Old Friends Friday

I like designated use knives, like horticulturals!! I keep this one around because it taught me that celluloid is omnidirectional (crosswise on this knife!!)!!Crosswise Celluloid 1.jpgCrosswise Celluloid 2.jpgCrosswise Celluloid 3.jpg
Also, it's quite a nice old Schrade Cut Co florists knife!!!!!! French Ivory!!!!
 
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screened porch said:
This Camillus I've had forever was uncarryable as found.
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I thought of making a sheepsfoot out of it, but I would have taken away too much steel.
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It looks good Jer, nice work :thumbsup:
waynorth said:
I like designated use knives, like horticulturals!! I keep this one around because it taught me that celluloid is omnidirectional (crosswise on this knife!!)!!View attachment 3111636View attachment 3111638View attachment 3111639
Also, it's quite a nice old Schrade Cut Co florists knife!!!!!! French Ivory!!!!
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Yeah, me too Charlie, and that's a cracker :cool: I don't even recall ever seeing French Ivory being used like that, and it looks good too :D :thumbsup:

Sorry, I wasn't able to contribute yesterday gents :thumbsup:
 
This one goes back to the late 1960s. Dad bought it for the brambles at the new woodlot.
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In my experience, most machetes come with a rough bevel to an edge that needs improving, This one came with about a 45 degree angle straight to the flats. It would bounce off of anything harder than a bramble. It would also jar your hand.
Yesterday I finally tried seriously to sharpen it. I tried to move the shoulders of the angle up the blade with the bench sander, then I tried to convex the edge on emery paper over an old sponge on a bit of 2x4.
I think I'm close, but it's a little hard to tell from whacking frozen honeysuckle. I might have to go back to the belt sander and narrow it some more.
The steel seems harder than my other machetes, with the possible exception of the old Collins Legitimus.
It occurred to me only yesterday to be impressed by the 60-year-old canvas sheath.
 
screened porch said:
This one goes back to the late 1960s. Dad bought it for the brambles at the new woodlot.
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View attachment 3116171
In my experience, most machetes come with a rough bevel to an edge that needs improving, This one came with about a 45 degree angle straight to the flats. It would bounce off of anything harder than a bramble. It would also jar your hand.
Yesterday I finally tried seriously to sharpen it. I tried to move the shoulders of the angle up the blade with the bench sander, then I tried to convex the edge on emery paper over an old sponge on a bit of 2x4.
I think I'm close, but it's a little hard to tell from whacking frozen honeysuckle. I might have to go back to the belt sander and narrow it some more.
The steel seems harder than my other machetes, with the possible exception of the old Collins Legitimus.
It occurred to me only yesterday to be impressed by the 60-year-old canvas sheath.
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That's an interesting knife Jer :cool:
screened porch said:
Hey, it isn't Friday! I hate people like me who do that. Sorry.
No wonder Jack's so slow today.
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😂 👍
 
screened porch said:
Yesterday I finally tried seriously to sharpen it. I tried to move the shoulders of the angle up the blade with the bench sander, then I tried to convex the edge on emery paper over an old sponge on a bit of 2x4.
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Why a convex edge? a "v" edge stays sharper, and is easier to touch up.

I agree about the original (alleged quote-unquote) "Edge" on a factory produced machette.
Tho admittedly my only experience is with a couple Cold Steel models.
Of the five CS machettes I have bought to date, the original (alleged quote-unquote) "edge" was useless. Would bounce off a green palm frond, laying on a board.
Lots of burrs, roughly a 70~90° inclusive "edge" bevel.
I used a draw-through "sharpener" to get rid of the burrs, reprofile the edge to ~30-35° inclusive, then use a file and stones to get the edge to roughly 25-27° inclusive.
I could use them to chop the fronds to 4' so the trash truck would take them, and to de-husk and open the coconuts I sold at a nearby sunday swap meet. (Yude be surprised how many coconuts 72 "lazy" and 1 "energetic" coconut palms can produce a month. One year the "Energetic" one produced over SIXTY a month ... almost the same as the combined production other 72 coconut palms we had on the property.
Trimming the fronds, and dropping the coconuts so they could not drop onto someone was a never ending job (like returning seaweed to the sea, and raking the beach daily, and pulling weeds between the paver bricks ... "Job Security". )
Start at one corner of the property, workway around the property ... in the week or so it took to get back to the starting oint, it was time to start trimming again.
We had twenty-five 35 gallon trash cans. The trash truck came weekly. I usually had 23 cans of fronds every week. 😇👍

After Hurricane Dennis, I had a pile of fronds, seaweed and beach debre 20' foot wide at the base & 15 foot wide on top, 12 foot tall, and 90 foot (including a single 15'foot vehicle access gap) long for the trash company to haul away. Yes. The owner of that company was not very fond of me after that ... even though we gave him a thousand dollar tip ... in addition to whatever his contract with the County paid him. I guess I made he & his his grapple truck work too hard? 🤔
 
afishhunter said:
Why a convex edge? a "v" edge stays sharper, and is easier to touch up.

I agree about the original (alleged quote-unquote) "Edge" on a factory produced machette.
Tho admittedly my only experience is with a couple Cold Steel models.
Of the five CS machettes I have bought to date, the original (alleged quote-unquote) "edge" was useless. Would bounce off a green palm frond, laying on a board.
Lots of burrs, roughly a 70~90° inclusive "edge" bevel.
I used a draw-through "sharpener" to get rid of the burrs, reprofile the edge to ~30-35° inclusive, then use a file and stones to get the edge to roughly 25-27° inclusive.
I could use them to chop the fronds to 4' so the trash truck would take them, and to de-husk and open the coconuts I sold at a nearby sunday swap meet. (Yude be surprised how many coconuts 72 "lazy" and 1 "energetic" coconut palms can produce a month. One year the "Energetic" one produced over SIXTY a month ... almost the same as the combined production other 72 coconut palms we had on the property.
Trimming the fronds, and dropping the coconuts so they could not drop onto someone was a never ending job (like returning seaweed to the sea, and raking the beach daily, and pulling weeds between the paver bricks ... "Job Security". )
Start at one corner of the property, workway around the property ... in the week or so it took to get back to the starting oint, it was time to start trimming again.
We had twenty-five 35 gallon trash cans. The trash truck came weekly. I usually had 23 cans of fronds every week. 😇👍

After Hurricane Dennis, I had a pile of fronds, seaweed and beach debre 20' foot wide at the base & 15 foot wide on top, 12 foot tall, and 90 foot (including a single 15'foot vehicle access gap) long for the trash company to haul away. Yes. The owner of that company was not very fond of me after that ... even though we gave him a thousand dollar tip ... in addition to whatever his contract with the County paid him. I guess I made he & his his grapple truck work too hard? 🤔
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I'm surprised by your experience with Cold Steel. I never got anything from them that wasn't admirably sharp. The only CS machete I have is their gladius, but that's also sharp.

I missed the why convex.
To round out the double grind lines, and I've heard a convex edge resists chipping, which is a good thing if I'm right that this blade is harder than the usual machete. I'm not sure I'll find it harder to touch up, but we'll see.
 
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I was going to dig out my Town pattern Rogers Bowie to continue the Sheffield theme of my only English machete (the only English machete I've seen,too).
But I came across this first.
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I like the way they put a little step in the tang to hold the glue. I had a pic that showed that better, but I deleted the wrong one.
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I bought it like this without a clear plan for a handle, because it's a brand I don't otherwise have. Part of me would stick it in a hole in a handle, as it was intended. Part of me would inlet it into a handle that goes to the front of the lower or upper concavity. The part of me that will probably get its way would leave it alone, because I have so many similar knives in various sizes, and I never carve a roast from the head of my patriarchal table.
 
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screened porch said:
It seems like it was Friday only two days ago!
That's a nice one. Horn handles?
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Indeed! ;) Thanks, I thought so at first, but they're actually synthetic. I have another in white (scales are also synthetic) :thumbsup:

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screened porch said:
I was going to dig out my Town pattern Rogers Bowie to continue the Sheffield theme of my only English machete (the only English machete I've seen,too).
But I came across this first.
View attachment 3118012
I like the way they put a little step in the tang to hold the glue. I had a pic that showed that better, but I deleted the wrong one.
View attachment 3118014
I bought it like this without a clear plan for a handle, because it's a brand I don't otherwise have. Part of me would stick it in a hole in a handle, as it was intended. Part of me would inlet it into a handle that goes to the front of the lower or upper concavity. The part of me that will probably get its way would leave it alone, because I have so many similar knives in various sizes, and I never carve a roast from the head of my patriarchal table.
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Interesting Jer :thumbsup:
 
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