Pair of ulu’ish knives

[DuEulear]

Pair of ulu’ish knives  diffrentialy tempered 1095 brass and cocobolo 

left them in the etch a little too long but they ended up really pretty anyway

 

du

[Jspool]

Very nice. great handles.   I have drawings of a similar design I had planned to make, but never did.  Does your tang extend into the handle past where the shortest cross grain exists?

[DuEulear]

Thanks 

yes the tang is roughly half the handle length the real fun is hollowing out a handle around a blind corner

 

i hollowed as far as i could then forged a 1/4 square to the same profile as the tang and burnt out just the last 1/2 inch or so then cleaned up all the char and olil with a slow speed carbide burr.

bright side cocabolo dosent split to easy

 

du

 

[Jspool]

Thanks. I was wondering how you got around the corner!

[TwistedCustoms]

Very cool. Being a pair they look as though they could have some martial application rather than food prep.

[Frosty]

4 minutes ago, TwistedCustoms said:

Very cool. Being a pair they look as though they could have some martial application rather than food prep.

Heh, heh, heh. Wouldn't that depend on the time and place? Wasn't so long ago martial arts WAS food prep in some places.

The blades look nice, I'd have to try them to see if they made good users though. Yeah, I've used Ulus, as practical as it gets blades, Ulus.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TwistedCustoms]

Touche......I always wondered if ulus were developed for use with mitttens. I've never used one but I have seen them being used to process fish.

[DuEulear]

The have the right belly to slice like one the hand position is a little wierd i intended to make more of a full circle 

the gentelmen i made tgem for where happy will probably be used for skinning and caping white tailed deer

they where thankyou gifts to two retired machienists in the family who gave me far too much tooling and indicators gages .... caint really repay them with only a couple of knives but they where happy

if anyone else has a good way to turn corners with a drill please share i would be glad to know another take on this ?

 

i drilled a 1/2 inch hole 1” deep at a right angle to the bolster then a 3/8” hole at a 45 degree angle to that about 1 1/2 “ deep then the same at about 60 degrees 2” or so deep 

theese mesurments where worked out to allow just enough clearnce for the tang in those areas 

Relieved corners and created flats for drilling where necissary with a roteray burr

the burnt the rest

 

other than splitting the blank and re gluing i could not think of another way to do it

du

 

[TwistedCustoms]

Splitting the blank and routing a slot is the first thing I thought of but with natural wood I'm sure what you did is better. They look  awesome and should make great caping knives.

[SLAG]

Mr. Du-E and T-Customs,

Beautiful knives,  congratulations!

They also look like leather worker's "head knives".

Those knives are wildly over priced. There may be a market for bespoke "head knives".

Check the Tandy Leather catalogue for shapes and prices.

Regards,

SLAG.

They also look a little like chef's Mezza luna rocking chopper blades.

[Frosty]

Du: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your blades, they're beautiful. I was just saying I'd like to handle them and see how they feel as users. The only realy important thing when doing commissions is a cleared check and perhaps references. I wouldn't change a thing, maybe keep some alternate ideas in the book if I got repeat orders.

There are as many ulus as there are people making them, circle saw blades have become a favorite for modern makers. Talked to a fellow in Fairbanks over our July 4th. RV trip. His were more of what you see in the villages, open handles are a relatively modern, add something to "improve(?) it" thing. Old school ulus are pretty much solid delta shaped with a curved edge and a piece of something with a sawn slit for the handle. Wood wasn't very common up north, no trees so what wood you see was driftwood on the coasts. Horn, bone and ivory are the majority of handles before traders and whalers started visiting. Then there were wooden things all over the place from cigar boxes to ship wrecks.

I believe the ulu is derived from the earliest stone blades, maybe even monoface. The shape is probably THE easiest blade to flake from a suitable cobble. Grind the thick section and or use pitch and hide or cordage to protect your hands and you have a functional blade for most everything from cutting grass, skinning and butchering, prepping food.

Knappable stone isn't all that common on the North Slope but you see the occasional ground slate, shale blades. The Jade family isn't knappable but it makes dandy clubs. Other blades were mostly: bone, ivory and baleen. 

Regardless of available material or time period the basic ulu profile is everywhere humans needed to cut stuff.

Frosty The Lucky.

[DuEulear]

Too true frosty the ulu is diffinitly desendant of thr first stone tools 

 

i did not take it as criticisim i was simply agreeing with you as i did not really get a chance to use them before i delivered them.

one of the blades was more simicircular than the other i liked it better. I can see them as being good for leatherwork also

 

thanks again evryone

Du