With respect to knives, it seems I have just been working away on existing orders, and nothing much new has been happening. Well, I got a chance to take on a couple of projects I have been meaning to get to for awhile.
First, is something completely different. There has always been something about the blade shape of a Canadian belt knife that I have always liked. Not necessarily the handles, but definitely the blade : ) You can see a little bit of that influence in my other late model, the Slim Jim. Yet again though, the Slim Jim was designed to fill a niche that my 4” models were not filling, and I had not yet put this blade shape into my 4” knife line-up.
This is where the story gets interesting : ) If you are reading this website, you more than likely spend time reading blogs, hanging out on forums, and making some really good “friends” despite the fact that you have not met face to face. That is exactly my scenario with the author of Patriot Earth. Ian spends more days per year in the backcountry than most of us even wish we could! Therefore, it was an honor to make this knife for him based on some specific needs.
It started with a blade shape idea. Ian knew what he wanted, and sent me some sketches. He left the liberty of the handle up to me. Once we got a final sketch agreed to, it was all a matter of making it happen from there. The specific design features that Ian wanted to address were the following:
- The absence of a guard that prevents the knife from going onto a cutting board (which is usually a log for me) because 50% of what I do with a knife in the backcountry involves working with food.
- Second the smooth transition from the edge of the blade to the spot where the choil would be if it had one prevents that edge from catching on stuff, which I find eternally annoying about some 4″ and shorter knives.
- Though it’s not bushcraft, I like the bump forward design because it puts the wide part of the blade out where I need it for spreading stuff on bread or crackers, lame, I know, but we have to be honest about what a knife gets used for. =)
According to Ian “ It also has all the functional aspects which have taken me years to determine specifically what I want.” I couldn’t agree more : ) The end result is a design that give a nod to the old north woods styles, yet still contains my style and what I feel is important in a handle.
It is named it after the environment we designed it for. Calling it the “Bitterroot” after the Bitterroot Mountains that he will be working in this summer (also a wild edible plant).
With all that babbling, here it is dressed up in desert ironwood.
Next, is a variation of the Terrasaur model, designed by Joe Flowers. I am calling this one the Anorexic Terrasaur, mainly because I already have another “mini” version in my head. Hopefully it will be in steel shortly. I really like this model, and it is one of my reliable standby’s that I know I can always count on. But, I have had this idea in the back of my head to make a new style knife that is more “mora like.”
If you take a look at the mora, they are extremely popular. Folks will have expensive customs, fancy woods, and all sorts of cool things in a knife, and yet they will still reach for a mora from time to time. Besides the obvious reason of affordability, I believe there are a couple other reasons for this. They include the following, IMO:
Weight: These things are light. Even if you are into reducing weight at all costs, it is hard to justify leaving behind the weight of a mora, when it is still a decent sized blade capable of getting some work done.
Thin: Let’s face it. We all want the indestructible, “do everything” knife. But, when it comes right down to it, thin slices and cuts like nobody’s business!
Control: The overall shape of the blade, and dimension from edge to spine allows a multitude of grips and lets you get great accuracy out of the cutting edge.
I am sure there are more reasons, but these are the stand out ones to me. So, my mission was to build a custom version taking care of the same needs. Looking at the models I already make, the Terrasaur seemed to be a great platform (from which I already like) to make such a knife.
And here it is.
Compared to its big brother.
Compared to a mora.
