Steel hike and a new knife

 So the woods called out again, and more so, the song of steel was joining in; so I packed a hacksaw and made for the hills. Cold it was, but the sun came out, and I slowly trod my way up the hillside.

 And as always, as the first trees embraced my stride, calm washed over my ravaged soul and soothed my pain.

 Deeper yet I walked and higher I came. It was like a walkabout, to find a dream in a piece of steel lying in the woods for a hundred years.

 The hills were radiant with a winter sun.

 And the light woods faded into the twilight of spruce and fir. And while I like the radiant birch and the elegant beech and the strong oak, the shadow of the twilit spruce woods holds no terror for me, for I was born in a place like this and know its ways well.

 The trail lay frozen, enchanted by a crystal veil.

 The sun was already sinking when I reached the hilltop, embracing me with shadow.

 Through the woods I trod, and there...

 ...behind a thicket of fallen trees and branches

 ...there it was that a secret of steel awaited me with its silent, violent song.

 Those leaf springs from a forgotten chariot have a carbon content of about 0,75-0,90%.

 And make an excellent Nessmuk...;-)

 Old leaf spring steel, selective temper, with a hefty blade thickness at 7mm...12cm blade, elk antler scales, high convex bevel, mosaic pins.

 And still slicey enough to make a delicious snack.

This knife now bears the soul of the woods, and it gives me more comfort than a run-of the-mill production knife ever could. This is the soul of Tribal knifemaking in my book.

Tribal? I´ll GIVE you tribal!!!;-)

 So, I went for a brief stroll and stumbled across this piece of tempered and rotten saw blade steel. I figured i´d try a bit of "survival" practice;-) and make a knife from it with no tools whatsoever.

 Rather thin and rotten it was.

 The "tip", looks a bit like a clip point. But was just rotten that way.

Found a decent grinding stone, this time granite or something like that. Ground my fingers bloody and managed to put an edge on it in about an hour´s time.











This is what it did afterwards.

Watch this space... next time it´s making its own handle and I will refine the blade at home.