Knife and hatchet making with my 19 yo Nephew

Discussion in 'Bushcraft' started by Bear, Jul 24, 2014.


  1. Bear

    Bear Monkey+++ Founding Member Iron Monkey

    Aloha Monkeys,

    Big family reunion with family from all over the mainland and Japan coming for the last two weeks... phew... super busy with folks...

    Nephews and Nieces wanted to spend time in my shop and had a chance to teach them all how to make fire with steel and flint, do some forging, mig and stick welding and make some hatchets and knives with curly koa handles to take home....

    Also taught some Uncles, Aunties and other families as well as some very young cousins how to make fire and cordage....

    We also spent time on Kauai and I taught them how to sling rocks the "David and Goliath" way with some leather and paracord slings.... lots of fun at the ocean and they picked it up quite well....

    Even had a chance to show them how to make a tough usable sling in under a minute with just their shoe laces, paracord or other string...

    Here's a pic of one of my proud Nephews of the two hatchets and short blade he made over two days.....

    He marked the blade and leather sheaths with his initials and couldn't wait to get home to Texas to show his friends and his Dad...

    Also had time to take another Nephew out fishing and give him some pointers on throwing net... he caught a few... I taught him to leave the biggest one on a nice flat rock for the "Aina", how to clean them the old way, fry them up and he had enough for lunch for his Mom and Sisters....

    Here's the video...



    Nice to pause and spend time with family and also to pass on some skills and good time with all the generations... especially the next generation ;)

    Take Care and God Bless,

    Bear
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 24, 2014
  2. GOG

    GOG Free American Monkey

    Very nice. Passing on traditions and skills and being with family is a wonderful and important thing.

    I'm old and other than my wife no longer have family. You are a blessed man and from what I see of you here, a good man.
     
    Bear likes this.
  3. Bear

    Bear Monkey+++ Founding Member Iron Monkey

    Aloha @GOG There were between 270 and 300 people who came to the family reunion... we started this 20 years ago with my Mother's family... 13 children so lots of generations... from the newborns all the way to 85... we had a special service for the generations past and all those that went before....

    I was totally surprised at how many came and overwhelmed by all that family... yes passing on the traditions and skills to the next generations is the very best thing we can do....

    My Grandfather was one of 10 children... he sewed me my first throw net and taught me... and my Uncles refined my own skills over the years... I try to offer skills and traditions whenever I can... so thanks for your comment.... you are soooo true!

    Passing on to extended families is important to... I have friends here... I certainly consider "Family".... and have volunteered to make, show and help community and small groups... I think I as you say... " is a wonderful and important thing"

    Take Care and God Bless,

    Bully
     
    KAS and GOG like this.
  4. Bear

    Bear Monkey+++ Founding Member Iron Monkey

    Aloha Monkeys,

    A few more comments and pics I took...

    Here's some pics of the char cloth we made as well...

    And the flint and steel kits I made for the reunion folks that wanted one.... lots of nephews in the boy scouts, Uncles and even the Nieces and Aunties were interested.... phew....

    Each kit had a leather pad for cradling the tinder bundle, hand sewn leather pouch for the kit, steel striker, flint, char cloth and oakum tinder.... some have already been on camping trips and used them ;)

    Also some pics of the results of our mini lesson in steel heat treatment and performance.... tossed all the other pieces but saved these for my Nephew who wanted them ;)

    I let them all hammer on precut 1095 high carbon steel first so they could see how it felt on the anvil before heating and quenching...

    I also showed them how at a certain temperature the steel was no longer magnetic.... they really thought that was cool :) touching one end and having the magnet stick and then touching the glowing end and not stick at all... "that's cool Uncle!"

    Then we took the steel they hammered on and heated it to critical and past and quenched it in cold water....

    Then we took a file to the end that wasn't harden to show how the file bit into it.... then to the hardened end to show how the file scatted across it and wouldn't bite into the hardened steel... one Nephew also noted how it sounded different...

    Then we took it to the anvil and hammered on the treated end and they all prompted cracked ... with no effort at all.... you can see the cracked ones ... and I showed them the "grains" in the steel...

    Then we took a wider piece so we could harden just one side of it and leave the other soft... heated it to critical and quenched it in cold water ... (you can see in the pic the hardened zone)... they all expected it to crack off like the other pieces ... but after repeated beatings on the anvil (some really hard ones) it held together with no crack.... It was a nice quick lesson in heat treating and how some blades and tools perform... and others fail....

    They really liked it and we had a great time... each person was given a chance to heat, try the magnet, hammer, crack and try to break the wider piece...

    Fun times and a great learning experience....

    Thanks for looking and don't forget to pass on those skills ;)

    Take Care and God Bless,

    Bear
     

    Attached Files:

    Sapper John, KAS, GOG and 2 others like this.
  5. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Nicely done with the students, Iron Monkey.
     
    Bear likes this.
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