One of my crooked knives (at last!)

[rancid badger]

Oh honestly, this I.T. stuff makes my nut spin at times! I finally stopped and listened to the little voice saying:" hey man! just stick the photo back in the original post you duck egg!"
:11doh:
Anyway, I just thought some of you might like a look at the first crooked blade I made about 18 months ago. I have replaced the handle with a more traditional curved piece of ash and whipped it with some leather. The original handle was more or less straight and the whipping was para cord.
I have made a few ck's now and I find that I use this one for almost all my cutting including doing belt ends and bevelling!. They take a little getting used to but once your on the money they really are like some sort of multi tool!

I make the blades from old files, as old as I can get my hands on and all my heat treatment is done on my mini home forge, the handles are made from whatever I come across while wandering the woods or occasionaly from Druridge bay!
I like to try to stick, within reason, to the traditional method of manufacture but must admit to using a bench grinder and modern emery abrasives for shaping and finishing.
Cheers
Rancid Badger

 

[bambodoggy]

That's a lovely looking crook knife mate Do you sell them?

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[British Red]

What he said!

Lovely work! I'm second in the queue!

Red

 

[penvisser]

looks very nice!

penvisser

 

[Eric_Methven]

Yes he sells them. I have one of his and it's excellent.
(If you want to buy one, maybe best do it by PM - so's not to upset the mods as this isn't the place for buying/selling).

Eric

 

[bambodoggy]

Many thanks for the info Eric.....I've sent Badger a pm.

Cheers,

Bam.

 

[cariboo]

The crooked knife, hook or bent knife is a great tool. Yours looks great.
With it one needs one of these adze. The two are indespensible to each other. These adze can be a stricking or a drawing tool.

They are forged from lumber mill saw blade grade steel which is a fine quality carbon steel with a very high tensile strength designed into it's stucture for increadible edges and so that the hooks won't snap.

Adze

 

[godfather]

What a great knife.

Well done indeed, am truely envious and only wished to have such a tool.

Godfather

 

[rancid badger]

Ohhh! dear me! would urge anyone interested in my very amateur attempts to have a look at cariboo's adze link-wonderful! :notworthy

 

[baggins]

Hi RB, that is a niffty looking blade,
When you make them, do you grind the bevel on first, then wack it with a hammer to get the bend, or the other way round? Fancy having a go myself (another thing to add to the list).
Cheers
Baggins

 

[weaver]

Ohhh! dear me! would urge anyone interested in my very amateur attempts to have a look at cariboo's adze link-wonderful! :notworthy

Your blade is very good! I like the handle too. Keep going!

Now, Cariboo! All kinds of lovely work! :You_Rock_

And Canada is close enough that I can afford the shipping. But, making up my mind what to buy first? HMMMMMM

 

[cariboo]

Hi RB, that is a niffty looking blade,
When you make them, do you grind the bevel on first, then wack it with a hammer to get the bend, or the other way round? Fancy having a go myself (another thing to add to the list).
Cheers
Baggins

Here is a link. It takes some work.

Make your own crooked knife

 

[rancid badger]

The way I do it; is to soften the file by heating till it loses magnetism, then let it cool by itself. Once I can pick it up with bare hands, I remove the teeth, shape it and then grind the bevel, one side only. Next I re-heat the last 50mm or so depending on what sort of curve I want to finish up with then I remove it from the forge(wait till you see 'the forge!') and belt the end over a suitably sized heavy steel cylinder in the vice. you have to watch for the end twisting rather than bending and dont bray it with the hammer once its gone off red hot!
I'm really pleased to hear of someone wanting to have a go themselves and if you need more advice, just ask!
I'm thinking about doing a bit of a 'how to' article for the site but I'm not sure if I can until I become a full member,
PLEASE: IF ANY OF YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A BASH AT MAKING ONE, MAKE SURE YOU WEAR SUITABLE P.P.E.! ( you know; goggles, masks etc.)
Cheers
LeBadgerRancide! ( that's nearly french that is)
p.s. cariboo's links are superb!

 

[Quickbeam]

I had the chance to have a try with a right handed version up at Chopwell and it was excellent. I'm inspired to have a go, must buy some steel next time I'm passing Cromwells.

Nick

 

[rancid badger]

What do you want to go spending money at cromwell's for? get yourself a small file( as old and manky as possible) and get cracking.

 

[SOAR]

I made some myself from old file, Not as good as yours, very good mate.
I used cherry and sycamore for the handles. I found these very satisfying to make and a damn site cheaper than buying them.

 

[rancid badger]

I'll tell you what, there is absolutely nothing wrong with these two.
Things to remember when making things to use:
did you enjoy making whatever it is?, does it work ok?, have you saved yourself or maybe someone else some money?
Most important, try to remember that we dont usually get it right first time, I had to replace the handle on the knife seen in my original post as it was beginning to split and was the wrong shape anyway. To me, the whole world of 'Bushcraft' is about learning new skills and to be honest; the trial and error that goes into eventually getting it right.( always bearing in mind that 'right' to one person is always going to be 'wrong' to someone else.)
I dumped a couple of earlier attempts or rather turned them into other things.
heres a good example:

[/IMG]
This was the first knife I made, It's made from an ancient putty hacking knife found in my father in laws green house. I've tried a few others since this one but this is more or less the only knife I use for utility work. Its the ugliest thing in the world to most people but I love it!
I use this knife during all my instruction events as well as every day carving/whittling etc.
the blade has a tendency to chip and the handle is pure ugly but I wouldnt swap it for a woodlore.( Note to self: dont temp fate you silly bugger)
Sorry this has turned into a right old rant!
just keep making stuff Soar and enjoy it!
very best regards
R.B.

 

[gunnix]

Very nice knives! I tried to make a crooked knife once out of an old file. But after grinding it for hours the blade broke in two I guess it overheated.. I just followed the drawing of making a crooked knife out of a file in Jaegers book Wildwood Wisdom.

But from what I understand you first heat the file to make it softer? That's interesting, as I was grinding for hours to remove metal :s (I think I had a bit to big file also ) So I could just put it in the fire and then i probably need to let it get red?

 

[Eric_Methven]

Very nice knives! I tried to make a crooked knife once out of an old file. But after grinding it for hours the blade broke in two I guess it overheated.. I just followed the drawing of making a crooked knife out of a file in Jaegers book Wildwood Wisdom.

But from what I understand you first heat the file to make it softer? That's interesting, as I was grinding for hours to remove metal :s (I think I had a bit to big file also ) So I could just put it in the fire and then i probably need to let it get red?

You need to anneal it first mate. That means heating it to a temperature so it becomes non magnetic. Don't worry about the colour, but get a magnet and when the magnet doesn't stick any more, that's the right temperature. Then bury it in a tin with some hot sand (put a tin of sand on the fire/stove and heat it up for a while) and let the lot cool naturally. What annealing does is remove the hardness of the metal and bring it back to a workable (but not useable) state. It is softer, so it can be hammered and bent. Then when you are ready, you can grind the teeth off easily as the metal is soft. You can file an edge on it because it is now softer than a file. Once you get the shape you want, polish it up then harden it again and temper it (take's the brittleness out of it a little bit so it won't shatter). There's plenty of posts on here about heat treating blades. What's good for knives is good for crooked knives made from old files.

Eric

 

[gunnix]

Thanks a lot for the explanation!

Before I was asking myself how the indians were able to make the crooked knifes out of files if it took me so much work on a modern grinding stone only to remove some metal