yakut knives

S

soundmind

KNIFE MAKER
I like learning about northern knives and pulling from traditional concepts.

I'm intrigued about the grind on yakut knives so I'm going to make one. I don't know all the different ways, but I'm going for basic cross section. Still need to find out the edge spec. I think it tapers to nothing.

Here's my forging: I used a bearing race.
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I discarded the top one. The bottom one had to go back into the forge to get more of a fuller.
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Here's a couple more pictures of the progress I made:

Even with the extra forging I had to be careful how much I grinded away.
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Out of the temper oven today. 3 two hour cycles at 400,
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Didn't come out as long as I'd hoped.

I need to double check the grinding specs and decide on the handle.
 
Very cool, I only learned about these knives about a year ago. There is a YouTube channel with mini docs all about life in yakutia that I always find fascinating. I video popped up in my suggested of a yakut Smith making one of their traditional knives and I have been wanting an authentic one for awhile now for my collection!

What kind steel are you using and what are you thinking about doing for handle material?


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Thanks, yep, there's are a lot of videos on you tube about these, including as knife show exhibitions.

The steel is a bearing race. Since the blade turned out so small, I'm not sure how I'm going to use it, so not sure what kind of handle to make... mainly the size.

I'll probably use plain, straight grained birch for now.
If it turns out nice, or if I make a better one out of known steel, I have a piece of dry alder with some knotty grain that I'll use. It's a northern wood, "aka diamond willow". It's light and stains red. I might try walnut stain to darken the red color a little.
 
soundmind said:
Thanks, yep, there's are a lot of videos on you tube about these, including as knife show exhibitions.

The steel is a bearing race. Since the blade turned out so small, I'm not sure how I'm going to use it, so not sure what kind of handle to make... mainly the size.

I'll probably use plain, straight grained birch for now.
If it turns out nice, or if I make a better one out of known steel, I have a piece of dry alder with some knotty grain that I'll use. It's a northern wood, "aka diamond willow". It's light and stains red. I might try walnut stain to darken the red color a little.
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Sounds cool, looking forward to seeing your progress/final product. Please post more pics as you go

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Good job forging - Please do continue thread with final photos. I'd never heard of that style of knife so I've learned something. Looks much like the puukko.

That bearing race (52100?) should be a very good steel.
 
Thanks for posting this @soundmind It reminds me of why I started blacksmithing all those years ago. I will have to make one of these shortly. I really like traditional knives like Ulus and Puukkos. I have made an ulu or two and several Puukkos so I will study up on the Yakut and make some. I am curious to see how well the knives cut when compared to a symmetrical grind. Thanks again, what a cool project.
 
Starting at 8:13 this guy explains the reasons behind the knife's design. The entire video is good (wish we had birch bark in the south) too.

 
Chris Railey said:
I will study up on the Yakut and make some. I am curious to see how well the knives cut when compared to a symmetrical grind.
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That's whats kinda got me.

I only have a second. Check out shurap on you tube. He's got a good video and link to his website and an article you can translate on google. It leaves some words translated wrong, but you can kind of get the idea with context. - kinda - I'm still working on understanding some of what he's referring to.
 
at about 3:42

Combine that picture with dc knives grind calculator for adjustng to the height of the blade. Then land at about .030 - .020 behind the edge?

That's where I'm at for now, until I get back out there.

Thanks for the videos. I'll have a look here pretty soon.
 
That looks complicated. My question, tradition aside, is if that grind is superior to a scandi or flat grind, given the complexity of the build.
 
opaul said:
That looks complicated. My question, tradition aside, is if that grind is superior to a scandi or flat grind, given the complexity of the build.
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That is part of my curiosity, too. From a forging standpoint, it is not a difficult piece of work. When you forge in the deep fuller, the opposite side will naturally take the shape shown here because as you push the steel toward the other side, things start to stretch, and the opposite side will curl (convex) because you are making it wider. I imagine that is why the fuller side is ground flat (like a chisel) because as the opposite side gets longer and curls, the fuller side will become concaved, so to make a "straight" cutting edge while maintaining the convex shape on the opposite side, it must be ground flat. If you did not grind it flat, the knife would look like a lathe gouge. Honestly, from a pure-cutting viewpoint, I do not expect it will be a super performer, but that is just guesswork at this point. I do expect it will be well suited for bushcraft work like in the video I posted. I like the idea of having the flat side to use as a draw knife. In fact, that is really what the design reminds me of, a drawknife profile (except for the fuller). If you try to push/pull cut with a drawknife, it will do it but I do not think it would be a great performer in a pure cutting exercise. The way I see this knife, I think the intention here was purely functional. A knife that can do all of the cutting the culture needs. Cutting, shaving, drilling, flattening, scraping, cleaning fish and deer, and cutting stuff up for supper, etc. Where we have a knife for each one of those activities my guess is they did not. Sorry for the long post but this is the kind of stuff I nerd out over.
 
Chris Railey said:
That is part of my curiosity, too. From a forging standpoint, it is not a difficult piece of work. When you forge in the deep fuller, the opposite side will naturally take the shape shown here because as you push the steel toward the other side, things start to stretch, and the opposite side will curl (convex) because you are making it wider. I imagine that is why the fuller side is ground flat (like a chisel) because as the opposite side gets longer and curls, the fuller side will become concaved, so to make a "straight" cutting edge while maintaining the convex shape on the opposite side, it must be ground flat. If you did not grind it flat, the knife would look like a lathe gouge. Honestly, from a pure-cutting viewpoint, I do not expect it will be a super performer, but that is just guesswork at this point. I do expect it will be well suited for bushcraft work like in the video I posted. I like the idea of having the flat side to use as a draw knife. In fact, that is really what the design reminds me of, a drawknife profile (except for the fuller). If you try to push/pull cut with a drawknife, it will do it but I do not think it would be a great performer in a pure cutting exercise. The way I see this knife, I think the intention here was purely functional. A knife that can do all of the cutting the culture needs. Cutting, shaving, drilling, flattening, scraping, cleaning fish and deer, and cutting stuff up for supper, etc. Where we have a knife for each one of those activities my guess is they did not. Sorry for the long post but this is the kind of stuff I nerd out over.
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Well said Chris
 
I agree, I think it's meant for bushcraft, hunting, etc. I don't think it's what I'd want for any kind of food prep.

But the videos mention food prep, so maybe with some experimenting, you could figure out the right edge geometry for even starchy foods.
Mine will be small, so I could do that with this one.

What throws me off is the angles seem backwards to me. I'm not a carpenter so correct me if I'm wrong, but usually isn't the chisel flat for the side of the wood you want to keep, and the angle is for what you want to go away. That's how I use them but this knife has flat on the side that goes away and the obtuse angles on the side you're keeping. This is for right handed knives.
 
soundmind said:
ground too far again
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If I can offer an unsolicited opinion, I think you started with steel that was too thin so you cannot get the fuller deep enough to survive the flat grinding on the fuller side. You have a convex shape on the non-fuller side, so you are doing it right. With a little thicker steel I think you will nail it.
 
Chris Railey said:
With a little thicker steel I think you will nail it.
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I do want to make another one already. Larger, with a fuller forged closer to the edge.

The metal didn’t want to move into the opposite side like i thought too, b/c the anvil face. It spread out the width, which makes sense, too. You can tell by that last picture. I had’t ground out the bow in the middle yet there.

I tried holding that fuller into the edge of my anvil and hitting the spine and edge, to truly forge the convex shape. But yeah, i can see that the peice i started with was compartively small and that a larger peice would actually give me a better shot.

Thanks Chris.

BTW I think i will end up with a lightweight 3” necker.
 
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