the best place to get a traditional knife blank?

[S.Kenton]

I've been kicking around the idea of making an English scalping knife. I want to start with a blank and make my own scales out of my curly maple left overs from my rifle build. I've looked all over the net and can't seem to find any 6-7" scalping blanks...any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[necchi]

Garage sales and flea markets,, keep an eye out for old high carbon butchers or chef's knives and grind/cut'm down too scalper size.
The guy that runs "Backwoodsmen magazine" deals in those old blades and always has a listing with photos/description on the last page of the magazine usually around $20-25,,

 

[necchi]

Kinda like these, the bottom is a Custom made Scalper I won at an event compared to some large old high carbon butchers.
The top was a high carbon Chef's knife that I have in the process of making into a French Roach belly.
I have already peeled the scabs off the one next to the scalper and ground it into a shape like the scalper,, I'm waiting for a special tool to finish these job's, I need to get a roundtoit before their finished.

 

[S.Kenton]

I like ALL of those!...anyone of those could be made into what I'm after...I'll start checking around at the flea markets and garage sales and such..Thanks!

 

[S.Kenton]

That took me a second to catch what you were saying about the "roundtoit".....good one!... :grin:
You could send me one of those and I could lessen your knife building burden!...

 

[M. De Land]

Me too! :rotf:

 

[necchi]

Here's that one butcher "de-scabbed".
The blade on that Damascus is 7",,

I have the black lines cut out (and more of a matching top slope) and the handle shaped further along then this pic show's.

I have two slices of a Cherry "burl" (a large growth on the base of a Cherry tree) that I'm going to use for scabs, they where sliced on a thin blade band saw and are a mated pair,, If I reverse the pieces they will have a very close "mirror" of the curly grain on each side. I have those pieces set and pinned but they have just a slight bow from drying that I'll have to block sand down too flat. That's where I stopped, that cherry burl is hard as a rock!!

 

[LRB]

The one on the bottom is not even close to a scalper, but would be more of a mid 19th c. belt knife. A very nice knife though.
If making scalpers from those others, think half tangs, slotted one piece grip, and two or three iron pins not over 1/8" in diameter, smaller for English. English normally had a raised point, the French a dropped point. Two 1/8" pins for French with dropped point. Three 3/32" pins for English with raised point. American woods were not used, but could represent a replaced grip.

 

[necchi]

Thank you for the correction, I won't call it a scalper again.
I have a nice belt knife. :wink:

 

[S.Kenton]

For what it's worth Necchi....I like your belt knife! I guess I never thought about repurposing a butcher knife into something more desirable, that's a great idea and I will probably do that sometime along my journey. I had a member here offer to sell me a scalper knife blank and that's probably what I will do for this project.
Wick, could you show me a classic example of a scalper knife? That's what I am going to attempt to make and I honestly thought that's what I was looking at with Necchiis example. Thanks guys!

 

[LRB]

Sure. Here is a French Boucheron scalper first, and an English below. These are both 7" blades. The two pics under them are of an original English, I believe late 18th, or early 19th century, with a 7" blade. You can see the taper in the tang, and the forward over lap. Grips start at about 1" to 15/16" square X I believe 4 1/4" long at most, then are tapered to about 1/4" to a tad more on each side of the blade. Grip shaping is best done before attaching, which is with peened iron pins. In doing the pin holes, Start with the square blank, taper the bottom flat to the width desired up front, then, or even before, cut the slot and fit it to the tang, kinda snug. I use a band saw and needle files. Then using a few small drops of super glue, glue the grip on the tang, either side, where you want it to be. Drill the grip through the tang holes, give it a rap on something of wood to pop the grip loose, shape it, install, and finish with an oil based varnish. Oh, and another point on the English. They drilled their holes low enough on the tang to end up centered on the over sized grip width.

 

[M. De Land]

One can sure see the evolution of knife style over time.
Back in the day the belt knife had to often do double duty as a weapon as well as bacon slicer and game tool.
For cutting up game no one needs a knife blade longer than three inches and a nice drop point design is very useful.
Here in Alaska we always get a kick out of Dude hunters showing up with a blade long enough to double for the Brave Heart broad sword. Almost useless for skinning and cutting up moose or bear.
Long blades make it hard to control the point or get the leverage one often needs up on the tip for popping joints or unzipping the legs or belly hide.
The best game knives I have ever seen or used will have a drop point, some depth, edge to spine and a good none slip handle a bit longer than the blade.
Drop points are a big bonus in my opinion for a good game knife design.

 

[M. De Land]

Did you try TOTW? I got five patch knife blanks from them that worked well.

 

[S.Kenton]

I have so many knives already for hunting, that if I lost 5 I'd still have more knives than I'd know what to do with, different styles of Gerber, Buck,a few hand me downs from my Grandpa and quite a few I've made from scratch...but this is more or less a H/C or P/C project to go along with my persona. I'm looking to re-enact or at least "gear up" for a 1770-1790's Eastern Long Hunter..thus the Scalpers Knife, Riflemans Knife or belt knife is my next project. T.O.W doesn't have the style I'm looking for..

 

[LRB]

For 18th c., historically, it seems that the scalpers, or butchers were the most commonly used knives as belt and all purpose knives. The large antler gripped riflemans knives seem to be more of a romantically inspired reenactorism. Only two such knives have been found under documentable conditions. One dug up at Ft. Ticonderoga, and the other, I believe in a New York harbor? Very few, if any, belt type knives can be documented to American blacksmith origins in this time period. Back to scalpers. The French never called them scalpers, but the English did. The term can be found on English shipping manifests. The French scalpers were called "boucherons". Both countries listed these knives only as small, medium, and large. It would seem the English scalpers came with 5", 6", and 7", as standards, but also offered larger sizes, I suppose intended for butchers use. The French sizes seem much the same, at least within reasonable fractional variations. All that said, I must confess to a heresy. I carry a large knife. I like large knives so long as they are not too heavy. Mine has a 9 1/2" blade with a full ball grip thin tapered tang, with bone slabs. It is also well tapered from the grip to the point, and is just over 1/8" at the thickest section. It is very light in weight for it's size, and I have used it many times to work deer from skinning to dismembering. A smaller knife does that job better and easier, but the large knife is not a serious hindrance due to it's light weight. I sometimes wear it as a neck knife, especially when hunting in heavy clothes. It stays tucked in under my coat. Very handy if I need to cut a small sapling.

 

[S.Kenton]

MAN!.. I like that knife. So does the steel part of the handle have the same ball shape and you make the antler or wood conform by carving it into the same shape? I'm sorry for the questions..I'm fairly new at the knife making game.

 

[Brokennock]

Very nice. What did you use as your source for the bone?

 

[M. De Land]

I really like the knife but the sheath is so fantastic is sucks all the air out of the knife picture! :rotf:
Both are exquisite in my opinion!

 

[LRB]

Yes on the tang. The bone is dressed to the shape of the steel grip. The bone is imported from asia and is probably water buffalo. Many knife maker suppliers carry it in sawed slabs, and very reasonably priced. The sheath is by a fellow named Daniel Reese, and is quills over walnut dyed brain tanned deer with an inner liner of deer raw hide. All but the upper deer hair tassels have since been removed. They got in my way. That sheath cost me a duplicate knife to mine. I only use it as show at some events. My common carry sheath is quite plain. The pic is another knife with my carry sheath. The sheath is brain tan over vege tan, bordered with German chalk white beads.

 

[Rifleman1776]

The large antler gripped riflemans knives seem to be more of a romantically inspired reenactorism.

:nono: Nay. Not so. :shake:
In pic below, #4 could be the grand daddy for my reenactors knife. This is a page from the Encyclopedia of the American Revolution.
They used what they had. Often broken short(er) Scottish short swords.

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BTW, to answer the original question: antique shops, flea markets, garage sales and try http://www.knifemaking.com/Default.asp