Worked on it some more today…put together a rough AutoCAD drawing, again, on my lunch break.
I’ll try and upload it tomorrow…
Take the handle from your tanto and put that on your machete type blade. That is what I would make.
I still haven’t ruled that out. The biggest inspiration came from Brian Goode’s TTW knife:
I really like the idea of his knife, with serrations, and a tanto-tip (I’ll explain later, and ya’ll can feel free to refute and/or set me straight).
It looks like a great knife, but isn’t that blade too long and heavy for a survival knife?
I’m attempting to bridge the gap between machete and knife. Because of this, it won’t perform as good as knife for chores, and not as good as a machete for thinning brush.
The thrusting I’d do would only be if it were attached to a stick. I think I may have an idea of my tie points sorted out.
Most right handed people (you?) tend to chop downward, and with a slight right-to-left angle - that right handed grind will cause the blade to hook into the cut… and batoning with a chisel ground blade has never worked that great for me.
Kino, maybe I’ve worded it wrong, but the type of blade edge I’m looking for is:
I don’t know what exactly to call it…Scandinavian Chisel-Grind?
Pound-for-pound, it was the greatest chopping utensil for any wood, that I’ve ever used. Like a good majority of my goodies, it’s resting somewhere in the North Georgia woods.
I didn’t like the chisel-tip that it had, since it limited the applications of this knife for me. As well, the saw-back was too-far forward for my tastes. I need to state now, as well, how much I hate the term “saw-back”. I would prefer, notch-back, since I’ve yet to handle a saw-backed knife that ever came close to performing sawing work.
The tanto style blade forces you to use the back half of the blade to chop with… from the looks of it, the sweet spot will be out past the functional edge. I like some belly to a chopping blade… drop the tip on that machete style design, and give it some serious belly.
You are quite right, and it’s something I’ve neglected to realise. The two areas that I’m concerned with right now are the handle and the tip. I’m thinking that a kiridashi tip might be a good compromise between a arc-bellied, drop-point tip, and the tanto:
Have you considered a Kukri style blade? I have a custom one made from ATS34 with Micarta handles and it’s a choppin’ MOFO.
I have, the “Boomerang Hook” sketch was an idea I was playing with on the Kukri.
This design solves my “no thrusting” problem:
An effective Kukri might exceed my maximum blade-length…
I like the design. The only thing I would add is a lanyard loop but that is just me.
The handle design is kicking my ass. I’m trying to figure out a way to have a chopping, low, grip, and a near-the-blade, precision-grip for carving.
I’d love to ripoff the grip from the Airkat Apache, but it’s going to be a PITA to draw up:
The grip is almost right up my alley, but the palm/meat portion needs an indentation for my thumb.
My ultimate knife would be the grind from the from Ontario Spec-Plus Machete, with the overall shape of Brian Goode’s TTW Knife, with a notch-back, and the grip from the Airkat with more arc and extention in the grip for chopping.
Here’s my work-blade:
She’s a one-trick pony, and nothing I’d want to leave the grandkids, or bugout with.
