McKinley/Marchand Collaboration

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
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Hello All,
I don't get the opportunity to take part in many collaborations and when I do, it takes a looooong time to get around to it(as some can attest to.). This one has a cool story, so I'll get that out of the way, first...

I had received a call from my friend and fellow maker, Pete McKinley. He told me a gentleman stopped by his shop in Cape Breton and was continuing on a tour of Nova Scotia. Peter, mentioned that I was down in Lunenburg and he said he might drop in if he gets around my area. That was my "heads up" from Pete. I kinda forgot about it after that... we both did, I think. Fast forward a month or so...

Peter, managed to get a bit of time to himself and I was delighted when he took the long drive to visit with me for a couple days. I can't remember if it was day one or day two but as we sat in the shop, a car pulled up the drive. I was half expecting a customer of mine to drop some blades by for sharpening and figured it was him.

Me: "Yes Sir, welcome to the forge, how can I help you?"
Him: (while pointing over my shoulder)"THAT MAN, sent me here to see you!"

It was the gentleman who dropped by Peter's shop those many weeks ago. We all got a kick out of that... too cool. Anyway, in light of this rather fortunate coincidence, we struck up a deal to do a collaboration piece for him. This was a long time coming plan for Pete and I. Opportunity siezed!

He took a shine to a little Puukko blade I had pounded out months prior. Peter, would work his magic on the handle and I would try to tie it all together with a sheath.

Here are the results...

Acadian Voyageur Knife
Blade - 52100(NJSB), approx 1/8" thick, 4.5"blade, 9" overall length
Handle - Friggin beautiful stacked birch bark, that I'll let Peter chime in on, further down.
Sheath - 9oz veg tan leather, hand dyed tooled and sewn. Copper rivet, firesteel loop and red fibre liners to reflect the handle.

(Note: Peter's handle really set the standard for this collaboration. I wanted to keep the sheath simple and raw while avoiding throwing a pair "cut-off jean shorts" on a refined, Man of Adventure.)











Thanks for looking!
 
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Rick, you do what you do very well.
And that's a great story. (I have a few of my own similar to that, but it should be expected from time to time.)
Beautiful knife, and the birch bark tops it off nicely.
Nuthin' like team work. :thumbup:
 
Good story and project. I like the red liners in the sheath. Great collab.
 
Beautiful knife all the way around, l like the red liners in the sheath.
 
That is an outstanding looking knife! The blade looks very useful, the handle is spectacular and big enough for a large hand, excellent work all around. John
 
Thank you all for the compliments.

Rick, you put together a hell of a fine sheath there, and then took some very nice photos of the whole package. It was wonderful working with you on this project.

The client asked for a handle constructed of material from the Acadian forest, and copper(but, not polished), and stacked bark, in a voyageur-esque style, with peened tang, .... using Rick's scandi blade. So, I had and day's fun with pencil and paper trying to get it right.:D These weren't even close:
DSC_2473_2.jpg

But, I finally arrived at a design I was happy with.

The handle is constructed with:
-Birch bark from the Frenchvale hills of central Cape Breton.
-Moose antler from the Cape Breton Highlands.
-Yellow Birch from Pictou County, N.S.
-Copper reclaimed from the demolished Sydney Boat Works junk pile. The guard and pommel were hammer-textured then heat-colored.
-Red fiber spacer from Rick.

I'm very happy with the way the entire package turned out, and I enjoyed this epic colab-adventure immensely.

-Peter
 
very sweet work, two heads are better'n one eh!
 
Everything about this project is incredibly well done! More collaborations are now required!
 
This is such a awesome story and knife! I love it! way cool. Really works together!
 
Very cool when two makers with so much talent get to work on a project like this. Beautifully done, gentlemen!
 
that rocks. I love the forged puukko blade, and the copper on the handle was a great addition. The whole shape of the handle is original and cool. It looks traditional without being a copy.
 
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