Mocatagan, Crooked knife

[Tor helge]

Hi

I found and old rusted mora knife (wood handled) in a tool box and thought I would make something useful of it (not that a mora isn`t useful:)).
Lately I`ve read about the crooked knife and its use and I desided to make one. The finished article below.

http://home.online.no/~tbygjord/artimages/crooked_knife.jpg

I split the mora`s handle and removed it, sanded the blade removing the rust. Then I sanded the blade flat on one side making it a chisel ground blade.
The blade was then heated with a kerosene stove and bent. Both the tip and the tang. I intend to use it as a spoon knife as well. The tang was cut to about 7-8 cm.
Strangely the heat treat of the blade doesn`t seem affected as I thought it would. A file just slide of the edge, it is very sharp and holds the edge as a mora should.
Under a late night walk along the river a handle for the knife was obtained, a nice bent piece of Bird Cherry (Prunus Padus). The wood was shaped (knife and sand paper) and dried (microwave oven:rolleyes: ). I carved an animal head in the handle end. Makes it more of a conversation piece:D .

http://home.online.no/~tbygjord/artimages/bearhead.jpg

http://home.online.no/~tbygjord/artimages/bearhead2.jpg

The wood came out nice from the "drying", only two minor cracks occured.
I then drilled and burnt out the tang channel in the wood, filled it with pine resin/coal mix and fastened the blade. The handle was then reenforced with artificial sinew and dyed with some brown oilpaint (pigment and linenseed oil type).


Tor Helge

[mayfly]

nice bit of work!

[KNC]

Great piece of work there.
I especially like the animal head.

[heath]

That look great, I'd like to try making one of these. Do you have a picture of theunderside of the handle?

[Tor helge]

That look great, I'd like to try making one of these. Do you have a picture of theunderside of the handle?

Here you go!

http://home.online.no/~tbygjord/artimages/crooked_knife_back.jpg

Tor

[mr dazzler]

How does it cut and have you made any thing with it yet? I much prefer the palm up grip even with the regular mora hook's and use it almost exclusively (incidentally I found out that the frosts drawknife I mentioned a while ago works a whole lot better if I use one or both hand's with a palm up grip, it stabilises the cut much better if I am cutting towrds me)

[Tor helge]

How does it cut and have you made any thing with it yet? I much prefer the palm up grip even with the regular mora hook's and use it almost exclusively (incidentally I found out that the frosts drawknife I mentioned a while ago works a whole lot better if I use one or both hand's with a palm up grip, it stabilises the cut much better if I am cutting towrds me)

It cuts very well. Small fine strips of wood issliced off with ease.
I haven`t made anything with it yet though, the knife is only a few days old.
On sunday I`m off for an 14 days army course so I have to wait until after that to actually make something with it.
I`ll come back with the test results later.

Tor

[robin wood]

Nice looking tool. I really like the freedom these tools give over a drawknife, I bet they really become part of your arm when you have used them for while. Interesting that it didn't get soft after heating, presumably it must have air hardened after you bent it, I sometimes find with thin knives that they cool sufficiently fast in air to harden without quenching.

[brancho]

Nice work indeed