- Joined
- Aug 29, 2008
- Messages
- 210
So, I've got a friend who's getting married next week.
This friend is also getting into bushcrafting, and primitive survival skills -- but is totally clueless about knives.
So -- to honor his being married off -- I'm making him this:
It's a 5 inch long puukko. I reground one of those already heat-treated Camillus-made Carbon V blade blanks (it was some sort of tanto) into a fully-convex bushcraft knife that any laplander would be happy to butcher a seal with.
The blade turned out pretty awesome, I think. I'm really just a small-time hobbiest and I'm mostly self-taught...if I make back half of what I spend on tools and materials selling things when I get tired of them I'll be happy with it. I'm really just tinkering.
The part where I'm *really* tinkering with this knife is the handle...
It's totally not wood. It's home-brewed hemp-shellac pseudo-micarta.
Basically, I started off with some hemp cord from home depot and wrapped it wet (with water) around the (rather stout) hidden-tang of the knife, and secured it on the passes toward the top with grooves I cut into the ricasso with a 4.5 inch angle grinder. When the hemp dried the whole thing was tight -- very tight. Then, I soaked the handle in shellac overnight (actually, an old tall mug filled with steel ball bearings [to displace volume not taken up by the shellac or the knife handle] and knife and shellac).
When I removed it the thing looked sort of like a lacquered hairball.
But it sanded like wood.
Anyway, I have been sanding away half a centemeter at a time -- then hitting it with more shellac -- letting it dry for a day -- hitting it with some gorilla glue -- then more sanding -- then more shellac.
I'm a full time PhD student in the humanities. This is my real-world-hobby for a few hours each night.
Anyway. What you saw at the top of this post is the end result. Third shellac cycle. It feels like wood.
I hope this turns out fine. It seems to be going well.
This friend is also getting into bushcrafting, and primitive survival skills -- but is totally clueless about knives.
So -- to honor his being married off -- I'm making him this:
It's a 5 inch long puukko. I reground one of those already heat-treated Camillus-made Carbon V blade blanks (it was some sort of tanto) into a fully-convex bushcraft knife that any laplander would be happy to butcher a seal with.
The blade turned out pretty awesome, I think. I'm really just a small-time hobbiest and I'm mostly self-taught...if I make back half of what I spend on tools and materials selling things when I get tired of them I'll be happy with it. I'm really just tinkering.
The part where I'm *really* tinkering with this knife is the handle...
It's totally not wood. It's home-brewed hemp-shellac pseudo-micarta.
Basically, I started off with some hemp cord from home depot and wrapped it wet (with water) around the (rather stout) hidden-tang of the knife, and secured it on the passes toward the top with grooves I cut into the ricasso with a 4.5 inch angle grinder. When the hemp dried the whole thing was tight -- very tight. Then, I soaked the handle in shellac overnight (actually, an old tall mug filled with steel ball bearings [to displace volume not taken up by the shellac or the knife handle] and knife and shellac).
When I removed it the thing looked sort of like a lacquered hairball.
But it sanded like wood.
Anyway, I have been sanding away half a centemeter at a time -- then hitting it with more shellac -- letting it dry for a day -- hitting it with some gorilla glue -- then more sanding -- then more shellac.
I'm a full time PhD student in the humanities. This is my real-world-hobby for a few hours each night.
Anyway. What you saw at the top of this post is the end result. Third shellac cycle. It feels like wood.
I hope this turns out fine. It seems to be going well.
