My Bushknife

Rick Marchand

Rick Marchand

Donkey on the Edge
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My Bushknife...

From the scketch book to the forge to the workbench... my knife is coming along slowly but surely.... I am an amature knife maker at best... so I tend to take the long way to avoid trashing a blade on the grinder...

The first pic is my plan on paper... alot of thought went into this knife... I incorporated everything I like and need from a hardworking Bushknive....

-1/4" stock of 1085 (after forging it ended up a little thicker)

-full convex grind

-I wanted to use it for flint and steel firestarting so I originally was going to leave the spine hard but decided to temper the spine for toughness and harden the butt for casting sparks.

-cord wrapped handle. I wanted to have a handle that was serviceable/replaceable in the field. it is ground to be comfortable to use bare in a pinch if you needed the cordage. There is a swell to prevent sliding since it has no guard (personal preference)

- I left hammer marks in it for the cool factor

I'm also making the sheath right now and have included progress pics.

Drawing
bushknife.jpg

After the forge
Bushknife-1.jpg

Bushknife2.jpg

After some filework
IMG_0159.jpg

IMG_0158.jpg

IMG_0157.jpg

After more filework
BushKnifeRoughGrind.jpg


Sheath progress pics..
Bushknifesheath2.jpg

Bushknifesheath.jpg


Thanks for looking.
Rick
 
I really like that! very primitive looking...in a good way!:thumbup: no frills:thumbup:
 
Great job. I wish I had the time to do something like that. Using a self made knife surely fills you with pride!
Mikel

PD: Anyone got a work out big old file? :D
 
Can't be anything more satisfying than making your own knife from scratch.

Hats off to you brother!
 
I see a cold steel hawk like mine, frontier hawk?
Does that mean this will be a thrower as well? It's got the perfect shape for it.
Great job all around, even your drawing is first rate, are you an engineer or something?
 
Wow guys.... thanks for the compliments.:)

Like I said.... It took a lot of time trying to finalize this design. From length to width to balance. (It'd make a good thrower too) I have had several prototypes in the bush over the past 4-5 years and have been slowly tweeking this into shape. The Bushknife is special to me.... until something else pops up and the cycle begins all over again... the perfect knife is just out of reach it seems.... lol

What is different about this attempt is that I was fortunate to befriend Master Bladesmith, Wally Hayes... and he offered to help me with the forging and heat treat... He's a very generous, humble man and a great guitar player to boot!

Here is a pic of one of the prototypes...

newleafknife.jpg

Leafblade.jpg

Leafblade2.jpg
 
I remembered your pics of your prototype, the changes are definitely apparent. Looks like the blade has a lot of heft to it.

How did you set up your forge?
What did you use to stain your leather?

You're stuff looks really handsome! :thumbup:
 
SpookyPistolero said:
I remembered your pics of your prototype, the changes are definitely apparent. Looks like the blade has a lot of heft to it.

How did you set up your forge?
What did you use to stain your leather?

You're stuff looks really handsome! :thumbup:
Click to expand...

Thanks Spooky,

Right now, I have a mini forge I made from the Zoeller site. I won't do the heat treat here... I'll do it at Wally's shop.

The leather stain is EcoFlow from Tandy... it's water based and evironmentally friendly. The leather is cuttoffs from shoe and saddle makers. After the sheath is finished I will hot dip it in a mixture of beeswax, paraffin, mink oil and pine pitch.

It will be riveted like this one I did for an SRK...

SRKFront.jpg

SRKSide.jpg

SRKLong.jpg
 
That's good looking leather work, my stuff comes from a scrap bin as well.

That forge is handsome and simple looking. Still beyond me at this time sadly.
 
Holy Monster Knife Fest!:eek:

I like it, it looks good. I also like the prototype one. What didn't you like about that one, that you are changing for this one?
 
I like it, good stuff....I'll be honest when I first saw your drawing I wasn't impressed but now it's in steel it's a totally different beast !!!!
 
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