Bush Beater
I started out knifemaking with a desire to bring back thin bladed, utilitarian, good knives - generally on the smaller side, almost always thinner than people have been trained to like by modern production methods. But I kept getting the occasional order for a large blade, thick steel, with a full convex grind and a lot of mass.
Over time, I've made a dozen or so of these, they go by various names- the bush beater, backwoods tactical, bush seax, or Sgt. Scratchard.
Generally, I start with 3/16 or 1/4 bar stock. I do some forging for the bevel and tip, leaving the tang full thickness to help with balance. Blades run from 9 to 13 inches.
Important and almost universal design features of this knife include a dropped edge forming an integral semi-guard, a full height convex grind, some distal taper for the last 1/3 of the blade. The rear tang is generally exposed some amount for hammering, and the handles tend to be long.
Sometimes they are partially double edge, forming a very nice spearing point. All are excellent chopping knives, combat knives, and very good field knives. It's not uncommon for people to use them to chop and baton a pile of wood and then shave curls for kindling a fire with the same knife.
So, here is what's probably my most ordered big knife -
