crook knives

[J14]

I was wandering what are the uses for a crook knife? Just somthing I was thinking about after reading a thread


Thanks
J

 

[Rothley Bill]

They are mainly used for carving hollows in things such as spoons and cups.

They are hard to put down once you have picked one up

 

[jojo]

The crooked knife is the traditional woodworking tool of the northern Indians and Inuit . With this ingenious invention, these nomadic hunters fashioned canoes, kayaks, snowshoes, toboggans , sleds, paddles , and the many other wooden items used in their subsistence economy. Used as a one-handed drawknife - with the opposite hand firmly holding the work - it proved far more versatile than the European drawknife or spokeshave.So effecient was its' design , that it was adopted by many non-natives, particularly those working in logging camps or other forest related work

.

I borrowed the above text from this site simply because I can't better the description!

The term crooked knife in this context appears to refer to the shape of the blade, although I am pretty sure I read somewhere that the term comes from the shape of the handle.


Here are one I am making at the moment and one already made

This one, I am making traditionally, the tang is bent and pushed through the handle, will be bent back, then I am going to use a rawhide strip to tightly wrap around the forward end of the handle to hold the blade in a recess on the under side of the handle.

The other one with a deer antler handle.

And how they are held

Then you get the Hook knives made by Frost

(pic borrowed from their site)

and farrier knives, also by Frost

and then, you can find all sorts of carving knives, some I'd call proper crooked knives, and some are more hook knives.

I haven't made my "perfect" crooked knife yet, but I am working on it

 

[Minotaur]

.

Are these basically just a blade with the tip at 90%, or a blade with a right angled tip?

Just wondering if with a little work, you could make one from a hanksaw blade, or similar.

 

[jojo]

This is the shape of the blades I make.

Profile

They are also swept back 15/20 degrees

I have no experience of using hacksaw blades so can't say for sure, but they are hardened steel so I assume you would need to anneal them first, before you can put any curve in them.

People also use old files to make them.

 

[gunnix]

Are there any people here who get a long with the crooked knife? The above description of the crooked knife makes it sound like it's a really good tool, even better then a drawknife. While I have made a crooked knife from such a frost ferrier knife and am not very impressed about it. Others are not impressed about it either. A teacher here has the theory that there are no good knives in the USA and that therefore the crooked knife is so popular. If they had good quality swedish carving knives they wouldn't be using crooked knives..

Any comments on this?

 

[robin wood]

Are there any people here who get a long with the crooked knife? The above description of the crooked knife makes it sound like it's a really good tool, even better then a drawknife. While I have made a crooked knife from such a frost ferrier knife and am not very impressed about it. Others are not impressed about it either. A teacher here has the theory that there are no good knives in the USA and that therefore the crooked knife is so popular. If they had good quality swedish carving knives they wouldn't be using crooked knives..

Any comments on this?

It's a very fun thought and a great one to start argument. My view is the teacher is completely wrong, many of the original crook knives or "mocataugans" were made from old cut throat razors, excellent quality steel. Many if not most of the early ones actually have straight blades, the crook I think (though I may be wrong) refers to fact they are dog leged with the handle and blade set at an angle to give an excellent slicing action. They could equally well have made straight knives like the Swedish ones, why they did not is to me just one of those wonderful cultural differences that make the world an interesting place.

I would suggest that the teacher should try to get a copy of a video called "Cesar's bark canoe" one of the most wonderful bits of woodworking I have ever seen and after watching it he would be in no doubt that the woodlands Indians mocataugan is capable of superb efficient work, as good as any swedish craftsman and knife. And I say all that as someone who is very much a knife user in the Swedish tradition.

 

[jojo]

Here is the link to the film Robin mentions Cesar's Bark Canoe, where you can watch the whole thing on line. He builds a bark canoe with an axe, a couple of knives and a crooked knives. Marvelous Craftsmanship.

I am a bit biased because I make crooked knives. I think that the geometry of the blade has to be right to get a crooked knife that works well and they do take a bit of getting used to. But I'll let Cesar speak for the knife!

And to say the Americans can't make good knives is positively libelous!!! A bit of a search on Google will bring masses of extremely good knives.

 

[gunnix]

Very nice comments, but in the end I will have to try a decent crooked knife to really make up my mind. Here Svante has started making a crooked knife, but I don't think it looks much like the "real" crooked knifes:

http://www.djarv.se/djarvenglish/newtools.asp
If you scroll down the page you'll see.

I think the crooked knife on this page looks like how it should be, he also uses it to make birch bark canoes so knows how it should be I guess:
http://www.birchbarkcanoe.net/crooked-knife.htm

A little expensive perhaps, does anybody know a good quality source that is a bit cheaper?

You're knives look very nice jojo.

 

[jojo]

A little expensive perhaps, does anybody know a good quality source that is a bit cheaper?

A slightly more refined version of these ones perhaps?

You're knives look very nice jojo.

Thank you, Gunnix.

 

[gunnix]

Thanks for mentioning Cesar and his bark canoe, really nice video. A great artist indeed! Funny with the dog getting in the way, and all the children playing around.

Well I'm not sure, I might wait until I do a trip to the us/canada and get a knife there, if ever. Though I don't question your excellent workmanship jojo

Is it important that the blades are swept back 15/20 degrees?

 

[J14]

Iv made my own crook knife from a old eating knife, with a 90 degrees curve at the end, I tried to make it similar to a pic that was in one of rays books, I think it was called bushcraft. thank for the help any way