Haversack recommendations

[Doc Jackson]

I did my first attempt at hardtack today, made nine 3x3 pieces.

[smoke]

Looks good....need some beans and coffee.

[1961MJS]

Hi

You mentioned knives.  Check Crazy Crow for already finished Green River knives.  Since you have a Colt 45 and a Trapdoor, you no longer NEED the broadsword.  I have one of these that I use around the kitchen:

https://www.crazycrow.com/hunters-knife/green-river-hunter-knife-5in-blade

There are other great ones on around that one.

Later

[Grenadier]

Pay attention to the rivers in the hanles of those Green River knives. If you want historically accurate l, then you want ones with five pins, not the three brass cutler rivets.

[1961MJS]

Pay attention to the rivers in the hanles of those Green River knives. If you want historically accurate l, then you want ones with five pins, not the three brass cutler rivets.

Yes, the Snake River ones have the right number of rivets.  You COULD buy the Green River blades, remove the temper from the right parts of the handle and drill new holes.  I've done it to put a brass tube at the butt of a knife I was making.  I didn't remove the temper from much of the blade and I dindn't re-temper it.  It's still in work so I have no clude if I SHOULD have re-tempered the blade.

Mike

[LongWalker]

Just a thought on tempering.  Rather than drawing the temper then re-tempering the blade after drilling the holes, you have a couple options.  Both start with marking the new pin holes: you can use a fine-pointed "permanent" marker, but the heat will sometimes "un-permanent the markings.  Any more, I mark the new pin locations with a carbide burr in a Dremel. 

Once the locations are marked, you can SECURELY clamp the blade to a piece of wood, then clamp the wood to the table of your drill press.  (Trust me, you don't want the bit to catch and the blade to be free-spinning.)  Drill the holes with a carbide bit. 

Or you can draw the temper only around the locations of the new holes.  Clamp the blade vertically in a metal vise.  Grip a 16d nail in a pair of vise grips and heat it red hot, then touch it to the new pin locations and hold it there til it cools.  Clamp the blade under the drill press and drill the new holes. 

Actually, when I think about it there is a third option: clamp the blade as for drilling, and put a new 16d nail in the chuck.  "Drill" using the new nail.  Friction will quickly heat the tip red hot, and draw the temper from the blade tang.  LET THE NAIL COOL, remove it from the chuck, and substitute your drill bit.  Drill the hole, then move on to the next. 

[Grenadier]

Seems like a ridiculous amount of work just to add pins to a knife. Patience and $25-$50 will land you an original knife. I've picked them up for as little as $3 at flea markets.

[Doc Jackson]

Im going to have to agree with grenadier, I'd rather just buy an original.

[LongWalker]

Around here, usetawas, you could find an original knife (or a knife made in the same manner as late as the 1930s), every couple weeks while out garage-sailing.  Now, not so much.  The past ten years I've averaged about 1-2 such knives every summer.  If I only wanted one, and would settle for whatever half-worn-out knife I found, that might be OK. 

But some years I'll go through 10-12 knives.  Instead of trying to locate something close to an original, it is more efficient in time and money to take a knife that is of the right general thickness, re-shaping the outline of the blade and handle, drilling for the correct pins, tapering the tang, and fitting a new, correct, handle.  (Other times I fit bone scales and go a bit bonkers carving them.  Not cost effective, but it makes the knife easy to identify if misplaced!)

[1961MJS]

Im going to have to agree with grenadier, I'd rather just buy an original.

Hi

I don't like to use original anything when playing a sport.  I have two Krags but those aren't being reproduced at this point.  If you have a drill press, it's not that hard.  I tried using a carbide bit and just wasted the bit, but I didn't do the nail first. 

Later