Giant carcass splitters of DOOM!!!

[Stormcrow]

Howdy, folks.  Been a busy, productive year, and not as much time has been spent on forums as I used to.  But I have had a couple of interesting projects I wanted to share.  They are the two largest carcass splitters I've made so far, one completed in February and one in August.

The first was a commission from a chef who owns multiple restaurants who wanted as large a carcass splitter as I could make as a gift for a friend of his.  The second was a commission from a fellow who butchers a lot of hogs.  Both started out as bars of 5/16" x 4" 80CrV2 steel, and both ended up with hemp cord over neoprene handle wraps and Boltaron sheaths.  And both were hair-shaving sharp when shipped.

The first one was forged as close to shape as possible with my power hammer, with only minimal cleanup grinding along the edge profile before grinding and filing the bevel to final dimensions.  It ended up with a blade just under 20" long, 5 3/4" wide at the widest, 41 1/4" overall length, and a weight of 8.22 pounds, a good 3 pounds more than my previous largest carcass splitter.  





In comparison with a "small" carcass splitter that is more like a 15" blade, 15" tang, and around 4 lb weight, and with a 6' 2" Sasquatch for scale.



The second one was forged as close to final dimensions as I could on my power hammer, but the end was trimmed and the spine had minimal cleanup grinding.  It isn't quite as wide, but is larger in all other ways at just over 20" blade length, 5 1/2" wide, and 44" overall lenth, with a weight just over 9 pounds.





It picked up some extra texture from sitting a few days in a mixture of vinegar that had more 30% acidity in it than I realized (most of the mixture was 9% or 5%).  Usually the vinegar eats the scale off without affecting the steel; this time it definitely added texture.



In comparison with a 15" bladed bush sword that weighed just under 1.33 lbs prior to stock removal:



Sasquatch for scale.



Gotta say, it does nothing to help you hitch hike, even if you show a little leg!  I had just finished demonstrating how it could shave hair, too!


More details, process video and pics, and general silliness in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrEF1P5Qdh8

[Frosty]

2 hours ago, Stormcrow said:

Sasquatch for scale.

Okay I get the scale but do you REALLY think its a good idea to give a Sasquatch that big a blade?

Frosty The Lucky.

[ThomasPowers]

Looks great; but I would hate to have to clean out that texture after use.  Now for Zombies it doesn't make a difference---just don't cut yourself sharpening it after use... 

 

[JHCC]

People use scale as raw material for bloomery iron. If you're using Sasquatch for scale, does that mean that you can use Sasquatch as raw material for bloomery iron?

Fun with undistributed middle terms aside, that's a fine looking couple of blades. Keep up the good work!

[Stormcrow]

Thanks, guys!

 

Frosty - A Sasquatch gets what a Sasquatch asks for! 

[Frosty]

And tells the bear to poop somewhere else. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

What are you running for a forge? I have a weird thing about wanting to make some cleavers (maybe not quite as giant as your beauties, but definitely bigger than the ones you get with a knife set) 

[Stormcrow]

On 10/2/2020 at 4:10 PM, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot said:

What are you running for a forge? I have a weird thing about wanting to make some cleavers (maybe not quite as giant as your beauties, but definitely bigger than the ones you get with a knife set) 

I'm using a one-burner square body forge I built.  The burner is a Larry Zoeller kit, the sides are about 10", used 2" wool insulation, with kiln shelving for the doors and on top of the floor wool insulation.  For heat treatment, I have a big Evenheat electric furnace with digital controller.