I was digging through one of my grandpa's old tool boxes the other day and stumbled upon this old hunting/fishing/garden knife of his that he used to carry around with quite often. He made the blade by grinding down and shaping a really old and rusty rasp that his dad used to sharpen their old farm axes and other misc implements with back when he was just a boy.
He used an old shed antler he'd found for the handle and soldered it into place with some kind of old-fashioned tin roof repair alloy. My grandpa would always joke and say it was the best knife he'd ever made...because it was the only knife he'd ever made.
Overall it's a little over 9 inches total length with about a 4 1/2 inch blade and the tang runs the full length of the handle. It's a little slim for my big ol' fat meaty hands; but it's still an amazing little cutting tool and definitely a priceless reminder of one of the greatest men I ever knew.
I have frequently heard people scoff at the idea of there ever actually being a truly good "file knife" for one reason or another. I'm certainly no expert but I will have to say that this old knife served him very well for several decades and stood up to some pretty intense punishment while in my grandpa's employ. He dressed dozens of deer with it, cut thousands of pounds of bait with it, used it along with a wooden mallet to split kindling, and even used it to dig up potatoes and turnips and weeds in his garden. I'm pretty sure he used it as his dinner knife on numerous camping trips as well--which always grossed me out because I don't think he EVER washed it. But he was a man's man baby and that shit didn't matter.
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