The Large Knife and Some thoughts On Carry

For some A large knife is something you wouldn't carry in
the woods, only something you would use maybe in your kitchen.

Well...I am going to give some of my thoughts and opinions
on larger knives.

Large knives have been carried for many years, and once you
get used to carrying one or become proficient with one you
may want to consider having, packing or carrying at least
one larger knife that has a bit of heft to it.

If your worried about carrying a large knife because of weight
or just don't want something with say an 8 inch blade or
so weighing you down, there is more than one way to carry
a big blade with almost any kind of sheath.

A simple way is to tuck the knife in its sheath at a semi cant
in the back or front of your belt.  Better yet if you have a high
ride sheath you can angle the knife and cross draw it as well.

Another simple way is to carry a large knife in your pack,
or attached to your pack if you carry one.
For years I have lashed my larger Hudson bay camp knife
to one of my side bags and carried it without an issue.
Still do carry it this way at times.

Camp tools such as a large knife can be handy as well for
helping with making kindling, making stakes for a shelter,
de-limbing larger branches with ease, you can also thump
the blade of you large knife in a stump and use it to debark
a branch or larger sized branches or to make some smaller
sized tinder for fire.

Batoning can be easier with a big knife, if needed and yes
a big knife is great in the kitchen, no doubt about that.

One other thought, a large blade can also be your
best friend when you might come across a last resort
situation.  It will never run out of ammo and if your
large knife has some heft to it can be used more than
one way than blade end.

The Knife below was a recent custom with an antiqued
elk stag handle, 9 inch pattern and patina aged blade.
Pins are brass over brass washers and this has been
set up with an aged hand stitched high ride sheath.

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Carry Knife Used Hard Everyday

Once and awhile I will post some of the knives I carry and use
as well as knives I have made for family members.

The knife posted below originally had a leather stacked thin handle,
I posted here on the blog awhile back.  Sine then I decided to
put this rough cut rustic maple on instead.

Most of the aging and darker color you see on the handle is from
me using it.  This knife gets carried often, mostly in my pocket
and is in my shop allot.  So it gets used hard.

I have used this little knife for everything from making small
kindling to cutting leather, food, fire making.  You name it.

I wanted to post a picture of it so you could see the aging
on the knife.  Everything has aged very nice.

Thank you

Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com

Vintage Custom Knife years Later

This knife you may have seen posted before,  This is one
of my wife's personal knives.  Most of the work this knife
sees is in the kitchen, with once in awhile a fresh water fish.

At this point I cant remember exactly how old this knife and
sheath is, but it's older than ten years.  Closer to eleven.

This knife has seen many years of service and wanted to
show you how well it has aged, including the hand stitched sheath.

The blade on this is about 4 1/2" long.  Handle a bit shorter
than that.  The handle material is bird's eye maple and it
has aged very nice.  The pins are rustic steel pinned.

The sheath on this piece was hand stitched with very old
bark tanned leather that came from the old Muir and Macdonald
Tannery that is no longer in operation.

Also I have started uploading knife pictures  up to Flickr.  I will keep this updated.
Some of these pics are pictures not seen anywhere else, so If you want to
have a look here is the link.
ML Knives on Flickr

Thank you
Matt
ML Knives
http://www.mlknives.com