two cane choppers

Doug Lester

Well-Known Member
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These are the last two knives that I finished for my first knife show this weekend. They're both so similiar that I was able to use the same pattern to make the sheaths. The OAL's are 15". The blades are 10" long with a 9" edge, 2" wide and 1/4" thick at the ricasso and 2 1/4" wide and 3/16" at the tip. The steel is 1084 that I got from Aldo, hardened in oil and tempered at 400 degrees. They have a flat primary grind and a convex secondary grind.

The handle on the light one is of Osage Orange with copper Corbies. The dark handled one is of Brazilian Rosewood with stainless steel Corbies. Both were finished with boiled linseed oil and buffed. I tried to do an acid and heat treatment to darken the Osage Orange but I had a problem when I tried to remove the raised grain with steel wool. The steel wool must have rusted slightly and it formed a black stain on the wood that I had to sand off.

The design of the knifes is for chopping but they both are sharp enough to pop hairs and even cut through a standing water bottle rather well, though the rosewood handled one has to make contack just right to not send the bottle flying across the yard. They chopped a 2X4 and retained their edge real well.

I learned to grind at a slightly different angle from the previous belt to make sure that I got all of it's grinding marks off. I took the out to 45 micron Norax belts, approx. 650 grit, and then went to a Scotch-Brite belt to produce a satin finish. That went a lot better once I learned to grind away the course grinding marks.
 
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