Ok, here's the Norlund camp hatchet story..... I was in a second hand shop in Phoenix and came across an old rusted Norlund hatchet with a broken handle. Bought it for 20$, then cleaned it up on the belt sander, profiled the head a little thinner to have a bit better biting ability. Rehandled it with a straight tomahawk-style handle, gave it a bit of a burn pattern with a propane torch and soaked it in linseed oil for a few days. Turned out rather well I'd like think.

The last one is my favorite because this is the first knife I made from scratch myself. The blade is 154cm steel with a flat grind edge. Blade is 6.5" long with an overall length of 12". Handle is stabilized walnut with a plain leather sheath.

I love the hatchet. That's my favorite style of head on any chopper.

I really like to Norlund but my Granfors wilderness hatchet has a really special place in my heart as I've carried it for years before the Norlund.

This hatchet talk makes me wonder if my Cabelas order will ever get here. I can't wait to get my hands on that Snow & Nealley Penobscot kindling axe.

The Norwegian fishing knife Hellefisk has a cork handle. I guess it makes it float as with the vintage life raft survival knife that has a blunted tip and the sheath glued to the life raft and probably used to cut parachute cord.

There are Mora blades without handle available, maybe you can manage to make your own bulky hollowed cork handle and put an extra long lanyard to prevent it from floating away:

http://www.ragweedforge.com/HelleCatalog.html



The WWII life raft survival knife:

Thanks for the tip on that knife. However I was just wanting to buy a decent, but inexpensive, knife to give as a small token gift to my friend. That cork handled model is more expensive than I was wanting.

So I ended up ordering two Frosts Moras after reading how people here like them so much. A carbon steel Clipper #840 for myself, and a stainless Craftsman #760 for my kayaking friend.

You could always drill a small hole in the butt of the handle and through a few wine corks and attach them with a small piece of 550 cord. Would more then suppore the weight of the knife in water and be a rather interesting conversation piece where I'm sure more then one person will say "wow, cool idea!"

If you look at the Mora's on Ragnar's website, the #S-2 and #761 definitely do not float. I think that for a knife that would float, you'd need to use a smaller blade with a larger handle. I might use the pic of the WWII liferaft knife and the cork handles as guides.

It might be fugly but you could use a foamy boat key chain on the lanyard.

Frosts Mora Stainless Steel Clipper Knife 860 sinks like a stone i drilled out a lanyard hole for paracord one