9-½” overall
4-¼ “ with convex grind 1/8 “ blade thickness.
Handles - white birch and ash burl wood.
The blade was converted from an old high carbon stainless steel 10 inch Kershaw chef’s knife.
The ash burl was harvested from a nearby forest.
The white birch is from a tree in my back yard that I planted 40 years ago.
Nickel silver pin, sheet stock and spacer material are leftover’s from previous builds.
The leather sheath was bought unfinished.
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Everything with this build was pretty much straight forward and fairly simple except attaching the handle.
This was a conversion from a chef’s knife where the tang runs high on the blade and not in the middle.
Drilling the tang hole into the wood was very tricky as the circumference of the burl wood was the size of a half dollar which left me with not a lot of material to spare and no room for error.
It had to be drilled offset and not in the center of the wood cylinder. 1/8 of an inch close to the edge and nearly the whole length. My little portable drill press isn’t big enough to do the job so it was done free hand with a cordless drill. I didn’t think my hands were that steady to accomplish anything like that but taking my time and only drilling and removing a little material at a time paid off. I think a little luck was on my side also. I don’t think I could do it again if I tried. The hidden tang is pinned and has no pummel.
The hole in the tang was already there under the old vulcanized rubber handle.
The wood handle is made from three sections.
The first being what I call the bolster, made of birch and half wrapped and pinned with a hammered nickel silver strap to add more strength, finished off with an ebony black stain.
The second being the main part of the handle made of ash burl finished natural.
The third is the end cap which is also made from birch and is pinned through the tang finished with a light walnut stain. The sections are separated by red, black and white spacer material stacked.
The whole handle is doweled and held together with metal pins and two ton epoxy.
Had one small hair line crack form during assembly on the top of the bolster section.
Decided to hide it with a nickel silver hammered thumb grove pinned and glued.
Used a couple of coats of tung oil and paste finishing wax for water proofing.
Formed and fitted the pre-made leather sheath dyeing it a medium dark brown.
Also added 6 foot of cordage with a braided leather lanyard.
Sharpening this convex grind was a little tricky. But after a few hours of research on the net and making a sharpening board and a leather strop, I have now, the sharpest knife I’ve ever held.
I’m not afraid of any sharp instrument but this knife scares me a little.
I’m going to cut up some card board boxes and see if I can dull this thing down a little.
Next time it needs sharpening I’ll cut out the super fine 2500 grit sandpaper.
I have never cut myself with a knife and I’d like to keep it that way.
The knife didn’t cost much in materials. Around $20 bucks.
More time in labor than anything maybe 30 hours or so.
If I did my research and used all my know how the right way, I think this bushcraft could stand it’s own ground up against any high quality expensive one.
She might not be as pretty as a store bought one but I’m gonna’ appreciate it more cause I made it myself.
J W
:Similar to the chef's knife used:
:Completed Bushcraft:
