Hy everybody this winter’s project i have always loved the look of this knife i had seen pictures of this knife but not with such details and dimensions as on this site in art off crooked knife trying to reproduce as best I can starting with hard rock maple it is hard carving i can only imagine the time it must have taken the carver to make such a beautiful piece with period tools that they had then compared to the tools i have and equipment to sharpen my carving tools today so for the moment it is carved roughly still a lot of finishing work to do if anybody could give me ideas on what lashing I should use i will post more pictures has work is being done Luc
Hi lUc,
Such a great project !
I can't tell you how much I love this particular knife. I owned it for many, many years - it's now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts ( Boston ) - and miss seeing it every day.
It is the oldest, dated, crooked knife known made and was appropriately created during the peak of the Beaver Trade Era. The minimalistic beaver effigy is a remarkable example of Eastern Woodland sculptural traditions.
I can tell you that the wrapping is a Native made "string" of some sort fashioned from twined vegetal fibres and then covered in some knind of ( pine ? ) pitch. Remarkably , I beleive the wrapping is original to the piece.
Personally I would see a leather or a string for the wrapping of your reproduction. I feel that metal wire would be intrusive visually.
Thanks for continuing the tradition.
If you need any details about the original please feel free to reach out.
Best,
Ned