Thai jungle knife short bush sword

Storm Crow

Storm Crow

Joined
Apr 12, 2006
Messages
2,506
This was made for a knife in the hat exchange, or KITH, over on Don Fogg's forum. The idea on this KITH was to make a blade that was either mythological (though myth could be of modern and even personal manufacture) or tribal in aesthetics. I was originally planning a forge finished integral socket bush sword with a La Tene-style blade inspired by Robert E. Howard's "The Valley of the Worm", but time drew near and I came across a style of blade from the jungles of Thailand that really caught my eye, and I went with that instead.

The blade is approximately 13" long and 3/16" thick, forged from 5160 and given my typical triple normalization, triple quench in canola oil, and triple tempering cycle heat treatment that I use for 5160. Here's what it looked like post-hardening and pre-tempering:

jungleknife.jpg


After tempering, cleaning off the oil, and wrapping the handle with hemp and tying two-strand Turk's head knots in cotton:

jungleknife2.jpg


After sealing the wrap in black shellac:

jungleknife3.jpg


And after sharpening to shaving sharp,

jungleknife4.jpg


It's on its way to its new owner, Scott Roush, who makes awesome knives.
 
Beautiful work as always! Your pieces always make think of a fusion of tropical choppers and medieval European agricultural tools. :cool::thumbup:
 
Thank y'all!

JayGoliath - I need to make something along the lines of a barong at some point, don't I? :)

FortyTwoBlades - This one was directly inspired by blades in a picture thread over in the WSS subforum from camping out in Thailand. It was what the locals were carrying; well, that and blunt-ended choppers.

Daniel L - I didn't weigh it, but I don't make heavy tools. This has a little bit of weight to it and makes a great chopper, but is plenty light enough to be fast for dealing with thinner vegetation.
 
Storm,

Thats pretty friggin awesome. I would have gone with a clear shellac to preserve the natural hemp color-- it reminds me a bit of the rope the thai fighters wrap their fists in before fighting instead of using gloves. Either way, thats just too cool. It's the kind of functional artwork I can really get behind.

Not knowing anything about said process, did the shellac totally penetrate and harden the rope or does it just coat the outside and still have some give?
 
Sirahren - Thanks! I alternate between using the black shellac I've mixed up and natural amber shellac, depending on the style of the knife and my mood. In this case, I could see it going either way, but the white cotton cord would have needed more layers of amber shellac to look right, and time was getting short on the KITH. :)

The shellac does indeed wick down into the cord and make a composite material in situ. I typically brush on a good coat starting at the base of the blade and working to the butt of the handle, then immediately give it a second coat as the first one has already soaked in well. After sitting for a few minutes, I'll give it a third coat and then let it set up overnight, then add more layers as need be to make the handle comfortable and not rough on the hand. Sometimes the three coats is enough, sometimes more is needed.
 
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