New friction folder, this one with a bottle opener

This is a commission for a friction folder incorporating a bottle opener on the tang. The client wanted a short blade, very sharp, with filework and a nice wood for the scales.

The dimensions: 5" long (127mm) closed , 6 1/4" (160mm) open  and the cutting edge is 2 3/8" (60mm). The wood for the scales is quilted Mahogany, lovely bit of wood. I only have enough left over for another set of scales now. The steel is 01 tool steel. All the parts are brass except the steel liners. Everything is made by hand including the washers.

These little knives are lovely and  I like to make them but they are fiddly and time consuming to make right. I thought you might like to see all the bits that go into them:

The parts. You can't see the steel liners on this photo

Ok. What are your thoughts on this

"I've always wanted to sail to the south seas [live on the water], but I can't afford it." 

What these men can't afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of "security." And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine - and before we know it our lives are gone.

What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention for the sheer idiocy of the charade.

The years thunder by, The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.

Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be: bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life? ”
― Sterling Hayden, Wanderer 

This really strikes a chord with me. Come to think of it, I pretty much have done this all my life, putting security first, and when our children came, they definitely always came first. Now I am 60 and I feel a real urgency to do something about it before it's too late. Problem is: I am not entirely sure what the "do something about it" is.


This quote came from the book "Wanderer" by Strling Hayden.. This is what they say about it.

Since its publication in 1963, Sterling Hayden's autobiography, Wanderer, has been surrounded by controversy. The author was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, walked out of a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer-bound for the South Seas. His attempt to escape launched his autobiography. It is the candid, sometimes painfully revealing confession of a man who scrutinized his every self-defeat and self-betrayal in the unblinking light of conscience.

Blogger playing up?

I think it is. I can't access some sites, and can't write any comments on some sites either. The pages go blank and nothing happens...Arghhh... The wonders of the modern technology we actually got no control over...

Maybe the gremlins are doing it...

...or the governements spies who don't want us to communicate...

 ...or the machines are taking over the world...

  ...I am not paranoid, honest... but...

Horace Kephart's knife

This is the photo of H Kephart's knife, along a drawing of it, taken from the online Kephart museum

This was the photo I used when I started making my versions a few years ago. Now, it is quite possible (probable?) the knife on the photo started life looking like the one on the drawing, with the curved cutting edge and, after years of sharpening & service in the field, ended with the straight cutting edge. Or the drawing has a certain amount of "artistic license" applied to it...who knows. It's hard to tell for sure, but the drawing appears to show a flat grind, so the section on the blade would be triangular, but the photo seem to tell a slightly different story.

Either way, I think  Kephart still considered his knife servicable enough with the straight cutting edge, as he still had it and kept it long enough for it to become available to go into a "museum". 

There were different lengths available too. Even then, the manufacturers tried to "cash in" on his notoriety.

It would be quite easy to make the knife with the curved blade and the sheath exactly the same as the original. Either way the pointy bit is sharper on bo the the drawing and the photo than many reproductions are. I think I may well have a go at it, soon-ish. 

Mind you, inflation has worked it's magic, hasn't it!