a project for that left over cane scrap - A knife

[swamp monkey]

If you have a larger diameter piece of cane that you had to cut off for another project or the piece was not long enough; here is something you can do with it.  Make a cane knife.  An Archeologist with the NPS put me onto this.  Natives along the deep south made knives of cane for cutting vegetables and for cutting softer items.  To construct you cut the cane blade, then scrap it to get an edge, heat treat the blade then do a final scraping to establish the sharp blade.  I have cut squash and cut reeds with a knife like this. 

Below are some photos.  I have a schematic for the process that I will try to get scanned and posted soon.

[recurve shooter]

thats pretty cool. i always thought you could make some sort of blade from the stuff.

[mullet]

 I've used them to fillet fish. They are sharper than what you'd think.

[recurve shooter]

cool. ima have to try that. 

[swamp monkey]

here is a schematic of the cutting process.  just in case the photos are not  IOTT (Instantaneously Obvious Therefore Trivial)
Enjoy

[mullet]

 You can make one, nasty, fighting (self defence) stick or cane with it also. It follows the same principle,sharp! Just leave the stick whole . wrap the handle area and leave a foot, or foot and a half longer. sharpen to a point and then split it in quarters. When you slap someone it opens into eight sharp blade edges. I saw this in an old martial arts book.