Simple Nessmuk

[Ice Tigre]

not nearly as good as the last nessmuk knife posted here, but I'm proud of it all the same. I've been wanting to do one of these for quite a while now.

1-1/4"at its widest point, 3-1/2" blade, 7-3/4" overall. Fulltang.
3/32" 1095, convex/scandi grind, with flat secondary bevel for the edge.(if that makes any sense) Thats tulipwood, its actualy just a bit pinker than the photos. I think I finaly got a handle design that is comfortable for me to use too.

Man, its hard to photograph a mirror pollish!

Let me know what you think!

Gary
P.s. I've got a hidden tang version in the works now!

[snakeman458]

gary:
what is this kind of knife used for?
al purpose or for working meat. I must be stupid or something, because I have never heard or seen such a design. Looks great bro
don

[Ice Tigre]

Well,
I did mine as an every day carry / all purpose knife, and a light skinner.

Its believed to be a general purpose knife, it was designed by a man call Nessmuk, in the mid to late 1800s, his name was George Washington Sears. He wrote a book call woodcraft about, well, wood craft and outdoorsmanship/camping.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/048...lance&n=283155

Raymond Richard posted his a few days ago, here;
http://www.knifenetwork.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=34127

the best article I can think of right now to give you an inroductin is this one on the Outdoors-magazine site; http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_artic...id_article=179
the knife reviewed in that article is part of the inspiration i had for mine.

there has been a lot of dicussion on various boards lately about this design, if you search for "nessmuk" on http://www.britishblades.com/forums/index.php and http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/ you will find lots of information.

Just googling "George Washington Sears" or Nessmuk" is good too.

Hope that helps.
Gary

[hammerdownnow]

I thought puttting the Scagel in as the pocket knife in the trio was a pretty slick idea in the outdorrs mag article. Nice job on the Nessie. The handle looks real comfortable.

Nessmuk Kith anyone??????

[Raymond Richard]

You did a real nice job on the Nessmuk. It looks real simular to what its suppossed to be. Wayne Goddard sent me this on the Nessmuk.

[Ice Tigre]

Thank you gentlemen!
I value your opinions.
A nessie kith, aye? I have 4 more variations drawn out.... one of which I am doing for the spring fling kith.... What the hey, why not!


Gary

[Ice Tigre]

As you can imagine, getting a sheath for that blade shape that looks good is rather hard.
mine ended up being a non-fold over pouch, but to do this it became quite thick, to acomodate the handle. knives are simple(more or less ). I HATE leather work. One nice thing about leather is it is good for testing edge retension of my knives, the nessy did all of the cutting for this. And its still sharp!

Anyway, I am actualy quite happy with this one, the last pic shows it with the only other sheath that I liked the finished product. Also my old EDC, this being my new EDC.

I think I'm babbling........





Comments?



later,
Gary

[hammerdownnow]

Babblon! One to be proud of there. Someone said, a knife is not complete till you make the sheath. You took this one across the finish line. Quite an accomplishment in my opinion.

[Joel]

You did a great job in capturing the blade shape. Long as we're showing Nessmuks, here's a couple of mine. I've been a "follower"of Nessmuk since I was a kid, and that was a long time ago. One stick tang and one full tang. The stick tang resembles the original nessmuk design except its from 1/8" X 1 1/2"cryo'd 154CM. It has a 4 1/2" blade and is 10 1/2"overall. The handle is from a huge whitetail buck I shot 3 years ago. It differs from the original design(besides the stainless steel) in that it has a spacer(covers a large glue hole full of fiberglas resin), a pin through the tang and a ricasso. It's a big knife, but not really heavy at 7 oz. The second Nessmuk is a full tang version I"ve been building for around 8 years. With the current "craze" in Nessmuk knives, I've been selling these fairly quickly. The design is based on one that the great knifemaker Harry Morseth did back in the 1920's. I received my first Nessmuk blade as ground by Bob Engnath a year before Bob's untimely death. He had used Morseth's pattern. I've been grinding the same pattern ever since. If you look at the back of the knife, the butt resembles a deer crown in profile. This one is in 1/8"x 1 1/4" D-2 and ironwood. The customer wanted the long bolster. You can see from the pics the page from his book "woodcraft and camping" which is still in print in an edited version from Barnes and Noble($5.95) which shows his famous knife, equally famous double bitted axe and two bladed jack. The axe in the pic is my Marbles Hunter axe( ragweed forge) and my old two bladed Schrade Hunter that I carry along with my Nessmuk. By the way, his family moved to Wellsboro, PA when he was around twenty years old. There's a mountain named for him there. The antlered versions built by Dale Chudzinski are about a perfect repro of the original knife.

[hammerdownnow]

Those are some beauties. Thanks for sharing them and the history. I would like to see a pic of a Morseth Nessmuk.

[Ice Tigre]

Whoa! as I am not a fan of stainless knives or verry interested in antler handles, I suprise myself in liking that knife!verry much I had not thought of the nessmuk as being a larger knife. Your fulltang is also great! obviously you know what your doing!


I am currently building my first non-kit folder, and my first slip-joint, a trapper much like yours,patterned after a schrade my Dad has. I have planned on ordering a nessmuk axe,later this summer, from Lee Reeves; http://members.tripod.com/ssidders/id121.htm . I have not read the book yet, but it is on the top of my "near future" reading list. I do verry much like the "trio" concept, and am planning on putting my knife to good use this summer, with the trapper.

Any idea what started the recent craze anyway?

Gary

[Joel]

Gary,
I've really no idea what has started this "craze". I learned about him from my Dad, who was very much a student of woodcraft. I think I was 10 when I first read him. There's been a growing undercurrent of interest in Sears philosophy for a number of years. Starting about 4 years ago, his name started to appear more and more often at various outdoor forums. His trilogy of edged tools and his ultra light wood strip canoes, plus his going off into the wilderness with a pack weighing around 28 pounds seems to have re-awakened an interest in "smoothing it"as he called it; as opposed to the common term of "roughing it"when applied to wilderness living. Part of his going ultra light was common sense for him. He stood about 5'2"and therefore wan't suited for carrying very heavy packs to begin with. The same with his 16-20 lb canoes. He more or less intimates in his book that if you're bigger, you'll need a bit more, plus obviously a bit larger canoe to carry your increased weight. Interesting man. Living here in Pennsylvania, a number of the places he mentions I know about and look at his writing of area's that have now been destroyed by useless development with a sort of nostalgia. I also suspect that the antler on his knives came from PA deer horn; making one using the same source also has a certain sense to it. BTW, I believe the original nessmuk had a blade length of around 4 5/8", or so I've read. A medium sized knife.

Another writer to look at who, along with Nessmuk, is considered another originator of the art of common sense woodcraft is Horace Kephart. He was both a student of Nessmuk(he was born in 1860) and someone who developed his own philosopy over the years. An educated man, he left civilization to spend a good portion of his life in the North Carolina mountains. His book, much larger and with the same title as Nessmuk's is also considered a bible by those who want to travel without all the gadgets and crap that modern merchandizing tries to convince us is necessary.

[Ice Tigre]

you are making me wish that I had the money, to get his book.(yeah, I'm actualy that broke) He is definetaly a most interesting man.

Yes, Kepharts' book is also on my reading list. There is a mostly "official" website for him, and I am planning a copy of what was soposedly his knife of choice; http://library.wcu.edu/digitalcoll/kephart/ , If for no other reason, I like the idea of making things that have a direct historical influence.

I understand the need for traveling light, I have always thought it stupid that people soposedly got out to "get away from it all" and yet take it all with them. I am a big person, but in poor health, so I greatly apreciate the light gear availible today. I have given up my interest in, as you put it gadgets. a different tool for every odd little purpous.

I just realized that my interest in traveling light, is what led me to fing nessmuk and his book.

errr.... I think I'm babling again. lately I've ended up saying more in one post,than I would normaly speak in a week. Strange.

Gary

[NJStricker]

I stumbled onto Horace Kephart while researching Nessmuk. Here's a link to pics of his cutting tools from the Kephart museum. Lots of interesting reading here, too.

http://wcudigitalcollection.cdmhost....L&CISOROOT=all


There has been sporadic surges of interest in Nessmuk, Kephart, Muir, etc. If you look at eBay, many of the Nessmuk Woodcraft reprints being sold are from the late 60's, about the start of the modern environmental movement. About 6 or 7 years ago there was a big movement in the backpacking community toward ultralight gear, and I think a lot of people rediscovered him again.

[NJStricker]

Hey Gary, Which knife are you making, his hunting knife or fishing knife? I thought the fishing knife would make a nice small drop point, especially if you replace the toothed spine for scaling fish with some filework. . .