Garage fun 'n games, a Ulu project

[wecsoger]

A ulu? An ulu? Not sure what sounds right.

Tuning the teewee, came across one of those "reality" show with folks in the extreme north. (can't recall if AK or CAN) The man of the house brought in a side of either elk or moose and the native woman (had the lip/chin tats) absolutely demolished it with her ratty looking old ulu knife. That ticked my fancy SINCE i DON'T HAVE ONE OF THOSE!

Yet. (grin)

So off to the garage!


Old saw blade. Knew I kept it around for a reason. Thought I would do what I call an 'Alaskan' pattern rather than the push knife style. Not sure if that's what it's actually called but that's how the souvenir knives look. But I don't want a souvenir, I want something that's real.


May be a sin, but I've great love for my plasma cutter. This steel is tough! I'm rusty as can be on the lines but I'm going for function, not pretty. I want something that looks old school home-made. I know the purists are saying, 'you burnt the steel on the edges there because, well, plasma'. Yes I know that but all that 'burnt' area is going away once I grind it down for a final edge.


Putting on the scales preparatory to glue-up. You can see my rough edge I put on it after much, careful grinding. I had two other knife projects and I would do one, set it aside, do another, and so on to let them not overheat.


Final product after much grinding on the blade. I still have a lot of finish to do on the scales, and have to drag out the Lansky to put a final edge on the rough edge. Like I said, this steel is tempered tough. A file would skate across the plasma slag and it didn't improve much once I got down to the base metal. This is going to be real interesting putting a finished edge on it, and seeing how long it will maintain.

So now, anyone got a spare moose or an extra whale carcass about? I want to try this on something other than pizza.

[Grizz]

Nice knife. I like that grip design a lot. Thanks for the pictures.

Grizz

[m.wun]

Dang it now I gotta make me one!!!!!

[Paladin]

I like it, well done.

[Borregos]

I like it, well done.

+1

[7.62 Precision]

Great knives - nothing better for filleting salmon. Did you put the edge only on one side though? The edge should be only on one side, so cutting one direction cuts in, and the other direction can ride up for cutting fish and skinning and stuff.

A real ulu is made the way you are building it. The souvenir ulus are just that.

By the way, do you know what the word ulu means?

[Ji in Hawaii]

Awesome job, looks great! I used my Dremel tool and tiny abrasive blade to cut my ulu blade, though clean took forever. Can't beat a plasma cutter for speed. What bit did you use to drill the holes for the pins? I believe the style you made is a Nunivak, I made a couple in the Fish River, and Canadian tee handle styles.

[Ysabel Kid]

I like it, well done.

+ another!

[wecsoger]

Thanks much for kind comments!

Just finished with the Lansky and got a working edge on it. It will do the hanging newspaper slicing and I just field dressed a small tomato.

A shotgun of reply comments:

Ulu is 'woman's knife'? Don't care, it's still neat. Wish I could remember the name of that show I saw the native woman carving on the moose. I'm sure I could learn good technique from her. Think it was Discovery channel.

One side sharpening? Oooops. So they make them like the sushi/sashimi blades? I've never used a knife beveled that way. May have to build one now to try it out.

So there is a list of patterns? Obviously I did not know that. I chose this particular one because it seems "right" for the ergonomics. Interesting on the other ones. The Bristol Bay and Prince William Sound appear to be near the current production Fremont Knife "Farson Blade" which I'm going to take a swing at later on. The Farson is a neat concept. Again, thanks for the chart.

To drill, I used a titanium nitride coated drill bit in my handheld cordless drill at low speed and /lots/ of oil. Did I mention this steel is tough? Finally poked through although I was debating if I should not have drug out the plasma cutter again and punched a hole that way. I'll do that the next time.

I have to come up with a different sharpening jig I can use my Lansky stones with. The current clamp is good for small blades but for something like this, no way. That's another project pending.

[Old Ironsights]

...A real ulu is made the way you are building it. The souvenir ulus are just that.

And they are stamped out in China as well...

[Grizz]

By the way, do you know what the word ulu means?

of course. but I bet it is a term of awed respect in the culture.

[7.62 Precision]

By the way, do you know what the word ulu means?

of course. but I bet it is a term of awed respect in the culture.

If you are in that part of the country, the women still do all of the cutting when they are present. For people who are not used to the culture, especially people from the lower 48 where most women are like, "You caught it, you cut it!" it can be a little uncomfortable when the women start cutting the fish, since a lot of guys feel guilty to let the women do the work. They do that work much faster and cleaner than men do, though, and it truly is a cultural thing. That does not mean that men can't do it, and they do when women are not around, but not nearly so well. A woman with an ulu can fillet probably 5 salmon in the time I can fillet one with a fillet knife, and in the time I can do 2 with an ulu.

It is amazing how good they are with those knives, and how efficient the knives really are. All the real uluit I have seen were made from saw blades of various types (modern ones; I have an old stone one packed away somewhere).

[FatJackDurham]

So, using the plasma cutter doesnt ruin the temper of the steel?

[wecsoger]

For a small area around the cut, absolutely. Not trying to sound smart-alecky (grin) but it is called a _plasma_ cutter (fourth state of matter) and if you look at that second picture you can see the area of steel that was heated up. Or overheated.

Two things - first off I was running the rig hotter than I should have. If I had dialed it back some there would be less of an area 'burnt'. And less of that ugly spatter all about the cut. Second thing, a plasma cutter is much kinder to the steel than cutting with a gas torch. With gas, you're heating (and possibly damaging the temper on almost the entire piece. With a plasma cutter you can make a cut, then with care touch the work with you bare hand (except in the immediate area of the cut) without being burned. They truly are an amazing tool.

But like I said, I wasn't too much worried about the cutting edge since I know most of the would be ground back. I was super careful when I was grinding it out on the belt sander to make sure it wouldn't get past warm to the touch.

Don't have a Rockwell tester but this steel is hard. I'm not too worried about it chipping. May have to take it to a bone just to see how tough it is.

The ergonomics are......interesting. Holding it is not like holding a chef's knife and being able to make thin slices of tomato or mincing onions. But having a grip on it and making wide sweeping cuts, say in filleting a salmon, yes I can see doing that very easily.