Today I dug out my old hickory

[Thaddius Bickerton]

Today I dug out my old hickory butcher knife (7 inch model @ $7 or so when i bought it 10 or so years ago)

I was thinking I was gonna copy one of those ideas I keep running up on where people cut down the blade and make some new blade out of the excellent 1095 steel in the old hickory's.

Well I drew up some ideas and was thinking I was gonna end up kephart blade grinding it.

Then I decided to show daughter about vinegar patina so I did that, then I sharpened it up some and it cut hair off my arm like a lazer, then I grabbed up a sheath I keep that looked like it would hold the thing as it and it did so Off to the back field and boom it chops, and so I cut a handful of branches and walked back to where I had left the old tin can I made into a hobo stove with the kids a while back so they could heat up a can of beans.

Threw the fire stuff down pulled out the old hick and firesteel and had a fire in a dab and got the stove burning good. Unhooked my sierra cup from my belt and put in some water and set it on to brew up some coffee and think about things a bit.

well I guess I'm gonna have to go hunt up some more flea market old hickory knifes cause I have decided I like this one the way it is, but I still want to try the straight and spear point ideas I drew out, and oldest son wants a stock model for his kit.

I'm hoping I can find some real cheap ones, but even new they are very low cost and I get a new kind of metal to work on and see if I can come up with some inexpensive blades that work as well as the expensive one's or the ones I beat out on the forge.

My forged stuff isn't in the pro league, but I'm thinking filing down a blade slow will be a tad easier.

Anyway here is a pic (my yard sale camera skills are not great so bear with my learning curve. Still haven't managed to get it to think it isn't 2003 on the settings.)

it shows the blade and sheath and the pic I traced with my two file ideas for the next two i get my hands on.

Even as it comes, after sharpened and de horn the handle a bit with sand paper and rub some olive oil on the blade and handle so I won't worry about rust and still feel ok cutting food with it . this is one nice useful butcher / old time woods knife.

I'm thinking a mtn man style sheath might be in it's future and definitely a laynard hole and maybe some file work on the back.

7589

[crashdive123]

I love Old Hickory Knives. I'm always on the lookout for them at flea markets and yard sales. I realize that you can buy them new, and at very reasonable prices, but there is something about the older, worn look that I find attractive.

Thad - looks like the price hasn't changed much in the last 10 years. http://www.knifexx.com/detail.aspx?ID=4403

[Rick]

+2 on what Crash said. They are sort of an American icon.

[BornthatWay]

'Absolutely agree with Crash and Rtck. In the farming community if you did not have several Old Hickory knves you weren't much. i remember when it came time to butcher the hogs in the fall my dad would sit down with his knives and make sure they all have the abilibty to split haris. Man oh Man you did not use those butcher knives for anything else unless you wanted to get the talk of the importance of these knives and the history of how he got them.

[Thaddius Bickerton]

A good set of old hickory knives will do as much as the fancy german set I have out in the small barn where we do our butchering.

I have my eye out for a 14 inch one now. I already own one, but the next one I find I'm gonna turn into a 14 inch machete for all my wants and needs.

Unless I get the remorse again. I just like em the way they come.

I may just go grab a hunk of steel and beat me one out about the same size.

I'm gonna try to grab a pic of my first knife and one of the recent ones I beat out just to show that I can improve and make something sort of useful, but I love old knives.

I'm actually looking for the condor kephart that is supposed to be hitting stores anyday. I may have to sharpen it up and use something to clean off the black paint, but I find that the 1085 that they use is nice, and i'm not lazy about rubbing a dab of olive oil on a blade to keep the rust off it.

I am kind of wanting to try a mustard patina forcing on a blade, I saw one done a while back that I swear looked like it was folded damascus steel. Real pretty. But just a soak in a papertowel with vinegar will patina any carbon steel blade and help protect it and make it more old time looking.

I agree that finding an old yard sale knife is just one of my things that gives me a bigger grin than a new knife.

Well there is one knife I want and may have to buy, I could try to copy it but all the stories and such, I just do not think I'm gonna be happy till I get a Becker bk9 and have a chance to see if it lives up to the promise.


Ill be back I'm gonna see if my camera can flash a couple of blades. If it works Ill put em up here in a bit.

Thad

[Thaddius Bickerton]

Well Learned something again.

I had been using the old hickory to do some leuku type tests just cause I saw em done with the leuku on a utube. Well it did them nice, but ended up not quite so purdy so I was cleaning it up a dab using some clover compound to kind of polish off some of the wear / gum / etc on the blade then stropped it a ton to clean it up and in the process took the blade to a new level of sharp.

Then blinked and now that is MY steel since I gave it blood. LOL>

Lesson, Old Hickory knives are SHARP and will cut you big time if you blink. OTOH, it is Sharp, and holds a good edge. I am learning to love this thing again. Truth be told, this knife and a small pocket knife and a small hatchet and you have a good nessmuk setup for the woods. Skip the hatchet if you need to save weight , and know how to baton / light chop using leuku techniques with the old hickory.

Now to run find a band aid so I can pull off this ductape n pack the cut with either triple antibiotic ointment, comfory salve, or some raw honey n tape it up purdy.

Thad.

[crashdive123]

Truth be told - many years ago there were a lot more of what we would consider kitchen knives out in the wilds than any other type.