I made a new bushcraft knife. Ilkka Seikku has inspired me a lot, but I did not simply want to copy, but wanted a knife as rugged as his with the look of my own style. I am quite fond of a slight recurve and added a finger hold. It is made from selectively tempered spring steel with less than 1 % stock removal.
I also made a sheath with a wooden (oak) inlay. Here it is not tanned yet and I also added some stitches.
The blade is 115 mm long and has a 6mm spine. The handle is elk antler. I tried out to do some balancing and thusly drilled out the hind part of the tang with 8mm holes. The centre of balance is on the first hollow rivet, on the index finger notch. It feels light and nimble for that. The blade has no secondary edge bevel.
I tested it already, and it does the job. I will document that with some photos, no worries;-). It is not as hard as Ilkka´s knives, some 58 HRC or so, but flexible enough. Chopping mild steel rods inflicted some dents on the blade, carving was a cinch, and it even stropped a Mora Triflex blade. Guess it will accompagny me personally, and I will work on perfecting the design.
