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Mike's Flintknapping, Blacksmithing, & Primitive Crafts

I had a customer recently give me a knife that he carries out in the woods so I could make a sheath for it. It was pretty beat-up, loose pommel, white paint on it, and dull as a butter knife really. He only wanted a sheath, but I couldn't send that knife back to him like that so I cleaned it up, fixed the pommel, and gave it a good sharpening and honing. Oh, and here's the mountain man sheath I made him. We worked out a cheaper price than what this would go for, but he's throwing in a modern pair of aluminum snow shoes as part of the deal so I'm quite happy. The brass tacks are clinched which is a method of hammering them through the leather then bending the tack tip into a "U" shape to hammer back into the leather. While this is not period correct as they would peen the end over, it is clothing friendly and won't snag clothing like the peened tack ends do. The leather is from a 40 year old pair of old cowboy boots. I aged it to look like it's seen some miles in the field. In a way, this was a practice run for the large sheath I want to make for my antique buffalo skinning knife that I intend to carry when in the woods. I've always wanted a buffalo skinning knife and a sheath with brass tacks. I traded for the knife last year and I have what I need now to make it, work is just busy now so time is limited.

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Here's my latest knife sheath made from one of my flintknapping leather pads I've used for almost my whole knapping career. This one stayed with me and houses one of my antique buffalo skinning knives from the 1800's. The brass tacks fasten the leather together by a method called clinching. The tack shaft pierces through the leather and is bent in a "U" shape to be pounded back into the leather from the other side. This makes it impossible for the tack to come off or be pulled out and forms a really nice tight fit of the leather sheath. The belt goes through the belt slot and around the top of the sheath that holds the knife handle. Your belt tension provides the extra tension to hold the knife securely. I do make the sheath so it's a tight fit, but the belt is added protection to make sure you never lose your knife.

This is one wicked looking sheath at about 8 inches long and houses a 10 1/2 inch total length knife. I can just imagine a fur trapper from the 1830's trading for this sheath with the Crow Indians at a rendez vous. I really prefer this type of sheath over the looped or slotted kind that slide on the belt. I can make a sheath like this for any knife and if you have a knife that you'd like one for, we can work something out with PM's.

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I thought I might share some photos of some of my past work that I thought were fun projects.

Below is an original trade tomahawk that was found in PA by a prominent collector.

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You can still see the maker's mark and it may very well be from Hudson Bay trading company. Notice the bit and how smooth it is? That's the high carbon steel and you can tell the rest of it was made with wrought iron because of the grain visible up near the eye. So this customer is a super nice fella and he wanted me to put a handle on this and make it look like it was as old as the head. He imagined what it might look like having been tucked away in a dry cave for all these years. I just love, love, love it when someone turns me loose to make something look old. Now mind you there faking for fraud and then there's museum quality work that makes it look old but not so much as to fool a professional. Here's what I ended up with:

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In the end the customer was super thrilled and it went above the fire place mantle in his large home. I actually buy old tools that have the wear and look that works and keep working until I get mine to look like that! It's a lot of fun and it took this old antique axe head from something that sat in a box to something that everyone on that floor of his house gets to see and wonder if it's real or not.

Another area I like to dabble in is powder horns. I like to base mine on real people, real battles, or real events. The first powder horn I ever made is a fictional creating based on a real soldier named Capt. George Bush. His efforts leading up to the Battle of Chemung were brave and heroic . His men dislodged several British and Indian soldier behind earth works in what was known as the chemung ambeuscade in 1779. This happened before the Newtown Battle in Elmira, NY. My thoughts were that his men made this for him afterwards.

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The idea beyond the scrimshaw was to duplicate field quality work by men on the move heading somewhere else to battle. I had to create wear and tear that would be where it should be.
 
GearNoir said:
What kind of horn is it? Just a bull’s horn?
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Yup, that's a regular cow horn. Not all are suitable for powder horns if you want to scrimshaw them. They are pretty rough when you get them and you have to spend hours scraping them and polishing them. Those that use power tools end up with mirror finishes that are just not right, so you have to go old school if you want to have the right look. Some horns yellow like mine and others stay more whitish, a lot depends on where they've been over the last couple hundred years and probably how they were carried or used.
 
Man that is some pretty awesome stuff! You need to post more pics of your work or findings! Just absolutely awesome stuff! And the historical connection...whether original pieces or recreations...are amazing! You need to be on the History Chanel with your own show! Pre-Historic American History, pre-colonization, and Native American History Prior to (and maybe including) the French and Indian War are vastly under-taught and completely under-told! You do a good job at representing those histories through your work!

Always enjoy seeing and reading about your work!
 
dangerousdon said:
You need to be on the History Chanel with your own show!
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I know people who've been calling for people to submit their name. What I'm waiting for is a show entitled "Backyardsmen." My idea would be a spin-off of Mountain Men, but we would be regular guys that due mountain man stuff in their backyards, garages, and woods in back of their home. We are the guys who need health insurance and can't afford to go with the mountain man lifestyle daily, but we sure have the mountain man spirit. Let's face it, most of the audience for a show like Mountain Men are backyardsmen like me who wish they had the guts to quit their job and blacksmith or make stuff for a living. I think that same audience would eat up a show like "Backyardsmen". City guys could then get in on the action so long as the home owner's association didn't object or the local code officer didn't pay them a visit for that coal forge in the back yard. Just imagine some City guy making a primitive blow gun and killing a nuisance pigeon or rat or something. Or some dude in NY building a lumber sled to tow brush and using his old tools to get it done. I have enough projects for at least 15 episodes.
 
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Here's one of my favorite special orders. It is a Mississippian flint effigy piece. There are a few originals that were found on the Duck River in Humphreys County, TN, but it's one of those iconic artifacts that you'll never find and never be able to purchase. The originals were called "The Duck River Man". I even duplicated the old script writing on mine so that it really felt like one of the originals. It was a chore to duplicate the script on the originals. I applied the correct patina to give it some age too. I really liked it when it was done and wished I could keep it, but it went to a prominent Western NY collector.DSCN2918.JPGe

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I thought this was going to be an easy project, but chipping a face out of flint purposefully was more difficult than doing a point or knife blade. It was a fun project and sometimes it's hard to believe I get paid to do it!
 
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Blade-meister said:
I know people who've been calling for people to submit their name. What I'm waiting for is a show entitled "Backyardsmen." My idea would be a spin-off of Mountain Men, but we would be regular guys with that due mountain man stuff in their backyards, garages, and woods in back of their home. We are the guys who need health insurance and can't afford to go with the mountain man lifestyle daily, but we sure have the mountain man spirit. Let's face it, most of the audience for a show like Mountain Men are backyardsmen like me who wish they had the guts to quit their job and blacksmith or make stuff for a living. I think that same audience would eat up a show like "Backyardsmen". City guys could then get in on the action so long as the home owner's association didn't object or the local code officer didn't pay them a visit for that coal forge in the back yard. Just imagine some City guy making a primitive blow gun and killing a nuisance pigeon or rat or something. Or some dude in NY building a lumber sled to tow brush and using his old tools to get it done. I have enough projects for at least 15 episodes.
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I personally think that Mountain Man show is a bunch crap. I am sure some of the guys are legit and do some pretty incredible things. But come on man! That one guy pretty much lives in my dream house. In this day an age...you either have to be incredibly confident in your abilities to produce food for the table and be able to produce all the (or lack of) comforts you wish to have...or just be independently wealthy.

But the Backyardsmen...that is a show I can get down with! That is what a lot of us aspire to. My sis-in-law and her husband do a varying degree of that. They own a few acres of land where they hunt from. She raises ducks and has a pretty nice sized garden. They can a majority of their own food and buy just a few things from the store. Yet, he has his own body shop working from the garage and she works for a bank in middle management. That is a lifestyle I think is obtainable for my wife and I at some point. And we have talked and we would love to do it in rural Western PA (That's where her sis is and where she grew up). But since her parents retired we we live (same neighborhood actually), that reality becomes a bit harder.

Anyway...I think I diverted the conversation a little. Keep showing us the things you are doing so I can live vicariously through you! 🤪
 
dangerousdon said:
But the Backyardsmen...that is a show I can get down with!
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Yup, the story of my life is having million dollar ideas that stay my idea until someone with money thinks of them and makes more money :LOL: I think Backyardman would have a huge following. Put it on before Mountain Men and they'd pick up some viewers on that show too. Season 1 Episode 3......Dangerous Don builds a primitive blow gun with DE razor broadhead dart tips and takes down a nuisance python terrorizing the neighborhood :LOL:

Yes, much of the show Mountain Men is scripted or made to look more dramatic than it is. Take this season for instance, Eustace is portrayed to need to make a balloon payment on a mortgage so he can keep some land he saved from being developed. I personally know and have researched that Eustace Conway owns a ton of land. He also gets paid per episode for the show. Added drama? Yes, because he doesn't loose the land if he fails to make the payment and those of us in the know understand the foreclosure process would be very long. I let myself enjoy it as entertainment while looking for the little nuggets of skills that I might not know or I could do better. There's always something to learn!
 
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I do have some knives on here on previous pages but I though I'd highlight some other knives I've made over the years:

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Above is a Novaculite flint blade, gut hafting with a faux tiger stripped handle that is capped with pewter. I really liked this knife, but one of my regular customers from Florida liked it a whole lot more.

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The above knife was done with a little artistic flare and is a little different than I normally make. The blade is Nether's Flint Ridge Flint from Ohio. The handle is a deer antler with natural gut hafting. This style would make a great skinning knife

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The above is one I kept. I just loved it too much. It's Flint Ridge Chalcedony flint from Ohio, with a cholla cactus handle. This cactus makes a really neat handle and I love to work with it. The hafting is gut and my own homemade pine pitch glue. Below is another picture of this knife.

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Blade-meister said:
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Above is a Novaculite flint blade, gut hafting with a faux tiger stripped handle that is capped with pewter. I really liked this knife, but one of my regular customers from Florida liked it a whole lot more.
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Gorgeous! That’s my jam right there!
 
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