http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4372/bkr3.jpg

Love a good chopper!



A smaller version-

+1 best camp knife I've ever had.

First post nails it again.

ETA, almost. Make it full tang with rubber or corian handle and you got it.

I'm on my phone but I will do this tomorrow.

Who makes this?

Kabar Becker Tac Tool

I would recommend a kukri style. Look here and here I've been planning on getting 2 from there for over 2 years, but the shipping's a killer. Here's mine. Purchased new in 08' It's been going strong, even with a "rat-tail" tang. It has seen many small tree's. The thickest part of the spine is 3/8ths.

I also like to make knives occasionally.  I am setting up shop right now and I will be trying to get more into it.  Here is an all around smaller bushcraft knife I drew up recently.  It is similar to the ESEE RAT series.


I will also draw you up more of a hacking blade

Another all around knife that is better for chopping would be a tom brown tracker style.  This is my scaled down version made only with hand tools. (this is old, i make prettier knives now)

Here are a few I plan on copying soon

I agree with the Kukri statement but I dont think you should make one.  If that is what you want then buy the Kukri Machete from Cold Steel.  I drew this up with alot of weight in the blade for the chopping and hacking you mentioned with a squared off pommel for pounding tent stakes.

Alright, I drew one.. The spine would be thick enough, that you can use that as a "hammer" It's got a fat "Belly", making it more front end heavy for better chopping. And a smaller blade line towards the back for whittling stuff

The folks at KA-BAR will be glad you agree.

http://www.trueswords.com/product_lite.php?products_id=2586

Hey, somebody stole my design! Time to call in the lawyers

Ah shit, I guess I'll be getting a call soon!

Did you decide what to go with? Curious to see what it's gonna look like?

Perfect camp knife, shame no one is still building it...

http://cgi.ebay.com/vintage-Western-Bowie-knife-W49-USA-w-sheath-14-3-4-/130493070015?pt=Collectible_Knives&hash=item1e61fe3abf

Seems to be available still:

western bowie

i lol'd quite a bit.

At that price, it's not the quality of the old Westerns I'd bet.



 

eehhh.... I saw some of the oldies... they weren't that good. Unless they were knockoffs?

The ones I saw were 15-20 years ago and were about $20 or so.

As I said earlier, I'm using an old leaf spring for stock.  It's probably 1050 or 1095, or something of similar properties, that is relatively simple steel with few components to the alloy other than carbon.  There's a few reasons I'm choosing this steel for this blade:  Cost, easy to harden with published data, little worry about warping or cracking, and I can draw it back to about 52 RC which will give it the combination of edge holding and toughness I'm looking for.  At first, I was going to avoid heat treating (use what's called "stock removal" method) which meant I needed to straighten the leaf spring, which I did in a large roll press.  However, this must have imparted quite a bit of stress into the steel, and when it developed a bit of heat as I was milling the handle area flat, it started to spring.

So here it is being annealed.  I'm bringing it up to 1500 F, then shut the furnace off and leave the door closed, it took about 6  hours to cool down below the active tempering temperature (in this case 300-500 degrees).



It actually flattened out quite nicely after this, so it's off to the plasma cutter for the rough profile, then the milling machine.  I want straight bevels, rather than a hollow grind, or convex bevel, so milling with a carbide cutter is really the easiest way for me to do this.






A coworker raises elk, and I've purchased a few antlers from him for this kind of thing.  Here I've split a section of antler which I will use to make the scales that will sit between a steel guard and pommel.



The parallels on the table are 6" long for perspective.  The blade is 0.290" thick at the spine, and that spine extends the length of the blade.  The bevels are 10 degrees and symmetrical on either side.  The top of the blade will not be sharpened, but I'm contemplating a serrated/saw back edge, which I would design to be sharpened with a chainsaw file.

Next step, heat treat the blade, making and mounting the guard and pommel, fitting and mounting the scales.

Looks quite badass!

Yep, looking pretty darn good already!

that's a huge knife!


Wouldn't a chainsaw-wielding midget be slightly lighter to carry through the woods?

Pretty awesome so far.     How much for one for me?  

That is a fuckin a sweet knife, I have been googling but suck at it. Where can I buy one???

QVC?

For the kukri and Bowie style blades, you get +1.  For all you wankers who are submitting cock blades, you get -3 and labeled as a homo.  The railraod spike knife was extra badass and I award you 87 interwebz.  However, Kuraki and his elk handled death blade is by far the coolest thing I have seen all day and I might have to have one.  Hats off to you, good sir!

Would you mind if I steal that and engrave "Elk Handled Death Blade" on the flat?

Tag

using a mill is cheating! Actually I am just jealous

It might, but this won't run out of gas or try to create some kind of bizarro world redneck Walt Disney land in my pasture.

My feelings would be hurt if you didn't.

Where did you get the leaf spring??? I've thought about trying my hand at knife making several times but can't find anywhere to get cheap leaf springs.

I found mine in the parking lot at work...



Try a junkyard?  You are still allowed to have those in Cali, right?

Looks great so far.

I'm the red'neck Haderach.  They were in my yard.

while not a leaf spring I have used this site before for O-1 it is easy to work and in usable for normal knife thicknesses. https://www.flatground.com/catalog/catalog.jsp