Just in time for hunting season

[KurtHuhn]

This issued forth from the shop today:



It's my new hunting knife for this season. My old one (a factory knife) wasn't up to the task, so of course I had to make myself a better one. It has a four inch long 1095 blade, nickel silver and micarta accents, and a nickel silver retaining pin in the African blackwood handle.

[Sorringowl]

Whoa! That's cool! (and I didn't even know I liked knives until I saw this--oh no, not another hobby). Do you do the engraving yourself? Very cool.

[ToddJohnson]

I'm not a big hunter, so forgive my ignorance, but it just seems really inefficient to hunt with a knife. I've never chased a turkey down trying to stab it--much less an elk or something big like that--but it seems like you'd probably tire out pretty quickly unless you were well conditioned. Most hunters I've seen don't seem like they are, but in the south, "hunting" just seems to be a euphemism for "going out to drink with one's buddies sometime before dawn." I suppose those tree-stands are well suited for dropping down on something from the air and hacking away at it, but don't you run the risk of breaking an ankle or worse, landing on your own knife? If I were going to hunt, I think I'd just sit in my pickup truck with the heat on and wait for something to walk by. Then I'd probably just roll the window down and try to shoot it. YMMV.

TJ

P.S. Pretty knife.

[Sasquatch]

I like that he put his name on it in case it gets mixed up with a whole bunch of other ones.

[KurtHuhn]

I don't know how it is in The South, but here in New England we've been taught that, if you're going to eat an animal, you should damn well be prepared to hack it to death with your own two hands and a sharp stick - a knife being a reasonable substitute if you insist on being humane. And well, since I value the feelings of others above all, I've opted for the knife so that I can quickly dispatch my dinner while allowing it minimal time to consider it's own demise or insult. Lord knows, I don't want any gamey flavor imparted from any manner of suffering - emotional or otherwise.

Of course this means I need to maintain peak physical condition. Have you ever tried to chase down a deer or turkey? Honestly, that "tree stand" idea you spoke of sounds interesting, and I think I'll have to research that and see if I can't construct one from a popsicle stick and a container of yogurt. How does one grow a tree from such things anyway?

--K

Thank you.

[Dixie_piper]

@ Todd; your idea of hunting from the truck is more like what actually happens in the south.
As for "chasing" turkeys, you have to head em off at the pass.
@ Kurt; true dat, true dat

[Sasquatch]

It's a really pretty knife, and the utter lack of space between the handle wood and the boss is really perfect. Looks like a really high quality piece.

I have one of Philthy's knives headed my way. No idea what I'll use it for. Perhaps I'll skin a sausage with it.

[CedarSlayer]

Nice work. I love a knife with a clean line and a clean bevel.

In defense of Southern Hunters, they will sometimes pay their repair bills. I have repaired more than one automatic deer feeder that had been scattered with buck shot from above.

Bob

[SimeonTurner]

Kurt, that's the nicest knife I've seen from you I believe. Really nice.

It almost makes me want to hunt sasuages in the trees, or something. I have no idea why.

[flix]

Nice looking knife, Kurt! One thing though, when you've got it smothered in blood, won't it slip some? I kind of like my rubberized grip for that very reason...just a thought, bro'

[KurtHuhn]

Thanks guys!

More pics:

Nice looking knife, Kurt! One thing though, when you've got it smothered in blood, won't it slip some? I kind of like my rubberized grip for that very reason...just a thought, bro'

What, that's part of the fun! Trying not to slip up and cut your own hand off is just part of the sport. The handle actually is shaped to resist slipping though, so even though it's a smooth wood, it gets locked into my hand really well.

[Sasquatch]

Read the description of this "flaying axe" from Gransfors - they detail the handle "just in case"

http://www.gransfors.com/htm_eng/produk ... nsyxa.html

[Alan L]

Ooh, that's a nice clean-lined slicing machine!

For the record I do know a guy who loads up a bunch of drunken rednecks in a truck, drives them to a remote location in the South Carolina mountains, and turns them loose after the dogs in hopes of jumping on a wild boar armed only with a 13" bowie knife...

I fear my testosterone levels are not up to such things, even when my blood alcohol is up to par.

[Dixie_piper]

[quote

For the record I do know a guy who loads up a bunch of drunken rednecks in a truck, drives them to a remote location in the South Carolina mountains, and turns them loose after the dogs in hopes of jumping on a wild boar armed only with a 13" bowie knife...

I fear my testosterone levels are not up to such things, even when my blood alcohol is up to par. [/quote]

In that case, just tie your knife to the end of a long stick to make a javelin It's more fun than you would think, and will give you a whole new respect for "Hawg Dawgs," and explains why low country folk refer to a big knife as a "pig sticker"

[RadDavis]

In that case, just tie your knife to the end of a long stick to make a javeling

I thought a javeling was a pig. One of those that they grow out in Arizona.

No wait, that's a javelina. What the hell's a javeling?

Rad

[Alan L]

A javeling is a knife tied to a stick, of course.

You use it to try to spear javelinas.


And it ain't just low country folk who respect hawk dawgs and know what a pig-sticker is, it's just that the pig is usually being strung up by his heels before you stick 'em. I'm not afraid to hunt boar, I just prefer to do it with a little more distance and say a .45-70 (or bigger!) involved. Single shot's fine, but "shot" is the operative word in this case...

[Dixie_piper]

I doubt that javelin is the right word, just what we've always called em. Just a bowie knife tied to the end of a straight limb/small tree to stick the hog whenever the dogs get it bayed up in a creek bed.

I don't blame you for using a gun, smarter. Wild pigs are some mean SOB's, especially when they're cornered. We always keep one handy just in case things go bad.

[Dixie_piper]

I meant no disrespect by the first message, just a lot of people around here who don't hunt cclaim that it's not necessary to have a "catch dog" on a hunt. But I've seen a catch dog save somebody's a$$ on more than one occassion.
Down here there's enough hogs they're more like varmints than game.
On the "javelin," I wouldn't be suprised that is the wrong name. This is coming from the same people who speak of "worshin & wrenchin" dishes and call oranges "urnges"

[ToddJohnson]

Wild pigs are some mean SOB's, especially when they're cornered. We always keep one handy just in case things go bad.

In that case, you should post a sign that says "BEWARE OF PIG." When things do go bad, do you just turn the pig loose and let it raise hell, or is there a more defined methodology to protecting oneself with a pig?

TJ

[baweaverpipes]

One time, many years ago, I had a blind date with a pig. I believe her name was Lina.......short for you know what!