Tag Archives: MP Knives

Gift Neck Knife

by Woodsbum

I have been working on a gift neck knife combo for my son in law’s birthday. He does not have any real field knives for camping, hunting or bushcrafting so I thought that a solid neck knife would be the best way to get him started.

When choosing a good field knife, I like to look at how harsh someone is going to be on the blade. My son in law doesn’t do a lot of woodcarving, but wants to get more into hunting. Getting him something that was lighter on the bushcraft and heavier on the camp type chores seemed like a good target. The blank I chose was a MP Classic built by Matt Paul in New York. We have several of his builds and have been very happy with them. Getting a solid blank from Matt was a no brainer since I wanted something to eventually become an heirloom. Because this was going to be my first “outdoor gear” gift for him it was very important that I do a lot of the work to get it built and ready. It might not have been important to him, but I wanted him to know that I was willing to spend a lot of time and energy in creating something that will last his whole lifetime.

When I went shopping for scales I looked for something different, but went with the classic lines of the blank. There was no real shape to the handle so something simple and elegant seemed like the right choice. I chose some paduk that had some phenomenal color and grain. For pins I used some brass stock.

Fitting the handle on a straight lined knife handle is not nearly as easy as one would think. There are no curves or shapes that you can use to hide small imperfections. Everything has to be completely straight and smooth to feel right.

Unwaxed and initial shaping

To finish the handle I melted in some carnuba wax and polished it. For some reason the pudak soaked the wax up so I didn’t get the high sheen I was expecting. This is okay, however. The lowered gloss of the handle goes well with the sheath I made him.

Waxed

To compliment this knife I wanted a sheath that was completely different than what you would normally see. I started off by making a leather liner out of 8 oz leather. Due to my normal picture taking deficiencies, I have had to add this picture of another sheath I am making so you can see the gist of what I did. From the picture you can see that I just did a simple taco sheath without a welt.

Liner

And then I wet formed the sheath into a Scandinavian style form.

Wet formed liner

Once I got this wet formed I wrapped it in rawhide. The process involves a lot of soaking, stretching and is then sewn along the same lines as the liner. The rawhide was left overlapping the liner at the top so that I would be able to hit it with a heat gun and shrink it around the knife handle. In this picture you can see how I shrunk the rawhide to form it around the top of the leather liner.

Top of finished sheath

The back of the sheath, like I mentioned already, is sewn along that same line as the liner. As the rawhide dried it pulled around the lines of the blade.

Back of finished sheath

I finished up the sheath with a leather lace that I whipped onto the ring. For adjustability I added the fisherman’s knot on the side. You can also see how tightly the top of the sheath fits against the knife handle in this picture as well. This will keep water from running down into the sheath and hopefully help protect everything. To keep the blade from rusting I squirted some oil into the sheath and waxed the inside of the liner.

Top of finished sheath and knife fit

Hopefully my son in law likes his birthday gift. The sheath is still drying, but I hope to have it completely ready for use by the time I see him on Sunday. Lucky for me, he doesn’t read my site.

Knife Handles- MP Seax and Wolf Creek Forge Patch Knife

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by Woodsbum

I figured I would take the time to explain the whole process involved with putting a handle on a full tang knife. Even though it seems like a very scary proposition, it is MUCH easier than one would believe.

The first couple steps in the process involve getting the right materials collected. You will need:

Some sort of epoxy to glue the scales down.
A couple of pins for the handle.
Use of a drill press.
Some wood working clamps of some sort.
A belt sander.
A couple of fine tooth files.

The first step with putting a handle one a knife blank deals with cleaning up the tang and making sure the scales are squared up enough to drill with your press. I used some sand paper to clean up the tang and get rid of all the black scaling left over after the forging process. Once I got it down to a decent metal, I then scored up the tang a bit with a grinder (my choice and not needed) so that there was a rougher texture for the epoxy to adhere.

Then, I lined everything up and drilled the holes for the pins. The secret that I found with regard to getting straight and properly drilled holes was through the use of good scales to begin with. Each time I used a set of wood scales that were not squared up well, the holes would be off enough to leave a huge gap between the scales and the tang. When I finally used decent scales I got a good fit. Only went through a couple chunks of wood before I figured that out.

Next, contour the front of the scales where they will meet the blade. If you do not, you will have to sand right next to the blade and potentially remove some of the dark scale left after forging. If you want to keep this look, it will not last when sandpaper hits it. Please look at how I removed some of the dark coloring on this Wolf Creek Forge because I didn’t contour the handles before I epoxied them on.

Wolf Creek Forge with rogue sanding marks

When you get your holes drilled, the edges that will meet the blade are contoured correctly and all looks good, bust out your epoxy and get things glued together. I put the pins in during the epoxy/glue process so that the pins get permanently attached with epoxy the same time that scales get glued as well. Once all is glued up, grab some clamps and squeeze it all together. don’t worry if you get some epoxy that squishes out the sides. That will come off during the sanding phase. Do clean up the part next to the blade where you won’t be sanding, however.

MP Seax getting scales

Here it is from a different angle. Notice how there is a thin line of epoxy that has squeezed out along the line between the scales and the tang.

MP Seax all glued up

After the epoxy dries you can remove the clamps, saw off the excess pin stock and start to shaping the handle. Now I did most of the shaping through the use of a belt sander. If I had a band saw I would have used that to remove any excess handle material. Since I don’t I just went to town with the sander and let the dust fly.

When you get to the point where you are trying to take the pins down a bit you can use a fine tooth file and then smooth things out with sandpaper afterwards. It worked quite well and didn’t leave any major marks on anything. I did learn something about the use of pins, however. Matt from MP knives showed some pictures of his process and it seemed to make sense. He peens the ends of the pin so that it works like a rivet to hold the handles on better. If you look at this picture you can see a touch of a gap around the pins on this knife.

MP Seax

If I would have known about the peening thing, it would have been a much cleaner handling job.

Here are a couple more pictures of the handle after I was done with it.

MP Seax with a touch of epoxy still on the tang.

MP Seax with a good look at the contours

As you can see, I did a lot of contour work on this to make it really fit the hand for those long hours of bushcrafting. This bad boy ended up being the most comfortable feather/fuzz stick maker I have ever used. The contours just made holding the blade almost effortless and like everything Matt makes, it is incredible at cutting. This baby is an absolute dream.

Now other than the peening of the pins and ensuring that the front of the handle scales are contoured before they are glued into place, these two projects were actually quite successful. I was quite pleased as was GunGuy, who’s Seax is pictured in this post. My last bit of advice is to use the long drying epoxy and not the 5 minute stuff. The quick drying stuff seems to be more brittle and I had to reglue the handle on my Wolf Creek four times until I was smart enough to try a longer drying epoxy. The scales would crack loose during the sanding if it chattered at all. This was not a problem with the long drying time epoxy.

Now that you have a good idea of how this process is done go get yourself a quality knife blank and get to playing around. I love my knives that the makers fully built, but somehow I have a soft spot for those that I handled myself.

Go get dirty!!!!

Gear Check Meetup (Part 1 – Hard Use Knives)

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by Woodsbum

It is a long story, but just suffice it to say that I ended up taking over a Meetup.com Bushcraft, Survival and Tracking group here in the Portland, OR area. Many who know me are probably blowing coffee out their nose and onto their keyboards at the moment. You’re welcome……

Well, we did a meetup last night. The topic was gear and what was truly needed to be able to go out bushcrafting. It was a decent turnout and there were a few new faces. That is always refreshing and exciting to see.

Without further ado, here is some of the gear that we showed and talked about:

First category is the “Hard Use” Bushcrafting knife. These knives are built to baton wood, pry out chunks of wood for notches when making things like pot hooks, and chores that would make any hidden or partial tang knife shudder.

This is the Condor Bushlore:

Condor Bushlore

This knife is a full tang and can take a beating. I have had one for years and know others that have them as well. Really truly, it is a hard use knife for the money. It is made of 1075 high carbon steel and has a hard wood handle. I have found that you will probably need to do a finish sanding job on the handle if you are as OCD as I am, but it is a great starter knife to learn with. This would be the knife used when you baton wood for fire prep and general, hard use type chores.

Here is the Condor Woodlaw:

Condor Woodlaw

When you are looking for an inexpensive knife to carve as well as do fire prep, this is a great choice. The thinner point works well for making holes or getting into those tight spots where the Bushlore just seems to not quite reach.

More Condor products that rate an “honorable mention” are their Kephart, Nessmuk, and Bushcraft Basic.

Then there are the Beckers. The Becker line can all take one heck of a beating and have gained a tremendous following. There are some die hard fans out there and rightfully so. There are very few production knives that can perform as well as the Becker line can.

Becker BK2

The BK2 is a solid performer, but commands a higher price than the Condor line. This solid knife will take about anything you can dish out without hardly a scratch. One thing to note, however, is the coating that is put on the blade. To use this knife with a firesteel this coating needs to be removed. That is no big deal, but it needs to be mentioned.

Becker BK5

The BK5 is also a good option, but the point is more pointed and tapered. This helps with carving chores, but makes it a bit more susceptible to breakage when driving it through things. Most people don’t do such things with their knives, but it can and does happen.

Becker BK16

The BK16 is also a favorite knife among many bushcrafters due to its durability and nimble feel during use. When using a pinch grip it is not as exacting as many other model knives, but it is a great all around choice.

There are many other options in the Becker line. If you do an Amazon search for them, you will see the other models. About anything in this line that doesn’t fall under the “combat” moniker will perform quite well for you.

In any bushcraft knife discussion ESEE knives will be brought up at some point. They have a phenomenal reputation and are really a tough knife that can take a beating. Now remember that there are two models that resemble each other. Ontario and ESEE both have knives that look almost identical. Many will argue that the Ontario is just as good as the ESEE. I personally like the ESEE better and have had much better luck with them.

ESEE 3

The 3 is a great knife, but a little small for many people. It will, however, take a beating. It’s bigger brother, the 4, is much more suited to hard use chores because of its added size.

ESEE 4

The ESEE 4 is the knife I use as my survival blade while hunting. It is lightweight and you can get several really nice Kydex sheaths for it that make it a phenomenal neck knife. I even have a firesteel loop on my configuration. Like the Beckers, you will have to take off the coating on the spine of the blade if you plan on using it with a firesteel.

ESEE also makes variations with larger blades. Their ESEE 5 and ESEE 6 are great choices as well.

My personal preference is to stay away from the models with serrated edges for hard use. They are great for EDC type knives like the Spyderco. When used with a baton or when trying to make feather sticks the variance in the edge make it difficult to properly assess the depth and direction of the cut.

ESEE Junglas

The Junglas is a chopper among choppers. Having only had a few chances to use one it quickly made my short list for future purchases. I am currently using a custom MP Knives Direwolf for chopping and heavy camp work, but the Junglas might become my “second” for the task.

Customs:

There are many custom knife makers out there that make a great knife. I have several from various makers such as MP Knives, Wolf Creek Forge, Adventure Sworn, SLP Knives and Wild Boar Forge. They all fit the bill and can be made specifically for your desired purpose.

Here are a couple pictures.

MP Knives Direwolf

AS Mountaineer

The amount of money that you spend on a good, hard use knife is only limited by your budget and desired configuration. I used to think that any knife was ok as long as you could get it sharp. After having broken several and then used some customs my thoughts changed. Spending $100’s of dollars on a knife is as much of an investment in your safety as it is in the beauty of the tool. Either way or no matter what you decide to buy, just make sure you get as good of a quality item as what your budget can afford.

The next part of the series will be on your general use camp knife.