Monday, November 3, 2008

Bush Knife


I thought while I was at it with making big knives, I'd try my hand at a bush knife. I guess you could call it a machete but that makes it sound rather aggressive so I'm sticking with bush knife.

A friend kindly handed me a few lengths of HRPO (Hot-Rolled Pickled & Oiled) steel. That stuff is STRONG! I thought I'd try cutting a piece off to work with before I annealed it, and it made a mess of the cutting disc I had on my grinder.

So the design isn't really my own - I borrowed a few ideas from here and there. But I figure that I'm not making and selling these so making one for personal use shouldn't stir anyone up too much.

I wanted to have a billie hook but keep the rest of the design as simple as possible so the handle is just a paracord wrap. I say 'just' lightly though - for functionality purposes I'd take paracord over the nicest of timbers.
I've got the macho knives out of my system for now so I'll be going back to something smaller for the next post.

7 comments:

Panday said...

OR,

That's mighty nice work!

I took the liberty of linking your site at mine. Thanks for following my progress in knifemaking. ;-)

-Panday

Albert A Rasch said...

OR,

Came here via Todd Hill's blog. Nice work. I'll have to come back and give it a real good look. I like your "bush knife," practical, hard working design.

Regards,
Albert A Rasch
TheRaschOutdoorChronicles

BlackRabbit said...

Thanks Albert and Panday for your supportive comments.

A said...

That looks scary, dude!

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

hate to be a nag (I try to leave that to the Ex Mrs SBW), but its been a while, how about some more posts?
SBW

BlackRabbit said...

Doesn't sound like nagging to me SBW - more like a gentle push in the right direction.
I've been neglecting my knifemaking lately and it would now appear that it shows.
I could make excuses about work but the fact is I haven't allowed time for my hobbies recently and that's something I need to get back on track.
Your comment inspired me. I've just gone out to the shed and drawn up 4 new blanks and annealed the steel. When it cools down I can cut the blanks out and start work.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Cool. we're looking forward to seeing them, how about a tutorial in the meantime?

happy crimbo dude!
SBW