Zedteq Hunting Knives

Darren Englebretsen, New Zealand

Projects

On this page I describe new models that I am developing. Bookmark this page to come back and watch the knives take shape.

Fairbairn Sykes type pigsticker, 180 mm / 7 inch.

The blade of this knife is loosely modelled after the famous Fairbairn Sykes Commando Knife of WW II fame. However the handle and guard will be somewhat different. The rough ground blade is shown in the photo below. The blade was cut from a hard, tough piece of large industrial planer blade 1/4 inch (6.35 mm thick). The spine of the blade is almost the full 6+ mm thick after grinding the bevels. I do not know the type of steel, but suspect it may be D2. This blade differs from the Fairbairn Sykes original (see drawing) in that it is made with a more substantial tang. More information on the Fairbairn Sykes knife may be found in an article by Olof Janson.

I will add more photos as this project progresses.

Photo above of the rough-ground blade.

A brass block was milled out to form a guard and soldered to the blade as shown above. As you can see the solder has to be cleaned up at the ricasso. A 3.5 mm hole was drilled (with some difficulty) in the tang using a solid carbide straight flute drill. Shown are two routed micarta slabs, these will be epoxied onto the tang and then shaped to form the handle.

The blade and micarta slabs have been assembled and the brass has been ground down flat with the micarta slabs. Cleanup of the ricasso has been started.

The handle profile has been roughly cut and ground to shape.

The knife is now about 80% finished. The brass guard has been rounded off and polished, the end of the handle has a more streamlined profile and it has been fitted with a thong hole. However I am not that happy with the finish of the linen micarta, and am considering painting it with a matt black 2-pack epoxy or possibly wrapping it with para cord. The blade also needs final sanding and sharpening.

Double edged pigsticker, 200 mm / 8 inch.

A 200 mm pigsticker ground from 5 mm chainsaw bar, then heat treated and double tempered. This knife has a brass guard with ebony spacer followed by an NZ walnut handle.