Rhino1

Couple more.

Some fancy leatherwork I bodged together

Thanks heaps for the good words gentlemen.

I give the full-time knife making a red hot go for 2 years, first year I aced it but the second year saw a flood of those overnight Facebook bladesmiths, I was going to send me little family bankrupt so had to pull the pin on it. Even so, it was probs the best years of my life, I got to go to all the outdoor and gun shows all over Aus, talk knives and hunting all day long, good times. Thanks mate, After using all the heat and heavy gear to make the blade, the leatherwork is like a holiday. Thanks mate, yeah nah not anymore, it's just a hobby now. Cheers

Yeah mate, some have and some haven't. Average process for me, is to buy in annealed carbon steel billet, cut the basic shape out, then grind the blade profile, drill out the handle, tidy it up, into the forge to harden, into the furnace oven to temper, clean it up again then start thinking about the handle, sheath etc. I love it, I get to work with all different metals, timber, antler and leather, just found it something I could never get bored with. Plus you don't really need all the expensive gear to make a decent blade, although it comes together a bit quicker but then again it's not about speed.

I won't often use secondhand steel, this was a farriers rasp that's been forge welded back onto itself.

A few that went to OS hunters.

A few others.

A couple more.

Few more.

Started making me own gear back in 2001 after a top shelf $300 knife let me down and led to me having to spend a miserable night out bush in the elements - freezing cold, wet, cold, covered in stags blood in the dark with dingoes hanging around, wet, cold, miles from me vehicle, did I mention I was wet and cold? Most of the meat was lost in the process too. Only way I could be sure was to learn how and make the bloody things myself. Been at it for a while now, they have been put through their paces over the years, I even rocked up at a pay to hunt property recently for a yarn and surprised to see two guides at the camp caping red stags with my gear. Couple that I've slapped together.

Brands aside, look for something with wide padded shoulder straps, with both waist and decent chest straps to help even out the load, I have quite a few packs that will either give me a crook back for a week or ones with straps that cut into my shoulders that will give me a splitting headache by lunch time on the first day of a 3 day hunt. I have the Kmart mossy oak packs but found they were an absolute killer for me after a few hours, I still use one to cart corn to the feeder up the mountain across the road from me but it's only full for 20 minutes. Have a search on how to pack one too, makes a big difference if your doing the hard yards. The good Old Alice pack is definitely an underated bit of gear too.

Haha, good post. Ive gone back to army issue style and picked up 3 sets of Multicam with extra material on the knees and butt, tough as nails and suits my needs, too many Joe Blake's for me to be galavanting round the bush wearing shorts. First time I wore those new ridgeline sable air mesh style pants I've wandered through a nasty patch of some sort of spear grass seed and the air mesh was like a magnet for the buggars and they ended up turning into an echidna, I had no choice but to walk back through some pretty rough country in me jocks not to mention the fuel stop on the way home

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