Trapper Scott
45 Cal.
I hope this is alright to post here and if not let me know and go ahead and delete it. I was wanting a patch knife and I like piddling on stuff so I gave it a shot. I'm one of those folks that always think I don't have to buy everything because I think I can make just about anything, at least until I try and realize I don't have the skills or tools. Anyway, here are a few knives I threw together. One of them is from a knife blade I bought several years ago and forgot I had it. It's the stainless steel one with homemade walnut handles and as I understand, stainless steel didn't show up until around 1914 ish, so just ignore that one. The other two knives were made from one knife Dad had in his old shop. I think it may have been one of the old Hickory butcher knives. It was pretty nasty and rusty and I think Dad used it for everything except a knife. After Dad passed I had to go through all his junk and just couldn't throw that old knife away. Well, I'm glad I held onto it because after cleaning it up a bit I decided to take a cut-off wheel to it and shortened it a bit like the Russel Green River patch knife I saw. What to do with the rest of the blade but narrow the end for a tang and cut off a scrap piece of deer antler I had been holding on for a long time and drilled a hole in the antler and epoxied the tang in the horn. The original knife handle was pretty tired with no finish left on it except for about two or three colors of paint from one of Dad's projects I assume, so I sanded it down a bit and put a little tru-oil on it. I made the leather sheath from some scrap leather I had for the fancy dancy stainless steel knife but was pleasantly surprised to see all three knives fit just as well. I dyed the leather with a mixture of tan and black leather dye and used one of those leather hole punchers to space the holes for sewing. I pre0drilled the holes to make it easier to sew.
