Lashing a knife to a walking stick?

[coote]

Chris....I believe you are considering a very sensible idea.

I'm not obsessed with survival, but I still use the knife on a stick option from time to time.

I have found this spear to be quite handy when dealing with tree-climbing animals that have been snared and which have climbed too high for me to reach. A sharp spear has also been useful to cut free a non-target animal I once caught...but which might have injured me if I'd got close up with a knife.

A while back I posted a picture of a wild hog that I speared with my knife-on-a-stick rig. I have posted it again below in case you missed it.

I have had two or three different blades and sticks. The blade I like the best is my Cold Steel Bushman. I bought the larger Bushman, but found later that it was really much bigger than it needed to be for most of what I used it for. So I cut it down carefully and resharpened the point. I also cut a bit off the handle.

This cutting down was a great idea. It now sits in the sheath much more securely.... it seemed too likely to fall out of the sheath prior to the modification.

Using a specially sharpened masonry drill, I drilled a hole through the 'handle' socket near the blade end (the steel seemed to be too hard to drill with a conventional high speed steel drill). I keep a permanent loop of nylon cord tied to this. I was careful to round off the edges of the hole so that the cord would be less likely to be cut.

My 'walking staff' has a tapered end whittled on it that fits nicely into the Bushman handle. I keep a bit of nylon cord permanently lashed on to the staff below the taper. This cord can be quickly passed through the loop attached to the knife, and tied back to itself to hold the knife securely on the stick. You can see the modified knife fitted to the handle in the picture below:

 

[coote]

Dang Bikermikearchery....I've just noticed that the knife in your picture is a Bushman...but with a clip point.

How secure is that fancy ropework on the handle?

Would you care to share how you braided that cord on to the handle?

Very, very nice.... and practical.

Thanks in advance.... Coote.

 

[DaleW]

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

The knife walking stick concept begs for a nice laminated stick with some cool looking layers and a stout mechanism with a spear point blade. I guess a lockback would be as good as any. An automatic would be interesting, but our poor LEO's would have kittens over people running around with spears with automative folding points. Other than that, you could laminate a nice stick, and use a spear point fixed blade nicely pinned in place and a metal cap to cover the blade while walking. A hammered metal cap would be so cool. A cap that screws on seems to make sense to me, although a well made sheath should work just fine. A Kydex sheath could cover the blade and extend down over the stick. A molded leather sheath would have the frontier look. For someone wanting to put together a homemade experimental version, an Old Hickory blade would be a good start and would have the rivet holes to start with. Make the center lamination the same thickness as the blade and start glueing and screwing

Columbia made a terrible hiking staff with a knife inside. The blade was made by United Cultelry.

 

[HomeBru]

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.

A forked sapling can quickly be made into an effective frog gig. Works great for fish too. Put a wedge in the fork and tie the two prongs towards each other a bit for a "springy" effect. Sharpen the points and attach or whittle slight barbs on the insides to hold your prey long enough to get it back. Don't throw, just jab.

J-

 

[bikermikearchery]

Dang Bikermikearchery....I've just noticed that the knife in your picture is a Bushman...but with a clip point.

How secure is that fancy ropework on the handle?

Would you care to share how you braided that cord on to the handle?

Very, very nice.... and practical.

Thanks in advance.... Coote.

Glade you like my mod. I never could leave anything stock. I cut the clip on the Bushman with a Dremel cut off wheel, Use masking tape to figure out where you want your clip and keep the blade cool. Takes about 1 hour.

The rope work is 550 para cord with the center strands taken out, and on mine it is tied tight and then covered in thinned out epoxy. Its not coming off.
The knots on each end are turksheads knots. There are a lot of on-line tutorials that explain better than I can on how to tie this knot. Just look up Turkshead knot.

I did a handle like this for a friend who wanted to be able to take the para cord off for emergency's. Coat the handle in contact cement tie the turkshead knot and pick it tight. you just have to keep working it tighter wrap the center of the handle with the tag end of the knot.and put on second turkshead. Theres about 10' of cord in the handle.
It would take longer to untie this than it took me to tie in the first place, and I think there are better ways to Carrie extra para cord.

The Bushman is so inexpensive it just begs to be customized and when you beat it up it still worth it.
The sheath holds both a bushman and a SAK, Thats probably the best feature I have made yet.

 

[coote]

Thanks Bikermike

I am not surprised that you had to use glue of some sort to fasten the string. I have played around at putting cord on handles, and I haven't yet found a foolproof way of getting the cord to stay tight on the handle without glue...unless the shape of the handle is ideal for the purpose. And of course the Bushman handles are very difficult to deal with.

The Bushman knives are good value though. It is an excellent idea having a socketed handle.

That is a nice modification to the blade, and I like your sheath. The Bushman sheaths that come with the knives are 'ok', but in my opinion they don't really grip the knife tightly enough. By shortening my knife, it sat much more securely down inside the sheath.

 

[DaleW]

I've read of people using hockey tape on Bushman handles and I did mine up in leather wrap made for baseball bats--- which has glue on it. Roughing up the surface a little might help too: the paint is smooth and slippery. Even a single layer of athletic tape would help the paracord get a grip.

As far as keeping knives in the sheath, I like some sort of positive means of doing that-- a paracord loop or something. A Velcro "riptie" would fit with the industrial demeanor of the Bushman. I'd really be ummmm....disappointed... if I fell down a switchback and killed myself with a loose Bushman [Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz] "The horror...."

 

[Salamander42]

I tried making a spear with my CS Bushman and a piece of broken broom handle and it worked great until I missed the rotten log I was throwing it at and hit a solid chunk of wood instead. The blade broke right off at the handle.

 

[Dr. Mudd]

Coote, your suggestions are all sound, and your photos illustrate them very well. I hear the voice of experience speaking. What is the big, black thing on your back that you seem to be taking out of the water? Looks like it was photographed at night and I just can't make it out. I like that tomahawk!