I don't like ANYTHING hanging on a belt or the outside of a bag in our dense brush, so I like a knife and small "day" horn that drop inside my bag. I cut patches at the muzzle and for years I've used a folding knife, same one I use for dressing game. Don't like things dangling around my neck, so no neck knives or dedicated patch knives for this kid.
Long story short, for my rainy day bag I wanted a knife that was no more than 6" long, same as my folding knife when open since I knew that was plenty big for all my chores. The issue came to a head when I came across the scattered bones of a young brown bear last year. Never worked with bear bone before, but the forearm bone (ulna?) sure felt right at the swollen flat end. Time to order a blade and sit down with the pieces.
Take a gander at how thick the bone is even on a very young bear. Hardly any core at all, and hard as ivory. Great for knife handles. Took about an hour of noodling around with needle files to open it up for the tang. Poured a pewter bolster while I was at it, but it's only rough-shaped in the photo. Still deciding on a final shape. Only other change I'm going to make, I don't like the pure white of the bone. Gonna work some beeswax into it one of these days. Meanwhile that grip is all I could ask for in the way it fits my hand and is secure in use.
Cobbled together a simple center-seam sheath for it, and I'm mostly done with it.
While we're on the subject of things inside the bag rather than outside, I'm also posting a pic of the little 6" horn I made while I was at the bench. That thing isn't much bigger than half a banana, but it holds 1,400 grains of powder when full. Certainly more than I'm ever gonna need on a hunt, and more than I'm willing to risk on a day in our wet woods. I hacked the 30-grain measure from the horn tip. Only 30 grains because that's the charge I use with the 45 cal GRRW-CA Squirrel Rifle for small game, and coincidentally two scoops (60 grains) has worked out just right for deer loads.
Here's the pic spread. Rather than labeling each one, I'm happy to come back and answer questions. I'm so happy with it, I encourage anyone skinning out a black bear to salvage some of the bones for his own projects. Bear bone is really good stuff!
Long story short, for my rainy day bag I wanted a knife that was no more than 6" long, same as my folding knife when open since I knew that was plenty big for all my chores. The issue came to a head when I came across the scattered bones of a young brown bear last year. Never worked with bear bone before, but the forearm bone (ulna?) sure felt right at the swollen flat end. Time to order a blade and sit down with the pieces.
Take a gander at how thick the bone is even on a very young bear. Hardly any core at all, and hard as ivory. Great for knife handles. Took about an hour of noodling around with needle files to open it up for the tang. Poured a pewter bolster while I was at it, but it's only rough-shaped in the photo. Still deciding on a final shape. Only other change I'm going to make, I don't like the pure white of the bone. Gonna work some beeswax into it one of these days. Meanwhile that grip is all I could ask for in the way it fits my hand and is secure in use.
Cobbled together a simple center-seam sheath for it, and I'm mostly done with it.
While we're on the subject of things inside the bag rather than outside, I'm also posting a pic of the little 6" horn I made while I was at the bench. That thing isn't much bigger than half a banana, but it holds 1,400 grains of powder when full. Certainly more than I'm ever gonna need on a hunt, and more than I'm willing to risk on a day in our wet woods. I hacked the 30-grain measure from the horn tip. Only 30 grains because that's the charge I use with the 45 cal GRRW-CA Squirrel Rifle for small game, and coincidentally two scoops (60 grains) has worked out just right for deer loads.
Here's the pic spread. Rather than labeling each one, I'm happy to come back and answer questions. I'm so happy with it, I encourage anyone skinning out a black bear to salvage some of the bones for his own projects. Bear bone is really good stuff!
