Hey Toddy, and Liam if thy be interested
The crook knife I have been using for 3 years now I got from Svante Djarv, cost me only 30euro's so about 23 pounds and is a dream to work, only needs sharpening after about a month or 4 and I am vigorous sharpener and carver,
not sure if they are as cheap and as obtainable in britain though but I'll do a quick web search,....
okay so not as cheap as we have them here but still not to bad, I'm by the way talking about the small hook knife, the SK101 or 102, depending left or right, and I found it a pain to sharpen my mora hook knife every single time.
But might you have the time and confidence you can always buy one of the many smith's crook knife blanks, Like Dave he sells some pretty nice ones for I believe it was between the 10 and 15 pounds, but then you have to handle them yourself, but then again that is a nice adventure as well
I also wanted to say Liam, get yourself one of eden qualities wetstones the 2000/5000 ones they are cheap, work pretty fast, and with a means to sharpen something you can make something worth into something very valuable in the bushcrafters eye ^^ and try some stuff out, cause if you have a knife and some craftsmanship in your possession, you can make wonders out of all sorts of materials, and add some needle and thread and you have an even wider arrange from stuff people other wise would have thrown away, and if you then decide you want to upgrade you can alway buy something professionally made in the end
And as a last one it a bit of a cruel but proven one, if you are looking for ridiculously cheap woodworking tools, old people, or recently deceased often sell tools which are damage or ill maintained but are true gems, all they need is about 3 hours of elbow grease and some grits of sandpaper and a whetstone, so spread the word that you are looking for stuff like old tools, and you'll see people bring all sorts of oddities towards ya ^^
Hope that is advice you appreciate
Yours sincerely Ruud
