OUTDOOR BOOKCLUB - Mors Kochanski's Bushcraft

averageiowaguy said:
History is littered with the corpses of explorers who dogmatically stuck to what worked in their home environment, even though it was clearly not working.
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And most of them were British! Lol!

I like your knife, I hope you are happy with it. Certainly, should you need to make a MkII, it'll come a lot easier.

The most important question about this knife still remains, how well does it slice bacon? ;)

All joking aside, my younger bro always judges a knife on its cheese slicing ability. Many a popular knife has failed to make the grade in the cheese and biscuit challenge.
 
scruffuk said:
And most of them were British! Lol!

I like your knife, I hope you are happy with it. Certainly, should you need to make a MkII, it'll come a lot easier.

The most important question about this knife still remains, how well does it slice bacon? ;)

All joking aside, my younger bro always judges a knife on its cheese slicing ability. Many a popular knife has failed to make the grade in the cheese and biscuit challenge.
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I'm happy with it so far. I'll have to get it into some real wilderness and see how it really does before I am convinced. It does show promise. Because of your brother, I just now tested it on some cheese. I sliced off a hunk of gouda and a hunk of smoked Swiss. The knife did a lot better than I thought it would. For cheeses I generally prefer a thinner blade (or even a fine piece of piano wire.) The blade is 1/8th inch thick so I was expecting it to bind a lot. It did not perform quite as well as a very thin knife but very well in comparison to other 1/8th inch knives I own. I think it is because of how I ground the edge. When I do a convex grind I take a LOT of metal out well above where the actual edge is. I learned that trick from Jerry Fisk. It helps the knife 'flow' better through material. I'm going to give the knife an acceptable but not perfect mark for cheese slicing.
 
Being relatively soft, these are acceptable cheeses for a rudimentary test to determine the 'C' slicing ability of a knife.

In the more scientific Earl 'C' system, a knife must be gauged through multiple test slices on the following prepared media*:
a) a room temperature (293K) soft french cheese such as Camembert or Brie
b) a cool (277K><283K) hard, crumbly cheese, ideally a true Hawes Creamery Wensleydale (or a quality Cheshire)

*all with increased media build up i.e. the blade is not to be cleaned between slices but shoudl be cleaned between media

The above samples indicate parameters such as edge geometry, resistance, acuteness of bevel & behind edge mass to determine the appropriate slicing ability on the Earl 'C' scale.

The learned Mr Fisk is clearly familiar with the principles of this test, given his propensity and preference for the convexing method you describe.

:D
 
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scruffuk said:
Being relatively soft, these are acceptable cheeses for a rudimentary test to determine the 'C' slicing ability of a knife.

In the more scientific Earl 'C' system, a knife must be gauged through multiple test slices on the following prepared media*:
a) a room temperature (293K) soft french cheese such as Camembert or Brie
b) a cool (277K><283K) hard, crumbly cheese, ideally a true Hawes Creamery Wensleydale (or a quality Cheshire)

*all with increased media build up i.e. the blade is not to be cleaned between slices but shoudl be cleaned between media

The above samples indicate parameters such as edge geometry, resistance, acuteness of bevel & behind edge mass to determine the appropriate slicing ability on the Earl 'C' scale.

The learned Mr Fisk is clearly familiar with the principles of this test, given his propensity and preference for the convexing method you describe.

:D
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Wow! I had no idea there was such a precise way to grade a cheese knife. Unfortunately it has been relatively recently that anything besides cheddar, colby and jack cheeses were available in grocery stores where I live and grew up. Although I have developed an appreciation for the cheeses of the world through cooking, travel and living in cities, there is not a widespread culture of cheese appreciation here. All that said, I still love some Easy Cheese squirted onto a saltine cracker. :)
 
Can anyone recommend a good all around cheesecraft knife for my BOB? I'd like it to have at least a 7" blade and my budget is $40.
 
Here's a 14" from Dexter-Russel. if you don't need the draw knife attachment, you can cut off one handle and have a cheese machete.

dexter-russell-09210-14-double-wooden-handled-cheese-knife.jpg


Here's another cheesecraft knife, specifically for those that live in soft cheese forests:

cheese-knife.jpg


It is only 5 1/2" of blade, though, and it does use a serrated edge, which some claim is not good for cheesecraft.

However, it is full tang, and with the attachment at the end of the blade, once you're done cutting the cheese, you can go fork yourself.

:devilish:
 
love the critics who don't do much but can sit on their ass and complain of others efforts.

your doing great, keep up the good work.

Thanks for your time and efforts.
 
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scruffuk said:
Being relatively soft, these are acceptable cheeses for a rudimentary test to determine the 'C' slicing ability of a knife.

In the more scientific Earl 'C' system, a knife must be gauged through multiple test slices on the following prepared media*:
a) a room temperature (293K) soft french cheese such as Camembert or Brie
b) a cool (277K><283K) hard, crumbly cheese, ideally a true Hawes Creamery Wensleydale (or a quality Cheshire)

*all with increased media build up i.e. the blade is not to be cleaned between slices but shoudl be cleaned between media

The above samples indicate parameters such as edge geometry, resistance, acuteness of bevel & behind edge mass to determine the appropriate slicing ability on the Earl 'C' scale.

The learned Mr Fisk is clearly familiar with the principles of this test, given his propensity and preference for the convexing method you describe.

:D
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Respectfully, you omitted the use of vinegar to clean the blades between media.

:p
 
averageiowaguy said:
I didn't know exactly where to post this vid. I'm a little afraid of real knifemakers seeing this and flaming. I'm certainly not a knife maker or blade smith. I'm putting it in this thread because I saw a video where Mors Kochanski described making knives for the survival class back in the day. This is a design I've been working on for 2 years.

[video=youtube;gUXYw9TiZVw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUXYw9TiZVw[/video]
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Don't be so worried about what others may think man, you did a great job. In the spirit of you going to see Mors, I can send you something if you wish. I have an Elk antler that I found in the bush by Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Mor's old stomping grounds years ago I believe. If you would like some chunks of the antler for that or a future knife, I could: Take a pic and send it to you. You can pick out 2-3 sections of your choice, just send the pic back with selections. Give me some place to mail the box to. I could care less if it's a friends address or whatever. Just email me if interested. If not, that's cool also.
:thumbup:
 
A little piece of knife sharpening. This isn't a very sophisticated method, but it works.

[video=youtube;tiQpfSPZ8og]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiQpfSPZ8og[/video]
 
zpstl321 said:
Episode 18 is long over due, don't you think? :)
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Can't decide what to do it on. There are a couple of knife use examples in the knife chapter involving rawhide etc, but they really don't interest me. I could just go on to the Saw chapter. I'm thinking of doing that. Also next weekend I'm heading up there for the winter course. Should be some material from that I would think.
 
Best wishes for the course amigo. I'm sure you're gonna enjoy it a great deal.
Mors is a real interesting guy to talk to.
 
I hope he lets you video parts of the class and share your experience with everyone. :)

I wouldn't mind seeing traps and such made with your homemade blade. I enjoy your spin on things and it often sparks thoughts on new ways to try things.
 
Thanks for the best wishes. I am excited for the course. I guess I am officially on break from making a new Outdoor Book Club episode until I get back from the course. They told me to bring a camera, so at the very least I can make a video of still photos and narrate over the top.
 
Well if ever there was an excuse to be AWOL from your book club, this is it!

Safe roads.
 
Well I'm back! The course was amazing! I've got enough material to complete the book and more. I've decided to make the course material it's own separate series, but I'll post them in this thread. Here is a little intro to the trip. I decided to make the intro a bit theatrical as a nod to all the people who keep asking me to make trip reports in the style that I used to. All the rest of the videos in this series will be no-music and skills based. This one was just for fun.

[video=youtube;lMu7l1ObSms]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMu7l1ObSms[/video]
 
Looking forward to it. A little theatricality never hurt anybody. That I know of.
 
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