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One thing I've enjoyed in dealing with Dale Howe is that he does not mind stepping outside his "comfort zone" when it comes to taking on a project. In fact he has done that for me several times. Consequently when I get a wild hair, Dale is one of the makers I call.

I've mentioned on several occasions that I've become enamored of the Nessmuk style blade. Probably about a year ago I asked Dale if he would consider taking on a "Nessmuk" or even a modified Nessmuk of the Loveless persuasion as a project. I sent him a few pix of the blade shape I was thinking of with the only caveat was that I wanted to use A2 steel. We kicked it around and he decided that it might be an enjoyable task.

Dale came up with a couple "protos". One was a typical Nessmuk shape, the other was "stretched" a bit. I liked both enough and asked if he would do one of each. After a few "mods", we finalized the shape. I had originally decided on black jigged G-10, but Dale mentioned that he had done a couple knives in "weathered elk", and that although hey were a time consuming "bitch" to do right, they sure looked swell. So off he went.

I got these a couple days ago and I could not be happier with the set.











I happened to have the head of a hoglet I’d snared a while back just a “chillin” on ice in the cooler. So what better way to ruin the collector value of a custom knife than boning out a hog skull.











And jest’ fer schitz n’ giggles…………





Dale told me that the blades tested at 62 Rockwell C.





I know that skinning out the heads was not a major workout for these blades but when you’re scraping on bone, lotsa times there will be micro-chipping.





Not with these babies! Evidently he nailed it on the heat treat and temper.






Not too shabby. A touch-up and they will be toothy-sharp!


Thanks Dale!

ya!

GWB
 
Posts: 23752 | Location: Pearland, Tx,, USA | Registered: 10 September 2001Reply With Quote
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I like! A nice duo you've got there.


_____________________
A successful man is one who earns more money than his wife can spend.
 
Posts: 3288 | Location: Southern NM USA | Registered: 01 October 2002Reply With Quote
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OMG, you have some nice knives.


analog_peninsula
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It takes character to withstand the rigors of indolence.
 
Posts: 1580 | Location: Dallas, Tx | Registered: 02 June 2006Reply With Quote
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The handles look a lot like mammoth ivory. Well done! tu2
 
Posts: 18516 | Registered: 04 April 2005Reply With Quote
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Superb!

Use them in good health.



Steve.
 
Posts: 54 | Location: North East Scotland | Registered: 26 July 2015Reply With Quote
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Very nice GW. Love those nessmucks. They look like they have a touch of green river skinner in them
 
Posts: 10702 | Registered: 28 September 2005Reply With Quote
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Great pair of knives! Always enjoy your pics and videos!
 
Posts: 290 | Location: Coweta Oklahoma  | Registered: 08 January 2016Reply With Quote
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Pure retro; cool beans.
 
Posts: 350 | Location: oklahoma | Registered: 01 August 2006Reply With Quote
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Great looking knives Smiler
Can you tell me more about the Nessmuck, what it means, where the design came from, and the history?


Arild Iversen.



 
Posts: 1877 | Location: Southern Coast of Norway. | Registered: 02 June 2000Reply With Quote
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THE GREAT NESSMUK STORY

George Washington Sears (December 2, 1821 – May 1, 1890) was a sportswriter for Forest and Stream magazine in the 1880s and an early conservationist. His stories, appearing under the pen name, "Nessmuk" popularized self-guided canoe camping tours of the Adirondack lakes in open, lightweight solo canoes and what is today called ultralight camping.

Canoeing had been popularized by Scottish lawyer John MacGregor in the 1860s, but the typical canoe trip of the day employed expert guides and heavy canoes. Sears, who was 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) tall and 103 pounds (47 kg) had a 9-foot-long (2.7 m), 10 1⁄2-pound (4.8 kg) solo canoe built by J. Henry Rushton of Canton, New York. He named it the Sairy Gamp (the name of a Dickens character) and in it he completed a 266-mile (428 km) journey through the central Adirondacks. He was 62 years old and in frail health (tuberculosis and asthma) at the time. William Henry Harrison Murray's Adventures in the Wilderness, published in 1869, had praised the Adirondacks as having a healthy atmosphere for consumptives and Verplanck Colvin's enthusiastic writing about the Adirondack wilderness had further inspired the trip. The Sairy Gamp was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution and is now on loan to the Adirondack Museum.

He grew up the eldest of ten children in South Oxford (now Webster), Massachusetts. He took his pen name from a Native American who had befriended him in early childhood. He was fascinated by the few books about Native Americans his family possessed, which left him with an abiding interest in forest life and adventure. A period of factory labor while still a child left him with a fondness for the writing of Charles Dickens. At age twelve he started working in a commercial fishing fleet based on Cape Cod and at nineteen he signed on for a three-year voyage on a whaler headed for the South Pacific; it was the same year (1841) that Herman Melville shipped out of the same port bound for the same whaling grounds. On his return, his family moved to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania where he was to live for the rest of his life. However, he continued traveling for adventure, from the upper Midwest and Ontario to an Amazon tributary in Brazil (in 1867 and again in 1870).

Sears wrote Woodcraft, a book on camping, in 1884, that has remained in print ever since. A book of poems, Forest Runes, appeared in 1887. He died at his home in Pennsylvania seven years later. Mount Nessmuk, in northern Pennsylvania, is named after him.
 
Posts: 7762 | Location: Das heimat! | Registered: 10 October 2012Reply With Quote
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Geedubya

Would you be able to post the blade length and OAL of each knife?

You may have generated some business for Dale with your post of these fine looking creations.
 
Posts: 132 | Location: Fort Nelson, BC | Registered: 19 November 2005Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by Schrodinger's Cat:
Very nice GW. Love those nessmucks. They look like they have a touch of green river skinner in them



I like skinners, and I've owned a dozen or so of the Russell and Old Henry "Green River" Skinners. I'm not much on clip points. I like plenty of "belly" in a knife and I find I do not puncture capes as readily with the semi-skinner/modified nessmuk style blade.



an Old Henry GRS,

two more Russell GRS that I've modified to a semi-nessmuk

Gene Ingrams' interpretation of a modified nessmuck based on our discussions. A2 steel and Desert Ironwood scales.

A modification of a Canadian/Yukon Belt knife by an Oklahoma knife maker Gary Dukeman, Squawsatch Knives. He called this his Oklahoma belt knife. Burl scales and D2 steel.

A semi-skinner by Dale Howe, Howe Mountain knives, 3v steel and rams horn scales.

A semi-skinner by Rick Menefee, A-EBL steel and ramshorn scales.

I guess for me it was a simple progression from a GRS to a Canadian Belt knife to a semi-skinner.

Next progression......

Loveless style "lambs


Ken Honeycutt




by Gene Ingram, but Gene does not do bolsters..





by TK Steingass,



an amazing re-creation of a set of Loveless "lambs". Ivory linen micarta scales, 416 stainless furniture and 154CPM steel.



to a modified Nessmuk pattern.




Gene Ingram,




Dale Howe



ya!

GWB
 
Posts: 23752 | Location: Pearland, Tx,, USA | Registered: 10 September 2001Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by wsquared:
Geedubya

Would you be able to post the blade length and OAL of each knife?

You may have generated some business for Dale with your post of these fine looking creations.



longer knife













Nessmuk Proto












hope that works fer ya!


Best,


GWB
 
Posts: 23752 | Location: Pearland, Tx,, USA | Registered: 10 September 2001Reply With Quote
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