Yesterday's Weapons Forums

.......in your last post to pacify Bushi,you showed a pic of the lady with an"ulu".............at the risk of sounding ignorant-can you "elaborate on that for me.....seems it'd be awfully handy to have around....are they "homemade" or storebought...??? ....I'm guessing they arent available down here....

Home made, all of the good ones at least.
Some company in Anchorage stamps out Stainless Steel "Almost Ulus" we often wonder where they got their patterns...

The ones in the display case's are a Jade Ulu and a slate Ulu with an Ivory handle, I found near our Summer camps. The steel ones are on the board.
I make all the Ulus we use and a few more now and then. The best are made from handsaw blades, with the former handle retaining its use in a different shape.
Big ones for butchering and fish, medium sized ones for all kina use and small ones for skin cutting and sewing.

"Semi Lunar Knife" as described in the dictionary.

Damn handy.

Yockey,
The blades made from hand wood saws are best and hold a blade quite well. Wood handled Stanley handsaws are the favorite start, some handle reshaping and some time on a bench grinder till well done.

Did I mention that they cut Pizza's better than ANYTHING the Italians came up with???

All the work can be done with a body weight backed,straight armed, down ward stroke, when working from above, and plenty of slashing edge for slicing.
Besides, its fun making knifes, and these are simple, handy and durable.

........thank yeeeeew for the info...

hey Mario. Remind me the next time you stop in to visit to show you mine. I bought a couple of them when I was in the GREAT state of Alaska. They are very versatile and quite handy. One was bought more as a suvenier and the other for its utility.

.......... NOW he tells me....

The former owner of this house was a cabinet maker. There are a few handsaws left behind. May have to try my hand at making my own.

...I got a couple if you wanna practice ....but it'd be neat to have a REAL one...

sounds to me that if I made one from the stanly saw hanging on the wall it would look like one made by someone in Alaska making one from a stanley saw. What makes it "real" Mario?

ehailstone, how do you cut the basic shape from the saw blade? I would think that with the hardness of the saw's blade that a metal cutting blade for a saw'sall or jigsaw would look at it like a queer at a naked super model. "you want me to do what?"

I look at them like this;


there she said her preference is in these pattern, as they have a nice "Tip" and the back side go's inline with the arm, for downward weight use.
These knifes are used around the Arctic, in many forms.
When you put the edge on, you have a" l/" edge ratherthan a "V" seen from the side. It lets the stuff peel away from the cutting edge, especially Flesh.
Nothing wrong at all with making your own, especially if you want them for full out work

thanks.
How do you cut the shape out of the metal? What tool do you use? I have a couple ulu's here at the house and understand that the sharpening happens on only one side of the blade vs. both sides on what most people consider standard cuttlery. Do you make use of the remainder of the blade? ie smaller ulu.

I would use a cutoff grinder to cut the blade to shape and be carefyl not to get it too hot so you don't ruin the temper.

Rad

.............not hard do understand...."real" .....yes,as in "Made in Alaska" by the real folks.......just like for example,a "samurai sword" made in Alabama-stan you could call a samurai-but it wasnt made in Japan by a real Japanese swordsmith.................kinda makes it a "repro".....duh...........

I think you fellas have it figured.

I use a die grinder, but I have no shop at the present, as were moving over to a place with one, but he's yet to move out of that....just a matter of time, nothing happens fast here, though.
If I had the ability , Id crank out a few for trade.

After cutting it off, I use my bench grinder to bring it to a nicer shape, and then bench vice it or "C" clamp it to a table so I can get a true edge on it...then I hand stone it to perfection and sharpness.


I've seen hack saws, and Dremels with cut off wheels take them to shape as well.
One hand saw will give you a set of 3 ulu's when all is done, and the last two can have whatever handle you come up with.

....neat...!!!.....would love to try one from stone-but attatching a handle would pose a problem....

i was gonna mention that they looked like a pizza cutter to me , but i can see the usefullness too