Bushcraft Parang

This mini parang is inspired on a blade from Fox Knives http://www.foxknivesusa.com/en/product/2425/fox_parang_bushcraft_jung.html
After testing this knife out a year ago i liked the way how it worked but hated the handle and the cheap finish.
I copied the blade and than i modified it into something that i thought would be better, for example i gave it a sharper point so it's more versatile in use as a bush crafter,  changed the spine of the blade and made the edges sharper for using a fire steel and gave it a convex sharper edge, what i do with all of my knives.
The blade is hand forged out of Modified CM60 steel, hidden tang and a forced acid patina pattern.
The handle is made out of desert ironwood burl and bone.
The bone is probably is  a cow's leg i found some years ago under my house while rebuilding the place,  don't worry i didn't kill my neighbors;)
And the desert ironwood burl is a leftover piece from another knife i made.
A silver/nickel pin and a engraved a sharkteeth pattern into the bone which i filled up with black epoxy, the same i did at the pommel of the handle.
After i finished the blade i tested it out, and it holds better in hand than the original version, also because it's more heavy in weight it chops easier  and the convex edge changed allot.
I forged the knife a year ago when i did not have a makers stamp yet so the is no mark on the blade, instead of that i made a shield with my makers stamp on it of red copper what came out pretty cool but was overdone on the knife.
Now i have the shield i am thinking of using this more often on a handle or on the back of the pommel if it fits the knife, give's it that  look from these old school knives they made in the frontiers period.
Anyway, thanks for watching take care and keep forging ahead!
Igor

Shield with the KK makers stamp

Handmade sharp things from the Lowlands

I made two little mini 'Brut de Forge' bushcraft knives with burl and striped tiger maple, also i added some arrow point hammer stroke effect.
The green handle knife is a G10 Ghost jade, with spring steel, convex edge, silver/nickel pins and a hexagon brass pin, also added a custom firesteel made out of the same scale material.
The knife with wooden handle is a damascus steel 'Brut de Forge' with tropical hardwood out of Costa Rica (don't know the type of wood because the customer brought me a piece), silver/nickel pins convex edge and i added on request a piece of a golden chain into one side of the handle, it's the golden chain from his mother who passed away.

Mini 'Brut de Forge' Bushcrafters

Utility 'Brut de Forge' knife

'Brut deForge' Utility kitchen/kamp knife

warabite-tō Ainu/Emishi sword

I started a year course sword making at Smederij Atelier Alkmaar, in this course they let you work out a basic sword based on a type that existed  in the past.

My choice was a Ainu/Emishi sword(Japan) - Warabite-To.

This sword used by the Ainu is hard to find info about, especially on the internet you have to check everything,  people are just writing things down and have a copy paste behavior.

The Warabite-to fine iron sword differed from anything manufactured in Japan or the continent.
These swords were single bladed and and used for slashing from above, an ideal weapon for a horse mounted warrior.
These swords made their way south to the Japanese who then where influenced by it's design to eventually produce the samurai sword.
What is known is that the design was incorporated by the Japanese in the creation of the later  samurai sword - Tachi.
After a lot of research and drawings with calculations and a  couple of months later i started to make some progress.

The steel i am using to forge the sword out is made from a homogeneous piece of steel in layers that's made out of two different types, a high carbon type of steel and a 15th century Dutch puddle steel/wrought iron.

Before i started to forge the sword we had to make tests and a sort of scale model to see if things would work out before starting for real.

Here are some pictures of the progress and i try to make some updates this year.

Thanx for checking out my blog, take care Igor.

Ainu warrior

Design on paper

 Forging test-Kissaki

Polished with a stone

Yasuri-me/File marks

Start tsuba test forged  red copper

Some wooden sword  scale tests 

Polished on japanese waterstone and etched.

TSuba & Habaki with patina/red copper

Mokume-gane Tsuba1 Nickel/copper/brass

Forged red copper for tsuba 

Tsuba2 red forged copper  with hammer stroke pattern

Start forging Habaki of red copper  for sword

Archaeological find of a Warabite-To