I am interested in buying some Old Hickory knives to shape and turn into camp/ field knives. I plan on buying the butcher knives or the slicing knife due to its long tang. I would like to know if any of you have tried this, and if so, how well does it work. I have forged a couple of knives out of rebar, but i want facorty consistancy in the blade. 1095 steel in the kitchen is no different than 1095 in the woods, in my opinion. Thanks in advance!
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Old Hickory kitchenware in the bush
- Thread starter G.Moll
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Pretty much what every mountain man had to work with when they soloed into the wilderness with just a butcher knife tucked into their belt.
If you use the knives as they're meant to be used, and got yourself a saw & axe, I don't see any problems with your plans.
If you use the knives as they're meant to be used, and got yourself a saw & axe, I don't see any problems with your plans.
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They are great knives! Go for it! I love 1095.
Search for "old hick mods forums", "old hickory mods forums" on google and threads will come up from here, BCUSA, and other places.
Good luck
Search for "old hick mods forums", "old hickory mods forums" on google and threads will come up from here, BCUSA, and other places.
Good luck
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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I have some Old Hickory knives in the kitchen. Excellent. But keep in mind that not every knife from them is full tang, and it seems that older knives may have thicker blades than the current production. Worth looking into, IMO.
In the shop I keep a couple of old USA-made Chicago Cutlery knives for dirty jobs. They get razor sharp, look traditional with the walnut handles, and all of mine are full tang. They aren't 1095 steel though; they're "high carbon stainless."
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Here's an old topic where I posted some comments on specific Old Hickory models, including a picture showing the tang/handle construction compared to other knives. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/506318-Ontario-Old-Hickory-Knives
In the shop I keep a couple of old USA-made Chicago Cutlery knives for dirty jobs. They get razor sharp, look traditional with the walnut handles, and all of mine are full tang. They aren't 1095 steel though; they're "high carbon stainless."
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Here's an old topic where I posted some comments on specific Old Hickory models, including a picture showing the tang/handle construction compared to other knives. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/506318-Ontario-Old-Hickory-Knives
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Old Hickory is good tough stuff, and they hold up very nicely under hard use. The 14" Butcher Knife that I carry (and Esav was kind enough to link to! 
) has nice robust stock and a wonderful heat treatment. The scales come from the factory square and the edge reasonable but a little obtuse, but I knock the hard corners off the scales and thin/convex/polish the edge on them before putting them up on the site. 
) has nice robust stock and a wonderful heat treatment. The scales come from the factory square and the edge reasonable but a little obtuse, but I knock the hard corners off the scales and thin/convex/polish the edge on them before putting them up on the site. Take a look at the Ontario line of Agricultural/industrial knives. I purchased a 10" field knife with what was described as a "hardwood" handle. Was better than I thought. The handle was black walnut, which also happens to be on my favorite woods. I think it was about $13. It didn't come very sharp, it was an easy fix. According to the Ontario catalog, the blade is 50-55Rc.
Ric
Ric
I live where flea markets are common and every weekend of the year. I find old Ontario, Green River, and old hickory. I pay ...maybe 2 to 3 bucks for them, remove the handles...clean them up and then rehandle them. Some of them are wonderful blades that I can barely let go. I redid this really nice ontario and rehandled it in stabilized bamboo and bamboo handle pins...(the crap sheath was from the customer...ugh...)
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Hard to go wrong with moding an Old Hickory. If you mess it up, your not out much money. I also have a 14" OH that i will be modding a little someday, soon i hope. The 14" blade was $14.99. The edges will roll if you hit bone. I rolled the edge on the cleaver while attempting to decapitate a deers head after it was processed with the boning knife & skinning knife. My fault. It was a little light duty for that i guess. So, i grabbed my OKC 18" machete for the task & just as i was about to swing, my neighbor came over. He said WTF are you doing, you can't chop off a deer head with a machete. I swung & off it came, with one chop. I looked at the blade-no damage. 
These are all full width, full tang.
These are all full width, full tang.
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Yeah the cleaver is what's known as a "household" cleaver rather than a butchers' model. More a chicken splitter than a lamb splitter!
Hard to go wrong with moding an Old Hickory. If you mess it up, your not out much money. I also have a 14" OH that i will be modding a little someday, soon i hope. The 14" blade was $14.99. The edges will roll if you hit bone. I rolled the edge on the cleaver while attempting to decapitate a deers head after it was processed with the boning knife & skinning knife. My fault. It was a little light duty for that i guess. So, i grabbed my OKC 18" machete for the task & just as i was about to swing, my neighbor came over. He said WTF are you doing, you can't chop off a deer head with a machete. I swung & off it came, with one chop. I looked at the blade-no damage.
These are all full width, full tang.
Thank you for the pictures and interesting story! What is the model at the bottom of the picture TwinStick? It looks like a clean cut across would give me a point.
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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That's a skinner. Go up the outer curve halfway, then cut back down on a curve and you've got a nessmuk.
Your welcome. For me, full width, full tangs are a requirement. As far as a point, many have a point from the factory. Butchers knife & boning knife have great points.
Esav- never thought of that, hmmmmmm ! I do use it for skinning though. I have never used a curved blade until 2 yrs ago, when using that to skin a deer. Skinned the skin right off my knuckle too. That took a while to heal.
Esav- never thought of that, hmmmmmm ! I do use it for skinning though. I have never used a curved blade until 2 yrs ago, when using that to skin a deer. Skinned the skin right off my knuckle too. That took a while to heal.
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Just saw this thread in Bob W's signiture and wanted to share a project I'm working on...the knife itself just came in and I am cutting the guard this week (I will be grinding/cutting the tang down) in an S-bowie type. Handle is sambar with the crown carved and polished.
Using a 10" butchers knife.
Using a 10" butchers knife.
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Nice! Keep us posted with that!
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Heres some of the progress...moving slowly as I dont get much time each week to work on it.
Will post more as I get closer to finishing it up...going to do a wood core scabbard wrapped in rawhide. I did some measuring too and the blade thickness is 0.095" and the holes in the tang are 0.016" and 0.249", which is info I wanted to know before I bought the donor blade but figured some of you guys could use the info.
Will post more as I get closer to finishing it up...going to do a wood core scabbard wrapped in rawhide. I did some measuring too and the blade thickness is 0.095" and the holes in the tang are 0.016" and 0.249", which is info I wanted to know before I bought the donor blade but figured some of you guys could use the info.
My OH 8" butcher knife will pass the performance part of the ABS journeyman's test. Cut rope, chop 2x4, and flex/bend 90 degrees at least 5 times with no damage. A proper sharpening or 2 to get rid of the factory edge is required though. I really like that clip point modification. I just use my butcher knife as is, though I'd like to put some tougher Micarta or Dyamondwood handles on it. The original wood doesn't hold up too well to my rough treatment.
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I've used an OH 10" Chefs knife in the woods a few times, with fine results. Recently I've been making use of a Svord 'Pig Sticker', which is a very similar knife.
Kitchen knives are so because the kitchen is the most common use of a knife for most ... and once upon a time, most people could only afford one or two knives. Thus it was the most useful and general purpose blade designs that were purchased, and evolved into the kitchen knives of today. Yes, there are a lot of specialized (and even silly) specialty kitchen knives out there today, but these things are almost always recent inventions.
So yes, a quality kitchen knife is equally at home in the field or in the woods as the kitchen - provided you use it as a knife, and not a pry bar or a splitting maul.
Kitchen knives are so because the kitchen is the most common use of a knife for most ... and once upon a time, most people could only afford one or two knives. Thus it was the most useful and general purpose blade designs that were purchased, and evolved into the kitchen knives of today. Yes, there are a lot of specialized (and even silly) specialty kitchen knives out there today, but these things are almost always recent inventions.
So yes, a quality kitchen knife is equally at home in the field or in the woods as the kitchen - provided you use it as a knife, and not a pry bar or a splitting maul.
Thats the beauty of getting a OH knife for the field. 1/16" or so spines don't make bad pry bars or splitters, they just don't work at all. That's also my theory on why RADA Cutlery is so successful. Their knives are rarely seen abused, but they use blade stock just shy of 1/32" thick. There is no way to pry or split anything with that blade thickness. Pretty smart if you ask me.
Back in the late 80's early 90's I used a Old Hichory almost daily to cut back a form of cane grass, (like mini bamboo). It was also used on pine and citrus trees often as well. I think it was around 10" and made a great bush knife/mini matchete. The knife was very old when I got it, sharpened like a dream. At some point I gave it a pretty big chip in the blade I think from a knot in some pine. Wish I had saved it to mod the blade. It was a great knife.