Making a bespoke Bushcraft Knife

My first hand carved knife

 For those who spend time outdoors and practising Bushcraft, the knife is a tool which is so essential that it quickly becomes an extension of your hand. It is only when you find yourself without one, or worse with a poor quality or poorly maintained one that you realise how important they are. From the simplest task of cutting a loose thread to carving an ornate spoon or bowl a high quality cutting tool is essential.

Having grown up through the Scouts and then Air Cadets I was first exposed to knives through the Swiss Army Knife, a phenomenal place to start and a tool which I still rely on today, however as my interests turned towards Bushcraft I moved to fixed blade knives. Fixed blades offer much more security in grip and the obvious removal of the possibility of the blade folding back on your fingers, which even locking blades don't instil me with trust in their ability to prevent. My first fixed blade was a Mora Scout Knife, very basic but it kept a good edge. 

An episode of Ray Mears Bushcraft Survival was what inspired me to make my own knife, he took a blade, hand forged by Jules Petterson (which is available on the Ray Mears website), and fashioned a beautiful birch, antler and leather handle for it.  From then on I had to make my own and immediately began researching how to do it, I found a knife making kit from a Swedish company called Karesuando, they are available from Greenman Bushcraft as a full set or in component parts. It was a great place to start as they contain everything you need to make a traditional Sami style Bushcraft Knife and sheath.

The blade I used was high carbon steel and full tang, which means the metal runs through the full length of the handle. The handle is made by sliding discs onto the tang and either gluing them in place or riveting over the end of the tang. My handle consisted of a brass bolster, English Oak, leather and Curly Birch. The concept is simple, you decide on the materials you wish to use, measure the tang and decide what proportions of each material you want then cut them to shape. With the pieces cut to shape you must drill holes through the centre of each disc and then slide each piece on to the tang and glue them in place. Once the discs have set and are fixed in place the hard work begins, you need to place the blade in a vice and file the handle down to your desired shape. This process can take a long time and if you hands aren't used to this kind of work you can expect them to get sore and tired. 

With handle filed down and resembling the intended shape it is best to switch over to sandpaper, then finally wire wool to create a smoother finish. Treat the handle with warm linseed oil, let it soak in then rub down with wire wool again and retreat with warm linseed oil. The finished product will be a tool which already has a story, it will be asymmetric, imperfect and unique to it's creator, completely and utterly worth the effort.