Shovelbuck
Active Member
This project started about a year ago when a frequent customer talked with me about making a special knife as a gift for her husband who is a John Deere technician. The knife had to be forged from one of the pieces of steel that rotate in the back of a combine to chop stuff up. Sorry, but I don't know what they are actually called but they sure are good steel! My little forge wasn't up to the task to get this done efficiently so the forging of the raw steel was farmed out. After that, the blade was final shaped and polished to a mirror like finish. This blade is also distal tapered, which means not only does the blade taper towards the front, but the tang also tapers to the rear. This, along with some metal removed from the center of the tang makes for a very well balanced knife. The knife also uses a piece of walnut that his Great Grandfather felled many decades ago.
This is what the raw piece of steel looked like....
Forged to shape......
Finished........
Overall length of knife is about 10.5 inches.
This is what the raw piece of steel looked like....

Forged to shape......

Finished........

Overall length of knife is about 10.5 inches.