New Bushcraft knife done and being tested

 So this is it - the new blade I made recently, finally completed. Ilkka might not aprove, for there are mosaic pins on it;-), but he was the one who inspired me again. But then I did not simply want to copy his works, I want to keep my honour after all! Also, I am fond of this handle design, and love convex bevels.

 Handle´s curly birch, the spine thickness is about 5 mm. The blade is made from x75CrSi spring steel, forged to final shape. You can still see it in the rough spine. The blade is of course selectively tempered.

 And another angle. I am currently finding out what works best in a bush beast and it is rewarding to simply try out. I offset the angle of the handle a bit to aid in chopping and hard whittling tasks.

For starters, I carved this flower out of some aged birch twig lying around not doing anything. Worked quite well, but I was not overly fond of it, so I redid the bevel already.

Edge retention seems to be on the spot, but there will be some severe tests coming on. Above is a little vid of how I test the tip strength. I also did some chopping and the edge came out well enough, although the temper is fading a bit towards the handle, but as is, it performs well enough. Quenching wasn´t so easy, for I did it in solid lard, and due to the offset handle I could not get it in deep enough, so I put a block of lard (actually frying fat) on the tub and drew the blade through. As is, I like it, but there´s still room for improvement. Watch this place for more tests!