I recently saw on another forum where someone had taken a Condor Hudson Bay knife and modified it into a tracker/wsk (wilderness survival knife). I had never owned a wsk and thought the project looked fun, so I decided to try it. I didn't have a Condor Hudson Bay so I bought one off eBay for $40. I could have bought a slab of 3/16" steel for less money but I had never modified a knife this much before and I really liked the look of the hammered finish on the flats. I was hoping I wasn't going to waist a perfectly good $40 knife for an unusable scrap of metal. I tried out the Hudson Bay when I got it. It came nice and sharp but it is not really my kind of knife. With that said, it was very strange to destroy a brand new knife. I first attempted to cut it with my hack saw and that was going to take forever. Then I tried gearing down my cheap band saw and put a nice metal cutting blade on it. That didn't work at all. Finally, I busted out the angle grinder and cut off the tip. I was hoping not to do that in fear of messing up the heat treat. Oh well. I did a lot of the rest of the work with files, but I also used my 1x42" grinder on some of it, constantly dipping it in water to keep it cool. Only time will tell if I messed up the heat treat. So far it is holding an edge well.
Next up was attempting the saw back. I had never tried to do one before. Luckily, the guy who did the original modification that inspired me, also put up a great post on how to make a saw back (the guy has serious skills). I should have practiced on something first. I thought I understood how to do it from his thread, but when I made my second cut with the file I noticed it wasn't looking right. Oops!!
Eventually, I figured it out but the first section turned out pretty mangled. It works good though. This is a piece of seasoned California Hazelnut.
I almost did a black bolstered handle with some natural shade tree burlap, but I decided to keep it simple and go with a single piece of od micarta. I didn't want to put too much work into it and ruin a nice piece of shade tree if it didn't turn out. The handle still needs some work and it definitely does not pass the poop test!
After I got the handle on, I was able to get everything paper cutting sharp, except for the quarter round. I could get it functional but not as sharp as everything else. I re-profiled it so many times I must have lost a quarter inch of steel. If you look at the pic before the handle you will notice the quarter round doesn't go in so much. It looked much better before I kept goofing with it. I never did get that curved section hair popping sharp. Any tips would be appreciated.
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I had never used a wsk before so it took a little to get used to using the quarter round but I am starting to get the hang of it.
The handle works good in two positions.
It is a great chopper in this grip.
So far it has been really fun to use. I will try to post more pics as I get more use out of it. Thanks for looking!
