn't do any chopping with it, but I could see that being a dangerous draw cutter.

 

[ndoghouse]

Thanks Scara! Yeah i doubt it would withstand much chopping but I bet it could carve lots of meat! I have a few little flake knives I use for carving up meat for my dogs and they are surprisingly durable. When they do need sharpening I just run another row of flakes and its done deal.

... You and I should get together sometime for a "what the Hell, let's build somethin'" session and just see what we come up with.

Ha! Now that would be interesting eh? Aint no telling what would come out of that session!

 

[EricTheRedBeard]

Now I see why they call you Kamidog. You are a very weird kind of talented and I like it!

 

[ndoghouse]

WTH? double tap i suppose. see next one.

 

[ndoghouse]

HA! Weird? I take that as a complement Eric! Thank you sir! Im going to another Knap-in in Louisiana next week so Im making me a "tent" now. My last one burned with me in it! Ha! Picture nekid old man stompin his tent out in the middle of the night! ..uh... no on second thought dont picture that. Ill take a few pics of my new setup If I remember. Should be more fire resistant. Its kinda teepee lookin. Im a member of the Ooga Booga Tribe and my tribal name there is "Dead Meat Walkin". Sometimes Kamidog and DMW align and some weird things happen. I think were going to have a ceremony and inaugurate some new members so I guess I better get some pics. We have it right on the river so sometimes the newbies get "wet"....uh. Cant say no more cause im under oath till its all over Should be fun. I cant wait!

 

[pugs75]

HA! Weird? I take that as a complement Eric! Thank you sir! Im going to another Knap-in in Louisiana next week so Im making me a "tent" now. My last one burned with me in it! Ha! Picture nekid old man stompin his tent out in the middle of the night! ..uh... no on second thought dont picture that. Ill take a few pics of my new setup If I remember. Should be more fire resistant. Its kinda teepee lookin. Im a member of the Ooga Booga Tribe and my tribal name there is "Dead Meat Walkin". Sometimes Kamidog and DMW align and some weird things happen. I think were going to have a ceremony and inaugurate some new members so I guess I better get some pics. We have it right on the river so sometimes the newbies get "wet"....uh. Cant say no more cause im under oath till its all over Should be fun. I cant wait!

Brother first off we need more info on how the tent went up in flames, less on the nekid old man lol. Did it really go up with you in it? Love your tribe too

 

[Bookie]

WHOA thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Up in FLAMES!! This we gotta hear about. NEKID, too!!!!!!!...an' late at night? Dude! Let me get my lawn chair, a six-pack and I'm all ears, baby. Pugs, I'll bring a chair for you, too. Got chips?

 

[Bigfattyt]

I've tried knapping...... not easy!!!

 

[RayseM]

Excellent piece of work there. Pretty, unique and very cool too

Nicely done.

Ray

 

[EricTheRedBeard]

HA! Weird? I take that as a complement Eric! Thank you sir! Im going to another Knap-in in Louisiana next week so Im making me a "tent" now. My last one burned with me in it! Ha! Picture nekid old man stompin his tent out in the middle of the night! ..uh... no on second thought dont picture that. Ill take a few pics of my new setup If I remember. Should be more fire resistant. Its kinda teepee lookin. Im a member of the Ooga Booga Tribe and my tribal name there is "Dead Meat Walkin". Sometimes Kamidog and DMW align and some weird things happen. I think were going to have a ceremony and inaugurate some new members so I guess I better get some pics. We have it right on the river so sometimes the newbies get "wet"....uh. Cant say no more cause im under oath till its all over Should be fun. I cant wait!

It was meant to be a complement. Glad you took it that way. "Dead Meat Walking"? More like "Nekid Meat Burnin"

 

[ndoghouse]

....Well ..OK then....Git yur lawn chair and Teleuke! Lemme git another beer since yall asked! The sad thing about this story is its mostly true and I didn’t have to make nuthin up. No mules were harmed in this episode and especially no gators. Ok one mule was musta passed at one time or another unbeknownst to me to make that teleuke strap eh Doc? Maybe he just passed like all good mules do? Anywaz I salute him and make adjustments to my welding flux habits in his honor!

Five catfish did perish tho and i dont feel for them too much!

It was a cold night on the Louisiana side of the Sabine River where the not so local Ooga Booga tribe meet twice a year for festivities, story tellin, and a bit of flint knapping...ok a lot of flint knapping. Mind ya the natives have all kinds of grub and squeezins and some of theirs are even stronger than mine! Thats sayin a lot!!! Once a year in the spring after a year or so of scouting by the elders some lucky subjects completely unknowingly to them are selected and if theres enuff of them gathered in the same place at the same time and worthy then we tell them about the tribe and ask them if they are interested in joining us. They almost always say yes! Ha! They are then isolated from the rest of the tribe later in the eve and asked to pick a tribal name and if they cant we pick one for them depending on how they respond to “the festivities”. Then we...uh. No cant tell yall that either... under oath ya know. When I joined they told me not to have any more beer before the ceremony because you will surely need your wits. I tole them thats why im drinkin now ya see! So I sucked down the last of my mayhaw wine just for that reason. No wine no wits I figure! I swim much better after a few and the alligators don’t bother me as much either. I did abstain from the peace pipe till after cause I cant even swim after peace is made. We are under perpetual oath to never disclose what happens during the fire dance so I will stay true to my oath once again. I can say you must at all times respect your elder tribe members or else!....OK cant tell ya that either but it could involve cold water and some seriously embarrassing moments in front of all the lady tribal members at that...uh.ok thats all I can say. Heres a pic of my pack at end of the night after I joined the tribe. Proof I survived! You could prolly identify me with the HI T-shirt and wolf pelt! I was dry by then

OK back to the end of the night into the morning.
Well heres how the flamage got started. I tole ya it was a cold nite right? Well what I do when its cold is throw some big cobbles into the fire and let them heat up during the evening and when im ready for the bag I wrap them up in empty cardboard twelve pack containers. Its really surprising how hot you can get cardboard before it will ignite. You can pour molten lead into a cardboard box and it will cool off before it ignites. Then you wrap them in burlap coffee bags for some extra safety and pack them around your sleeping bag and they keep you warm all night long. Disclaimer: (Im not responsible for dumbass mistakes you might make and burn your own arse to the ground before someone else gets to ya)! Never do this at home! OK...that said... in the morning you can unwrap them and throw them back into the fire pit and repeat every night till ya don’t need them no more. BTW: take extra precautions if you sleep on an air mattress Ha!!! Well I had two of them down by my feet that I didn’t have enough beer with me so I ran out of cardboard so I wrapped them in bare burlap (figured they had cooled off enough and was ok) ...figured wrong. Man it was a full moon and a perfect nite till... about three or four in the morning I woke up coughing and choking and didn’t even know where I was. The smoke was so thick inside my little one man micro-tent I couldn’t see squat. Damn! OK… I realized im camping and I got to get the hell out of here or im gonna die from smoke inhalation or get stoned on nylon fumes and die er even somethin worse! I unzipped the zipper above me and soon as I pulled the rainfly back and let some real oxygen into the tent my feet burst into flames on both sides! My fuzzy fluffy cotton blanket my wife just washed for me went up just as fast and flashed up around my head. There went my eyelashes! Ever take a lighter to a fluffy cotton towel then you know what I mean. After the flash I managed to pull my flaming bedding out of the tent in attempt to save my tent for the next few days and then it was time to save whats left of my bedding so i commenced to stompin that out. My friend sleeping near me in his truck woke up from the flames and hopped out his truck while im stompin my blankets out. After a few seconds it seemed like half the camp was out watching me stomp the last of the flames out. Ha! By then I already had it under control and got it all stamped out. Uhhh? Maybe I should put some clothes on now eh? Clothes were in the tent? hmmm? My tent had most of the mosquito netting on top burned off and my burlap bags were toast! My pants that I had stuffed beside me for the night had one leg partially burned off and I wore them for most of the rest of the knap in. I still to this day never hear the end of this night! My wife still packs that blanket on future trips as a reminder of the stupidity one can have under the influence or for whatever reason….it don’t work tho cause I just buy two more twelve packs so Ill have enuff cardboard to wrap ALL them rocks up now and all is good then! The lesson to be learned is never run out of cardboard! Dont matter how drunk you git if you dont catch on fire!
Moral of this story is never let someone else limit your beer consumption cause it could cause you more harm than good! Im livin proof by god! If I was a cat I figure im on minus two or so! Im getting close tho so I better be good eh?