The mammoth hunter

[milesofalaska]

Mammoth Hunter . A survival knife. 9 inches overall , 5 inch x 2 inch wide blade of high carbon 1095 steel. Heavy in weight for rough use - a pretty beefy handle for big hands . Acid etchings of wolf on one side, eagle head on the other. Copper and brass forged into the steel. Very unique handle custom carved and lost wax cast copper from 1920’s water pipes in Nenana Alaska and bronze barge propellers off the Yukon River. The theme is mammoth hunting. Two mammoths above a primitive hunters face. Underneath , two bear heads. I wanted a mountain man rustic look. Maybe something worn to a reenactment-primitive event, black powder shoot, Indian Pow wow, or where appropriate regalia like this might fit in.

There is a 2 inch cutting edge along the back tip of the blade where the steel was tempered extra hard. This means the main edge can be a rough tool for chopping and rough work. But when more fine work is needed, the back edge can be preserved for such tasks when razor sharp- extra hard is needed

I tend to like ‘story knives’. I find my own mammoth ivory. Those few of us who pretend we are Indiana Jones call ourselves ‘mammoth hunters’ Alone for weeks out in the wilderness I need a knife, and built this one with the whole concept in mind. My may make a mammoth ivory sheath for it as I have dome before. I also have some musk ox hide with the hair still on it … that might resemble for looks mammoth hair. There were some technical challenges… unsure if I might review them here…. like keeping the weight down, and how to back the metal and get a flat surface to the steel (the handle casting is hollow to cut weight down). Oddly it is perfectly balances in the exact middle and might be a throwing knife. If one had that skill and considered there might be a circumstance to give it a toss. As in “Here watch this! See that fly on the wall over yonder?” Whoosh whoosh whoosh tunk! “ Rats. Look here, I only clipped a wing. Lost my touch. What? You never saw no fly?” Anyhow. This is that knife. Oh yea you could take it to camp too. Cut all kinds of stuff I imagine. But it’s probably more one of those story knives. Playing around with what kind of scenes I might create for a handle. Experimenting with how big before it’s too heavy, mixing metals all that fun stuff. I can offer more details for anyone interested. 1095 steel, edge hardened (torch) I still kike that best despite the cringes I get fomr the experts. – Copper brass hammered in during the forge. Gotta go! Just cleaned a pile of ducks – trying out a new 10 gauge… put in 250 miles on the river. Didn’t like the new gun. Kept missing. Stupid gun anyhow. Till I caught on! .It does not ‘work’ till the shot is getting on out there 70 yards and beyond. But never mind, I ramble.

I also wanted to create a certain ‘look’ with highly modern, mixed with very rustic, to mix the two worlds of ‘then’ days of the mammoth hunters and ‘now’ finding the fossils.