🔥🔥Wilson M9 Centurion

Sam Wilson

Sam Wilson

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Messages
3,026
Here's one recently completed, an M9 Centurion. This is a really fun model, which is designed to be a fast and sleek survival fighter, like those common in the 80's at the peak of the genre.

This has an 8.25" long blade, functional sawteeth, asymmetrical guard, two-tone finish, with mirror polished clip and machine finish bevels. The blade is .250" CPM-154 stainless @59-60, along with stainless guard and stainless handle. Buttcap is an aluminum body with stainless steel plate permanently affixed, and this one doesn't have the usual mirror polished skull crusher as the client opted for just a flat steel plate.

HLKayS4.jpg


Also features a two-tone finish, with clear GunKote (virtually impervious to solvents, making cleaning a breeze) over the blasted portions of the knife. This makes cleaning the blasted finish significantly easier, as stains are not allowed to penetrate the pores of the steel. It is also able to be refinished almost indefinitely.

This one features the M.O.A. System (Make it Out Alive), so there is also a small PSK knife which you can see behind the pouch on the front of the sheath. I didn't get a shot of it separately this time, except in progress. I'll post some of those shots later.

There is also of course a quality button compass in the cap, and approximately 25 ft of 100 lb test line wrapped around the handle. Paired with a hand stitched leather sheath in Weathered Brown finish, and a Lift-the-Dot snap for the drop leg swivel belt attachment, so it doesn't open up accidentally.

HUlZoRx.jpg



Just picking one of these bad boys up drives up your testosterone levels.🔥🔥

Sam⚔️⚔️
 
Sam Wilson said:
Here's one recently completed, an M9 Centurion. This is a really fun model, which is designed to be a fast and sleek survival fighter, like those common in the 80's at the peak of the genre.

This has an 8.25" long blade, functional sawteeth, asymmetrical guard, two-tone finish, with mirror polished clip and machine finish bevels. The blade is .250" CPM-154 stainless @59-60, along with stainless guard and stainless handle. Buttcap is an aluminum body with stainless steel plate permanently affixed, and this one doesn't have the usual mirror polished skull crusher as the client opted for just a flat steel plate.

HLKayS4.jpg


Also features a two-tone finish, with clear GunKote (virtually impervious to solvents, making cleaning a breeze) over the blasted portions of the knife. This makes cleaning the blasted finish significantly easier, as stains are not allowed to penetrate the pores of the steel. It is also able to be refinished almost indefinitely.

This one features the M.O.A. System (Make it Out Alive), so there is also a small PSK knife which you can see behind the pouch on the front of the sheath. I didn't get a shot of it separately this time, except in progress. I'll post some of those shots later.

There is also of course a quality button compass in the cap, and approximately 25 ft of 100 lb test line wrapped around the handle. Paired with a hand stitched leather sheath in Weathered Brown finish, and a Lift-the-Dot snap for the drop leg swivel belt attachment, so it doesn't open up accidentally.

HUlZoRx.jpg



Just picking one of these bad boys up drives up your testosterone levels.🔥🔥

Sam⚔️⚔️
Click to expand...

As always Sam, spectacular work.......👍👍👍.......Happy New Year to you and yours buddy!!
 
Sam Wilson said:
Here's one recently completed, an M9 Centurion. This is a really fun model, which is designed to be a fast and sleek survival fighter, like those common in the 80's at the peak of the genre.

This has an 8.25" long blade, functional sawteeth, asymmetrical guard, two-tone finish, with mirror polished clip and machine finish bevels. The blade is .250" CPM-154 stainless @59-60, along with stainless guard and stainless handle. Buttcap is an aluminum body with stainless steel plate permanently affixed, and this one doesn't have the usual mirror polished skull crusher as the client opted for just a flat steel plate.

HLKayS4.jpg


Also features a two-tone finish, with clear GunKote (virtually impervious to solvents, making cleaning a breeze) over the blasted portions of the knife. This makes cleaning the blasted finish significantly easier, as stains are not allowed to penetrate the pores of the steel. It is also able to be refinished almost indefinitely.

This one features the M.O.A. System (Make it Out Alive), so there is also a small PSK knife which you can see behind the pouch on the front of the sheath. I didn't get a shot of it separately this time, except in progress. I'll post some of those shots later.

There is also of course a quality button compass in the cap, and approximately 25 ft of 100 lb test line wrapped around the handle. Paired with a hand stitched leather sheath in Weathered Brown finish, and a Lift-the-Dot snap for the drop leg swivel belt attachment, so it doesn't open up accidentally.

HUlZoRx.jpg



Just picking one of these bad boys up drives up your testosterone levels.🔥🔥

Sam⚔️⚔️
Click to expand...
Very nice! It reminds me a little of Crain's LS1 the way the saw steps up from the top edge, but I like your guard, ricasso, plunge, and grind height a lot more.
 
jfk1110 said:
As always Sam, spectacular work.......👍👍👍.......Happy New Year to you and yours buddy!!
Click to expand...

Thank you James, much appreciated! Stay safe out there!🔥🔥😎

mitch13 said:
Superb work Sam!
Click to expand...

Thank you my friend!😎😎

Mistwalker said:
Very nice! It reminds me a little of Crain's LS1 the way the saw steps up from the top edge, but I like your guard, ricasso, plunge, and grind height a lot more.
Click to expand...

Thank you! The idea for this knife was blending parts of the Crain LS1 and parts of the First Blood knife with some of my design elements, to make it more functional. So far, everyone has been pleased with the results.😎👍

Sam⚔️⚔️
 
Sam Wilson said:
Thank you! The idea for this knife was blending parts of the Crain LS1 and parts of the First Blood knife with some of my design elements, to make it more functional. So far, everyone has been pleased with the results.😎👍

Sam⚔️⚔️
Click to expand...
I can just imagine. I never liked the featured guards much, I prefer simple oval gurads with no points and no protrutions on knife I will or may be doing serious work with in the wild. I prefer all the sharp pokey / cutty parts of the knife be forward of the guard :)
 
Agreed, that is always been a big thing for me. A smaller top guard so you can get your thumb over onto the spine for detail work, and then having the guard well radiused so that is comfortable in all positions.

If you zoom in on the guard in this pic, they are all done the same, but it is more obvious on this one, you can see that I radius them fairly heavily. It doesn't look quite as crisp in pictures, but it is infinitely more comfortable.

cTvy9rs.jpg


Sam⚔️⚔️

Mistwalker said:
I can just imagine. I never liked the featured guards much, I prefer simple oval gurads with no points and no protrutions on knife I will or may be doing serious work with in the wild. I prefer all the sharp pokey / cutty parts of the knife be forward of the guard :)
Click to expand...
 
Sam Wilson said:
Agreed, that is always been a big thing for me. A smaller top guard so you can get your thumb over onto the spine for detail work, and then having the guard well radiused so that is comfortable in all positions.

If you zoom in on the guard in this pic, they are all done the same, but it is more obvious on this one, you can see that I radius them fairly heavily. It doesn't look quite as crisp in pictures, but it is infinitely more comfortable.

cTvy9rs.jpg


Sam⚔️⚔️
Click to expand...
Yeah, I can see it. very nice. Though I tend to prefer shorter blades these days, 5-6 inches long, this is my favorite of your knives. Maybe, if I'm through choosing the wrong business partners and life partners, I can finally put my life back together and purchase one of your knives. I like well made hollow handle knives, I did this review of one I got from Newt Martin almost 12 years ago.
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads...low-handled-survival-beast-photo-hvy.1050755/

And he used the images on his website

We were in discussions of a smaller one but then My business partner screwed me out of $75K in 2014, and I started a divorce and single fatherhood in 2015, and then Newt passed from Lymphoma in 2016, and we never got the chanve to sort it out. I'm finally getting back on my feet now, hopefully later this year you and I can do some business.
 
Sam Wilson said:
Mistwalker Mistwalker I'm sorry to hear all that, that sounds like a hard row to hoe. Glad things are smoothing out for you, I hope everything goes well. Thank you for the compliments!

Sam⚔️⚔️
Click to expand...
Thankk sir, I appreciate the well wishes and the compliments are well deserved!

It was a very hard row to hoe at first, because I was stubborn and still hijacked by secularism. So I just couldn't see the bigger picture yet. I was too busy chasing money, and trying to parlay the knowledge and gifts God had given me into fortune and thus developing relationships based all all the wrong criteria. And the more I chased the money and harder, the more it eluded me. Until finally the house built on sand was all washed away in a storm. It was god showing me that was not at all in his plan for prospering me, that was not the direction he had intended for me to go

These days I give what God gave me freely to other in classes and workshops on foraging and wet / cold weather survival and on our you tube channel at work.

The day I finally saw it for what it was...in images I had taken, in occurrances I had seen with my own eyes, the day what I was seeing all clicked with what I was reading in my bibles, the day I walked out into one of the fields I was using to gather hi rez highly detailed plant images for my slide shows in workshops and a book I'm writing, and hit my knees and looked up at the sky and apologized and handed it all over to God, was the day everything changed.

The more I had chased the money, the more it had eluded me. Now the more I chase a better quality of life and seek the kingdom of God. And the more I give of myself of what God has given me, and the more I use whatver money I have to share what God has given me freely, the less I need money on a personal level and the more oportunities to make more money I encounter.

Right now my life is better than it has been since I was 12 years old, before I became a teenager orphaned on the streets and God took over my parenting.

The line in the song "Amazing Grace" that goes "how precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed" is an understatement of epic proportions that cannot even be imagined until it is experienced.

Hopefully I can get ahead enough now that we can talk later this year. The above post was not a complaint, just me explaining why I haven't already bought one of your knives when I have been following your work for years.

I'm going for having one knife from every maker I personally know and respect as a maker for the last iteration of my knife collection. Having sold off everything I had of any real value in 2017 and 2018 to fund life as a single dad with a broken and badly damaged leg. This time I'm not collecting the pieces based on their value, but based on my respect for their makers I have two of Ed Martin's knives now, but Ed is a special case. He was the first to take the time to shine a light into the darkness I once lived in, and helped me find my way back out.

All the best
Brian
 
And the close up once the grinds are nearly complete. Just a little cleanup needed at this point, plunges and corners, things like that. I think this video is of the M9 before this one, but they're all about the same.


Sam⚔️⚔️
 
What is the thought process for giving the clip point a mirrored finish? Is it practical or just aesthetics?
Either way, it looks pretty sweet
 
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