Green river knife

[spamel]

I've finally made a knife! Well, maybe not the blade, but I've put the handle on a green river blade I bought off of Andy over on British Blades about a year or so ago! Simple brass pins and black fibre under a lovely piece of rippled chestnut that I won last Hallowe'en in the great competition that Tiffers ran over on British Blades! Epoxied up, clamped in a vice and allowed to cure for a week! Yeah, I didn't get round to going back up to Ratbags' place to carry on with it!

So, I set too with some rasps and 12 inch Bar steward files, sanded it up and oiled it with some wood oil I bought in germany. It seems to work nicely! I need to keep feeding it with oil and want to look into this carbuncle wax or whatever it is called, but I can't wait any longer to show it off! Getting the handle uniform was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, I went for a sort of rounded off square with a bit of angling to the sides and what not, enough, I'll let you look at the pictures!









Thanks for looking, honest and constructive criticism is welcome. I'm thinking on a wooden sheath with a magnet to keep the blade secure. Small brass pins on the outer edges should be nice.

[CLEM]

Very nice mate,well done

[brancho]

I love it its nice and simple and good work for a first attempt.
Are you going to put a leather top on your wooden sheath.

[spamel]

A leather frog, hopefully. Got to find a piece of sweet chestnut to compliment the sweet chestnut scales. A bit of brass pinning from B&Q and hopefully I can make a start soon. I know where there are quite a few sweet chestnuts, I found them yesterday, so I will go and see if there are any downed limbs tomorrow! Unfortunately, the nuts are very crap!

[brancho]

I found the same thing with the chestnuts I found this week and the same with the beech masts

[stotRE]

Nice one spamel mate,cannot wait to see her with the wooden sheath.

[blackwolf1]

Nice looking knife,the Dexter-Russell Green River knives are as good today as they were in ol' Jim Bridger's day. I've fooled around with making Nessmuk style knives w/ the 5" and 6" skinners.They sharpen good and once the handle is shaped a little,they are comfortable.I think one of the best things about them is the cost,good knives at little expense.

[Bernie Garland]

good job spam looks 100% better than the old mountain man knives,id' have that one as my main knife

bernie

[Injati]

Good job Spamel, the wood looks really good.

[spamel]

I'm embarressed to say I still haven't got the sheath sorted for this one! What can I say, I work slowly! It is a good slicer though, I use it for my jerky and other jobs around the kitchen, once I knock the sheath up for it I can take it out and use it outdoors. I wouldn't mind getting it done before the end of this year!

[SOAR]

Your a braver man than me Spam, nice one, looks like a seriously good knife.
I have been saying to myself that I would try and have a go myself but too scared of messing it up, still might get round to it one day.
You must let me have a look when we next meet up.

Simon.

[spamel]

To be honest, that is a cheap blade and therefore I wasn't overly fussed if it went wrong. I think the use of power tools is where you could go wrong unless you are experienced in their use. When you use a file, you can spot the mistake happening and rectify it. With power tools, it will happen way too fast. I used a pillar drill to drill the holes for the brass rod and a sanding wheel on the pillar drill for the final bit of sanding, but the majority of the wood was cut away with a small saw and then filed with rasps and finer files.

Get some cheap knives and give it a go, it is quite fun!

[SOAR]

One day.

[Bernie Garland]

as a maker spam its the biz and you should be proud of it i like that style of knife

[spamel]

Cheers Bernie, still a long way to go before I can make everything like yourself though!

[Bernie Garland]

Cheers Bernie, still a long way to go before I can make everything like yourself though!

you'll get there

bernie

[falcon]

Nice job Spam ..I've done one of those.....tend to use it around home for food prep type jobs. It's probably too thin in the blade for heavier work in the woods though I wouldn't necessarily say that's ruled out.

[SOAR]

Like your festive avatar Spam

[spamel]

Yeah, Eddie lagging "Merry Christmas" in the snow just seems perfect for this time of year!

Here's a bigger version.

[topknot]

Hi spam,
That looks reel good.
I have GR, dose anyone now why they are called green river ?.
Is it because , during the fur trade period the ruler was king george and GR was engraved on the base of the blade ?
Topknot.

[stevec]

looks good mate, i bought a similar looking knife at the kelham island christmas fayre, victorian market, and some of the factories open up, from Kutrite, 6", 50p. has a dark wooden handle. fit and finish is a bit poor. no sheath, but it was 50p!

i'm making a sheath out of an old black leather and fabric warehousing glove. i would warn against this as all you end up with after a lot of work is a sheath that looks like an old glove thats been sewn up incorrectly.

yours looks a lot better than mine does.

all the best
steve