Recent content by Rick S

I have a few Plumb axes, hatchets, and hammers. Usually bought at estate sales years ago for a couple bucks. Most of mine in new condition came with a red handle. Did buy a new hammer off a sales table at the hardware store with a fiberglass handle for $1.50 US. It was in with a bunch of...

Well that would make a man take to the woods. Wasn't explained in the forward of one of his books. Just stated that he abandoned his family.

Thanks for the information. Need to clean the man cave and dig them out. Its just such a big project that I keep putting it off. Maybe in the Spring.

Mine would be the older ones. Haven't looked at them since buying and they are packed away in their original boxes in my junk room. The steel was something like 5500 ball bearing steel and hardened and tempered in a vacuum. At least that was the claim. Actually forgot I had them until I...

You can live on rabbit only if you eat the brain,eyes, and all eatable internal organs. Some whites explorers wintering over with Indians starved and the Indians did not. Only difference Indians ate the whole animal. Not following the Indians example , in dining , cost the whites their...

Bought a half dozen of the new production Marble knives seven or eight years ago. I liked the way they looked and the dealer dropped his price when I hesitated buying. Have to think long and hard before parting with money and I wasn't trying to get him down on the prices. He then offered me a...

I read Horace Kephart all the time and have all his books. Lots of information and I enjoy them very much. On the negative side he walked off and left his family to pursue his own interests. A little hard to respect that.

You can get cracked files. Dad somehow ran electricity through them and sprinkled fine metal filings on them. Cracks would show up in the patterns. Do have one knife made by a local maker that has since passed away. It has a lot of belly but not as much as a skinning knife. This is my...

Going back 70 years my dad made knives out of files. You first had to heat and let cool slowly in the ash bucket. Then you shape the design. next you hardened the steel and then drew the hardness back out. Making the spine softer than the cutting edge. Dads knives are long gone so I...

British Red, Thanks!! Now I need one of those. I have seen a few of the early ones and they are a little crude. The black smith would fold a piece of soft iron around a mandrel and then weld a chunk of high carbon steel in as the bit.

Steve, what is your opinion of the steel? Have carried mine for about 15 years which is a testimony to the clip that hold it in your pocket. I highly rate the steel and it's one of those things I wouldn't be without. Haven't gotten around to using their stones. What can you tell me about...

Wondering if any of you folks have tried one of the Razor Edge Steels. Can't post photographs but you can google it. If you haven't tried one I'll describe. It's just a small folding steel that you can carry in your shirt pocket. Its smooth so it just aligns the edge. Great for when...

That is a good description. Mine is the thinner blade with more belly for skinning. My wife is a buck skinner and talked me out of mine. For the last thirty years I have combed junk stores, antique malls, farm sales, and estate sales. It used to be the norm to buy the carbon steel knives...

No photographs. Don't know how to post them. Your right they would be an old trade knife. Our buck skinners are very close to Bushcraft people except they do everything period correct back to the early 1800s. A Bushcraft festival and a buck skinners rendezvous are basically the same...

I Wilson knives are highly collectible in the United States. These were the knives used by our Mountain Men during the fur trade era. I found one in a junk shop in good condition that I bought for 10 cents. Believe mine was manufactured around 1800. Do Bushcraft enthusiast hold them in as...