Lashing a knife to a walking stick?

psy-ops

psy-ops

Joined
Sep 27, 1999
Messages
3,164
This might sound like a real basic question but I was thinking there are alot of variables.

Are notches better or drilled holes?

Are saplings best instead of your walking stick?

I have a skeletonized knife I EDC, if you didn't have one would it be difficult?

Thanks

Chris
 
I say trial and error. Other variables are the size of the knife and what material you have for securing it to the stick. Try different things and find what works best/easiest for you.

Me, I would rather just sharpen the stick and keep my blade at my side. Or look for a flaky chunk of rock to secure to the stick.
 
Sharpen the hardwood stick then heat harden it ! That's exactly what cave men did .
 
Flatten the tip of the stick so the knife can fit flush. Zip ties work best, duct tape does too. I've messed around with it before. I'd really only use my knife into a spear if I knew it would be very secure, I didn't have time to carve a wooden spear, and it was my last ditch deffense between me and a large animal with big claws.
 
I wouldn't do it. You could easily loose, or even break your knife this way. Above responses are correct IMO.
 
For use as a spear I'd second what everyone has said about simply sharpening a stick and fire hardening if you were inclined to do so. A few barbs will keep fish from sliding off.

If your aim is to make a pole arm for increased leverage while chopping then trial and error is your friend. When I attempted to use a dogfather in this configuration I had difficulty securely attaching it to the stick. A wide flat carved into the stick as a bearing surface with some notches to hold the string should work well enough depending on the handle shape and material.

If you are using a knife with tube fasteners in the handle a few matching holes drilled into the stick will definitely help keeping the knife firmly attached.
 
I know I am throwing another variable into the mix but if you have a few knives with you, making one into a spear wouldn't be a bad idea?

Or maybe it is?
 
I figured most of us EDC at least 2-3 knives with us. SO the thought of lashing one seemed like a good one.

Does it awhile to fire harden?

Also, there is a huge disparity in my confidence between, a sharpened sapling versus a small bladed knife.
 
I've done it with my PSK knife. I took a dowel rod, milled a slot and lashed the knife to it. If it's done right, you won't lose the knife and it works well as a spear.
Scott
 
Carry a bushman or a mini bushman as a spare. Pretty much what they are made for, and it is a solid knife in its own right.
 
I keep a few Cold Steel Bird and Trout around and have one in my primary pouch. I just select a straight peice of sapling, leave the hump from a small limb for the pinky ring to go over(this take the brunt of the striking force) and lash the handle part. I also take a couple of feet of cordage and tie to the ring and back aways on the sapling in case the end of the sapling breaks. Using surgical tubing this is a sweet fish getter.
On bare handled knives, I have used a SAK saw to remove a slice from the center of the shaft and lashed knife in the recess.
Bill
 
Cold Steel Bushman time!

Duct tape was my first thought and tknife's tip on flattening the stick is a great idea. I always assumed this was an option for something like a Becker Necker, but without barbs you will proably lose your quarry in water and just hope it floats.

My dad used to have a frog gig which was a few inches long, had four prongs with barbs and a socket like garden tool. You could nail fish, frogs, birds, etc with one on a good straight stick.

http://doitbest.com/Main.aspx?PageID=64&SKU=835374 shoes some like Dad had. At those prices, any woods-vehicle kits should have one.


http://www.sbtoutdoors.com/fish_spears.htm has some hum-dingers

I always though it would be cool to build a folder into the end of a walking stick-- like the walking stick was the handle of the knife. Think of an Opiniel with a five foot handle. Maybe one of our custom folder makers could cook one up.
 
I always though it would be cool to build a folder into the end of a walking stick-- like the walking stick was the handle of the knife. Think of an Opiniel with a five foot handle. Maybe one of our custom folder makers could cook one up.
Click to expand...

that is actually a really cool idea i think...i once attached an ugly blade (2.65 inch edge) that i whipped up out of mild steel to a short thick sapling and used it not only for chopping quite effectively at brush and light wood, but also choked up it was a great little whittler.

i think it would be a great idea for a shorter walking stick with a folding knife built into the top of the stick where the hand goes. it would provide a backup to your knives on person and also add some leverage if say you wanted to cut a wild apple out of a tree way up high or something
 
That is a cool idea, an opinel is under 10 bucks to fool around with.
A slot could be cut with a table sawthats only up an inch or so.
 
knives008-1.jpg

try the cold steel bushman. Its made for what your thinking about. Cheep and tough, and most importantly fun. I made my walking stick to have a good fit for the bushman. I'll through this at things that I wouldn't with something nicer made.
 
I think everybody who has already posted answers or solutions here have covered the options very well, so I won't be redundent except to say that I think Cold Steel's Bushman is a heck of a good knife for the money and for mounting on a staff or stick. (Anybody know why they quit making the Mini-Bushman? Wish I had bought a couple now.)

Anybody here know what the bayonet from one of those Chinese SKS rifles looks like? Our brilliant bureaucrats in the BATFE decided several years ago that it would no longer be acceptable to sell or own Chinese SKSs with the folding bayonet still attached. So at one time there were probably tens of thousands of those bayonets that had been taken off the rifles to make them "legal" to sell and own. (I've never heard of anybody being prosecuted for ignoring this rule, though.) These were "spike" type bayonets with a tang about half an inch in diameter and about three inches long, and with a nice sized hole through it near the aft end. I have thought about drilling an approprate hole into the end of one of my rattan walking staffs so I could insert the tang of a SKS bayonet into it and then cross pin it in place, possibly with a clevis pin so it could be easily removed (dismounted) when you wanted to.

Now, what I HAVE done is to make up a few "pikes" using an SKS bayonet permanently mounted in a hardwood rake handle with epoxy. You can go to your local hardware and building materials store and pick out a good, straight-grained hardwood, bow rake handle that's about 5 feet long for about $10. It comes with the correct size hole already in the end and a steel ferrule around it to reinforce that end. I just poked some epoxy down the hole in the rake handle, then inserted the tang of the bayonet into it, and tapped it all the way in using a piece of scrap wood or a lead ingot. Wipe off the excess epoxy that squirts out, set it upright to harden overnight, then you're good to go. Go do what, you might ask? Well, it's good for picking up trash along the road where a few jerks throw their fast food residue out as they drive by, and it's good for poking whatever slow moving critters might be walking or slithering around where you'd rather they not be. And if any of you know how a flounder gig is used (to pin the fish to the bottom in very shallow water), this gizmo should work well for that, too. At one time the Chinese SKS bayonets were as cheap as $1 a pop, so I bought several of them back then, but now they cost maybe $4 or $5 apiece in case you want one. They are not hard to find.
 
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