At 10:18 AM 2/2/00 -0500, you wrote: >I recently read a book by John McPhee titled "Survival of the Birchbark >Canoe". McPhee describes how the canoe builder, a thoroughly disagreeable >man but a fine, intuitive craftsman, uses a tool called a 'crooked knife'. >He uses this in place of a drawknife. Does anyone know what a crooked knife >is and where one might be obtained? John, The crooked knife is often called the Native American's toolkit. They are amazingly versatile and replace a score of Western-style tools. You can find articles on the web for making one. Generally you have to learn some simple annealing and tempering techniques and use an old file for the knife blank. See http://collections.ic.gc.ca/Labrador/unclewallace.html for an interesting overview. If you would rather buy one, old crooked knives are available on Ebay from time to time. Duluth Pack also has a traditional knife for sale at http://www.duluthpacks.com/stoves3.html. I have not used this particular knife but it looks beautiful and has a continuous bend to the blade. Some folks prefer this blade shape but I like a blade that has a flat-section (for planing) that curves sharply at the tip. YMMV. Kestrel tools <http://www.mastersofindustry.com/kestrel/crooked.htm> makes a nice crooked knife but they are designed for carving and have a smaller blade than I prefer for paddle making. If you go with this tool, get the "C" bend. I own one and use it for some aspects of paddle making but prefer a larger blade for most tasks. Lee Valley <http://www.leevalley.com/> also sells a crooked knife but the blade is much larger than a traditional knife and is made of stainless, rather than a high-quality carbon steel. One member of the baidarka list has reported that this knife works quite well when honed properly. I own one but don't particularly care for it, YMMV. These tools take some practice to master and sharpen but what I love about them is that you don't need to clamp your work to a bench. In warmer weather, simply find a nice shady spot under your favorite old oak tree, brace your work with your body and whittle away. That said, I still find more than enough uses for my old drawknives. Greg Stamer *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Feb 03 2000 - 17:17:54 PST
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