"The best knife is the one you have with you when you need it."

23.6.12

'Forg de Brute' utility/kitchen knife

This week i have been sawing wooden scales, stabelizing and forging.
The stabelized wood came out very nice, most of it is Buckeye burl fungi.
I made some mistakes to, for example i try to make cable wire damast but the cable was to fat for my little hammers and skinny arms.
By just manpower and no machines i ended up with blisters on my hand and a fucked  piece of steel what wasn't damast.
The good thing is that you learn allot from the mistakes you make and there were some good things that came out.
From the age of 6 i have been collecting like a magpie; stones, fossils, shelss, bone, wood and alot more, i still do that and now i have a great collection of material for knivescales.
My newest found was a box of  dinosaur/mammoth leg bones from the bottom of the sea, found and sold by a fisherman, beautifull and luxe material to work with.
After forging a copple of hours i ended up with three knives and one i finished of because i liked it, the 'Forg de Brute' kitchen/utility knife.
Here some pics, take care Kampman.





















10.6.12

'Brut de forge' duo bushcrafters

A copple of weeks ago i found some great wood for scales on ebay for a good price.
Some  buckeye burl from Hawai, it has  fungi in it what creates the black parts in the wood.
I had a project going on to make myself a set of one big cutter/campknife and one small utility knife out of  rvs CM60 steel.
I used the buckeye burl wood for scales and it looks beautiful.
After stabillizing the wood i glued them with epoxy to the knives and pinned them with silver/nickel pins and a customized mosaic pin,  then polished them with some oil and carnauba wax.
The knives came out as a versatile bushcraft set and razor sharp with a high polished convex cutting blade.
The sheats i had already from other old knives and i customized them a little, make them wet and put some hammer strokes on it,  and for the big knife sheath i fixed an extra strep to hold the knife in the sheath.
Next week i will test them out in the forest when we give a bushcraft course in Holland and looking forward to it.

Also some pictures of a knife i found laying around the house,  a Bark River drop point hunter Loveless style knife.
Bought the knife about a year ago from KSF  and it supposed to be one of the best designs handles of the year,  in my opinion it's crap and customized the handle into a shape what works for me.
To much obstacles in the shape what is hurting my hand after long time of cutting and the handle is to slippy for me, i prefer a more rough surface so the knife can't slide of my hands when it wet or sweaty.
And last a picture of a small damascus Itame woodcutter a la viking style what i made as a present for a friend, have look:



Original loveless style drop point hunter Bark River

Customized






16.5.12

Igor Kampman

2010 i start making my first knife ever,  i collected knives at  a young age and this knife virus went never out of my system.
I collected some tools over the year, read allot of books and found some great people who help me out,  i built a small forging workshop at the back of my house so i can start.
This is my first post and i show you what i have been forging, have a look and all the best Kampman.