New backwoods utility knife on the bench

 This is a project I am currently pursuing along the lines of the making of the short sword, and it may as well be a byknife to the big one, along with other tools... German hunting swords often had a set of tools to go along with them, such as a saw, an awl, strikers and several knives.

 The blade is forged out 98%, extremely throroughly annealed and deep - frozen spring steel with a selective triple quench. The handle will be Sambar stag.

We´ll see how it goes... in any case, I threaten to keep you posted.

Grosses Messer-Update

I have been desperately in need to practice my swordsmithing abilities, so after talking to James Elmslie on the sword expo in Solingen last year and the lovely work of Jake Powning I felt inspired to give a "Grosses Messer" (in this case more of a hunting sword) a go for practice. As a single-edged weapon, tempering is a bit easier, for a thick spine makes it not that prone for warping in the quench.

I want to make abundantly clear that I owe a lot to these masters, as I do to Peter Johnsson, Stefan Roth, and Petr Florianek, as you all full well know, and since the occasion arises from time to time, I want to emphasize that I do not want to copy any of their works, but feel inspired by them to eventually find my own style. I also want to say that plagiarism does a lot of harm to a most ancient and honourable art, especially if it is done at a lousy quality. It fouls up things for all of us, and it will eventually ruin the art and the atmosphere of it.

The blade is made from Unimog spring steel with a carbon content of about 75%. The guard and pommel will be wrought iron. The blade will get a selective temper on edge and spine. For scales I plan stag antler or bog oak. I´ll keep you posted!