The Mountain Knife

[Longhunter]

Hand forged from 1075 carbon steel. 6" blade, 11"OA with elk stag scales.

[Longhunter]

The Mountain Knife

The early American western frontier was settled by a variety of people who employed a vast array of cutlery.  Traders, trappers and the explorers who followed them often used a style of blade we call the Mountain Knife.
Our Mountain Knife has a 6" blade forged from 1075 high-carbon steel.  Most long knives from the early 1700’s were thin bladed affairs.  Steel was expensive and hard to come by. The spine of our blade is a bit more substantial at 3/16”, flat-ground to a feather’s edge. At the hilt it is an inch and a quarter in width and has a natural looking gray aged patina which also helps keep the carbon steel from rusting. The curved handle is made from stained elk antler and is hand-rubbed with an oil finish to protect it. Overall length is 11", and it will have been sharpened to a razor’s edge before leaving our shop.  
When you hold it in your hand is has a "feel” that is hard to describe.  It has a balance that seems to make it a part of you, and it feels like it wants to be USED. Like many of our other knives, it has a certain something that hearkens to an earlier time...a time when woodsmen depended on their knives for their very existence.  We have no doubt that “Praying” ‘Diah Smith, Tom Fitzpatrick and “Old Gabe” Jim Bridger, himself, would have been proud to use one of our Mountain Knives.

The Mountain Knife

[amm1851]

That is one sweet-looking sticker! Must...control....impulse....to....purchase....  

[Longhunter]

Our knives are made with a combination of forging and stock removal.  
For our Mountain Knife we begin with an 9" x 3/16" x 1.5"  blank of 1075 steel.  
This steel is a "simple high-carbon steel" that holds a keen edge when properly
heat-treated.  

 The outline of the finished knife is traced onto each blank from
a template.  The extra material is cut or ground away revealing the finished knife
 silhouette. The cutting edge of each blade is forged to thin it, and care is
taken to give the blade the same number of hammer blows on each side so as not to
 encourage warping later.  

The blade is left to air cool, and each is re-ground
to match the template silhouette since forging obviously changes the blade outline.  
The blade is now heated in the forge to a salmon-red color.  When the blade reaches
slightly above its critical temperature (when a magnet no longer draws to it), it is
set aside to air-cool, and the process (called "normalizing") is repeated to reduce
 any forging stresses that may be present in the steel.  

After heating the blade to its critical temperature for a third time, it is thrust into wood ashes and
left to slowly cool overnight.  This "anneals" the blade, leaving it in its softest
state, allowing for any file work or tang drilling.  Using a belt sander, the blade
 is rough-sanded to smooth the lines, tapers and blade contours.  In order to heat-treat
 the blade, it is put back into the forge fire and again slowly brought up to its
 critical temperature.  The blade is lowered edge down and point first into a shallow
 pan of preheated oil and rocked back and forth so that only the cutting edge depth
 is hardened.  The blade is laid flat in the oil and left there for several minutes.
  After it has been removed, wiped dry and allowed to air cool a few passes on the
belt sander reveal the blade's shiny surface.  It is then placed in a small convection
 oven preheated to 430 degrees, and the blade "cooks" for up to an hour and a half.  
The shined surface will have a deep purple color, indicating that the edge has been
tempered to a Rockwell hardness of about 57-59, perfect for a knife designed for
cutting and slicing where one needs edge-holding ability.  We repeat this process
twice to be sure that the blade has been tempered all the way through.
To eliminate previous sanding lines, each blade is fine-sanded by hand using 120 grit
sanding belt sections over a sanding block.  Blades are buffed on a series of
polishing wheels between 80 and 600 grit and finished with a chemical agent on the
 blade to them a gray aged look.   The elk handle scales are now put on, stained and
 given a very thin finish coat of sealer.          
 
 We warrant our blades against failure resulting from poor
materials or workmanship, but we will not replace any blade that fails because of misuse
or abuse.  It is important to note that, like the knives of the Mountain Men and archers of
Old England before them, our knife blades will easily stain or tarnish if blood or any other
acidic liquid is left on them for any amount of time.  Washing the blade with soap and water
followed by a coating of any light oil will keep your blade in fine shape.
   
These knives are shaped with a modified flat-grind which gives them knives incredible strength.

[amm1851]

What's the wait time after ordering, sir? (A guy my age really shouldn't wish for his birthday to get here sooner.)

[Spotted Bull]

Looking at those, I got drool on my keyboard~!

[Longhunter]

What's the wait time after ordering, sir? (A guy my age really shouldn't wish for his birthday to get here sooner.)

Right now I have one knife in stock with a choice of sheaths.  The Smith will have a couple more ready in a week or two. Sometimes with a new product he gets behind pretty quickly.

[amm1851]

What's the wait time after ordering, sir? (A guy my age really shouldn't wish for his birthday to get here sooner.)

Right now I have one knife in stock with a choice of sheaths.  The Smith will have a couple more ready in a week or two. Sometimes with a new product he gets behind pretty quickly.

Thanks.  I am still making payments on a custom flintlock rifle,  but I may be ordering a knife along about July.  You sure do make it difficult  to be good,  though!  

[jmforge]

Very nice. Where do you fine elk slabs like that?

[sse]

Beautiful knives...!

[Longhunter]

Very nice. Where do you fine elk slabs like that?

I picked up a full 6X7 Elk rack at a gun show from a man that had several tables full of antlers. It cost me a pretty penny but the quality of the rack was well worth the price...nice color and Knurly   

[jmforge]

Excellent. I ask because I am down to my last special stash of like 10 bowie sized sambar carvers and a few that would work for smaller knives and that stuff is pretty thin on the ground these days unless you either want very small pocketknife scales or want to pay well over $100 for big fancy ones. 

[Hanshi]

I like those knives and those sheaths! 

[Longhunter]

Holding the knife in my hand for size comparison

[Loyalist Dave]

WHEW DOGGIES!  I'm going to need a top hat and tails to walk about, sporting a knife that's that pretty.   

LD