New Ulu

Tai Goo

Tai Goo

BANNED
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
3,806
Here's a new 5 inch diameter Ulu. The blade is high carbon steel, stem is red bronze, and the handle is rosewood. Since the ulus are used primarily for food preparation, the stem is sealed with cyanoacrylate for sanitation, the blade has a bright finish for easy cleaning, and the osage base is sealed with pinyon rosin.

Ulu3_004a.JPG


Ulu3,_with_stand.JPG


Tai Goo
http://www.taigooknives.com/
 
Hi Tai!

Thanks for joining in here at Bladeforums. I also hang my hat in a number of places, one of them here, and your work has been displayed and appreciated MANY times by the members in here. Like me.... ;)

Beautiful Ulu. Nice presentation. Looking forward to any other new projects you have cookin'. :thumbup:

Coop
 
Looks more like a mezzaluna designed under the "Modern Danish" school of design than a traditional style ulu, but it is a nice effort, regardless.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I'm not familiar with the mezzanluna, but will have to look into that.

The semi circular blade shape can also be seen on head knives and "Tumi" knives. However, the handle comes straight up on those for a different type of grip.

There are several other more common traditional types of Ulu designs.

I don't "copy" many designs, but this is one I had to try. I saw a picture in a book called "The World of The American Indian" by the National Geographic Society, in the chapter on Eskimos. It shows a little girl with one, cutting the eyes out of a salmon. They eat the fish eyes. I'd never seen one with a stem construction like that before. The whole design fits perfectly inside a circle and the blade is a perfect 1/3 of it,... the Eskimo woman's knife, "Ulu". :)
 
The perfect circular overall geometry of the Eskimo style I saw, which I don't see in the mezzaluna, is what really caught my eye. However, I don't know if they were all that way.

Many of the traditional blade designs are multi cultural. Form follows function.

They are really quite useful and fun to make, great design whatever you call them. :)
 
If in fact he Asians walked across the Bering Strait to the Americas, during the ice age, it stands to reason that the people of the far North Americas had this design before the people of the South Americas and that the design moved southwards not northwards.

The original design probably came over from Asia,... or even Africa.

There were working bronze and copper "Tumis", along with the golden ceremonial ones. The golden ones were use for ritual "decapitation" or reenactments. The ceremonial ones, like the one in the link had a "sun and moon, life and death symbolism". The blade end being the moon or night/death and the handle end being the sun or day/life,... yin/yang.

I think the symbolism carries through to the working knives.
 
Thanks for the link, the information presented there was exceptionally well presented and increased my understanding of the implement 10x.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top