Bear "Fun", "Jungle" Tools, Ideas and Special / Member Projects

How did it taste @Hanzo ? The smell of vanilla fills the whole yard right now

 

Hanzo, I sure hope you got a priest on speed dial...your food fixing are downright sinful!!÷ LOLOL

Kajun

 

Was pretty good. could have used more vanilla and more sugar. But I generally make our ice cream not too sweet. And we didn't have heavy cream at home, so it could have been richer. Next batch, when the rest of the vanilla is dry and ready, I will put it all in with more sugar and cream. And save you some. I still have some from this batch, but it is probably not as creamy as you like.

 

Should I groan, @TXKajun? Mahalo for the comment. @Bear can be my priest.

 

Wait, @Bear as your priest??? I'm gonna have to mull that one over..for a long, long time! LOL.

 

Mull away... But don't hurt yourself.

 

Aloha Monkeys,

Thought I would post some pics of a favorite fish cutting knife of a friend who asked if I could replace the handle for him.... He wanted black micarta with stainless bolts ... white and black liners... also made him a matching kydex sheath that is friction fit because many of these knives change their profile pretty quickly because of repeated sharpening... so a molded sheath wouldn't work over time....

Scales were pretty worn and there were gaps ... looked pretty bad when I took them off ... but after sanding and wire brushing it looked ok....

(Tough time for him and his family... his wife has kidney cancer and is in home hospice now... her kidneys are failing... if you have a moment... please send up some prayers for her and the family....)

Thanks for taking a look at this special project....

Take Care and God Bless,

Bear

 

Here's what it looks like now Scales were purposely left square so he could finish them to fit his hand....

 

And also finished up the matching mini hatchets for my Aunt for Christmas presents to her Daughter and the Daughter's boyfriend....

Matching is always hard because ... well... because they have to match

Same black micarta, stainless corby bolts... contoured handles with a palm swell ... no lanyard hole as these are going to be used for fishing, cutting bait and preparing food.... full fitted kydex sheath... edge quenched 5160... nice HAZ / hamon visible.... hair popping sharp

Thanks for looking...

Take Care and God Bless,

Bear

 

You do great work! @beari have never seen a fish knife that long. are the fish bigger in hawaii?

I use a rapala fish filet

 

LOL... @Ganado Rapala's were one of the first fish knives I ever owned and used... and still use today.... Great knives and steel!

My buddy is doing "slightly" larger fish that what you would normally do with your Rapala...

Ahi and Aku or Giant Tuna in simple terms....

Here's a video of a old fish market that is in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, that will show you what I mean...

As always... great questions! hope the video helps....

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Take Care and God Bless,

Bear

 

And one more for you @Ganado...

Some of the "fish filet" knives are truly amazing... Sword length to accommodate the size of the fish...

 

Looks a bit like my old Granma's butcher knife!

Good job Bear, looks like a million ounces of silver.

 

I love fresh fish but I had no idea tuna got that big. I'm not swimming with those suckers! I such a land lubber. Thanks @Bear as always you is edumicating me. who knew knives needed to be that long!

 

Dang, @Bear, you keep doing better and better. Those little mini-hatchets......if you leave them out in the rain, will they grow up to be axes??

Kajun

 

LOL @TXKajun .... yeah... a little rustier but with some sun and rain they grow up to axes.... then leave them out and fertilize and they turn into chainsaws! it's all in the heat treat and the voodoo bear magic dust I sprinkle on them .....

 

More edumicating for you @Ganado
The Longest Knife

A knife with a five foot blade? Absolutely.

There has to be the biggest of everything in this world, from apples to zucchini. And there is a biggest zapple pie, too.

But in the world of kitchen knives, anything over one foot long, with perhaps a six inch handle, would be considered prodigious indeed. Still, to everything a season, and a purpose.

When a giant bluefin tuna, caught by line in the waters off the Japanese coast, freshly arrives at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, it can fetch a startling price, reflective of the rarity of the fish as much as its size.

In January of this year, one single bluefin sold at auction for $396,700. It weighed over 750 pounds, and made diners, voracious for its prized meat, happy for days. With a fish like that, paradoxically economy is everything. Nothing is left to waste that can possibly be used, for sushi, sashimi, steaks, and stock.

So how best to cut the fish? That is where the maguro bōchō knife comes in.

The most common versions of the knife run from one to two feet long, but a highly specialized blade runs to fully five feet in length, with a one foot-long handle to boot. For anyone that's counting, that is a total of 6 feet, taller than the average American male at 5 feet 10 inches tall.

Using this blade is a two-person operation: one to wield the blade, the other, braver person, to hold the fish. The whole point is to minimize waste in filleting.

The blade is capable of cutting the entire length of the fish, so it can be efficiently cut into four long pieces. The blade is flexible, and slightly curved to match the curvature of the tuna's spine.

In the hands of an expert, this operation of quartering the fish from shoulder to tail leaves almost no flesh at all on the spine.

Yoshiro Maruyama is the Raw Bar Chef at Blue Water Cafe, in Vancouver's Yaletown area. He is enthusiastic about the spectacle of the long knife.

"It is like a big show, a spectacle. Only at the fresh markets, and maybe once in awhile in front of a nice restaurant, right on the street. A crowd gathers, and the ceremonial cutting with the big blade is something you will always remember," says Maruyama.

He goes on to say that the practice is certainly not common, especially in these times when the tuna fishery is diminished. But, he smiles and adds, "I think even the Yakuza have been known to use this knife. It is a special instrument, amazing to see."

Yoshiro's raw bar has many knives, for specialized use, but his favorite, most often used knife is a made to order, wooden handled blade of 16 inches or so, downright modest in the context of the maguro bōchō big knife.

Wendy Yang, of Korin Japanese Trading, where you can actually buy these instruments, says the long knives are "highly specialized, rare, and quite beautiful."

It makes perfect sense, she says, to have a blade that long for a fish that big.

We are left to wonder, though, to what use the Yakuza may have turned it.

 

"There has to be the biggest of everything in this world, from apples to zucchini."

Yep, and that ain't it...Six-metre long sword wows crowds | The National

 

Polish? The memory of where that sword style comes from is tickling my memory, but I can't place it...!

@Bear: I learned something! Thanks for the pics. I have some pinned handle knives like that I have been trying to figure out the best way to get the pins out of. Mahalo.

 

Who knew tuna quartering was an art form O.O thanks @Bear I love stuff like this!