the link is to my Youtube about the blade my Wife had made for me.after a local metal smith,Hans Nelson,pounded out the blade from a very old wood rasp the blade sat on my desk for almost a year while i thought about what sort of handle i would put on it.
i wanted a shorter blade because for my sort of knife work i don't need or want a big blade for camp chores.
the handle was a different story.for that i wanted a good heavy handle i could get a firm grip on.i have tried out many types of knives and found a rounder handle does not dig into my palm and that the stacked leather washers provide a good grip.
i cut off the first try at the grip because it was too much,that is it had Cedar from a tree that was hit by lighting near my camp and Birch bark washed up on a favorite lake.see where this is going? a simple camp knife was turning into a mountain man rendezvous showpiece.
in the end i used leather washers with red fiber spacers and a aluminum end cap.i'm not going to be splitting wood with this,my little Gransfors hand ax will do that work but even in the first tests i could see that blade cuts easy.Han's did not put any sort of a fancy grind to the edge but the high carbon steel in that old rasp takes a very sharp edge,it was from a "junk" sale at a old farm.
next project is the sheath and like the handle i'm still mulling over just what form it will take.i have two thick sheets of saddle leather that i'll wet form in some way but if i'll go with a Swedish style pouch or the more American one with a big belt loop and a strap over the handle with a snap is still up in the air.
the YouTube link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4mihF4KbTo
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