Killing time

Life got in the way this early season so Im not able to hit the line yet. I did take up a new hobby to pass the time at work.
These are the first ever knives and ulu's I have made so they are going to be nowhere near perfect. Keep in mind I put these together before I bought knife making books, so I just kinda winged it with a belt sander, drill motor and a band saw. I have found a new obsession, so Im going to slowly start buying the right tools to make them the right way.
This blade got aluminum corby bolts, Dahl sheep horn handle, one side sanded smooth and the other side had the natural growth rings showing. The sheath was a kit I bought, it was basically just the leather blanks that had to be made into a sheath. The belt loop I made from an old leather belt I had laying around. I sliced the piece into 3 strands down either side about 1" short of the very ends and braided them to give it a nice look. The knife strap that holds the handle in the sheath was also from my old belt. Im not done with this one yet.





This Ulu blank I found online. Its a nice think piece of steel which came with no cutting edge. I made the grip out of an old shovel handle I had laying around that needed to be uses for something. The finish edge ended up tapered about another 3/4" back, skandanavian style edge, because of the thicker stock steel(1/8"). This was an xmas present for my little Sis. Ulus are fun to make becuase they dont take as long as a knife does to make. I just need the leather to make the sheaths for them.

The last knife I just started, it also sports a shovel handle stock wood. I think thats why it cracked on both sides of the handle. (The handle was already cracking from being weathered)I did a little bit of file work and carving out a paw print with the dremel which took some time. I fastened the handle to the blade, then my supplies came in a day later, so I did the file work and dremel work with the handle already on there. Kinda a pain in the butt just cause the metal shavings discolors the wood.



If there are any knife makers out there, what tools do you absolutely need to make things a lot easier for your work?

nunamuit, really nice work! Im not a knife maker....but my son is. He actually passed the blade smith test with one of his knives. He hand forges his own blades and tempers them himself. His tools are pretty simplistic. He uses an angle grinder a lot. He did buy one of those small belt knife grinders. I bought a worksharp knife sharpener with the belts and he uses it at times now. Only advice I would give is that you should realize you can sell those knives easily. For good money too. My son sells every one he makes without even trying. His average price is about $400, some more some a bit less, and he doesn't even advertise. Just word of mouth.

It is good to reuse the materials ! That is the way of the past ,we got by with what was available near home >.Nice work.

Nice work.

Cool, looks like a fun new hobby. I like how you are using repurposed materials. I've thought about making a knife but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Yukon-Nice, I can see a potential for making and selling them. I already have an interested buyer for the wooden handle knife. He just said,"call me when its ready". Im going to look into a belt/ sanding wheel combo for my first purchase. Ive just never sold knives before, so I don't know how to price them out.

The sheep horn handle knife was my first one I ever made so I gave it away as a gift. My uncle never seen it, he got into a snowmobile accident and the medivac plane could not land due to weather. My Aunt has it now, I told her I would finish it up after the Holidays was over.

I done up this side last night. It turned out ok...i guess. Detailing complete, now to start the sheath next.

Excellent, very nice work.

Ben,

Your work is looking great. Pretty soon the "Forged in Fire" show on History Channel will be flying you back to New York City to compete for the big money!

And speaking of that show, when you are in town sometime, let me introduce you to Mark Knapp at Mark Knapp custom knives. Mark is a trapper and actually was on "Forged in Fire" last summer. And he actually won the grand prize! He knew your dad and would love to meet you. Meanwhile, Google up his knife making business.

Pete

Pete, thanks. I dont know about all that jazz, Im just trying to pass time up at work. My wife might be heading down in a couple of weeks for appointments, so I may get a trip to FBKS soon. We will see, but yeah Ill check out his knives.
B3

Nun:

Jason Knight ( the guy I mentioned ) is one of the personalities on the forged in fire show. In his opinion, if you don't forge, you are not a mastersmith. Propane is popular in Alaska.

Piperniner-It would be nice to forge, but at $425 for 100 lb propane tank. I might end up with some very expensive knives!

Lots of talent out there, you don't need to be a master or forge to pursue an interest and produce quality work. Just have fun.

I use metal chisels,a 1 inch belt sander (under 100$) with various grits of sanding belts, wheel grinder, a mapp torch, a small anvil or steelplate, hacksaw and a 3 lb hammer

I also make the Ulu blades out of handsaws, and grind the blade slowly to avoid heat and annealing the edge.

Muskox and sheep horn make excellent handle scales, and like wood , dont freeze to your hands.

You good work will be excellent in a few years,if ya keep at it.

Ben is there any coal in the river banks there ?

Ben,

Trips to NY to be on TV notwithstanding, you should meet trapper Mark Knapp and see his knife making shop and forges in Fairbanks!

Pete

Are you making your own blades or buying blanks and putting handles on them. I put together a bunch of knives but I don't do the blade work myself.

Few and far between, no big deposits around that I know of.

It's on my "to do" list now. He's in a league of his own for sure!

I'm just buying the blade blanks and fastening handles on them right now.

Nice work Nunamiut.I put one together recently,from a finished blade and used a Dremel to engrave a wolf track on the pommel.The handle is made from a wolf humerus bone.

I second meeting Mark. In the mean time, try www.bladeforums.com
mt
If you want to sell knives, I suggest trying walrus ivory handles.

I have plenty of sheep horn for knives, and some ivory too, also a few broken shovel handles. I'm still inthe process of figuring stuff out, so I'm not in a hurry to cut up good material.

[quote=Taximan]Nice work Nunamiut.I put one together recently,from a finished blade and used a Dremel to engrave a wolf track on the pommel.The handle is made from a wolf humerus bone.

[/quote
Sweet! What did you us to dye the inside of the track?
I'd like to try a jaw bone for a handle sometime, maybe when I get better

I seen that forum the other day, almost as cool as this one.

"Sweet! What did you us to dye the inside of the track?
I'd like to try a jaw bone for a handle sometime, maybe when I get better"

I believe I just used a Sharpie on that.

This knife making forum on Tradgang has some good stuff:
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=110

I've been working on a new knife when I have time. This one sports a dahl sheep horn with a walrus ivory insert below the blade. The carvings came out better then I thought they would, usually my animal drawlings come out looking like something totally different then what they are suppose to be. This one is a bear theme knife. Im planning on adding some scrimshaw to it to make it pop out more.





I made some trips hauling traps and hunting caribou the last few weekends. So far I picked up a few amaguq(wolves) while driving around. Im scheduled to take some time off of work to do some trapping so hopefully I can actually do some trapping.

Lets see a picture of the whole knife.

Nuna, Really neat. The one good knife maker around here has every tool possible, and probably uses his belt sanders more than any other tool. With a belt sander, he can grind without too much heat, shape, polish and buff. If you had to get one tool, that's the one you'd probably need. Keep posting your work

You got yourself a nice big wof ! Great

Nice job on the knife. Wolf is huge. I think packs of those should be released in the 10 most liberal cities so those folks can see how cute and natural they are.

Sorry,don't mean to hijack,Nunamiut.

I just bought a new belt/grinding disc sander and a new band saw. I think my next tool will be a drill press.

This guy had some short legs on him, but as far as girth and weight he was a pig! I took a good look at the pack a couple of weeks ago and there was a few more pigs in it too. Im hoping I catch the alpha, cause he made the pack members look tiny.

You know what, you can make some really gently tapered boat staves, gunwales, and ribs with that belt grinder\sander, too...wait, did I just dream up another project for you to do?
Looking forward to your posts!

Beautiful knife taximan. Do you have any recommendations on what type of drill bit I can use to drill through tempered steel? Id like to drill holes through the tang for a corby bolt, just so my stick tang knife handles are a little bit stronger.

Nunamiut,I not a real good steel guy.I bought a finished blade for that knife and it had a hidden tang so there was no drilling.I think most real knife makers either drill before tempering or don't temper the tang.Some of the knife making supply companies may list what you need or possibly you could anneal the tang before installing the handle.

As I am a knife nut, I do have some opinions about some steels. Not all Damascus steels are equal. There are a pile of Damascus steels available from Pakistan, India and China. These are loaded with lead, cadmium, arsenic and other toxic junk mixed in with the mystery metals you can see. If you want a cheap but nice looking Damascus, these are the blanks to choose. The down side is obvious (health issues). If you want high quality, clean, durable American-made Damascus, there is Alabama Damascus. A small forge in Alabama. They produce their own patterns on air hammers. It is more expensive than the toxic mystery metal stuff from abroad, but it is definitely higher quality.

I got this knife finished up 100%. I used some acrylic paint to make things pop out a little bit more, and also for the scrimshaw work. "Aklaq" means grizzly bear in Inupiaq. I thought about cutting the sheath to fit the blade but this was more of an experiment project more then anything. As you can see the leather blade edge stop(what ever you want to call it)is sewn in towards the middle of the sheath so the blade sits nice and tight, regardless of the oversized sheath. I really like the scandanavian style belt loop, so Im still trying to figure out my own variation. I did all the stamping,dying and sewing myself, so I learn a little bit more every time after a sheath is complete. I gifted this baby to an old family friend from Sweden, who just spent 2 weeks visiting us, we got a metal roof on our cabin down at the treeline while he was here and did some camping together. His name is Bjorn which means bear in Swedish.







The military was here doing cold weather training so I was busy helping them out just getting paid to guide them out to different locations for their training. I got to look through some nice night vision goggles, and I can guarantee you I will be disappointed if I ever look through some store bought stuff from this day forward! They were pretty clear even looking straight across the valley! Amazing!
So now that things have slowed down a bit, I might be able to get out and do some trapping towards the weekend! Travel safe this spring!

Cool knife. Nice big wolf too. I thought i already commented on the wolf when i first seen the picture but i didnt. Looks like a well fed wolf thats for sure!

Try “ Mad Dog” drills for your tempered drilling. One of the hardest drills that I am away of. They also resharpen for the cost of shipping.
Nice work .

Thanks. Yeah we got caribou hanging around this year so they are eating good

Thanks. I'll have to look them up online, thanks for the heads up