G'day. It has been a while since I last visited the forum.
I have two BK9s. Once is stashed away and is still pristine. The other gets used. I like the secure feeling of having one in reserve.
I made a sheath for my 'user' BK9 out of low density polythene water pipe. This stuff is utilised a lot down here for water supplies around farms. The nominal size of the pipe I used is 'inch and a half'.
I placed the pipe in our oven at around 240 degrees Fahrenheit. I kept a close eye on it, opening the oven periodically to see how soft it was getting. It can collapse if you leave it too long. I had a leather glove on my left hand to protect it. When it was soft, but still holding its round shape, I quickly took it from the oven and forced a tapered bit of inch-thick timber into one end. I then clamped the rest of the pipe between two boards.... not too tightly.... just enough to leave a decent slot that my BK9 blade can easily slide into.
I then left the pipe to cool, making sure that the portion outside the clamped area stayed straight and parallel with the clamped portion. When it was cold enough not to spring back into a round pipe, I undid the clamps and hammered the pipe on the edge to force it off the tapered block of wood. The knife fitted fairly well, but to make it fit better I used a grinder cut-off disk to remove the 'thumb rest' on the back of the knife blade.
Instead of hanging the knife sheath from a standard leather belt, I made up a rope 'belt' for it as I've done for several of my knives. I prefer using a rope because it is less of a hassle to take the knife/belt off or put it on. The rope method also allows me to easily slide the knife around my body to be in the best position.
The rope does not have a buckle. Instead I have a Celtic button knot on one end of it, and a sliding Prusik loop on the other. The loop passes over the button knot and can be slid along the rope to adjust the fit of the rope 'belt'. I've used these rope belts for quite a while now, and i've never had one come undone.
The rope is plaited around the sheath (is that something like a Turk's head maybe?). To ensure that the pipe can't slip out of the plaited loop, I have a small ring of 1/16" welding wire that passes through a couple of holes at the back of the sheath and a couple of turns of the rope go through this ring.
This sort of sheath is well suited to what I do. I'm a bit of a 'cleanliness freak' and I can squirt a hose through the sheath to blow out dirt. I can also use a small bottle brush and detergent to give it a good scrub. The sheath is stiff and has a 'funnel' entrance which makes it relatively easy to drop the knife in. Because of the heavy long blade... and the relatively high attachment point of the rope, the knife sits well in the sheath and the sheath hangs nicely. To ensure that I don't lose the knife if I'm running or crawling through scrub etc, I have a small bit of flat stainless steel with a couple of holes drilled through it that I use as a toggle. A bit of strong cord passes through the holes and is tied together. The cord is just long enough to be fastened to the stainless ring on the back of the sheath. The toggle is passed through the hole in the BK9 handle, and stops the knife from jumping out of the sheath.
Anyway.... here are some pictures:
Today the weather and timing was good enough to go and set my pig traps. I already had some traps in place in this particular area, but I'd disabled them last week as I could not check them for a few days. I had my small Svord folding knife in my pocket, and the BK9 in its new sheath.
I set the traps that were already in place on my way up the hill. I then set another eight or so beyond the last 'old' trap on the line. These traps are either home-made spring-up leg snares, or just standard neck snares. However I use rope for the nooses.
The sun was setting as I finished setting traps.... and it was getting darker in the bush. I had a headlamp with me and it would only take me maybe forty minutes to walk back down to my car. As I got close to the beginning of the trap line, I heard a noise that I initially thought was a cat yowling. I stood still and heard more noise... and I realised it was a pig squeal. I cautiously proceeded along the track and found that I had a sow and a weaner in two separate leg snares.
When I'm checking my traps nowadays, I generally carry a rifle. I used to take a .22 rimfire, but about eighteen months ago I bought a nice short stainless Rossi .357 magnum lever gun. I'd had some fairly interesting experiences with bigger pigs, and I figured that the 357 was a better choice of weapon.
But tonight I had two pigs in traps and no rifle at all. The sow probably weighed around fifty pounds. It had a long snout and a razor back and it wasn't pleased to see me. It was caught by a front leg and it had a rope radius of maybe five feet to move in. Like most pigs I trap, it lunged at me while emitting a loud woof or growl (or snort if you like).
I approached it and threw large sticks over the rope to try to impede its movement. At one stage when it had the rope stretched out away from me, I quickly got a noose around the snare rope with another rope and pulled it at an angle... then tied it to a tree. This really limited how far the pig could move. I tried grabbing a back leg or the tail, but I didn't manage to. Finally the pig got tangled and flipped on its back. I felt that it knew that the game was over. I shoved the BK9 blade into the traditional area under the neck and was pleased that it slid in with virtually no resistance. There was a huge gush of blood and the pig died quickly.
The weaner was easier to deal with, but I found it relatively difficult to push the big blade into it. I am thinking that maybe I should modify the point of the knife a little.
I gutted and beheaded the pigs using my small Svord folder (the orange one shown in the picture above)... then dragged them down the hill to my Suzuki 4WD. Both animals are hanging under the lean-to roof of my garden shed.
It will be interesting to see if there is anything else in the 17 traps I still have set when I check them early tomorrow morning. I certainly intend to take a rifle with me.
Here is a picture of the trapped pig. My iPhone camera made it appear that it was still broad daylight when in fact it was relatively dark. The picture of the dead pig gives a better idea of how late in the day it really was.
I have two BK9s. Once is stashed away and is still pristine. The other gets used. I like the secure feeling of having one in reserve.
I made a sheath for my 'user' BK9 out of low density polythene water pipe. This stuff is utilised a lot down here for water supplies around farms. The nominal size of the pipe I used is 'inch and a half'.
I placed the pipe in our oven at around 240 degrees Fahrenheit. I kept a close eye on it, opening the oven periodically to see how soft it was getting. It can collapse if you leave it too long. I had a leather glove on my left hand to protect it. When it was soft, but still holding its round shape, I quickly took it from the oven and forced a tapered bit of inch-thick timber into one end. I then clamped the rest of the pipe between two boards.... not too tightly.... just enough to leave a decent slot that my BK9 blade can easily slide into.
I then left the pipe to cool, making sure that the portion outside the clamped area stayed straight and parallel with the clamped portion. When it was cold enough not to spring back into a round pipe, I undid the clamps and hammered the pipe on the edge to force it off the tapered block of wood. The knife fitted fairly well, but to make it fit better I used a grinder cut-off disk to remove the 'thumb rest' on the back of the knife blade.
Instead of hanging the knife sheath from a standard leather belt, I made up a rope 'belt' for it as I've done for several of my knives. I prefer using a rope because it is less of a hassle to take the knife/belt off or put it on. The rope method also allows me to easily slide the knife around my body to be in the best position.
The rope does not have a buckle. Instead I have a Celtic button knot on one end of it, and a sliding Prusik loop on the other. The loop passes over the button knot and can be slid along the rope to adjust the fit of the rope 'belt'. I've used these rope belts for quite a while now, and i've never had one come undone.
The rope is plaited around the sheath (is that something like a Turk's head maybe?). To ensure that the pipe can't slip out of the plaited loop, I have a small ring of 1/16" welding wire that passes through a couple of holes at the back of the sheath and a couple of turns of the rope go through this ring.
This sort of sheath is well suited to what I do. I'm a bit of a 'cleanliness freak' and I can squirt a hose through the sheath to blow out dirt. I can also use a small bottle brush and detergent to give it a good scrub. The sheath is stiff and has a 'funnel' entrance which makes it relatively easy to drop the knife in. Because of the heavy long blade... and the relatively high attachment point of the rope, the knife sits well in the sheath and the sheath hangs nicely. To ensure that I don't lose the knife if I'm running or crawling through scrub etc, I have a small bit of flat stainless steel with a couple of holes drilled through it that I use as a toggle. A bit of strong cord passes through the holes and is tied together. The cord is just long enough to be fastened to the stainless ring on the back of the sheath. The toggle is passed through the hole in the BK9 handle, and stops the knife from jumping out of the sheath.
Anyway.... here are some pictures:
Today the weather and timing was good enough to go and set my pig traps. I already had some traps in place in this particular area, but I'd disabled them last week as I could not check them for a few days. I had my small Svord folding knife in my pocket, and the BK9 in its new sheath.
I set the traps that were already in place on my way up the hill. I then set another eight or so beyond the last 'old' trap on the line. These traps are either home-made spring-up leg snares, or just standard neck snares. However I use rope for the nooses.
The sun was setting as I finished setting traps.... and it was getting darker in the bush. I had a headlamp with me and it would only take me maybe forty minutes to walk back down to my car. As I got close to the beginning of the trap line, I heard a noise that I initially thought was a cat yowling. I stood still and heard more noise... and I realised it was a pig squeal. I cautiously proceeded along the track and found that I had a sow and a weaner in two separate leg snares.
When I'm checking my traps nowadays, I generally carry a rifle. I used to take a .22 rimfire, but about eighteen months ago I bought a nice short stainless Rossi .357 magnum lever gun. I'd had some fairly interesting experiences with bigger pigs, and I figured that the 357 was a better choice of weapon.
But tonight I had two pigs in traps and no rifle at all. The sow probably weighed around fifty pounds. It had a long snout and a razor back and it wasn't pleased to see me. It was caught by a front leg and it had a rope radius of maybe five feet to move in. Like most pigs I trap, it lunged at me while emitting a loud woof or growl (or snort if you like).
I approached it and threw large sticks over the rope to try to impede its movement. At one stage when it had the rope stretched out away from me, I quickly got a noose around the snare rope with another rope and pulled it at an angle... then tied it to a tree. This really limited how far the pig could move. I tried grabbing a back leg or the tail, but I didn't manage to. Finally the pig got tangled and flipped on its back. I felt that it knew that the game was over. I shoved the BK9 blade into the traditional area under the neck and was pleased that it slid in with virtually no resistance. There was a huge gush of blood and the pig died quickly.
The weaner was easier to deal with, but I found it relatively difficult to push the big blade into it. I am thinking that maybe I should modify the point of the knife a little.
I gutted and beheaded the pigs using my small Svord folder (the orange one shown in the picture above)... then dragged them down the hill to my Suzuki 4WD. Both animals are hanging under the lean-to roof of my garden shed.
It will be interesting to see if there is anything else in the 17 traps I still have set when I check them early tomorrow morning. I certainly intend to take a rifle with me.
Here is a picture of the trapped pig. My iPhone camera made it appear that it was still broad daylight when in fact it was relatively dark. The picture of the dead pig gives a better idea of how late in the day it really was.
you don't ever have to worry about drainage 
) hunting report. Hunting with a knife, even if a hog is tangled in a trap. (That's a hunt, 5 feet of hog maneuvering RADIUS area makes it a mobile critter!) With a good kill where you didn't get stuck but the pig did literally! The impressive thing is you WENT after it Intentionally and didn't wait to get a gun for it for it to get a chance to get away and damage the local ecology more. Hope you get some good tasting pork out of the hog/s.
