SSW001 knifereview.indd 35 18/07/2018 22:02 S S 2 2 : 0 2 SS 22:02 FAMOUS FABRICATORS 035 The Quality This is exquisite and awfully dangerous, for being quite ridiculously sharp. It really needs huge care or else some armouring to the inside of the sheath’s retainer strap, as the blade could slice it like butter! Maybe Mithril chain mail? Because the forge treatment that happens after the file work and the grinding and edging of the blade, leaves it surgically sharp. Taking pheasants from feathers to fillets will be easy with this. The leather art is so delicate, you can see details you missed, months later. Mick has poetry in his soul as well as deep skills and creativity. All his blades, even the tiny ones, are ergonomic and fit your hand like a metal extension of you. Maker:........................ Mick French Model: ....................... Always custom, this is a small size chopper fit for poultry, with a pheasant scene sheath and Martin Hemsworth honeycomb scales Price: ......................... Varies by the amount of work but Mick is still far from ‘expensive’. Antler ferro rod was thrown in free! WEBLINK TO BUY: ..... https://www.facebook.com/groups/182 7354720822572/?fref=nf This is Mick’s Facebook group page, which you will have to ask to join. Folks can see his every new effort there. MICKFRENCH CustomKnives& LeatherSheaths MAKER’SMARK: O ur regular look at the best makers’ efforts in catapult related and bush craft creations. Knives, leather goods, carvings and pyrography and catapult art will all feature on this page. This issue, the gifted gunstock, catapult, leather goods and lately knife maker, Mr. Mick French The Blade Five millimetres thick pre-annealed steel, full tang poultry chopper style knife. Blade edge is just over 80mm. The rear of the edge has a round notch and the blade has a classic chopper hanging hole, plus four smaller, in a line. The surface features a file work ‘knapped-flint’ look, a classic Mick French signature. The back edge of the tang shows deep feathering patterns, pigment-mix resin-filled. The ‘knapped’ and filed tang extends beyond the gorgeous Martin Hemsworth green resin scales with ally honeycomb, to house a lanyard hole. A small spot on the right of the blade is left smooth, to bear Mick’s rack-of-antlers blade stamp. All Mick’s blades are outlined onto the steel, freehand. There are no templates, ever. Each is thus unique. Heat treatment on Mick’s forge renders each blade tough and hard, so a wicked edge is held, long term. The lanyard is tough cord, knotted like iron and heat sealed, to also include a decorative bead. Made from the same scale material as on the chopper, two pieces back to back on the red liner, as also found between the steel and the resin. Three structural pins, two steel and one a resin-filled micro-notched mosaic pin with five tiny copper rods and a brass tube inside it, add scale strength. The Sheath Vegetable tanned hide, three layers deep at the blade edge, with a double-layer belt loop and brass popper to secure it. A pheasant taking off over a pond with bullrushes by the edge, is artfully embossed into the front. The undyed leather tag bears the letters MFC and the ‘up arrow in a circle with a plus’ maker’s mark, that Mick uses on his leather works. That is found on the rear of the sheath. It is stitched with precision, through 9mm of leather. SSW001 knifereview.indd 35 18/07/2018 22:02