UK Woodscraft knife?

[sunndog]

Broch, ok yep some folks had different things to what i said

I wouldn't dismiss 'outdoor' knives that have been made from cutlery as something less than decent though. Factories hardly made crappy stuff in those days. It would have been good steel with a strong handle....all you need for a decent knife.
A modded kitchen knife was good enough for nessmuk, we are still copying it today after all.....samon has just made a knife for me out of a 100 year old misery whip. Brass guard and antler handle, its a thing of beauty

 

[snappingturtle]

Good point sunndog cutlers reworked many a good caver, butchers knife to a hunting blade or the like, I've done it to my granddad's bread knife when I had nothing, it made a very good all rounder, I was also given to thinking why a lot of Victorian caving sets lack the main knife, anybody else heard of this?

 

[John Fenna]

I too have turned an old, worn out bread knife into a general utility knife - god steel is good steel and not to be wasted!
I am sure old time knife users thought the same...

 

[Broch]

To be honest I've reworked an old Sabatier into a 'bushy' style knife
My Mum had a habit of dropping them onto the tiled floor and breaking the point. It was the only knife steel I had access to for a while!

 

[sunndog]

When you think about it the most common method of knife making for artisan makers these days is stock removal.....thats not really very different at all from reshaping an exsisting knife

 

[Broch]

When you think about it the most common method of knife making for artisan makers these days is stock removal.....thats not really very different at all from reshaping an exsisting knife

True. But if you're not sure what the steel is it's difficult to get the heat treatment exactly right - but then, who needs exact?

 

[sunndog]

True. But if you're not sure what the steel is it's difficult to get the heat treatment exactly right - but then, who needs exact?

If its already a good knife you'd only need to heat treat if you destroyed its current temper while doing the modding. Years ago the modding would have almost certainly been done with hand tools so they wouldn't have worried about temper

Theres a challenge and a half.......blue a piece of steel with a hand file!

 

[MartiniDave]

Dunno about that - I did once get an abrafile to go through blue then snap cutting some 10 gauge stainless steel sheet.

Dave

 

[Janne]

When I lived in Swedish Lappland years ago, I wanted to buy a ‘Lapp knife’, in todays PC times called a Same knife.
My Same boys told me not to as most blades were made from old barell hopps and needed constant sharpening.

 

[sunndog]

See if you can repeat it with a chunk of 2mm stock and a 12" file

 

[MartiniDave]

Sunndog - I already know the answer to that one! I've spent way too long on the blister end of engineers files of all shapes and sizes.
All the best.

Dave