Bulldog Hawbaker

[muskrat man]

Haven't posted anything new in here for a few weeks so I thought I'd show you one I finished this morning. Started off as an abalone cell bulldog hawbaker. I replaced the cell with some very nice stag, rat tailed the bolsters and did some very tight vine filework on the springs. I thought it turned out good. What do YOU think? Thanks for looking



My filework pics keep turning out too bright, guess I need to turn the lamp away before snapping shots of the spine.

[BIGHEAD]

I think I need to hold it to tell for sure so you can send it to me and I will make sure you get it back in a year or three

[Hukk]

Nice looking Bulldog Kaleb! That's the first one I can remember seeing you do. That's a great piece of stag for that knife because it resembles much of the stag that Bulldog used in the third generation - you could say it's period correct.

Try reflected light or filter the light (diffused) through a thin white cloth (though nothing made of cloth stays white very long around here ). The softer lighting will help with the brightness on the filework and the bolsters.

That Muskrat is a 1995 if I read that correctly so that would be a Series II because it was the second series of Muskrats for the third generation (Series I was 1993). None of the Series I (1993) had a Hawbaker blade - if I recall correctly. With an Abalone cell that one started life as a BKC 801, 1 of 100 with High Carbon steel blades. Now it is a one of a kind work of ART!

[muskrat man]

Thanks Guys

Hukk, I never realized it was such a short run knife. A local hired me to do the work, as he intends to give it to a family member who is a dedicated Bulldog collector. I hope he likes it.

I have my light diffused through three layers of printer paper, need a lower watt bulb I think.

[Hukk]

Thanks Guys

Hukk, I never realized it was such a short run knife. A local hired me to do the work, as he intends to give it to a family member who is a dedicated Bulldog collector. I hope he likes it.

I have my light diffused through three layers of printer paper, need a lower watt bulb I think.

Yeah, sounds like lower wattage will help as will "soft light" bulbs.

In the third generation I can't recall any run that had more than 100 knives for the muskrats. What they did was to make a bit over 2000 knives and used several handle materials. This 1995 Series II had BKC 792 - BKC 800 with a typical carbon steel muskrat blade configuration and about 100 of each handle material. Then they took BKC 801 - BKC 811 and used the SAME handles, BUT put the Hawbaker style blade on. So BKC 792 and BKC 801 is the same handles but the BKC 801 has the Hawbaker blade. THEN BKC 812 is the same as BKC 792 EXCEPT BKC 812 (36 of this one) has surgical stainless steel blades and many if not most where fish scaler blades. BKC 792, 801, and 812 ALL have abalone cell handles and that is 236 knives. The stainless knives had a fish scaler blade. Gee, it looked less confusing in the list form in the book. So, with the abalone cell, they had 100 regular bladed muskrats (BKC 792), 100 with the Hawbaker (BKC 801), and 36 with the stainless fish scaler blade (BKC 812). So the abalone celluloid totaled about 10% of the total build including protos.

So, including club knives there were 2019 of these Series II production muskrats and 155 Prototypes (33 materials - 30 were celluloid). Series I had a total of 1376 production knives and I don't know how many proto's were made. That's about 3550 Muskrats in the third generation.

[BIGHEAD]

Thanks Guys

Hukk, I never realized it was such a short run knife. A local hired me to do the work, as he intends to give it to a family member who is a dedicated Bulldog collector. I hope he likes it.

I have my light diffused through three layers of printer paper, need a lower watt bulb I think.

How could he not like it that is awesome work young man

[popedandy]

That's a great looking knife. I'll bet the recipient will really appreciate the gift.

[muskrat man]

thanks folks delivered it to the giver wendsday, his only response was "holy $h!t". I hope he meant that in a good way

[BIGHEAD]

LMAO