der Rüdemann? Also sprach ElkviewRanch...

[ElkviewRanch]

I love the looks of the Puma Rüdemann. It looks compact, tough, and useful.

I studied pictures and such of the knife for a long time and came to the conclusion that I might be able to make a similar knife.....dare I say it........better? At least for my needs.

The Puma version has a thick blade, but I chose to go thinner. A thin blade, if tempered correctly, will "chop" well against a thick blade. I used a millsaw blade for the material.

Well, mine has worked out well, and often is chosen for my ski jaunts in the mountains around my home. I am remote to start with and when on skis...even "remoter".

I've used it to butcher game, build shelters and do general camp chores.

Danke sehr Puma, aber Ich möchte mein Version besser...

I like it on my hip on on long ski jaunts, as there are others out there, too...

 

[ElkviewRanch]

Oops!!

Keine Bilde nähe und von das Blatt...

Hier ist...

 

[Toby]

Looks great - the scenery as well as the knive!

Best regards from Alabama where we (hopefully) never have that much snow
Toby

 

[natto]

That are nice pictures and great user. Your ranch got shurely some spare rooms, would you mind to offer forging & outdoor holidays?

By the way, is that a print of a wolves paw in the snow?

greets, Holger

 

[ElkviewRanch]

Thanks fellows.

First, I hope all understand that I am poking fun at Puma. I WISH I could make a knife as well as they! I really like Puma knives and the great German tradition they both reflect and have helped creat and promote. They make many superb knives with creative and useful designs.

Yes, that is a wolf track.

Here's another;

We have them all over now and they are hated by the people. They destroy our game, are now linked to the spread of a disease and they destroy our livestock. They cost the state millions of dollars every year and though we must have them, they are a scourge.

The mountais are littered with the carcasses of our depleted elk herds;

Here is a picture of one taken just north of my ranch fenceline;

That topic is quite relevant to knives as I have had wolves track me in my skis and though I carry a rifle double slung "Biathlon"-style I cannot get to it very fast, and always wanted a heavy knife with me in case I got hit from behind. Not that it would do me much good, as I am mostly alone. I now carry a pistol everywhere along with the rifle or at least if not carrying the rifle, always carry a pistol. The knife is a tool for shelter building and general utility use now. We have lion {cougar}, too, and they are out and about in the winter as well. And bear of course, but they are fast asleep in winter during my ski treks. All of them are up and running in the warm months, tho. As well as the wolf's little cousin, the coyote and the lion's little cousin the bobcat. These latter are not any source of personal fear, tho they do kill game and livestock and trouble enough for that.

ALWAYS a good knife!

Knives and pistols go well together;

The Elkview "Baby" Rüdemann ready to clear some brush;

 

[skatenut]

Hi Elkview,

nice pics, knives, guns, thanx for sharing!

I'm not a hunter, don't own a firearm, but noted two unscoped rifles.

I have a few Puma knives myself. Back in the seventies and eighties, they were the epitome of German knife manufacturing to me and my friends, well made, excellent fit and finish, sharp out of the box, expensive, we never bought one lightly due to the cost.

I do understand you are just poking fun at Puma, no problem.

Bought a Puma Medici two years ago on a whim to compare it to my old Medici, it was as dull as butter knife, truly disappointing.

And keep the pics coming, please!

 

[Don Coltello]

Hi there, welcome to our forum. Nice work for a DIY knife. Is that your first homemade knife? Could you write some more how you did it? Did you have to bend the stag handles or did you find a fitting piece? Do you have pictures from making the blade?

Looking at your pictures I really get the wanderlust. I live in a densely populated region of southern Germany where you can hardly walk for an hour without meeting someone and a hedgehog is about the wildest animal we see around here.

So your remote life seems very extraordinary for me. As if you just stepped out of a Jack London novel, of which I was an avid reader as a teenager. Maybe you can also post a picture of the shelters you build with your knife? What kind of game are you usually hunting?

We often have reports here why someone carries a knife, why a specific model is used and what it is used for. I'd say your report stands out, because your knife is not a collectors item, a fashion accessory or a household item to cut food and open cartons. It obviously seems to be a serious tool you rely on to survive in the wilderness.

Thanks for your German efforts and the pictures. Keep'em comin'.

Best regards,

Don Coltello

 

[ElkviewRanch]

Danke sehr meine Freunde.

I habe viele Messers gemacht. Sie sind "one-offs" bis auf ein paar Modelle. Ich habe mehrere von einer Art der Standhauer.

A friend uses one I made for him in his work. He reclaims land for the local garnet mine. They build fence and he uses it to cut brush in places where he does not want to carry a chainsaw. We have very rugged terrain it is often easier to carry the parang than bring the saw.

As for making them...

I obtain chainsaw bars from the loggers and scrapped millsaws from the lumber mills. I anneal {soften} them in a forge I built. I use a propane torch for a heat source. Then I grind and shape the blades with an angle grinder and files.

After the blade is shaped, I harden it by heating it in the forge and plunging it in used motor oil. I have used water and brine but motor oil is safer, as water causes cracks in some of the complex shapes. I do use water when making cleavers from log processor bars as they are very thick.

After cleaning and polishing, then the blade goes into the oven. I have an old kitchen oven in my workshop. I normally use a three-step tempering process. I first heat the blade for one hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. This stabilizes it and protects it from cracking, and can be used on small knives as a final temperature and will give about 58 Rockwell C scale hardness.

The second step is a differential process. I hold the blade edge in water, and heat the spine to soften and toughen it, and use colors {blue} for a good tough spring temper at the grip/blade juncture.

Then back into the oven for another hour, at 350 degrees for small knives, and up to 500 degrees for heavier blades that might be used close to the ground, near rocks, etc.

The antler grips themselves form the shape of the grip, and I shape the steel to fit the antler. Inside the antlers, I dig out the marrow and replace it with epoxy, then epoxy the grips on the tang. After that I rivet them, using a small anvil I made from a bolt, held in a vice. The rivet is peened using a set and hammer, all hand work. This requires a second person to hold the blade on the anvil. My wife or daughters help there.

I learned heat treating by trial and error, and years ago, tried various temperatures on certain steels, then drove several hours away to a Metallurgy firm where I had them tested on a Rockwell device. Now I know what they are and what temperatures I need to use to temper them.

I can shoot more pictures as I'm out and about.

Yes, we use our knives frequently, for a variety of jobs and chores.

Here are a few more;

 

[Emscherpirat]

You got some cool knives here. I love your Parang and Golok designs. Thanks for showing and keep on doing good work.

René

 

[ElkviewRanch]

Thanks Rene.

In the red-backgrounded picture, the two at the bottom of the picture are ground opposite of each other.

The bottom one has a right-handed chisel grind and the one above it a left-handed chisel grind.

 

[[Nick]]

Hi Elkview,

thanks a lot for sharing this with our community.

You really live in a area, many of us are dreaming of, beautiful, and a great space not just to admire knives, but to use them

Please give us more "in use pictures".