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Thought I would have a crack at making my own utility style skinning knife. Saw blade for the blank and local Ironbark for the handle. Oiled finish Pins are alloy with brass insert Very happy with the result

Last time I visited AH member Gryphon, he showed me a box of wood he had salvaged and had been meticulously drying the pieces out over the years. Gryphon kindly gave me several pieces of his stash to use for putting handles on my knives builds. When I got home, I decided to make Gryphon a knife and handle it with some of his wood. I picked out a piece of sheoak, and wanted the rest of the knife to match the quality of the handle material. Historically knife steels can have good edge retention, good strength or good abrasion resistance. But knife steel hasnt had all three of these criteria in one steel. So the knife maker has to decide which characteristic they are prepared to compromise on when they choose a steel to make a knife. Magnacut is a relatively new stainless "super steel" which was made specifically for knife making. It is formulated to balance out the three desirable characteristic of edge retention, strength and corrosion resistance, and has proven to be vary popular with knife makers since it was released a couple of years ago. When the first shipment of Magnacut arrived in Australia at the end of last year, I immediately bought some, and though it was a fitting steel to pair with the Sheoke handle material. The knife I made for Gryphon is the first knife I have ever made from Magnacut. The blade of this knife is a full flat grind in 3mm steel. The design pf the knife is my version of the Bark River Gunny Hunter. Once I shaped the handle, I found the grain in this block of wood is really stunning. I added red G10 liners, brass Corby bolts and a brass lanyard tube. I gave the handles a hand rubbed oil finish, and it really set to wood off I think. I wanted something special for the sheath too. I sent the knife a friend in Queensland as I am not set up for leather working yet. I got him to add a sambar motif to the sheath and really think the sheath sets off the knife well. I was able to drop off the finished knife to its new owner last weekend, so looking forward to hearing about it being put to use on the deer.

I thought I would add in pictures of knife builds as I finish them since there was a lot of interest in the last one I posted. This one is a mini version of a larger Bowie design that I have made in the past. This version should be a good allrounder. Steel is 3mm NitroV with a full flat grind, with a distal taper to the point. Handle material is black Ritchlite with green G10 liners & pins.

Another variation on a knife I have made a few times now. I am going to have to come up with a name because I think I will be making a few more soon. Second time working with Chinesium VG10 Damascus steel. This was a 3mm billet, and the layers are slightly off centre which is a bit of a pain. Guess I cant really expect quality control from Chinese production. Luckily it has enough core steel to sharpen up with a good edge. Last time I etched Damascus, I left it a bit too long and it etched pretty deep. This time I etched it for much shorter periods. Its probably a little under done this time. I will maybe split the difference next time. The blade is a full flat grind with a tapered tang. Handle is African ebony with thin red G10 liners, mosaic pins and a hand rubbed oil finish.

Late last year I made my first chefs knife & gave it to my step mother for Christmas. This year I decided to make chefs knives for my two brothers and sisters in law. I asked each of them for their favourite colours, so ended up with blue and pink for one couple, and orange and green for the other couple. I like making these knives, but phuk is there some grinding to get them done. I start by getting the the profiled blade in 4mm AEB-L heat treated. To get a nice lively & functional blade, I start off grinding a full flat bevel which also gives the blade a distal taper, then grind in a hollow for the "S" grind which lightens up the blade some more and helps with food release, then taper the tang to balance out the blade. I probably grind away 50% of the steel, though I keep forgetting to weigh one before and after grinding. Then with their colour preferences I had to work out the best way to incorporate the colours into the handles. I had a piece of stabilised maple with blue and pink die through it that I used for one, though unfortunately a lot of the pink in the wood ended up getting ground out of it during the shaping of the handle. I added pink liners, and really wanted to use pink pins as well, but no one in Australia sells them. I could have got them overseas, but left my run too late form them to arrive in time. For the other handle, I made a segmented handle by cutting & joining orange and green G10 on a fine black liner, then glued them up with contrasting orange & green G10 pins. The whole process took me a lot longer than I expected and I was a bit worried I wouldnt get them done in time. But I finished them yesterday, and will give them out at a family dinner tonight.

If you dont know the story of Harry Wolhuter and his "lion killer" knife, its definitely worth a read: https://southafrica.co.za/legend-of-harry-wolhuter.html The knife itself was made by Thomas Williams Butchers Cutler in London and was from a pattern commonly used for slaughtering sheep in the 1800s. I used the template produced by Pops Knife Supply: https://popsknife.supplies/pages/lion-killer to make my knife. The blade is 3mm SF100 stainless, with a full flat grind and a tapered tang. The handle is gidgee scales with thin red G10 liners, brass pins & a brass mosaic lanyard tube. Handle finish is hand rubbed Aussie oil.

This is a bowie made from 5.5mm S35VN steel with a saber grind bevel and a harpoon grind on the swage. The handle is olive wood given to me by aushunt member Gryphon, with black G10 liners brass pins & lanyard tube, and with a hand rubbed Aussie Oil finish.

So after making my last attempt at a night visible knife, I was asked by someone to make the same knife for them. I wasn't entirely happy with the last handle material, so did some some more searching online and found what seemed like a good alternative and ordered a set to try. This new handle material has decent luminosity - the best I have found so far. I would rate it similar to good luminosity on a watch. The material is a little softer than I would like. Its fine for use on a knife, but I have to watch it when I grind the shape on the handle as the belt rips material off quicker than I am used to. The blade is 3mm NitroV with a tapered tang and a distal taper to a pretty sharp point. The handle is luminous Chinesium with an orange G10 liner and Loveless bolts. I was also asked to make a Kydex belt sheath, so did it in orange in keeping with the high viz theme. It was only at the last minute while I was taking photos that I realised I got a bit ahead of myself at glue-up of the handles and forgot to engrave my logo on the blade. I will get a friend to laser etch my mark because I dont like to electro etch the blade once the handles are on.

So this is another version of the knife I made last year. I wanted to see what I could do with the profile. I bought a set of Chinesium handle scale material that is supposed to glow in the dark, so thought it might make a a handy knife for breaking down animals if you are taking a shot on twilight, or spotlighting, thermalling, whatever. It turned out okay, but its not nearly as visible in the dark as I had expected. The photo below is deceiving as it makes the handles look very visible, but to the naked eye it doesnt look anywhere near as visible.. Anyhow, the blade is NitroV with a full flat grind and tapered tang. The handles have a .5mm black G10 liner and Loveless bolts.

or maybe not. I made these two separately, but then decided to handle them as a pair. Steel on the hunting knife is 3.8mm Elmax, and the zipper blade is 3 mm SF100. The hunting knife has a tapered tang and a full flat grind. The zipper is a weird steep grind using a very small contact wheel. Both have blaze orange G10 handles, with fluro green G10 liners and pins. I forgot to etch my makers mark on the zipper blade, but I can still go back and do that. Sorry the photos are not great - the lighting was a bit inconsistent this morning.

This one is 3mm NitroV steel, with a full flat grind and a tapered tang. Handles are Spotted Gum, with red G10 liners, brass Loveless bolts & brass lanyard tube. The pattern of this knife draws very heavily from the Bark River Gunny Hunter. I had some Auctioneers Promise red oil and gun stock oil sitting here and have been thinking about trying it on a knife handle for a while. I had been a bit nervous about the red oil in particular as I didnt want it to dominate the colour of the handle timber by darkening it too much. I was initially a bit underwhelmed with the spotted gum after I hand sanded it, as it just looked like a very plain piece of light wood. I hit it with one coat of red oil and it was amazing how it brought the figure out in the wood. I stopped after a second coat of red oil, then gave it 14 coats of the gun stock oil and think it came up great.

And to another AH member along with RT many thanks also for the rifle sling ...with sambar motif.

Followup. Little brother for the first one

When i`m in my swag in the rain i unzip and piss straight out the side. A mate whinged about having to get up for a leak in the cold and wet and I told him what I do. That night we had celebratory drinks and he did the same and confessed next day that he unzipped the sleeping bag but not the swag and left a litre of his finest inside the swag haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Well finally got to test out the exo pack in using it to haul. Hunting buddy dropped a sambar in nsw state forest yesterday. A short haul, 'only' 500m and I say that cos we decided to pack half each and do it in one trip... suffice to say despite the pack being incredible, my legs were not ? In so far as a review.. The shelf was easy to load. It held the weight very tight to my back and it loaded my hips directly. There was no weight whatsoever on my shoulders despite what I reckon was pushing 50kg total load. It was stable as could be over my jello legs. Very very happy camper, stoked with its performance. You can see the frame sitting nice and high still and the straps sitting off my shoulders.