I've started what I was planning on being a hunting knife but the shape I've got doesn't look much like any hunting knives I've seen. In fact, I haven't seen any images online of knives with this shape with  - point curved downward. 

My question ... am I just making an upside down knife or does this blade fit into a "category"?

Thanks in advance. 

I don't make blades, but that could be any number of styles

Sheepsfoot. It's one of my favorite blade on my blaster multi tool. You could flatten out the curve a little on the cutting edge.

it would definitely not work for a hunting knife. it would be practically impossible to skin a deer or any other animal with a knife like that.  take it from one who has skinned manny a critter. the only thing that knife would get you is a mess. i would say it definitely leans toward more of a pruning knife direction. 

Make a drop point. Great utility  and hunting blade style. Hammer what you think is the edge. The point of the top of the knife will be fromedthis large knife was made this way. Makes a greatt hunter with a 3.78" blade.

A little more downward curve and sharpen it up makes a "carpet" knife for cutting heavy fabric.

Frosty The Lucky.

41 minutes ago, Tubalcain2 said:

it would definitely not work for a hunting knife. it would be practically impossible to skin a deer or any other animal with a knife like that.  take it from one who has skinned manny a critter. the only thing that knife would get you is a mess. i would say it definitely leans toward more of a pruning knife direction. 

thanks .. i took a look and yea what i'm making is definitely looks like a pruner  - not something i'll get much use form -  even thought i like the shape it's prob time to rework it back into more of a tradition hunting knife

6 minutes ago, Frosty said:

A little more downward curve and sharpen it up makes a "carpet" knife for cutting heavy fabric.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty to the rescue! That's where I've seen this shaped blade before. Not what I was going for but thats what I've got. 

How'd you do that? Most people's first forged blades are the exact opposite shape, because they didn't compensate for the natural curve that the bevel creates.

Look up images of "karambit", pruning knives, linolium knives, carpet knives. It isn't quite any of those but looking at images may give you design ideas. I made a matching pair of karambit knives about a year ago and grinding a clean bevel on the inside of a tight arc was tedious! 

 Go ahead and handle your knife and post more photos! It may not conform to an established design closely enough to name it a this or that but it doesn't have to. Make yourself a nice drop point for skinning and use that one for utility work.

Also look at images of cable splicers knife

If you round the tip I would expect it would work well for opening up an animal with out cutting the gut. Might be too specialized to carry far but still seems useful to me. IF it is very small would work well for skinning out bear toenails also.

12 hours ago, C-1ToolSteel said:

How'd you do that? Most people's first forged blades are the exact opposite shape, because they didn't compensate for the natural curve that the bevel creates.

I'm not 100% sure what you're asking since I haven't ground in a bevel yet but to create the downward curve i forged the top wth a rounding hammer and the used the horn to shape the point. also, worth noting  - prob obvious - i did some grinding as well. 

Oh, I didn't realize that you haven't beveled it yet. What I was talking about is how when you hammer a bevel, a straight blade naturally curves to more of a skinner shape. To make a drop point, you make a template that looks like more of a sheep's foot shape. If you hammer a bevel on the knife that you are working on, it should turn into a pretty good drop point shape.

If you hammer in the bevel, rather than grind it, you might be able to curve it back the other way somewhat.

It looks like a good start to a patch knife for a muzzle loader.

When you hammer in a bevel, the side you are hammering on gets longer while the back remains much the same length; so the blade curves away from the bevel side.

This is a problem for many people; luckily it can be easily dealt with by several methods: one is to pre bend it the other way---towards the bevel side so that when you hammer out the bevel it straightens; the second way is to take the hot blade and set it bevel side up on the anvil and tap the edge so that the back moves down till it touches the anvils face---you wouldn't think this would work but it does!  (best done multiple times as you work the bevel that one major time at the very end!)

Of course you can do a combination of both methods...

If you forge Finnish the tapper on your edge this may stretch out the blade to give you a better line or if you don't have the thickness to do that heat thru and correct the curve  by hitting on top side off anvil and have the tip of the edge on ànvil 

really appreciate the the advice and input from all of you - thanks!

On 2/27/2017 at 5:35 PM, PaperPatched said:

It looks like a good start to a patch knife for a muzzle loader.

My thought exactly would need an antler handle.

On 2/27/2017 at 3:44 PM, ThomasPowers said:

the second way is to take the hot blade and set it bevel side up on the anvil and tap the edge so that the back moves down till it touches the anvils face---you wouldn't think this would work but it does!  (best done multiple times as you work the bevel that one major time at the very end!)

Of course you can do a combination of both methods...

I'd suggest using wooden hammer for that.

36 years so far and no problems using a steel faced hammer doing it,  Wood should work as well.

It looks like a blade preform for sure. It still looks plenty thick enough to forge the bevels in. Question though, what type of handle/guard are you going for?

On 3/4/2017 at 7:31 PM, ThomasPowers said:

36 years so far and no problems using a steel faced hammer doing it,  Wood should work as well.

It can help prevent the edge from deforming if you're making thin knives.