create a sturdy, clay-tempered integral with a resiliant handle material.
1996 11 clay-tempered steel with bronze-pinned black linen micarta handle 7″ blade, 13″ overall
salvaging, concept, forging, shaping, clay-tempering, finishing, leatherwork
i wanted to continue to develop my integral survival-style camp knife pattern with this piece.
the steel comes from an overload spring and is very tough even at high temperatures so most of the final shaping was done by stock removal.
the hamon is not really as visible as other steels i have worked with, but the hard/tough combo is still in full effect so it’s all good.
the shape is a slightly recurved survival/bowie hybrid and the hira-zukuri profile is very meaty so it could be used for tough jobs like chopping and splitting kindling in an emergency situation.
it has a slightly tapered tang and a partial false double-edge (kanmuri-otoshi-zukuri) but still packs a lot of weight.
it was finished with a sculpted black linen-micarta handle pinned with bronze and a hand-stitched leather sheath.