Adress Block


Email: Thipaknives@gmail.com

Auckland
New Zealand

Saturday, 10 October 2015

Some blanks for a customer

A ccustomer shot a great Red Deer and wants to use the antler for the knife scales.

I made these blanks for him

These are the first Blanks I am selling.

O1 toolsteel
4mm Thick

One is a large Recurve.  Full tang.
One is a small Drop point hidden tang





Thursday, 3 September 2015

Multi Sheath




My mate spends a lot of time in the woods. 

Mase the knife and the sheath for his birthday. 

Sheath has space for a knife, a steel sharpener, a fire steel and a saw






Monday, 27 July 2015

Japanese inspired kitchen knives

Blade material is Stainless steel
Handle is Beech, ebony, copper and Walnut 














Bushcraft knife


The blade shape is similar to the Ray Mear’s Woodlore knife. 






Overall Length: 22.5 cm
Blade Length:        11 cm 
Blade Thickness:     4 mm
Handle Length: 11.5 cm
Blade Width:         2.8 cm
Handle Material:        NZ Rimu
Pins:        Brass Pins
Lanyard Hole Lining: Brass Lining

Large Hunting Drop Point

The blade shape is a larger version of the Loveless Drop Point Hunter.  













It has full flat grind with a secondary bevel.  

Overall Length: 25 cm
Blade Length: 12 cm
Blade Thickness:     3 mm
Handle Length: 13 cm
Blade Width:     3.5 cm
Handle Material:       NZ Rimu
Pins:         Brass Pins
Lanyard Hole Lining: Brass Lining

Friday, 3 July 2015

Backup knife







This is great little backup knife. The blade shape is similar to a small skinner, but I think it will be a great all rounder
It has full flat grind with a secondary bevel.
I made this from 4mm thick 01 Toolsteel.  The blade hardness is 58-60 HRC
Overall Length:20cm
Blade Length: 8cm
Blade Thickness: 4mm
Handle Length:12cm
Blade Width: 3.2cm
Handle Material: Walnut with red micarta liners
Pins: Brass Pins
Lanyard Hole Lining: Brass Lining

Thursday, 15 January 2015

My biltong box

Hey guys.

I thought I would throw my wight behind the biltong thing.  I regularly make my own and everybody in my househgold and a lot of kiwis around me are starting to lovbe the stuff.  It is brilliant for you bushcrafters/trampers out there as a good protein and salt source on long trips.

Anyway, here's a recipe and below the recipe I will show you my dryer. 
The basic idea is that you are preserving the meat with salt, so you need between 200 and 400g of coarse salt for every 10kg of meat.
The standard recipe that I use is the following:  (use the rations or make up a large batch and freeze the spices.
For 10KG meat:
200 - 400g coarse salt or Rocksalt
70 g (90ml) Brown sugar (Raw Sugar)
5 ml coarse black pepper (to taste)
50 - 80 g Crushed Whole Coriander Seeds.  (It is better toasted, so sometimes people roast them in the low oven or buy ready roasted)


If you add sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) this will help prevent surface mildew/mould growing on the biltong.
10g (15ml) per 10 kg

If you add potassium nitrate (aka Nitre/Saltpetre or in the USA Niter/Saltpeter) it will act as a preservative and keep the meat nice and red.  You can potentially buy it from your butcher or  redbacktrading.com.au  or when I was young I could buy it from a pharmacy.  ( made great smoke bombs, but that is a different story...)
8g (5ml) per 10 kg meat mix

Okay so that is the basic mix. 
Some people like to add chilli powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder

Make up your spice mix and freeze it, but make sure it stays dry, then I simply use it to make small batches of biltong.  To store your biltong, always keep it in a pillowcase or paper bag in the fridge or freezer.  Plastic can trap humidity and humidity can help the bugs to grow.


Anyway once you have cut your meat (I always use silverside or topside - Nice and cheap), you get a tupperware container with a lid. 
Sprinkle spice mix on the bottom of the container.
Place a single layer of wet biltong onto the spices
Sprinkle a very small amount of Worchester sauce AND a very small amount of Grape (or Malt) vinegar over.
Now sprinkle a generous amount of spice over the layer of wet meat.
Pack the next layer of meat, sprinkle with the liquids and spice...... repeat until you have all your meat done and close the lid.
If I use butcher bought beef, I leave it only 24 hours (and rotate the closed container every so often by placing it on it lid or back upright)
If I am using venison meat from a hunt, the animal is frequently field dressed and the hygiene standards can sometimes be a little less regulated than a commercial butcher, so for my hunted venison, I let it sit for 48 hours.  The biltong is a little more salty, bit still great!

Anyways, I hope you guys try it and enjoy it!

For my drying box, I really do not like to use a heat source to help with the drying out.  I simply use wind and a lot of it!

I bought an old stove extractor fan for next to nothing.  People renovate their kitchens and the extractor fans have no value, so I paid $3 dollars for mine!

The good thing is that it is a centrifugal fan with very good bearings that is rated for contineous use.  (I did melt a previous normal cooling fan once from leaving it on too long....).  The extractor fan has speed control and really works great. 

I connected it to ducting and that connects to the lid of a box full of small holes.  As long as the fan runs, the bugs cannot get in because of the windflow out of the box.  Inside the box are small chains to hook the biltong on (using plastic covered paper clips).  The chains help prevent that the meat slide closer to each other and touch, and then you can run into problems.

Because my box is metal i just throw the whole thing into the dishwasher afterwards...

Total cost of the biltong box: $6.50

Please see the pictures below!

Cheers





Tuesday, 13 January 2015

Another one off to Canada

Made this for a friend of mine who lives in Canada.

She is a fantastic outdoor"man", and I am certain she will give this knife a workout.

Overall Length 22cm (8.7"), Handle length 11cm (4.3").
Walnut and beach handle material with brass pins.
O1 Toolsteel 3mm (1.2") thick with a full flat grind, "serrations" and jimping
Handmade Sheath





Three more to go for testing

I have a very good friend who is an outdoor instructor.

He is in the bush more that I can ever dream of, so I passed these knives on to him to test them out in the field for me.  I wanted feedback as to how they really do out in "real life" and not as display pieces.

All three are O1 Toolsteel 3mm thick.

The Re-curve overall length is 25cm (10") with a 12 cm (4.7")  walnut and beech handle, brass pins and copper lanyard hole sleeve
The larger drop point has more of a skinning tip, and is 22cm (8.6") overall with a 12 cm (4.7") walnut handle with brass pins and copper lanyard hole.
The smaller drop point hasa sharper tip that will probably be better suited for all round bushcraft.  The overall length is 19cm (7.5") overall with a 11 cm (4.3") walnut handle with brass pins and copper lanyard hole.  








Small Backup Knife

I thought it would be good to make a small backup knife to carry in the backpack.

It is made out of 3mm thick O1 Toolsteel hardened to approx 58 Rockwell.

I intentionally did not clean up the whole blade to enhace the contrast between the cutting surface and the rest of the blade.

The knife is only about 16cm (just over 6")  long, and the Walnut handle with brass pins makes up about 10cm (4") of the total length.

The sheath was made with the last piece of black leather I had.

My mate does a lot of buscraft and is an outdoor instructor.  He is currently testing out the knife for me.


 That is a weird reflection and not a mark on the blade.