Forged knife from a drag harrow

jkf96a

Well-Known Member
About five years ago, just a little way into my knifemaking journey, I was in a stage where I was scrounging materials from all over. One of the things I came home with was a drag harrow tooth from my great-grandfather's farm near Spicewood, TX. It was too large for the capability of my forge at the time, so it sat on my workbench waiting on a "round tuit." Last July, I built a forge that could handle it. Last November, at a Big Country Knife Club hammer in, I finally forged the blade. Now that we're into March, I finally have the blade finished out. I figured with the rustic background of the steel, I should go with a complete rustic theme, and since it was family steel, I'd use family wood. We had our hardwood floors in our house refinished in January, and this material is some of the red oak floor boards. They were stamped on the backs as harvested in 1955 and milled in Gilmer, TX. A wrought iron guard, fluted ferrule, and fileworked finial finish out the package. This knife was built takedown, but is now glued. The right hand sheath is tooled with an oak leaf theme, to match the traditional "vibe" and the handle material. The steel is unknown, but tests at RC 59. The knife has a 600 grit hand finish and a convexed edge grind. Oal is 10 1/2" with a 5 3/8" blade. The blade is about 1/8" thick at the ricasso, with distal taper. I was really hoping I could put this one in the hands of Fisk and Rhea at a get together we were having, but it got rained out. As it turns out, the event host bought the knife, so they'll get to see it anyhow :)
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Mark side
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Back side
 
What an awesome story and build! Congratulations on your perseverance and determination to finish out what is obviously a beautiful knife! Just love the old steel and can't argue with R59!
 
That's a real nice knife Jason. I'm all over recycling old stuff, especially old stuff that can be used to make a knife. Really good job!
 
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