Jake's cave

[jakethebeast]

Gippeto: im currently looking parts for that Reil burner

[jakethebeast]

Made a new blade, something big this time (well not that big, but still quite large)

[sharpshooter11000]

How long have you been making knives? Seems you have it down to a fine art!

[jakethebeast]

about 3 to 4 years, i can't remember accurately


EDIT: forgot to mention... after this one is finished... it's damascus time

[Mr.Sandman]

Can't wait to see it jake, did you just decide one day that you were going to start making knives?

[evanmcorleytv]

Wow, the blade looks GREAT Jake!!

[mobile chernobyl]

Any chance of making a short sword like this?



Great skills btw! It's awesome seeing someone make something "old fashioned" way...

[jakethebeast]

It is possible, i just don't like it, doesn't look praktical

BTW, this is a knife (notice the Finnish scout's packing style)

EDIT: nah, i have learned to use a puukko under the age of 5, and loved them since that! then just one day my friend asked me that would i like to know how to make them, and that how it started

[Daltonultra]

Jake, how long of a blade would you consider practical on one of your puukos? It looks like the one above is a little less than 6"?

Also, what's your opinion on using a piece of American White Oak for a grip?

[jakethebeast]

It depens on what you use it for. That 6" puukko is already good for cutting small branches, cutting anthler, and mayby for woodworking.

That knife with a black shiteh, has 78mm of bladelenght, and thats great size for pure puukko, made for woodworking, skinning, and cutting meat.

I haven't used Oak in grip's, only mahong, walnut, birch and curly birch, teak, and ashwood. Buit i think it should be fine if you use good oil with it

[Daltonultra]

I'll have to think about that, then. My parents have the third largest White Oak in Ohio in their side yard at home. If it hadn't had the top 20 or so feet blown off by lightning a few years before they had it surveyed by the Champion Tree registry, it would have been officially the biggest, as it still had the widest canopy spread of any Oak in Ohio. It might even have been in the top twenty largest White Oaks in the USA...

I was thinking of cutting a piece from the heart of a recently-fallen branch and having a go at curing it. The branch itself is almost three feet thick where it broke from the trunk...

[jakethebeast]

Well, it needs to be dryed for over a year before you can actually use it

[Fnord]

Jake's pretty much right, wood will dry out roughly 1" of depth per year (For typical densities), so you can't just leave it whole if you want it dry now. Make a small drying box from plywood, stick a thermometer in the side and use a light bulb/dimmer as the heating element. A PC fan inside will speed drying a lot. To keep it from cracking, paint the ends where the growth rings show with elmers glue or similar.

You can probably get 1" square sections usably dry within a week or so like this.
White oak is pretty much unbreakable, but when I tried using it I found the 'early wood' rings are rather soft. You can dent them with your fingernail. Most maple and cherry are really hard but split easy. Hickory/black locust/mulberry are probably the most available tradeoffs.

What's the diameter of that oak? The biggest one I've seen was probably 8-10 feet or so, but it wasn't technically on my property.

[Daltonultra]

I think it's around 11-12 feet thick at 3 feet off the ground, but the crown spread and height are how the Champion Tree registry measures. I know the branches spread WAY over 100' in diameter. It might be closer to 160', though the branch tips have died back. The tree is slowing dying ever since the lightning hit that blew the top off. (And trust me, we made sure to plant and nurture a LOT of it's acorns while it was still producing. Those are some GOOD genes...)

BTW, the branch that fell twisted at it came down and drove smaller branches (10"-16" around) a good 10 feet into the mud of the creek bottom. The branch as a whole is bigger than all but the largest of the cottonwoods around it.


I'll see about cutting that chunk sometime this week, and I'll try your technique, Fnord. I was already thinking along the lines of kiln-drying and that little setup sounds good. I happen to have a brushless fan laying around. Would a heat lamp bulb work better than a regular incandescent?

[Fnord]

Whatever bulb you have around will work. I think a temperature of 90-100F is roughly what you're looking for, so whatever bulb that can do that will be fine. I used a big stovepipe with a couple 100watt bulbs in it to dry bowstaves, and I never had any problems around that temp. In the summer I used a black car parked in the sun. No joke

There's nothing wrong with upping the temperature more, but you'll have to experiment to see how much you can push it without causing cracks.

If the wood is really really wet, you might want to put some small holes in the box initially to keep the humidity down.