Couple of new sharps [photos]

[Dave]

Got these this week.

Firstly Bravo 1.5 A2 Black Micarta, [Also made a micarta firesteel for the sheath] Brand spanking new. Feels nice in the hand.

Im not sure whether to use it or keep it new for trade yet.

And also, this Svante Djarv Hantverk Large Crooked knife blade, as used by Ray Mears in his northern wilderness series to make snowshoes, paddles, and his birchbark canoe, epoxied into 10,000 year old irish bog oak, and wrapped with green upholstery cord.
[This ones definitely a keeper]

Comments Welcome...

 

[Limaed]

Did you handle the crooked knife yourself? Where can I get upholstery cord from?

If you want to trade the BR give me a shout

 

[Tommyd345]

Iv been tempted by bark river knives for a long time! I just can't find the spare cash!

 

[Dave]

Did you handle the crooked knife yourself? Where can I get upholstery cord from?

If you want to trade the BR give me a shout

No It was done by a bench hand joiner called Roger.

Yes, undecided on the BR mate. Absolutely stunning thing to behold and handle.

 

[Robson Valley]

Very nice. The crooked knife is an excellent example of the Mocotaugan blade design used for many centuries by the "birch building" native peoples in eastern North America.
By 1750, the Hudson's Bay Company was buying those blades from Sheffield for the fur trade.
Yours has a more practical sweep to the blade, given the fondness of the scandanavians for carving kuksa.

Mine is a Sheffield blade, like the very old designs that I've looked at (less than 50 of them, all different).
I don't like it for carving principally because of the very long edge.
But, I have not yet had the opportunity to use it in fresh (wet) birch,
which might make all the difference.

As you might call it "bank-line," I use #18 tarred seine net cord for whipping.
Being slightly elastic, I get good pressure on all the blades I've hafted.

Does not appear in the Pacific Northwest, the blade designs are quite different.
But then again, birch is rare on the coast, replaced in the main by the western red cedar.

 

[Dave]

Thanks Robson, interesting that birch is rare, replaced by western cedar, in your part of the world. I didnt know that. Must be fantastic living where you do!

 

[Robson Valley]

I live in the wet side of the Rocky Mountains, the Interior Cedar Hemlock zone (beause it's wetter here.)
Mountain peaks around my house are no more than 8,500' with some hanging glaciers and permanent snow fields in the summer.
Actually, there was fresh snow up top just last night. Google McBride and select Images to see around my village.
Close enough that you have to sit down in my lounge room to see the tops.

Travelling straight west @ 53N, the Nechako Plateau is drier and drier as you approach the Coast Mountain range.
True, in most of the smaller wet patches, it is possible to find birch but not enough to sustain any sense of community.
Natives in the central interior (here) made dugout canoes from cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) logs but I can't find any
evidence that they did much of anything with the available birch.

Then on the west coast, making 60' ocean-worthy canoes of western red cedar, why mess with birch bark?






























































































































































































Through there, into the coast fjords, it rains like Hello. Perfect for WRC.

I've been hoping to get some fresh/wet birch from this spring's harvest made by the furniture shop down my street.
Haven't seen those guys for days, must go ask.

 

[British Red]

Iv been tempted by bark river knives for a long time! I just can't find the spare cash!

I've had three. They were all rubbish tbh . That's a lovely crook knife Dave!

 

[Dave]

That's a lovely crook knife Dave!

Thanks Hugh.