need advice on bushcraft blade making

[speedandsteel]

Hey fellas. I need advice from people more knowing than I. I am making what I guess could be classified as bushcraft or camp knives, using vintage Old Hickory, Forgecraft, any kind of older butcher knife that I can get. I read that back in the day, guys like Jeremiah Johnson and Jim Colter just carried big butchers knives, and the idea took hold. I heard that Old Hickory is making their blades thinner to cut down cost. Should I keep looking for vintage knives, or can I use the modern production OH and not spend so much time on evil bay? How big is the thickness difference? Also, is there even a market for reworked butchers( I planned to do most of my selling on this site )?

 

[james terrio]

You should also ask over in Wilderness & Survival Skills if you haven't already. That's your target market right there.

Old kitchen knives are getting harder and harder to find. If you come across a few you'd do just as well to sell them outright; plenty of folks around here know how to, and enjoy reworking them themselves. They're so inexpensive and it's such an easy project, I doubt you'd be able to charge enough to pay for your labor and belts. I don't know how much thinner new OH are (if at all) but at a few dollars each I think you'd have to mod and sell a whole lot of them to make it worth your while money-wise.

However if you start with new carbon steel like 1084 or O1 and make bushcraft knives from the ground up, you stand a chance of building up to where you can make an honest profit. There are several custom makers who specialize in that style and they seem to sell quite well.

 

[sicily02]

Jeremiah Johnson I read carried a knife with a 11" long blade and was 3/8" thick. I read that his knife is in a museum in Wyoming.

Not sure what other knives he carried. I am sure he carried others though.


Bryan