When people find out you make knives they often ask us, “Have you ever made a knife out of a ….” The usual suspects are files, railroad spikes and and lawn mower blades. I have made knives now out of all three. Here is a blade forged out of a lawn mower blade. Part of the serial number is even left in it. Handle is Mississippi Cherry Burl.
Friction folders Black canvas micartawith and osage orange spacer. Second is buffalo horn and variscite spacer with our trademark all original idea thumb screw tensioner.TM 🙂 and the last one is red and brown micarta. The blades are all old Nicholson files we bought in a lot. Among them had one by a company Nicholson bought out in the 1890’s. This was an old bunch of files! The pictures do not bring out the color and shine in these handles. We will get better ones up eventually. We also a fighter with Dad’s Mississippi cherry burl handle and a couple of bird and trout knives in ebony and maple.
So we are at the Live Love Local fest and a lady comes up and asks, ” Do you make machetes? We said, “Not yet.” She told us that her husband collects machetes from around the world. We thought that was a cool and unusual hobby. We did show her the Leku we had made. This we told her is the closest thing to a machete we have. It is the Laplander equivalent that they use for heavy brush work and butchering. (In testing the blade Tom hacked through 2x4s and nails!) She then let us know that her husband was in charge of US arctic affairs and is located in Europe working with many Finns. She thought it would be a cool to send him a Finnish knife made on Cape Cod. Well, he got the knife! He liked it! He is in Germany and is going to show it to his Finnish friends to see what they think. We are anxious to hear. Who knows, maybe it will go to the Arctic with him and chop up a reindeer or some Birch for a fire! Cape Cod Cutlery truly international now. Thanks for the great story. The Leku on the right, is pictured with a knife made by the owners grandfather! What a great patina on the old carbon steel blade. Part of why we love carbon steel.
Love to see them in action. This boning/filet knife looks right at home on a meat and cheese board. Keep sending them into us! We love it!
The online mid winter issue of Edible Cape Cod is now online so if you are not local and can not get a copy you can read now read all about us! The direct link to our article is also here. Check it out!
We had two requests for cleavers recently in the style old European butcher cleavers. This heavy duty chopper has a bit of a refined quality to it as well, it is not just a one trick pony. The handle is cherry burl from Dad’s farm in Mississippi. The photos do not do the wood justice.
So we went to our friend Fergus’s house to day to mess about with some pattern welding and railroad spike knives. There we were joined by Fergus’s son Ulf and Rich and Dave. We managed to get some steel to forge weld and made three railroad spike knives. We have some more work to do on it but will hopefully be able to show you a knife made shortly out of the pattern welded steel. A great day was had by all!
“Put it to work right away on a Florida triple tail. It performed flawlessly on this armor plated fossil. What a amazing blade!” Thanks for the great review and picture!
A new friend Marwin came over today to learn a bit about blacksmithing and knife making. We made a nail and a hook and a chef knife out of a lawn mower blade. It is my first time forging a knife from a lawn mower blade. . My dad sent me six of them about a year ago and I thought it would be a good lesson in blacksmithing. It is kind of cool . I did not set out with any shape of type of knife in mind. The process was very organic. A shape just started to take place and I went with it. In the end it resembles a chef knife …sort of. I will post pics when it is finished. It was a learning experience for us both.
Hey! I will be in the shop all day tomorrow and I will have our inventory on display! So if you are needing a last minute gift for someone come on down and see what is in stock! 31 Timber Lane Marstons Mills Ma. 9-6
