The Mechanical Lumberjack

I've only recently gotten into woodworking, and even more recently into wood carving, so it took me a while to pick my first wood carving knife. I heard good things about Morakniv in the bushcraft community, mostly that they make good quality, relatively inexpensive knives (though many of them are not full tang). And they're Swedish. Everybody loves Swedish knives and axes. So, I bought this Morakniv 120 wood carving knife, and I have to say, it's a wonderful tool. Even the little things, like the smell of the wood handle though I'm sure it will start to smell like my hands pretty quickly. Anyway, the handle is super comfortable in just about any position and the blade is sharp and quickly makes shavings from holly tree wood. I'm planning to make a kuksa, so I also need a curved blade to clear out the cup - definitely getting another Morakniv. 

I've seen some people make axes from circular saw blades, but none of them have a spinning blade! So, I made one that spins. It's hung on a hickory sledgehammer handle, so I had to lengthen the slot so that it was longer than half the diameter of the circular saw blade. It's got a 1/2" diameter bolt for the axel and a 5/8" brass bushing to spin around. Currently, it has zero practical value, but I'm going to shorten the handle and see if it's any good for throwing. Edit - If you like kind of offbeat things that are actually kind of cool, check out my latest business that is a website for electric vehicle charger real estate and real estate for other small machinery and hardware like vending machines and shipping container farms. 

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of inexpensive, and let’s face it, cheap, knives that are for sale online. I’m talking about knives in the under $10 segment  which you would not want to rely on for survival, but can make for a decent Every Day Carry (EDC). Since I’ve only recently taken an interest in knives and I’m cheap, I’ve spent a lot of time in this realm. I’ve found 3 knives that while varied in size, shape and weight, are all a good value. This is a review of those knives, particularly of the initial quality. I’ll follow up with a post about longer term quality, and I have a very special destructive (!!!!) test in mind for these inexpensive blades. The three knives I purchased are the Elk Ridge Wood Gentleman, the Tac Force EMT and the MTech Xtreme Ballistic. From Left to Right: Elk Ridge, Tac-Force, and MTech From Left to Right: Elk Ridge, Tac-Force, and MTech Right off the bat, I think the Elk Ridge is a beautiful knife, but I’m definitely partia...