Lost mocotauganthebook.com

[Macaroon]

I've had a bit of a mishap, a digital one, managed to get most of what I'd lost back but one thing eludes me. There was a site with a downloadable book all about the Mocotaugan carving knife, it's history, usage and the making of; the site is no longer up and I've had no luck searching for the book elsewhere.

There's a good chance that somebody in our midst has it and could point it towards me. Obscure-ish things like this often turn up trumps here, so here's hoping!

 

[Fadcode]

try here not sure if this is the book you refer to

http://svalbardrepublic.org/ebay/MocotauganBook.pdf

 

[Janne]

Super interesting.
Page 40 tells me the weirdly shaped Yakutian blade maybe is designed to be used (drawed) towards the body?

 

[Fadcode]

The book is indeed an interesting read.
Although it may seem odd to us nowadays to draw a knife towards the body(for health and safety reasons), this was common with our ancestors to use a "draw knife" for carving, these knives were designed to be safe to use in this manner, not like our "bushcraft" type knives today, and offered better control in carving, and obviously you could see the cutting edge and be able to guide it better, as opposed to cutting away from the body and having the cutting edge out of view.The use of a "draw knife" goes back to the stone age.

 

[Robson Valley]

The Mocotaugan is a blade shape loosely derived from Pac NW paleolithic designs.
By the mid-1700's the Hudson's Bay Company was selling barrels of blades made in Sheffield, UK.
I have, in fact, a modern one.

Yes, they are a one-handed draw knife meant for working fresh/wet/soft/birch. Cheese-like in consistency.
You need to understand that our birch, the paper birch, is quite different from any of the species that you might find in Europe.
The mechanical and elastic properties and the properties of the large sheets of bark lent themselves to constructions that you win't be able to make in the UK/Europe.

Quite frankly, my experience makes me select the PacNW crooked knife blades such as the designs which you can purchase from Kestrel Tool,
probably the premier bladesmith in the Pacific Northwest. We have other, local, sources.
I do know that there are wannabe pretenders elsewhere on the planet who believe that they can make superior PacNW blade clones. Not.

 

[Macaroon]

Brilliant! Thanks Fadcode, I knew somebody would have the link.

 

[mrcharly]

The book is indeed an interesting read.
Although it may seem odd to us nowadays to draw a knife towards the body(for health and safety reasons), this was common with our ancestors to use a "draw knife" for carving, these knives were designed to be safe to use in this manner, not like our "bushcraft" type knives today, and offered better control in carving, and obviously you could see the cutting edge and be able to guide it better, as opposed to cutting away from the body and having the cutting edge out of view.The use of a "draw knife" goes back to the stone age.

Eh? I'm not sure what you mean.

There are many different 'cuts', some away from yourself, some towards. Most of the more controlled and powerful cuts using any knife are made with the cutting edge towards the body.

 

[Macaroon]

Keep the elbow of the arm using the knife in close to your body and the other one out from it, complete control and therefore safety.

If it wasn't for cuts towards the body I wouldn't be making many cuts at all these days!

 

[Fadcode]

Eh? I'm not sure what you mean.

There are many different 'cuts', some away from yourself, some towards. Most of the more controlled and powerful cuts using any knife are made with the cutting edge towards the body.

Was in answer to post #3, which seemed to intimate that drawing the knife was odd..............

 

[Robson Valley]

Nothing at all odd about pull strokes with edged tools.
Farriers, wood carvers, spoke makers, boat builders, luthiers and fine wood workers, even the few coopers still in the business
all use pull cuts. That's how you differentiate between right-hand and left-hand skews, for example.

Build a Mocotaugan knife. Carve with it. It's a green-wood tool but not unlike the crooked knives
of the Pacific Northwest. I think you'll really like it. There's 101 or more shapes, just as long as you get the upswept tip
correct and haft it crooked.

If you get hit, you're not working correctly.

 

[Janne]

In that online book, there is one aspect of the design that confuses me: It seems the attachment between the blade and the handle seems to be quite weak? Just copper or brass wire on some?
Is that really strong enough? The torque must be quite large when in use?

How did you make yours?

 

[Robson Valley]

I have not looked at more than 50 different Mocotaugan knife pictures.
I followed the process described by Ellsworth Jaeger in Wildwood Wisdom, pages 168 & 169.
You cut a deep slot for the tang of the blade. Then you carve a wooden cap which will fit over the tang.
After that, you whip the assembly. I did it the first time with copper wire. Looks pretty.
That, of course, stretched before it work hardened for a sloppy fit.

So, I took it all apart, slopped up the slot with JB Weld epoxy, seated the blade and whipped it again with #18 tarred nylon seine net cord.

 

[Robson Valley]

OK. As I recall, the handle to the thumb notch was too long so I pruned that.
See how the blade and the handle are in line? Very hard to pull.
See how the blade is basically flat/in line with the handle?

The blade has a sweep, it isn't straight so it's a crooked blade.
Then I made the blade sit 2 ways crooked to the handle.
Also turned out to be a right booger to correct the shirty sharpening it got at the factory in Sheffield.

That's a 1/4" x 2" copper slab for a Chalcolithic adze-making adventure.e

 

[FGYT]

In that online book, there is one aspect of the design that confuses me: It seems the attachment between the blade and the handle seems to be quite weak? Just copper or brass wire on some?
Is that really strong enough? The torque must be quite large when in use?

How did you make yours?

Usually the tang is let into the handle and has a bit on the end bent up at 90 deg that goes into the handle when bound this stops it moving.

The ones I make have 2 holes so you can screw them to the handle and cover with binding if you like
There is quite a lot of detail in the blade geometry to get a hoot working blade

It is one of the most useful cutting edges you can have in the out doors and for me a serious candidate for 'if you can only take one knife 'etc for UK any way

There is a big thread some years back where I went through my crooked knife journey.


Found it tho as its old a lot of pic links are broken now

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/search.php?searchid=11685540

 

[Robson Valley]

The blade I show is a Sheffield factory blade, such as the Hudson's Bay Co was selling by 1760 or so.
The tang is a wide, flat extension of the 6" edge blade that you see. No room for manuverability.
As you all probably noticed, I wound up carving an entirely new handle because of that.

Ellsworth Jaeger does show a blade with a narrow tang with a bent 90 degree tip.
Exactly what you would wxpect if you forged the blade from a file as many natives did.

Mocotaugan crooked knives were popular in the east, the birch-building societies, their multipurpose tree.
I don't believe that the blade I have us useful as 6" edge and quite flexible = most unexpected.

FGYT: yoou've got some experience making these. What do you think is a best edge length?

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Sorry for the poor pics but this is mine.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Macaroon]

Is that one of Duncan's, Johnnyboy?

 

[Robson Valley]

The tang & edge geometry is so different from mine. I like this.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Is that one of Duncan's, Johnnyboy?

It is indeed. Failed to look after it and now pitted but still sharp.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

The tang & edge geometry is so different from mine. I like this.

This is is one made by FGYT