knives made by Scouts

[Dave Budd]

The Drewsteignton and Chagford (Mid Devon) scouts have just finished making their very own knives. :bigsmiley

There is so much fear and BS surroundng scouts and knives at the moment (two forums are running similar threads about it right now for example). But to my way of thinking they are tools that a scout should learn to use and they will have more respect for the knife if they have made it themselves.

So, this is what I gave them to start with:


and after about 8 evenings of hard work, they have these:


The blades are by Bruselleto and are a stainless teel (12C 27), this is only because they are good quality blades at a very affordable price (about a fiver each). I would've prefered my scouts to have better blades made by me, but frankly that would have been too expensive :o

All I gave them was a pre-drilled block of ash and cherry, some coloured card and the leather. They burnt the blocks to fit the tangs, glued, shaped, sanded and oiled the handles.Then they dyed and wet formed, sewed, waxed and finished the sheaths. all using hand tools

Next week I'm issuing them out along with a contract of best behaviour.

clever kids. They have made better looking knives than a lot of adults

[Kris]

Great to see kids getting involved in doing something constructive.... nice one Dave

[marcus2]

Brilliant,well done Dave.

[dtalbot]

Great stuff, your Scouts have done a fantastic job with those knives

[Ken_Lau]

Well done Dave - bet you're really proud of em!

[Lord Farquhar]

Looking good.

[Hatethatgiraffe]

Great work Dave you should be proud!

Is the one at very bottom at right hand side a future apprentice LOL?

Bet they had a great sense of achievement too!
Make sure they keep them sharp!

[jamiemackie]

Well done Dave, thats a great thing to do.

I love how each knife has a different style.

Jamie

[Dave Budd]

cheers guys. I'm very pleased with how well the knives came out and also very impressedd by how well the kids stayed focussed for that long! All of them were dead keen all the way through, even the three girls. A few of the kids really suprised me, especially the lad who made the one at bottom right (to the left from the one out of group, which is mine). He is a right little PITA a lot of the time and can't focus or settle, but he was really good with this and I reckon he could do very well if he wnats to keep at it. That lad is one of the younger kids at 10 years old

Since we started them a few scouts have got too old and left, but another bunch have just joined. So they helped to finish the knives off (mostly the final bits of sheath work), but these will go home to the scouts who actually started them. In a couple of years time I will do it again so that the younger kids will get to make themselves a knife, but most of the kids who have just made one will have left

I glued the sheathes together and some of the sheathes were sewn up by myself or SWMBO because the scouts that had started tehm were away and we needed to move on. Otherwise the kids did everything themselves, right from the outset.

Before we started to shape the handles (ie we had a rectangular lump glued onto the blade) I gave them a bunch of my knives to handle, so they could see what shapes work and what to think about when designing the handles. Most of tehm took heed of my advice and have made very nice knives indeed. Others went their own way stylistically, but that's fine these are their knives. What I did find interesting though was that the shapes that they carved out are exactly the same shapes that I come across when adults show me their first knife! (actually the finish was generally better with the kids, but that could be because when they asked "am I done with this paper?" I mostly said NO! )

I'm hoping to borrow the best one to bring with me to the knife show next year and put it on the hobby makers comp table. They really are that good, even up close

for comparison, this is the one I made alongside them. Not my best work, but I don't normally make knives walkig around a room trying to teach 13 kids at once!

[CaptainBeaky]

Dave - that is brilliant!

Wonder if our group would be interested in doing something like this?

[BGC_Tom]

I don't suppose you can join the scouts at 23, can you?

[Roth]

Well done Dave, and well done to the Scouts!!!The Scouts I am sure will cherish the knives they have made and will be carefull in using them.

[welshwhit]

Well done Dave,

I bet you've made 13 very proud scouts and instilled a love of the craft involved!

And your right. . . . they are probably leagues ahead of me!

Nice one!

Drew

[Lev]

Nice work Dave. Its good to see kids learning that knives are not all bad, as portrayed on the media

Lev

[Roth]

Dave what was the reaction of the parents when you brought up the idea of Scouts making knives? Did anyone object?