Cottage Trip + Recent work

After one and a half years of no vacation, I finally had the chance to get some downtime and spent a week at a cottage with the family up in Haliburton on Kennisis Lake. A little buggy for the time of year, but the weather held out for the most part to give ample time for exploring by kayak and some hiking, BBQ, and of course campfires!

The axe I refurbished a finally got a good workout from some impromptu woodcarving. This was after finding out that the only spatula in the cottage was a horrible worn out plastic one that was leaving plastic bits in whatever we made. Luckily there were plenty of decent sized seasoned maple logs to choose from and I selected a log with what I thought had fairly straight grain. I split off a 3/8" board from it, and roughed out the profile using light chops with the axe, then final carving and scraping with a knife to dial in the tapers and give it a smooth finish. Overall not too bad for a first effort I think, but in hindsight I think this would have been easier with a hatchet or smaller axe, maybe that'll be my next project.

Spatula after initial shaping with the axe.

Finer shaping using a knife (made by me a few years ago). 

The finished product.

Cottaging aside, I just finished my most recent request for a fire kit, and came up with a new design for a bottle opener/ striker/ pocket chisel (if anyone has any ideas for a better name please let me know haha).  The design evolved from an earlier bottle opener design I made from an off cut, but with the addition of a chisel to allow for cutting, scraping, or light prying.  The tool is 1/8" O1 tool steel and the firesteel is black canvas micarta with a bright red double stripe.  The sheath itself is vegetable tanned leather and patterned similar to an earlier piece, but with the addition of a brass dee ring to allow for more carry options.

On another note, I am almost finished tuning and setting up my 2x72" TDM belt grinder that I got from Canadian Knife Maker.  After getting some belts, making a stand, and modifying the platen I'll be putting up pictures of the finished product.

Cheers!

Firesteels!

Hi all,

Somewhat of a delayed post, but for those who haven't seen my other site yet, I've been working on a batch of some firesteels, and have slowly getting completed. I will be experimenting with different handle materials, and this round it's canvas micarta, next batch I might put some of that denimite and hardwood to use. The stainless steel ones are also pretty fun to work with, much easier to crank out too. That said special attention needs to be made when choosing the alloy those. Don't use 304 stainless if you're doing anything that needs to be machined easily, don't ask how I know haha. All in all these have been a fun project, and I think I will be doing these more often in the future!

As it stands right now I have 1 micarta and 1 stainless steel one available from an order that fell through, but will be posting more as they are completed. To go with these I also done up a batch of hardened O1 strikers that double as scrapers, which in hindsight I think could be more compact, but are still very functional in throwing sparks. The most effective striker I feel would be the spine of a knife or saw, but in a pinch these are great and more effective.  It also has given me some ideas on upping the functionality, maybe making something along the lines of a simple kiridashi or woodworking striking knife to increase the functionality beyond scraping and as a striker, but those will be a later project .

Anyhow, here are some pics of the process and some finished products - enjoy! (more photos will be added soon)

  

Now in a variety of colours and flavours!

(not the best photo but the best I could do with my phone one handed)

Stainless firesteel with a prototype bottle-opener also in O1 and leather pocket sheath

First Commissioned Knives (4/4)

Finally all done my first batch of knives! I'm happy to say that this one probably has the best stitching on the sheath, so practice makes perfect! After much trial and error from past projects, I found using a stitching chisel to layout the spacing followed by drilling the holes on the drill press does help greatly with aligning the alignment. From here on out I'm going to be fulfilling some custom orders but  I'll try to work in personal projects when I can. Don't have too much else to say about it, so on with the pics!

First Commissioned Knives (3/4)

Hi all,

Just a quick update on the commissioned knives, haven't been able to work on them as often as I wanted due to work and job searching, but I'm making progress! I finally finished the third knife - probably the most complex of the set given that it has a matching ferro rod and kydex lined leather sheath, but I think it turned out well.  This time around I used the stitching chisel alone to punch the holes for sewing, I think that's the way to go for the best consistency in stitching.  Again, the steel is O1 and the handle materials are natural micarta and vulcanized fiber. Anyhow, enjoy the pics!