What is a "hunting knife"?

Thats funny, here in Brazil if you ask for someone who really hunts and isnt a intusiast of custom knife world, problably the answer will be "a long knife or dagger".
Thats because in many states of brazil hunting is totally illegal, in some states is alowed hunting just boars, if im not wrong, my state rio grande do sul(southern brazil) is the only one alow to hunt mallard duck, hare and boars.
The main type of game is wild boar!!
Gun regulation in Brazil is very strict, is getting better in the last few years, but still strict.
Many hunters here uses dog to run and grab the boar, the hunter finnish the job with the dagger while the dogs hold them.
In resume a brazilian hunter uses two knives, a long knife or dagger, and a skinner that could be a small gaucho knife called "verilheira", and no fire guns.
Yes, its primitive, but is the way to stops the wild boars for destroing our plantations! (of course the are many illegal hunters with illegal guns too)
I try to express the best i could, hope you understand!! 😂
 
You explain it well! Hunting boar that way must be exciting (a joke). From what i have heard wild boar are *really* mean....
 
They dont have fear, they tend to attack even if you shoot them, frenquently dogs get hurt or killed.
They kill calves, sheeps and other animal on properties, not to mention what they do on the plantations.
If you search on YT you will find many attacks of wild boars in brazil
 
This talk of stickin’ pigs reminds me of hanging out in 1986 at Norm Bardsley’s table at a show while Larry Harley gave a manic depiction of hunting a boar my wife and I have never forgotten.
Harley was built like a weightlfiter/linebacker back then and ran pig hunts in Tennessee. He ran a package for buying his version of a pig sticker and going on a hunt with hounds to hunt ‘em and pit bulls to run in and grab their ears so you run in and stick it behind the shoulder. Crazy. It was a heckuva weapon, though.
Try as he might, though, I wasn’t falling for, “When you stick the pig, you go sorta Cro Magnon!” as he was literally pogo-ing with adrenaline. ( his exact words). I liked to hunt back then, but that was a bit much for me. :)

Now I wish I had gone, both for the experience and the experience with Harley. Any of you who knew Harley understand what I mean by that.
”Thanks for the memories.” RIP Harley. I really liked that character.
 
fitzo said:
This talk of stickin’ pigs reminds me of hanging out in 1986 at Norm Bardsley’s table at a show while Larry Harley gave a manic depiction of hunting a boar my wife and I have never forgotten.
Harley was built like a weightlfiter/linebacker back then and ran pig hunts in Tennessee. He ran a package for buying his version of a pig sticker and going on a hunt with hounds to hunt ‘em and pit bulls to run in and grab their ears so you run in and stick it behind the shoulder. Crazy. It was a heckuva weapon, though.
Try as he might, though, I wasn’t falling for, “When you stick the pig, you go sorta Cro Magnon!” as he was literally pogo-ing with adrenaline. ( his exact words). I liked to hunt back then, but that was a bit much for me. :)

Now I wish I had gone, both for the experience and the experience with Harley. Any of you who knew Harley understand what I mean by that.
”Thanks for the memories.” RIP Harley. I really liked that character.
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Yeah, dogs and a knife is the most common pig hunting method here. Pretty hard to hunt them in our thick forests without the dogs to track them down.

It's definately a pretty full on visceral experience. No really my cup of tea. I prefer the quiet solitude of sneaking through the Bush in my socks and tipping over an unsuspecting deer.
 
Cushing H. said:
From what i have heard wild boar are *really* mean....
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You heard good ........ they can be *really* mean and *really* big :)
I know of two cases just in my town , in which hunters were killed by wild boar. And many with serious injuries.....
yFmfMFj.jpg
 
right now this is what I am thinking. Taken from one of the Loveless drop point styles. Approach to the bolster is taken from Horsewright's approach - two part with the tang being shaped to form the lower guard and sandwiched by brass top and bottom (I still dont feel up to milling out a single part bolster/guard.... the blade is slightly shorter than I would have imagined, but I think it would not look so good if I extended the blade.... too bad I do not have steel on hand to profile this .... need to order some


1643574529472.png
 
I don t like shape of that guard ? I never seen something like that , look ugly for me ?
vulVR7J.png
 
Natlek - the problem with that fully flat front of the bolster is that since the metal profile underneath will be ground out to that shape, that leaves a 90 degree inside angle in the front of the metal right at the front of the guard. That is a Bad Thing in terms of heat treating. Horsewright has done quite a few blades with the front and back side of the guard curved in similar ways
 
I agree with Natlek - the original guard is ugly. Grind the bottom of the blade flat and make the guard a U shape that you slip on from the bottom. Braze and pin it to the blade and you are good to go.
 
Cushing H. said:
Natlek - the problem with that fully flat front of the bolster is that since the metal profile underneath will be ground out to that shape, that leaves a 90 degree inside angle in the front of the metal right at the front of the guard. That is a Bad Thing in terms of heat treating. Horsewright has done quite a few blades with the front and back side of the guard curved in similar ways
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If you drill 3mm hole in right place before you cut and shape blank you will have that radius there .
I honestly don't understand why you complicate things unnecessarily ? You have mill so milling that slot in guard would be easy . Making recess for guard in handle is also easy and then you need to drill just one hole for one pin ?
if you are not familiar how is that done look this picture .
XpCJLIi.jpg

Finished .Honestly I found that this is most easy way to fit guard on knife , at least for me
DN9dkxH.jpg
 
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Zulus said:
Hunting knife is a piece of sharp
metal, stone, wood, plastic used to hunt
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Honestly, most of the time we don't even need a piece of sharp metal or plastic because we rarely shoot anything . At least me and my group 😂
 
Natlek and Tim - I do not know how much more clearly I can say that, even though I have a mill, I am very much a novice, and do not believe that either my milling skills or my assembly skills are up to executing a slotted guard. Likewise, I do not have the ability (or wish) to braze. While I agree that the original sketch is not the best, I would like to find a way to improve it that uses a two part bolster/guard, not a slotted one.
 
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Natlek said:
If you drill 3mm hole in right place before you cut and shape blank you will have that radius there .
I honestly don't understand why you complicate things unnecessarily ? You have mill so milling that slot in guard would be easy . Making recess for guard in handle is also easy and then you need to drill just one hole for one pin ?
if you are not familiar how is that done look this picture .

Finished .Honestly I found that this is most easy way to fit guard on knife , at least for me
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So .... for argument Natlek - the slot for the guard on the blade as you show it has inside 90 degree corners. I have always understood that it is NOT a good idea to have sharp 90 degree inside corners on a blade prior to HT. With what you show .... is that slot greated (or finalized) pre-HT or post-HT. If pre HT .... how do you avoid blade cracking? If post-HT, how do you do it??? (carbide end mill???). I have thought about slotted guards for several years ... and still doubt my skills to execute - but I am willing to listen to more details on how you safely executed that build.....
 
Cushing H. said:
So .... for argument Natlek - the slot for the guard on the blade as you show it has inside 90 degree corners. I have always understood that it is NOT a good idea to have sharp 90 degree inside corners on a blade prior to HT. With what you show .... is that slot greated (or finalized) pre-HT or post-HT. If pre HT .... how do you avoid blade cracking? If post-HT, how do you do it??? (carbide end mill???). I have thought about slotted guards for several years ... and still doubt my skills to execute - but I am willing to listen to more details on how you safely executed that build.....
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Steel is hardened M2 on 64 Hrc .Well , I do that my way with angle grinder.

EcCliSk.jpg

zN05bO2.jpg

And here how I make that slot in guard ...........primitive way but it works , and it work fast
KCBisvE.jpg

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yw8UTeN.jpg
 
eric brinkerhoff said:
The way Bob Loveless and Bob Dozier did their guards is exactly as Natlek shows. Apparently they were not having problems with stress risers... it is not that difficult to radius the inside corners of the guard notch ...
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I dont think I would want to be doing that with an angle grinder....

Eric - when you made that knife you created the notch pre-HT? If this is "doable" pre-ht, then this is an answer to one of the things that has held me up from doing a notched guard. (I still have some other concerns, but I think they can be overcome.....)
 
eric brinkerhoff said:
The way Bob Loveless and Bob Dozier did their guards is exactly as Natlek shows. Apparently they were not having problems with stress risers... it is not that difficult to radius the inside corners of the guard notch ...View attachment 1732528
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That one turned pretty wheel my friend , like it !
Next week I will get back from hardening 4 Damasteel , one Damacore / that one is for me / and five in CPM S30V .All are still rectangular plate as I buy them .All of them would be same as yours .Some guys and two girls will be happy when they get them from me .All will have ironwood scale , took me lot of time to collected right pieces of that wood .
Cushing my friend , sorry for off topic :thumbsup:
 
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