New hunting knife

[Pat B]

I got in this year's KITH(knife in the hand) knife trade on P.A. The rules were the knife had to be hand made but could be made from steel, stone or bone.
 The knife I received is from Kevin Halverson, a blade/black smith on P.A. This blade is tool steel I believe. Kevin also makes knives from old files. This knife is well balanced, fits my hand perfectly and is very sharp. The handle is burled cherry and the knife came with the cross draw sheath. It will be my go to knife next hunting season. Here are a few pics...




I don't do much with steel and no stone so I opted for a bone knife to send to Clint(osage outlaw). I got the bone from the pet dept. at Wally World, cut the knuckles off each end, split the femur bone, boiled it to remove the soft tissue and shaped one half into this dagger. The handle is dried cholla and I hafted the blade with JB Weld and a sinew wrap. I also filled the voids in the cholla with JB Weld and added a cow horn handle cap. The neck sheath is brain tanned leather. Here are a few pics...

[BMorv]

A great pair of knives Pat.  You and Kevin did a remarkable job.   
On your bone knife, I always wondering how sharp do they get?  Do you use normal sharpening stones and such to sharpen it? 

[Pat B]

Thanks Benton. On the dagger I only sharpened the point but shaped the edges just not sharp. I used a belt sander for the initial shaping then a farriers rasp, #49 rasp and a smooth bastard file then went over the whole blade with fine emery cloth and 0000 steel wool. I've made broadheads with bone and used the file for most of the sharpening. I guess a good stone would work fine also. There is a thread on PA now about making bone arrow heads and a link from a previous discussion.

[Roy from Pa]

Both are nice, Pat.

[Mad Max]

Nice Pat

[Pat B]

Thanks Roy and Mark.   

[Forwardhandle]

Very nice Pat 

[Flem]

Nice score Pat!  I am impressed, I used to live down in Cholla country and never saw anything useful made from it. Must have been Buckhorn Cholla, or Ocotillo?

[Crooked Stic]

Both nice. The bone one I really like!