Primitave short chopper

John M Cohea

John M Cohea

Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
2,655
This was a custom order that was made for a fellow forum member, and something a bit different for me.
When Jason first contacted me about building this piece, he sent me a few pics of things he wanted in particular. One pic was the preffered blade style, and the other was a pic of an Inuit style animal head carving that he wanted made from metal on the butt of the knife. Here is the resulting piece.
It has a 6" long by 2" wide and almost 3/8" thick blade forged from leaf spring steel with a hard edge and soft back, and an antique finish. The handle is deer antler with a thin hammered copper butt plate with the crude animal head carving made from wrought iron with a copper wash.OAL is 12" including the animal head carving. Copper tacks and rawhide bolster wrap finish the piece off.
The sheath is rawhide over veg-tan, and has copper tacks, deerskin fringe,tin cones, antique trade beads, and snake vertabrae.
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Love it! Especially the animal head. Could be one of many different kinds of animal. I saw a wolf first. Very appealing knife, John:thumbup:
 
Hi John,

Overall I think knife and sheath are both terrific. I like the short, stout blade shape and the blade finish. The overall blend of tones and textures is really spot on. Not a fan of the animal head, though.

Roger
 
Thanks Roger. At first I was a little leery of the animal head aspect of this project, but I got it as close as I could to the pic Jason supplied, and it turned out pretty well I think. The important thing though is the end customer was pleased with it, so I'm happy as well!
 
I'll just echo what Roger said John... I really dig your work my friend! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

I actually put your name down on a piece of paper this past Saturday at Dave Lisch's Blacksmith Swapmeet for a fellow that said he really loves work like Daniel Winkler's and Rich McDonald's. :)
 
John I love it. The knife has soul it is warm and well made nice job. Nick that was Tommy and he love's knives just like this one.
 
I like it very much John.

I had commented on your work a while back that there was a definite difference in making a knife and sheath look like it was actually made 100 years ago and making a knife and sheath that looks like someone was trying to make it like it was 100 years old. The prior is much harder to accomplish and I think you have gotten there.
 
I like the knife and sheath but not too much a fan of the animal head. It does have an old style look which I like as well as the blade shape. Sort of a nessmuk profile.

Peter
 
John, I really like the knife and sheath. I don't know you and am not familiar with your work. When I saw the title with primitive in it I almost didn't look as some confuse primitive with crude. I think you got it right.:thumbup::thumbup:
I will look now when I see your name.
Alden
 
Thanks everyone for the kind words!It is always nice to hear from your peers that what you are doing is worth the time and effort! It hasn't been easy trying to figure out all the processes that it takes to accomplish the overall look I try to acheive, but after several years of trial and error , along with a few pointers from Dan Winkler and Chuck Burrows,I have finally gotten it to a point that I really am satisfied for the most part, but I will always keep pushing ahead to give my work it's own soul and face.
 
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John M Cohea said:
Thanks Roger. At first I was a little leery of the animal head aspect of this project, but I got it as close as I could to the pic Jason supplied, and it turned out pretty well I think. The important thing though is the end customer was pleased with it, so I'm happy as well!
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Amen to that. :thumbup:

Roger
 
I liike that one John,that sheath does look ancient,I think you are defintely getting a lot of fans:thumbup::thumbup:Regards Butch
 
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