An Otzi-style blade...

[VaughnT]

Long ago, I made an Otzi-style knife with an obsidian blade and really liked the way it handled for skinning deer. Always said I'd make one from proper steel and finally got around to doing it. A long time coming!

I'm using 1070/1080 alloy and have gotten her to the point that she's ready for the edge. A 2" blade with a 2 3/8" tang, approximately 1 1/8" wide. The spine of the blade is left as-forged to give it a more natural look. I wasn't sure if the blade would be leaf-like or more akin to knapped stone. I hoped for the latter, but hammering on one side flattened out the marks on the other side, so the stone quality is more a suggestion than anything else.

For the last little while, I've been using this alloy for my flint strikers, and this marks the first try at something with an edge. It's water-quenched and tempered by eye. Several normalization cycles to minimize the chances of cracking, and two tempering cycles resulting in a nice dark bronze color. Now all that's left is to grind in the edge and see how the heat treat worked.....

For the handle, I'm thinking to keep things very simple. Burn the tang into a boring chunk of tree limb, no fancy woods, and maybe some sinew wrap around the proximal end to give the finger a bit of a stop before running up on the edge. All keeping within the nature of the blade's simple design.

 

[Cromm]

Nice work.

 

[DocG]

Looks a nice piece of work by you. Please will you post WIP pictures as and when you've got them?

All the best.

 

[VaughnT]

Thanks, Gents. If the blade takes a decent edge, rest assured that I'll be more than happy to photo the rest of the build.

 

[mrcharly]

Nice shape. A short bit of horn might work well for a handle.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Lovely stuff. Really nice
got somethin of this ilk in pipeline myself.

 

[Cromm]

Nice work.

 

[VaughnT]

Well, things are progressing nicely.

I decided to use a section of plum branch that I've had drying for a few months. It's still a bit moist, but should dry out in record time now that I've removed most of its mass. Since the blade has been heat-treated, I had to forge a false tang to burn into the wood. I'll probably recycle the false tang into a bottle opener of some sort.

I probably should have started with a smaller limb. Lots of wood to chip away!

Here you can see the first handle shape I tried. I thought it was entirely too modern and really clashed with the beat up blade.

So, more time spent with my Old Hickory chopper and I arrived at a very basic handle that Otzi could have easily carved out of the local flora.

Here's where I'm going to let it sit and marinade for awhile. The handle is still too pretty to go with the blade, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to bring the two into some sort of harmony. Maybe a bit of rawhide wrap? Maybe antique the whole thing with some Potassium Permanganate? Maybe both?

The good news is that I have plenty of rawhide, sinew, brain-tan and various plant fibers at my disposal. Oh, and the blade passed the initial sharpening and looks to be a keeper. I still have to work on the edge a bit, but she'll definitely take the hair off your arm.

 

[mrcharly]

Mash some blood, dirt and ash into the handle and it will look just right.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Pretty. Do you have a picture of your Obsidian one to compare?

Thanks

J

 

[VaughnT]

Got her finished this morning.....

Hemp twine coated with hide glue. Pitch glue over the junction just for looks. Stained the handle with whatever grease and grime happened to be on my hands.

I didn't pin the blade in place because I'm curious to see how the Gorilla Glue holds. This is a light-duty slicer, not a tank killer, so I don't really see any problems cropping up on me.

 

[Albus Culter]

Very nice work. I've an Otzi steel blade in mind myself.

Great work there

 

[Tuscor]

Mate - fantastic work.

 

[warthog1981]

It turned out great well done