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Tutorials - Making a Big Pig Hunter
A big knife in san mai damascus, with
mokume guard and sheep horn handles. |
This
knife design came to me a couple of years ago from a customer
of mine. He's an avid hunter, and on a trip to Spain someone
showed him a pig hunting knife that the Spaniards call
"Macho" knife.
He liked it very much and talked me into making a custom
version of it so he could use it to hunt wild pigs. (Picture
1)
This knife hunting is a practise in which you use 4-5
big dogs (Dogo Argentino usually) to run and grab the
wild pig on place and then the hunter stabs it to death
while tring not to get injured by the animal.
As you can see on this picture, the original model was
about 1 1/2" shorter and with a higher point than
the actual knife I've made. This is because I thought
the blade was too short for the intended use and the point
wasn't going to get aligned with the arm movement for
a clean wound. (Picture 2)
Since I've made the point thinner for better penetration,
I've changed the bevelings and made it a mix between a
flat and a convex grind, making it more robust, while
having a sharp edge.
My customer liked it very much and he's been sucesfully
using it since then to kill wild pigs on his hunting trips.
Since the hunter stabs the pig's heart with a movemet
of the arm from the resting position to a higher one,
the curve of the blade makes it more adecuate for this
task than a straigth knife.
Now, some months ago, another customer asked me to make
him a knife like it, but in san mai damascus with a mokume
guard, so I asked Ariel Salaverria to make me those so
I could start working on the knife.
This are two san mai pieces, the smaller one was the one
for this knife. (Pictures 3, 4 and 5)
If you check out the close up pic, it developed light
rust, and you can see the damascus patterns depending
on how the different steels reacted to the oxigen. (Don’t
mind the sign, it’s a joke for Ariel)
After some work, I got the blade ground and tempered.
(Picture 6)
A little filework. (Picture 7) |
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| Picture 1 |
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Picture 2 |
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Picture 3 |
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Picture 4 |
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Picture 5 |
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Picture 6 |
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Picture 7 |
The
piece of mokume for the guard (iron, steel and copper)
(Pictures 8 and 9)
Almost finished guard. (Pictures 10, 11, 12, 13 and
14) |
| Picture 8 |
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Picture 9 |
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Picture 10 |
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Picture 11 |
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Picture 12 |
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Picture 13 |
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Picture 14 |
Etched
blade. (Picture 15)
With the guard presented on place. (Pictures 16 and
17)
Sheep horn for the handle. (Picture 18)
Cutting it for the slabs. (Pictures 19 and 20)
Already cut, presented with the other side stag. (Picture
21) |
| Picture 15 |
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Picture 16 |
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Picture 17 |
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Picture 18 |
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Picture 19 |
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Picture 20 |
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Picture 21 |
Handle
slabs after I got the sheep horn flat, kept on the press
so they don't change shape. (Picture 22)
Ready to go into the knife. (Picture 23)
Presenting them on the knife. My customer wanted a thick
handle for a better grip. (Pictures 24, 25 and 26) |
| Picture 22 |
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Picture 23 |
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Picture 24 |
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Picture 25 |
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Picture 26 |
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