The Backyard Bushman

It seems that every time I go to research a cool topic, the name Old Jimbo keeps popping up in my searches and he is always YEARS ahead of me : ) Not to mention, that his research tends to get really in depth. I will research in depth to, but he documents it! Bless you Jim!

The situation was no different when I wanted to make an Alaskan Ulu Knife. Jimbo’s article on the topic documents his experience with different styles of Ulu’s made by a local maker, as well as digs into the history and the regional differences in the shapes. If you have any interest at all in the topic, I highly suggest you read his article.

I have had my own experience with Ulu’s. Both the common “production” style that you seem to see everywhere, as well as other handmade ones. I have had my own ideas on what features I wanted to put into one for some time, but have delayed making one. The reason is, if I make something, I obviously want to make it available for sale too. The way I wanted to sell it is with a matching cutting board/bowl, and possibly stand, depending on the cutting board I came up with. Not having the tools to make the cutting board, I delayed the entire project.

Then, one of my friends came back from Alaska, and it got me all excited about taking on this project again. I figured out the a couple paths to take care of the cutting board. But, I am not sharing either at this time, until I figure out which one I like better : ) But, the Ulu is here for you to see.

There are at a least a couple ways to grip an Ulu. One of them involves putting the handle right through the palm of your hand. It results in your hand being directly over the cutting edge. This type of grip results in a tremendous amount of push cut power. I have found that almost any Ulu shape, handle and design work decent in this grip.

Another grip, which I use for finer work, like mincing vegetables, is to get your hand off to the side. The reason for this is that the Ulu can be rotated very fast, with a minimum amount of motion on your part. If your hand was on top, your hand, wrist and at least forearm would need to rotate. With your hand off to the side like this, basically just your hand and wrist need to rotate. It is quite fun to use like that.

Many of the Ulu’s I have seen and used are not the best for this type of grip. If it has the “hole in the center” generally the grip is very wide and making that grip not too comfortable. If the Ulu has the “T” style of handle, the grip is pretty much not even possible at all. In Ulu’s similar to mine in design, and even the one in Jimbo’s article, tend to have lines and sharp angles in that area of the handle. While I am sure they work, they do not seem optimal, in my mind. So, I incorprated a radius both in the Ulu and in the handle to allow your thumb and whichever finger you prefer to rest comfortably.

So, a bunch of pictures. Whatever, right? What are the benefits of a crazy shaped knife like this? Certainly there are advantages and disadvantages to everything. But, I will focus on the advantages of a tool like this, and let you make up your mind on the usefulness.

First, I think this particular knife is cheap and cheesy. And this video is totally “infomercial.” But, the guy is pretty darn good with the knife, and with a video, you can “see” how a knife of this style can be useful.

In doing my Youtube searching, I also came across this interesting video of an Alaskan woman filleting salmon with a rather large Ulu. Even though you may not want one that large, or fillet salmon, it is cool to watch.

Finally, just based on my experience, I put together this list of what I thought were the benefits of this style of knife. Some are demonstrated in the video, but I will put  it into words anyway.

1) Pressure. The force you apply is directly over the cutting edge. In a traditional knife, it is a lever-arm scenario.

2) Curved cutting edge. For some reason, with a traditonal knife, I don’t like too much curve in the blade (for a kitchen type knife). Because you have to rock it to get all the way through what you are cutting, and your hand being way back on a handle exaggerates the amount of movement you need. But, when your hand is on top of the cutting edge, the rocking motion is really quite fun. So, mincing can be done really fast. But the curve does another thing for you. Much like an axe face has a continuous curve, so does your cutting edge. What this does (for both) is makes a small amount of blade to be in contact with what you are cutting at any given point in time. A fraction of a second later, a different portion of the blade is being used. If you compare that to a realitvely non-curved blade a larger portion of the blade is being used at any given time and therefore requires more force.

Pairing it up with the “curved” cutting board or cutting bowl is quite neat. Before using it, I didn’t get it. My thought was “Here you with a knife whose advantage is supposed to be a curved cutting edge, and then you purposely take that curve away by making a cutting board to match it.” Well, that is only half true, and all good : ) You still hav ethe curved blade advantage of cutting power when cutting into something, because the bowl does not come into play a that point. So, you slice nice and easy through something, But, as you get ALL the way through, your bowl and cutting edge line up together and do not require you to do any (or minimal) rocking motion to cut completely through what you are cutting. Pretty neat.

3) Compactness. These are made in all different sizes. I made mine 7” from tip to tip. In that 7” package, I have just over 8” of cutting edge. A traditional knife with 8” of cutting edge is probably going to just over a foot long.

When I was younger, and group of friends and I used to venture really, really far north into Canada in the spring for walleye fishing. The places we went were generally “fly-in” lakes, although use poor saps used to spend hours in our boats getting there. On trips like that, we could carry more weight with us in the boats than say backpacking or canoeing, but you don’t want to go crazy with too much stuff. We used to bring a lot of good food. I wouldn’t usually use my belt knife on food, and something like this would have been great to take. Both for the fish and for the food.

4) Efficiency of movement. In the infomercial video, the guy shows butteflying a porkchop. I also mentioned having 8” of cutting edge on my knife. I can use every bit of that cutting edge without my forearm moving at all. One wrist movement. If you compare that to a traditional knife, the hand, the wrist the forearm and upper arm all the way up to the shoulder would have to move to use 8” of blade. That move that sliced through the pork chop can definitely be used in skinning animals and filleting larger fish.

Anyway, those are the advantages I see. I don’t mean to talk about it like it is the perfect tool for everything. I could probably make a very similar lists for disadvantages too. Still, I really like the tool, and it is definitely work exploring, even if you try out a $17 cheapie, or go to Jantz supply and try a $6 blank to handle yourself.

Once I get my cutting board/bowl scenario worked out, look for this one to have its own page for sale as well.

Thanks for reading.

Brian

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I have had a couple new knife styles made up for awhile now. I finally got around to posting them as ones that can be ordered.

They have their own order page now, and I will provide a link to them. Here they are:

The full tang stick tang.

And my Patch Knife.

I have another new one in the works, which I will post about shortly

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If you have read something that I have ever wrote on this blog and either liked it or disliked it enough to feel compelled to leave a comment, and then just end up feeling ignored by my, I apologize. There is a very valid reason for it. For some reason, I believe because this is a WordPress developed website, I get a HUGE amount of spam. Literally dozens of comments per day soliciting some product, and most of questionable origin : ) There is no way that I can possibly keep up with all this spam, so every comment that comes in gets ignored.

It seems there are spam solutions out there, but they cost money. Which really makes me wonder if the source and the fix are one in the same : ) Either way, I don’t trust it, so I don’t do it and just live with the spam. Which means, for anyone still visiting this website, that we just have to come to the realization that commenting here is not a valid way of discussing a topic. I will see if I can disable comments in the future.

If you are an Off The Map customer, and have a comment, question or concern, please visit the OTM page. There is contact information there in which you can shoot us an e-mail or give me a call.

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Before I get too wordy about this, if anyone is interested, the knife I am about to post pictures of is available. If you are interested in it, shoot me an e-mail at offthemapknives at gmail dot com.

On to the story. The knife pictured in my last post was more of a project for me. Both in making a new knife style and making something out of birch and antler. I looked around and was never satisfied with a nut or butt for that knife style and I ended up having a local machine shop make a custom one for me from a solid piece of brass bar stock. Hardly something that is affordable for making multiple knives.

Since making that knife, I have had many requests to make a full tang stick tang. Besides not using a “custom” end cap, I wanted to use more mainstream materials to make the knife affordable. Well, at least as affordable as my other models

So, here is the new knife style that will have its own knife page for ordering here in the near future. And, like I mentioned before, this one is available should anyone want it.

It is osage, with white liners, leather, brass bolster and tang nut.

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The world is just filled with custom knives. It was not so long ago that I made my first one and it seemed that a full tang scandi grind knife was not all that common in North America. Now, everyone is doing them and they are everywhere! But, that is not my point : )

It seems that is very easy to take a simple, durable and extremely functional design and add a “little bit here” and a “little bit there.” A touch thicker metal, a bit wider blade profile, or maybe a bit longer length. It seems that even a little tweak can turn that once simple, durably and useful knife into something that does not quite have the same function.

That is why I think the Mora designs stay so popular (besides them being cheap as dirt : ) But, the simple fact is they do what they were designed to do and they do it well. Get a bigger, thicker, or wider knife and all of a sudden it doesn’t do some things as well.

A couple of recent issues has made me realize this.  One of those is the purchase and use of the Mora #1 for myself. I have been loving and appreciating the design. The second thing is the purchase of a couple Mors Kochanski videos. It is one thing to read is book, review the techniques, and nod your head. It is another thing to see the man in action, see the pace at which he works, and the amount of work he accomplishes with that stupid little, ugly, red handled knife : )

Those things have had me thinking about my own designs. I have had a “stick tang” project in the back of my mind for quite some time, and these things are excuses to just get it done and do it.

So, my new design is highly influenced by the Mora #1

So, what do you get a high dollar custom that you do not get in a $10 number 1?

- O1 steel. I am extremely happy with O1 in the geometries I make it. The performance is great.

- Full tang. I haven’t kept up to date on what is going on in the mora handle, but I am quite positive it is not full tang. In my design, the tang has been threaded, epoxied and put under compression by a custom made pommel that has an integrated hidden nut. While there is epoxy on everything, it is nice to know that the whole system is held together by mechanical means.

- Cool handle materials! This one for me is brass, reindeer antler, leather, and curly birch. Is that sweet or what? : )

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I like posting knife information here and all. But, with the amount of spam that I get, it is not the best area for back and forth communication. Just simply me posting.

So, I decided to get a Vendor Forum over at Bushcraft USA.

Hopefully I will keep the knife stuff minimal here (and actually post a bit more) and can have some customer interaction over there. If you haven’t visited that forum, it is a good group of folks.

B

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I posted a new model of knife below, and have been avoiding naming it for a good reason. This knife is an extremely important one to me. For me, it is an incredible design, and incorporates a lot of things I have learned in the last couple of years in both knife making and using.

So, I really wanted the name to be special. I have decided on “Lodestar.” The reason is that in a figurative sense, Lodestar means “anything that acts as a guide, inspiration, or example to follow.” Lord knows I can always use sources of inspiration

In other good news, I have decided to make the exact knife pictured below available for sale. If you want it, shoot me an email at offthemapknives at gmail dot com.

B

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As a knife maker, between making orders day in and day out, I try to keep incorporating new things that are either interesting, or add functionality. Gotta spice it up!

Well, my latest knife model (I don’t have a name for it yet) I did two new things at the same time.

First, is that I left the finish on it as it came out of the kiln, and into the quench oil. Many makers call this an “as forged” finish. But, that is not technically correct. I make my knives through stock removal and I do not technically “forge” anything. I cut and make the shape, and then heat treating was done via kiln. I just didn’t do any sanding afterward. I rather like the contrast between the steel, and the shiny grind.

Something that complemented the “rustic” finish very well, was a wood called osage orange. I have not used it before until a recent customer order. I have seen it before left in rather a rough state of finish. I usually don’t do wood that way, and as I sanded it finer and finer, it started to look more and more beautiful, despite its rather normal texture. Once I saw it in a customer knife, I had to make one for myself. As many knives as I have lying around, I really do this as a way to understand long term performance (and field performance) of stuff I make, but not be exactly familiar with.

With that in mind, here is the knife.

I welcome to hear what you think about this new thing

B

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The older two kiddies anyway. The youngest was at home reeking havoc on the house

I took the older two kids on an awesome hike today. What was so fun about it, was we had no plans! Usually we are going out under the guise of squirrel hunting, or hiking, or whatever. Today, we were just going to see what was out there.

Before we even got out of the truck, I spotted some chicory, wild lettuce, burdock and jewelweed. I didn’t take any pictures, but showed them all to the kiddies.

I had a specific spot I wanted to see if we could get to. It is a lake we had fished by canoe, but the banks looked inaccessible by foot. So, we tried to cut in a different way. We ended up making it, but there were lots of brush and pickers. They were both troopers. Here is a pic of us starting out.

I didn’t take pictures of all the cool stuff we saw along the way. But, beside what I already mentioned we saw sassafras, mullein, plantain, and all sorts of other stuff that I don’t know

Also, in there we saw some old beaver sign.

We saw tons of frogs, and sat there playing with them for a bit. In the general frog area, we saw deer drops, and tons of raccoon sign.

By the time we walked for a while, here is the stuff the kids were carrying (not to mention my girls pockets were full of acorns.

They kept laughing that I called the mullein “nature’s toilet paper.” I think that is why that had to get a leaf of it. Underneath that leaf is a nice chunk of fatwood we came across. We put that to good use later.

When we stopped for late lunch, we decided this was a good spot.

The kiddies hung out in the hammock, while I got lunch going.

Remember that fatwood? Nice and greasy.

The menu. I swear the kids would eat mac and cheese every day if I let them. Since I wanted them to have fun, I packed them what they wanted.

I had to make something different. I generally prepare my own dried meals, and then can just grab them whenever I want. This red beans and rice is pretty much a stable. I do the celery, onion, and garlic thing, followed by the kidney beans and let it cook all day. Seasoned, of course. The main difference when I dehydrate is I leave out the ham and sausage (it dehydrates better) and then figure out something to add into it later. Today, it is beef sticks.

The rice has already been cooked and dehydrated as well. It takes only a minute or two to dehydrate, instead of long cooking times. It tastes way better than minute rice, and still takes less time to cook.

Here is my cooking vessel, before water is added.

Just waiting now.

Of course, mine is done before the kiddies.

Finally, the end of our day, before fighting the briars and pickers all the way out back to the truck.

I hope you enjoyed these pics.

B

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In my previous post, I mentioned not wanting to write about the Pathfinder Gathering too much because I had an article about it in the works. Well, here it is at Woodsmonkey.

I hope you enjoy.

B

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