German hunting trousse, part I

I've recently developed an interest in acquiring an old German hunting trousse of the type that was used in 17th and 18th centuries.  These were sets of culinary tools used in the processing of big game such as deer and boar.  Typically a trousse would include a Waidblatt or Waidpraxe (hunting cleaver), one or two by-knives, and a carving fork and/or an awl-like tool, the function of which is variously believed to be either a simpler version of a fork or a sharpening steel.  These would all have matching hilts.  Since they were tools of aristocrats (as the saying went, "Das Jagen/Ist Ein/altes Recht/es gehöret/für den Adel/und Sein/geschlecht"), they were rather ornate, often with silver furniture.

I have, as yet, no idea where to acquire blanks for the cleaver, awl or fork (standard carving forks are much too large, and replica 18th-century table forks have tines that are too short and necks that are too long).  The by-knife would also be a little uncertain.  The flat-tanged varieties of traditional Jagdnicker strongly resemble it, but have thickened shoulders that would be difficult to grind away cleanly.

An alternative presented itself, however.  It is marketed as a "mini" version of a Spanish belduque.  Whether it's an accurate replica of that is neither here nor there as far as my purposes are concerned, but I had a gift card to Amazon, so it's as good a choice as any.  And that's why this is where I'm starting the project.

The belduque arrived with a somewhat loose-fitting sheath, a full-bellied grip with horn scales, and a rather poor secondary bevel which is not really visible in my photos.  The blade is 3mm thick at the shoulder, about half again more than the heaviest modern paring knives I've handled, with much less distal taper.  I like this because I figure if the heat-treatment is poor on this cheap knife, the thicker blade will ameliorate it somewhat.

Another thing to note is that the bolster, while it may look deep yellow in the catalogue photo, actually appears to be nickel silver (also known as German silver), an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel with only a faint yellowish tinge.  This isn't a bad thing, since nickel silver, as its name implies, looks a lot like real silver (though more durable and less prone to ugly tarnish) and the original hunting trousses often had silver furniture, while I've never seen one with brass.  It does, however, make obtaining furniture a little more complicated and expensive.

Obviously, the first thing to do was get rid of the scales.  I ground off the ends of the pins, then gradually wedged an X-Acto blade between the scales and the tang, and then thicker blades until the scales were forced off.

You don't get to see the removed scales, since I threw them out weeks ago.

The original by-knives rarely if ever had bellied grips; indeed, to judge by the many photos I've looked at, straight-sided grips are one of the distinguishing features between these and modern ones.  So some trimming is in order.

I set the tang in a heavy vise and erased the markered edges with an angle grinder.  Grinding metal generates a lot of heat, enough to anneal the blade (i.e., ruin the heat-treatment) if left unchecked, and if I were working on the blade I would tend to pause frequently and rub the blade down with an ice cube.  But the vise, which is in essence two big chunks of steel, acts as a heat sink -- when I'd finished grinding, the tang was only slightly warmed.  Also, the vise prevents me from accidentally grinding off too much.

Found some nickel silver rods on eBay at a slight discount because they're tarnished...  I don't know why that matters because it shouldn't take more than a couple minutes with some Brasso to deal with it, but in this project even polishing is redundant since only the very ends will even be visible.  Anyway, luckily I was able to get more than enough for the entire project and one or two more all at once.

The correct material for the scales is deer antler, but I hate working with antler.  It's foul-smelling and cracks too easily for my tastes.  Instead I'm using some yellow ash.

The ash is cut, shaped and textured with various rotary tool attachments.  The cutting wheel really isn't the right tool for this job, as it breaks much too easily, and explosively, as well as producing a ton of smoke.  But in the absence of a power saw, this was the fastest way to get the job done, and I am nothing if not impatient about certain tasks.

I wrapped up today's work by applying wood stain to the textured tops of the scales.  I intend to let it dry for a week or so, then sand the scales to their final shape.  With any luck, the sanding will remove most of the stain, leaving color only in the grooves, and provide a look similar to genuine antler.