Making a Bushcraft Knife – Part 4

Posted on 13/03/2014 by Ray-H

I have managed to get my blank Rockwell tested thanks to Chris Grant who makes the MaChris and MiniMac knives that were designed by Jon Mac from Spoon Carving First Steps. I have been talking with Chris about having a Sloyd knife made to my own design, I was sending him up the drawings along with some antler and Chris offered to test the blank so I sent that at the same time.

I had been aiming for a hardness of around 56-57 Rockwell when I treated it in an electric oven and was not too far off this in the results, I am not a metallurgist so I wont go into the details of the hardening and tempering process.

knife_blank_results

Something I had considered all along was getting the blade retreated to a higher hardness and after talking to Chris the blade was retreated to 60 HRC with a drawn spine. The bevel was made slightly hollow to help with the initial sharpening as I refine my sharpening technique. Next I will be selecting the handle material, fittings and assembling the handle before sanding it to shape.

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Podcast Episode 17

Posted on 06/03/2014 by Ray-H

The perils of drunken misadventures with the Amazon buy now button.

In episode 17 we hear why shopping under the influence is not a good idea, get excited about the Bushcraft Show 2014 and talk about Frontier Bushcraft’s upcoming tracking course with David Scott-Donelan.

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Links:
Woodland Ways
Frontier Bushcraft
London Spoon Club
Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine
The Bushcraft Show

Download via iTunes OR Via our Feed

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Bushcraft Tools – Pyro Piston

Posted on 05/03/2014 by Ray-H

When this arrived I sat at my desk eating my lunch while fiddling with it, well designed and containing all that it needs within itself.

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I first used it while showing some Scouts different fire lighting methods and was able to get an ember on the second compression, it is easy to set up with only a few preparation steps to take before it is ready to use.

As with other items I have got from Bushcraft Tools in the past this is a very hardy piece of kit and is a great addition to my firelighting kit, priced at £18.99 you can buy them online from the Bushcraft Tools website.

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Podcast Episode 16

Posted on 30/01/2014 by Ray-H

Talking knives with Ben Orford.

Again we venture out to Malvern to interview Ben Orford and talk about knife sharpening, leather working and ask some listeners questions.

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Links:
Ben Orford
Ben’s YouTube channel
Step-By-Step Knifemaking: You Can Do It! by David Boye
Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine
The Bushcraft Show

Download via iTunes OR Via our Feed

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Outdoor Adventure Manual

Posted on 02/01/2014 by Ray-H

I received a copy of the Outdoor Adventure Manual and I was looking forward to reading it after a few conversations with some of the contributors about the sections they had helped with. The size of the book brings me back to my childhood and looking at the Haynes car manuals, I can almost smell the familiar smell of feu orange and motor oil I associate with them.

Outdoor_Adventure_Manual

The sections are very well illustrated and also include a few comprehensive step by step projects of varying difficulties that are easy to follow, I particularly like the step by step spoon carving article by Jon Mac. Packed full of information and ideas it would make the ideal gift for kids big and small to learn new skills and refresh old ones.

You can buy the Outdoor Adventure Manual here

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