Ulu Knife

[budnder]

Made this for my daughter as a Christmas gift. Blade purchased from Jantz Supply for $8. Brass rod from Menards was a couple of bucks. A storm earlier this year had previously donated a Maple tree branch for the handle.

I like the concept behind the Ulu (weight on top of the cutting blade) - now I want one for myself.

If you haven't seen one of these before the picture might be confusing - in the picture, the knife is upside down, sitting on the handle. To use it, you hold the wood handle, with the blade pointing down and "chop/roll" to cut something like a vegatable. You can also use it as a scraper.

I bought a leather cover off of Amazon for the blade that you'd keep on it when it's stored in a drawer.

 

[Edgar]

Beautiful job, Roy. I bought some ulu knives a few years ago when we were in Alaska, but I never thought about making one. Thanks for the info on the sources for materials.

What are the dimensions of your handle?

 

[budnder]

It's wrapped so I can't measure, but I made the handle a lot beefier than pictures I had seen - probably an inch and a quarter thick. Width is 5 inches, give or take.

It was pretty easy, aside from cutting the "slot" for the two blade tangs. I just drilled them out, then used a sideways cutting drill bit to clean it out. Not hard to do, but it certainly isn't a crisp hole/slot. There's a youtube video out there of a guy using an oscillating tool and a flat cutting blade and that looked like just the ticket. I have one of those tools somewhere that I have never found much use for, but, of course, I couldn't find it when this opportunity came calling.

I finished it with Tru Oil. Five very light coats, then sanded it lightly with 6000 or so grit to knock the shine off. Kinda debated about doing another coat after that. If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd have done the sanding thing maybe every other coat along the way.

 

[Rockytime]

I had never heard of an Ulu knife. Yours is very nice. I checked out some Ulu kits and discovered a blade of Damascus steel for, WOW, $85. Out of my league but yours was reasonable. I'd kind of like to try making one sometime.

 

[Skie_M]

The Alaskan Ulu is an extremely versatile tool in the kitchen as well as in the field.

Your method of holding the blade vertical and chopping is certainly valid, or moving the knive blade vertically against something held horizontally to scrape it is also quite valid, but the true purpose behind the Ulu is quite different.


You hold the blade HORIZONTALLY ... gripped in your palm, with the blade at a slight downward angle towards the work, and use it to separate the pelt from the flesh of an animal as you skin it. These were first made and used by Alaskan Native tribes (like the Inuit and the Eskimo), and are extremely efficient to the task of holding a blade while wearing large or multiple gloves in freezing weather. They also do an excellent job of skinning the animal!


Once the skinning was done and the carcass butchered and hung, the next task was to prepare the animal's pelt for preservation by tanning, somehow. Most native tribes were well versed in the technique of "brain tanning", by using the fats and oils of the animal's body to preserve the skin in the pelt, leaving the fur still attached (for warmth!). The Ulu was an important tool in this step as well, because in order to begin, you must remove all the fats and meat and other tissue still attached to the inside of the pelt by scraping. They typically stretched the pelt using stakes or a framework, and scraped it clean with the Ulu.

You can research the rest of the facts online at your leisure, but the Alaskan Ulu is still an awesome tool with nearly a thousand of years of thought, development, and use behind it. If you use it in your kitchen, it will likely stay for quite a long time!

 

[Rockytime]

The Alaskan Ulu is an extremely versatile tool in the kitchen as well as in the field.

Your method of holding the blade vertical and chopping is certainly valid, or moving the knive blade vertically against something held horizontally to scrape it is also quite valid, but the true purpose behind the Ulu is quite different.


You hold the blade HORIZONTALLY ... gripped in your palm, with the blade at a slight downward angle towards the work, and use it to separate the pelt from the flesh of an animal as you skin it. These were first made and used by Alaskan Native tribes (like the Inuit and the Eskimo), and are extremely efficient to the task of holding a blade while wearing large or multiple gloves in freezing weather. They also do an excellent job of skinning the animal!


Once the skinning was done and the carcass butchered and hung, the next task was to prepare the animal's pelt for preservation by tanning, somehow. Most native tribes were well versed in the technique of "brain tanning", by using the fats and oils of the animal's body to preserve the skin in the pelt, leaving the fur still attached (for warmth!). The Ulu was an important tool in this step as well, because in order to begin, you must remove all the fats and meat and other tissue still attached to the inside of the pelt by scraping. They typically stretched the pelt using stakes or a framework, and scraped it clean with the Ulu.

You can research the rest of the facts online at your leisure, but the Alaskan Ulu is still an awesome tool with nearly a thousand of years of thought, development, and use behind it. If you use it in your kitchen, it will likely stay for quite a long time!

Thanks!

 

[Charlie_W]

Roy,
Great job on the knife/handle" That is an awesome piece of maple!
Should be a joy to hold and use!

 

[jleiwig]

It's awesome, but you should think about making a cutting board for it

 

[budnder]

After I got the knife done, I realized that it wasn't something that you could just toss in the "knife drawer", so bought a leather cover for it (Amazon.com... cost twice what I paid for the blade and brass... I also saw those sweet "bowled out" cutting boards for Ulu's, but hoped they weren't absolutely necessary 'cause I knew I didn't have time to sort that out.

Does the curved cutting board make it much more useful for kitchen chores?

 

[TimS124]

After I got the knife done, I realized that it wasn't something that you could just toss in the "knife drawer", so bought a leather cover for it (Amazon.com... cost twice what I paid for the blade and brass... I also saw those sweet "bowled out" cutting boards for Ulu's, but hoped they weren't absolutely necessary 'cause I knew I didn't have time to sort that out.

Does the curved cutting board make it much more useful for kitchen chores?

Disston made a similar (ish) knife many years ago...they show up fairly often in antique shops, eBay, etc. I lucked into a very clean one for $10 many years ago and use it in the kitchen. Works just fine with a normal flat chopping board.

I tend to use it in a rolling motion rather than chopping downwards. Slices right through veggies etc and it's very easy to just roll back and forth with slight pivots at each end to redirect where the next rolling motion will take the blade. Much quieter than a straight-bladed knife as those always seem to clunk when the get all the way through whatever is being sliced.

Nice looking knife and I like the info Skie_m added!

 

[jleiwig]

I also saw those sweet "bowled out" cutting boards for Ulu's, but hoped they weren't absolutely necessary 'cause I knew I didn't have time to sort that out.

Does the curved cutting board make it much more useful for kitchen chores?

It's not absolutely necessary, more of just looks better with it IMHO. But there are always birthdays and other times to add to the original gift right? :biggrin:

 

[Lee58]

FYI: Woodcraft also sells the Ulu knife. Runs around $12.00 for the knife, this does not include the material for the handles.

 

[Herb G]

I've been using a ULU knife for 45 years. I use it for leatherwork.
It is a very handy tool for doing leatherwork.

Here's a link for it. Linky

Mine is a lot bigger than the one shown though.
It was my Grandfather's knife.