Finished friction folder

A while ago I wrote about a commission I made with Joel Delorme for a hand-made folding knife to help with my spoon carving.
The wonderful finished knife arrived months ago, but I haven't had a opportunity to use it, and tucking it out of Noah's way I forgot to share the final images I took of it!

Very kindly, Joel took some work-in-progress images to share, showing the knife parts in their raw states and un-assembled:

The metal parts, cut from the steel blank.

Two walnut handle options. Sadly the beautiful knotted piece was rotten, but the more subtle wave is still lovely.

All parts, ready to assemble.

And here are some images I took of the finished knife:

The knife is delightful - feels really solid and is very sharp. 

I highly recommend Joel if you fancy treating yourself to a piece of high quality craftsmanship.

Best of all, I have got my hands on a good length of rosewood so hopefully will be giving my knife a proper test making a pair of long handled sundae spoons very soon.

When three inches is quite long enough

UK law dictates that a cutting blade should be no longer than three inches on a knife you might carry with you (as opposed to kitchen knives etc).

The knife I got for making my bow is about five inches, which was fine at the time as I had a illegitimate purpose for it, but I wouldn't want to try my luck carrying it for my spoon carving in London.

So, after some research, I have commissioned a three inch folding knife from Joel Delorme.
He makes a number of styles, but happily chats with you about what you want / need, and will make a custom design for you.

We have been in touch since New Year, discussing my needs (primarily focused on spoon carving), and today I got an email saying he was making a start!
Very exciting. I have to be patient now for the next 3-4 weeks, but then I will post some photos of the finsihed knife.

Watch this space, and in the meantime, here are images of the design drawing:

and the plywood pattern (a working mock-up):

Spoon Carving

Back in the summer, we went for a weekend camping, and I tried my hand at spoon carving.
I thought the main techniques would be similar to those I learned on the bowyer course. This was true, but just showed me how much I had forgotten! However, whilst making the bow was largely big strokes and the very fine finessing to finish, this was all about close shaping strokes with lots of control from the start, so I was shown and got to practice some new cutting strokes.
Tools used were straight knife for the primary shaping, and a crook knife for the bowl. (It is also possible to burn out the bowl with an ember, but that's not what I wanted to learn...)
The course was very informal and we chatted rather too much, so I didn't quite finish my spoon, although I did get it to a usable rough state. It just needed some fine shaping and smoothing to finish. I had intended to do this after I got home, but have decided to keep my first spoon as-is. I will polish up my next one.

Photos show the newly split Birch, through drawing and roughing out the spoon shape, to nearly complete project.



I shouldn't have tried the paddle shaped handle as this added significantly to the complexity of carving the handle, and I should probably have tried to make a smaller spoon overall. This would have meant less complex cutting so I might have finished, but I guess you find out more than the direct skills learning these crafts...

Sunday Afternoon Knap

to celebrate the F1 result in Belgium i spent about an hour flint knapping in the afternoon.

i was hoping to make a big leaf-shaped arrowhead but i missed a strong ridge and split my stone in half...

i used the opportunity to practice making the deep in-cut used to tang and barb, and cut through the oddly shaped larger half to make a much smaller leaf.

the mud coloured flint seemed quite brittle and having not practised for ages i found the balance of power difficult with the copper point, and just crushed the edges with the antler.

in the end i found i could make the flakes i needed with 'nibbles' holding the piece up rather than down between my knees.

the result is ok for shape, but not so thin.

update

as a simple thank you to my archery teacher, i improvised a setting for the point - using a fresh bamboo pole for the shaft, i bound the point on with the inside of a shock-cord, and finished it off with some pigeon feather fletches.

not at all practical, but looked a cool gift.

Flights of fancy

Last year having decided to try my arm at archery, but not being able to join a club, i took a course to learn how to make a primitive longbow: that is a simple flat bow, with no recurve or other fancy bits.

Three days in beautiful Lakes countryside at Woodsmoke saw me learn how to use an axe and a hunting knife, producing a working bow.

I had never done any carpentry before this, so i was hugely pleased with the result (and not a little surprised) - my 6 foot ash stave was hacked down into an elegant bow, which shot straight and powerfully. 

But still having no club to shoot at, it now hangs on the wall.

The next task was clearly to learn how to make flint arrow heads...

Another long weekend earlier this year, this time with the wonderful tutoring of Karl Lee, saw me turning stone into beautiful arrow points, just like our ancestors, through Europe, Africa, the Americas...

This is white flint transformed into a tang and barbed arrow head.

Karl wasn't just a patient teacher, but also generous with his knowledge, and his stock of feathers - he knew my next task was to make the arrows...

I had made a couple of arrows when i made the bow, but felt uncomfortable at the thought of openly carrying a lethal weapon together with ammunition on the train back to London, so, sadly, i donated them to someone on the course.

But from September i will finally have a place to shoot, so i thought i should make some more arrows...

Clearly i have a retro thing going on, so wanted good wooden shafts, traditional points (the flints are for show for now), and natural feathers.
With supplies to make 12 arrows, over the weekend i made the first 4.
The points are black armour-piercing jobs (think Battle of Agincourt), the feathers are cock pheasant wing feather donated by Karl, held in place with (artificial) sinew. The feathers on two arrows have a twist and two are straight. The twist should create a rifling effect, spiralling the arrow as it flies. This should make it fly straighter. Although, it may be a while before i shoot well enough to properly see which is best...

Again, really happy with the results. The arrows look amazing. Will know in September if they work.