My African Knives

[AZDAVE]

That crotch are on the stump should yield some very nice grain patterns for knife scales.

also really like the serbian chefs knife.

 

[Von Gruff]

These are ready for leather now. A pair of NitroV steak knives with red lacewood, a chef with natural lacewood on the 7 1//2 inch nitroV blade. Buffalo Skinner with blister maple over brass on the 1075 blade,. I still have to do the leather and get an edge on the blade with a final clean-up before they can go.

 

[Von Gruff]

A light hunter with spalted buckeye over brass on the SS damascus (raindrop) blade and a bullnose skinner and a boning knife for a farmer (so hard work and little care)
with swamp kauri on the 1084 blades.

 

[Pheroze]

The wood and steel work is just beautiful!

 

[Pheroze]

The spalted maple turned out very nicely. I really like the dark lines of the grain

 

[Pheroze]

I am wondering how you pair the steel to the use? What determines whether you use the 1075 or the 1084, steel for your knife designs?

 

[Von Gruff]

I am wondering how you pair the steel to the use? What determines whether you use the 1075 or the 1084, steel for your knife designs?

All the 10xx series of steels are excellent for knives and have simple heat treating needs and in reality any of them would be just as good as the others for each of the uses I designate them for and in fact many of the other knifemkaers do just that. For my preferences I cut the blades from sheets of .125 in 1084 for most of the slicing or cutting knives . For the heavier hunters that may endure a bit of stress but still in a cutting rather than chopping or hacking usage, I prefer 1075 in the thicker .170. These are both deep hardening steels while the shallow hardening .150 thick 1095 I keep for the specialty knives.
I have a sheet of much thinner (.094) 1095 that I will be using for the Bearded UTI kitchen knife that I will be working on after this week but the camp version of the same knife will be from the .125 1084 as it may need to withstand a little more hard use than the kitchen version.
The mention of deep and shallow hardening is not really relevant to knifemaking as the thickness of the blades almost never has any effect on the depth of the hardening during heatbtreating but for some uses it does have a bearing on the finished use of the steel.

 

[Von Gruff]

Cut out a few more blades today with 4 pair of steak knives, a bird and trout, a mini bullnose skinner, and 3 bearded UTI's (1 camp and 2 kitchen) The top 2 in the center are a wapiti hunter and a pH EDC from a san mai bar I bought in from Australia to try. Have another design I will work with at the same time in an EDC Khukuri so with it and the new bearded UTI's it is going to be an interesting couple of weeks with a couple of days hunting in the mix.

 

[Von Gruff]

New one today. Had an enquiry about an EDC sized Khukuri so have got this trial one under way. A piece of 1075 (.170 /4mm) and decided to do a forge finish on it with a scandi grind. Drill lightened the handle so it has a blade balance for any chopping work it may be used for. I have a hunt organised at the end of the week so want to give it a run on a few goats and hopefully a deer to get some field experience in how it works as a hunting knife.

 

[Chukar]

Looking forward to updates on this!

 

[Mekaniks]

The EDC Khukuri combined with a Safari and a Scalpel would make a great trio

 

[Von Gruff]

The EDC Khukuri combined with a Safari and a Scalpel would make a great trio

I am going to do a 30 degree cross draw for this one and because I want to take it with me at the end of the week dont have time to work through the pattern development but I do want to look at adding a field scalpel to the sheath and possibly a fire steel or honing steel but that will take a bit of working through to get just right. It will carry just in front of the left hip so a safari behind the right hip may work but is three knives really necesary when the Khukuri and the field scalpel would cover a multitude of chores.

 

[bruce moulds]

garry,
the tv series alone has had a number of contestants using the khukri .
you can find some stuff on the net by searching for things like knives alone.
the first winner extolled the virtues of the khukri.
one of them with a feild scalpel or another smaller blade would do a lot of things.
bruce.

 

[Von Gruff]

garry,
the tv series alone has had a number of contestants using the khukri .
you can find some stuff on the net by searching for things like knives alone.
the first winner extolled the virtues of the khukri.
one of them with a feild scalpel or another smaller blade would do a lot of things.
bruce.

I have watched many of the alone series and have seen the use of the khukuri in many of them. I many respects the front portion of the blade is very much like a skinners shape so it will definately be versatile in the hunting field and with the scandi grind will stand up to quiete a bit of hard work. I made this one out of 1075 simply for the time constraints but have a bar of .170 / 4mm O1 tool steel on order to do future blades from. The field scalpel will be from .094 / 2.5mm 1095 when I get to that part of the project. I do have the Bearded UTI to get into production and had put it on hold while I got a few orders sorted over the last number of weeks but will have them back at the front of the que again.

 

[bruce moulds]

garry,
probably a blade you love or hate.
if you are used to another style, you might need to give the khukri a good workout to make a fair comparison.
for survival and backwoods knives you might have a good use for your old stones that are normally chucked out due to becoming curved.
they might well put a convex edge on the blades that do a bit of chopping and less slicing.
1075 might well be a good steel for knives that chop more?
bruce.

 

[Von Gruff]

Yes 1075 is good for a hard use knife but the O1 supposedly has a little more abraision resistance being a dedicated tool steel. Most could use either one for years and never notice a difference but to the nth degree the O1 is supposed to have a minor advanage although very few would ever be able to note a difference having one made from each steel. heat treat makes more difference. I will never chop with a blade so will did my standard 375f (slicing/cutting) temper but for someone who may get into chopping I would go up to 400f.

 

[Von Gruff]

Got the Khukuri EDC finished and like the blade weight if it was to be needed for chopping. It does balance at the front of the bolster so feels nice in hand. The asian rosewood is a really gummy wood and clogs up thesandpaper faster than any other wood I have worked with but it does finish well.

 

[Shootist43]

Von Gruff, that is one pretty sheath. I like the extra tooling. The "rough" finish on the blade brings to mind the knives made from old car springs as described by our members from Bangladesh. These knives see hard use in various parts of the world.

 

[Von Gruff]

The forge finish leaves the hard scale on the blade and certainly does not take away from the visual or the practical with a level of protection against the start of rusting and staining etc.

 

[Von Gruff]

I have been asked about a smaller version of this so a quick draw saw this on paper so when I get the Bearded UTI done I may well revisit this and see what the smaller version feels like in hand. I may just like it it as I am a firm believer in just enough knife to do the job