Planning a Dramatic Modification to a Buck Vanguard & More...

It's been fairly quiet on Mungo Says Bah! of late - this doesn't mean that Mungo's life has been quiet. Little James has started day care, Spring is back at work, and I've been working away while our company has been broadcasting the Olympic Games in Vancouver.



Some moments at work - as always - are awfully exciting, some are fairly benign, and some are dreadfully banal. I work in I.T. and many people in I.T. enjoy using jargon and Three Letter Acronyms (TLAs) with reckless abandon - to wit:



With everything going on, I've been making notes to myself to post various pieces on equipment tips, net-making (in the comfort of your own home - sounds catchy, huh?), and I am planning a dramatic modification on a wood-handled Buck Vanguard (non Zipper variation) to closely meet the specifications of a bush knife that Mors Kochanski describes in Northern Bushcraft. Hint: For the latter, I am going to use my Dremel with reckless abandon.

Cheers,

Mungo

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Blueing My Mora Knife - Applying a Rust Resistant Coating using Vinegar

The other night I was cleaning up my Carbon Steel Mora with a bit of fine sandpaper - the metal tends to discolour with regular rough use. The surface became nice and clean, nice and shiny, but I wanted to try to keep the surface protected. In lieu of spraying it with messy WD40, I thought I would oxidize the surface to get Black Rust to create the result known as Bluing. Creating Black Rust (magnetite Fe3O4) is known as bluing - a process in which steel is partially protected against Red Rust, and is named after the blue-black appearance of the resulting protective finish. Black rust effectively coats the iron/steel and prevent oxygen from reaching the underlying metal. The red rust you normally see is (Fe2O3).

Previously I have spread regular mustard onto the blade, wrapped it all in plastic food wrap, and left it overnight. Being somewhat worn out after work, and thinking about the 10 stairs I would need to ascend to reach the mustard in the kitchen, I decided instead to grab some vinegar from the cold room in the basement and fill a Nalgene partially with a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water.


I put the knife up to the hilt in the liquid and left it for 36 hours.


I took it out, wipped it with a paper towel and lo and behold I had a nice, rich looking patina. My fingerprints were evident in the coating - next time I will clean the blade with a bit of methanol etc... prior to treating it.


Although I didn't take any photographs of the metal prior to treatment, I am comparing it with a laminated steel Mora (the blade contains rich carbon steel in the middle - hardness about 59/60, sandwiched between slightly tougher, lower carbon steel laminate strips).


Cheers,

Mungo

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Whittled Wooden Flowers - Bushcraft Carving

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How Make a Feather Stick Flower

I sat in the park last weekend, reading a book and minding a sleeping baby James. I saw some sticks laying around the bench on which I was sitting, and got to thinking.


I picked up a stick, pulled out my Swiss army knife, and carefully and slowly carved down the diameter of the stick.


At the end of each knife draw, I tilted the blade slowly out about 90 degrees to open up the feather.


I carved feathers over and over again, until most of the stick had been transformed into thin slices, and soon I was almost done with carving a feather stick. I cut off the bottom (which was pencil-lead thin by this time) and trimmed off the top.


Looking around for something to dye the flower with, I saw some American Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). I grabbed a branch full of them, cut a pop can open and mushed it all up.


Then I coated the flower in the berry juices, and carved a flower stem out of a piece of beech.


I dyed that green by rubbing some dill leaves over it.


I pieced the two together with a hole and sharp tail, and voila!