Bending a mora crook knife ?

[greg.g]

While at the bushmoot, i had my first attempt at carving a spoon.
After many hours whitling away i ended up with something that roughly resembled a spoon and i enjoyed the experience. In a box in the reception you were selling some Mora crook knives so i thought it would be rude not to pass up the chance to continue my education.
So back home now and on inspection the knife seems to have a very "gentle" curve to it.
It looks as though it will be difficult to carve the bowl of the spoon. Its just a thought, but would it be possible to bend the end of the blade into a slightly tighter curve to enable the carving of a deeper/ more acute spoon if that makes any sence. Would heat plus a vice/pair of pliers make this possible, or would i just distort or snap the mora?

Anyway, thanks for a great bushmoot. It was our first, but certainly wont be our last.

Greg & Alison

 

[mick91]

You'll have to anneal it so it softens much like bending a file. Heat it until it's demagnetised then allow it to cool slowly. Then bend to shape with heat and reharden and temper

 

[decorum]

... Its just a thought, but ...

Without heat treating the blade you're likely to royally stuff it.

Work out what curve you've found you need and buy the curve to suit it

Mora do more than one curve and tend to do each curve for both left and right hand use.

If you can't find what you want/need then there are other makers out there (on this site and others) who also make curved blades. Dave Budd certainly does/has. And I'm fairly sure that FYGT has made them in the past too ~ he might still do.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Easier to buy another knife.

 

[greg.g]

Thanks all

I think I will just purchase another knife.

This could get addictive!

 

[MartiniDave]

I once tried bending the tip of a mora crook knife without annealing first (I know, I'm an instrument maker, I should have known better!) and as a result snapped about a half inch off the tip. For me not a real problem, I just re-shaped the broken end and carry on using it.

Anyway, you can't have too many crook knives, one day they all come in useful.

Dave

 

[Wayne]

The issue with the Crook knife may be more to do with the bevel and the way you are using it. I have craved some pretty tight curves with a Frosts. I much prefer my Nic Weestermann tools but they are quality and hand made. There are plenty of other custom makers that will make you a crook knife to suit your style of carving. Dave Budd makes a nice tight spoon knife as does Ben Orford etc.

 

[mr dazzler]

If you can find the Davis Brothers and persuade them to build you some knives, you wont regret it.
I own 3 and they are awesome

 

[Adze]

Here you go:

http://www.davebudd.com/Bushcraft.html#anchor_282

You won't regret it

 

[Robson Valley]

Another practical solution is to buy a blade (or blades) of the sizes and sweeps that you need and haft those in handles of your own making.
I've done a dozen, many of which were farrier's hook knives ( similar to the Mora #171 design)

To see the popular variety of blades used commonly in the Pacific Northwest native (and others like me) carving community, look here:

http://kestreltool.com/index.html

 

[greg.g]

I met Dave at the bushmoot. His work looks great.

Nice little pheasant tail avatar. I used to tie all my own flies

 

[mrcharly]

I have one of Dave's spoony blades and it is fantastic. Continuously tightening curve throughout, like a french curve, it makes it possible to create almost any hollow.

 

[Robson Valley]

The progressive sweep is exactly what makes a crooked knife so effective. I have at least 5 different sweeps.
Probably the equivalent to Kestrel 'C' sweep is what I use the most. Dragged with a skewing motion, there
aren't many different radius hollows that you can't work.

You get that with a farrier's knife, too. Plus, you get a little scorp-like curl at the tip.
Scorps alone are too expensive for me as stand-alone carving tools.