Large utility blade from Viking Metal Works

[Cliff Stamp]

Awhile ago I became seriously interested in a sort of cross between a machete and a bowie. This is not anything new, it s where the parang class blades fall. They are longer than bowies and thus suited for more trail clearing, but are thicker in cross section than machetes because they are used on more woody vegetation. Based on use of knives in that class and around it, I settled on something in the 14" blade range as that is about the maximum I can handle before the blade starts to lose too much ability for simple knife work. A personal preference obviously, the longer you go the better for brush work, the shorter the better for knife work. A lot of ideas were hashed out with Greenjacket in the following thread :

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=160651

as well an in email we exchanged. I was given a shove into action when he announced that he was getting such a blade made so I actively began looking for one. Interestingly enough, there is a local maker, Glen Parrell of Viking Metal Works, who has considerable experience in large blades, both for utility and as weapons. The design that hit me most strongly was his camp knife, shown here :

http://www.vikingmetalworks.com/images/camp1.jpg

His description was pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear :

This blade was designed to be a constant workhorse, easily able to withstand many years of punishment and hard labor. It features an extra thick spine and a full tang to lend it increased strength, making the camp knife as much a chopping tool as it is a cutting tool. The forward slanting blade was deliberately made to be tip heavy, giving it that extra bit of momentum-building weight that is preferred in most chopping blades. To complete the piece, the camp knife has a dark walnut hilt with brass pins. Comes with a durable leather scabbard.

So I start thinking about exactly what I want, working from the above as a base design. After I have it all figured out (or so I think), I go and see Glen and we talk about the knife. We get sidetracked for well over an hour just talking about knives in general as he took me through his whole process. Anyway, we eventually hashed out the whole design, including some details that just came to me as I was showing Glen the sketches I had made. Basically I wanted the same blade shape, but longer with a dual convex taper and a radically different handle. I also wanted some checkering on the handle for security reasons.

When Glen finished the knife he gave me a call and more pleased with the end product I could not have been, it was exactly what I wanted. The handle shape I had sketched was fairly involved, it was a combination of two main designs, the grip of one Ray Kirk's bowies, and the handle of a felling axe, with some modifications that I wanted to experiment with. The blade length was 1/4" thick, 14" in length and ground from forged 5160. It weighed 820 g and was quite blade heavy. The spine was fully ground for comfort as well as durability and the finish of the blade was left fairly rough at my request. Here is the blade :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/parrell_parang_side.jpg

and a shot of the top :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/parrell_parang_top.jpg

After getting it, I banged it around on some wood just as a rough check to make sure there were no gross problems with the blade nor the handle. It responded very well to sharpening with waterstones. I started with 1000 and finished with 4000 grit and a few passes on leather, it took a fine shaving edge nicely. The edge was a little too thick for my preferences, a flat grind of about ~22-23 degrees and quite even over the entire blade length. This was my fault really I didn't actually specify what I wanted in that area. No great problem as I just spent a couple of minutes altering the profile. I didn't actually alter the angle of the bevel but just worked the area behind it taking it smoothly into the convex profile. I ended up with the following edge shape :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/edge_profile_parrell.gif

I tried this out on some more wood and the performance was much closer to what I want. No damage even when I went a bit wild, which is good as it means I can take it down more. The edge was still sharp which you would expect of hardened 5160, you can easily expect thousands of chops into wood before the blade becomes that blunt it needs sharpening. More details along those lines :

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179702

Anyway, I look forward to working with this blade, I am sure I will learn quite a bit from it. Here is a shot of the entire blade profile :

http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/images/blade_profile_parrell.gif

-Cliff

 

[Keith Montgomery]

That knife looks like it will do a great job of clearing brush. You could take down some good sized trees with it. The handle looks like it would be very secure and comfortable. A very purposeful design made from a great steel. So I take it you clear a lot of brush?

 

[Cliff Stamp]

A fair amount of brush work indeed. I am going to see if I can get a hold of some of the various traditional blade shapes next year as there are some very interesting profiles in use around the world.

-Cliff