12 Questions for Aussie Knifemakers

I've been fortunate in my knifemaking, in that I've been able to learn a lot of things from online forums that would have taken longer had I been sourcing the information from written material. The advantage with reading "How to" posts is that if you have a question, you can ask the author directly, and you get a lot of varying opinions and perspective rather than the input of one, or several people.
Don't get me wrong, I love printed text and I'm never going to be satisfied with my collection of books, but it's nice being able to have a search engine at your disposal when you want to find out if there's a better way of something you're stuck on.

Over a series of posts, I'm going to be interviewing some of the knifemakers that frequent Laventrix Knife Forum see how other makers approach the craft.

Some of the knifemakers I'll be interviewing have been doing it for some time, and others are (like myself) fairly new to things, so it should provide an interesting dynamic.

Tang Stamp

I had a tang stamp made recently. It's the same logo I use on the site but significantly smaller - so small in fact that I've actually been having a lot of difficulty testing it out on scrap bits of steel.
I'm not sure if it's actually the size that's the issue, but more the shape.. or maybe I just need to practice a whole lot more before I can get it to look right. It seems to pull to the left or the right whenever I hammer it so I end up with half a logo embedded in the steel.

On the other hand, as a song goes it "looks good in leather" so I've got no complaints if I want to stamp sheaths. I'm considering building a press with a hydraulic jack so I can align it properly and not have to hold it with one hand while using the other to attack it with a hammer.

Another consideration is that I go back to my design and put a little more work into it. We'll see though.

A New Knife

This was one of the timber swap knives I made; for a fella who was kind enough when sending me some beautiful sheoak to include a hand turned pen and awl.
The knife is made from a Nicholson file and I've finished it with a vinegar patina (an experiment that worked out quite nicely). The handle is made from corian, black and white spacer material and kingwood, with a Danish oil and wax finish.

The knife's new owner and I agreed that a sheath was in order and I decided to make up a firesteel while I was at it.

A Different Kind of Knife...

...and even a spoon. It's a little late to be making this post considering I made these fiddleback redgum butter knifes and a jam spoon for Mothers' Day, but I forgot to take a photo at the time and keep forgetting to take my camera when I see Mum. Until now.



Forgive the B&W photo. I've since learned that using a red and white checkered tablecloth as a background leads to very red, overexposed images.

What Makes a Knife a Knife?

As you (the reader of this blog) may be aware, I have been following The Suburban Bushwacker for some time now and recently made him a knife to review. Well this isn't a link to the review (that's to come later) but I'd like to share this informative article he's written on buying the right knife.


If you have a general love of the outdoors, and/or bushcraft I'd also recommend having a look through his other posts. In fact, have a read even if you're not into bushcraft and spent your days in a darkened room surfing the net.. it might help.

Photo Credit: Todd Hill - Primitive Point