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- Jan 21, 2000
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I know this is a little long, but I have no website to link to, so here goes:
A few days before leaving for a vacation with my wife and daughter in Las Vegas last year, I called David Boye to ask for information on some back roads in northern Arizona. I quickly get tired of the glitz and clamor of Vegas, but love to get into a 4WD vehicle and head into the vastness of the Great Basin outback. Over the years, David has built more than a dozen custom knives of all kinds for my brother and myself, and after giving me the info I needed, he graciously invited me to come by for a visit at his home and shop complex in the little town of Dolan Springs, AZ. I gratefully accepted.
As we prowled around his shop discussing comparative metallurgy, I told him I had never fully converted to his dendritic cobalt blades for two reasons. First, he had told me himself the cobalt was not as hard or strong as his dendritic steel blades. And second, I liked his dendritic steel so much I saw no reason to change to cobalt. I had done some edge testing with one of his steel blades, and it proved to be one of the most efficient cutters Ive ever used. I asked him if there was a reason the cobalt was better, other than the fact it is inert to corrosives such as salt water and most acids. He said, simply, The cobalt cuts better and holds an edge longer. Okay, he had me.
I related to him that another customer of his, sheathmaker Gary Graley, agreed with him that the dendritic cobalt cut like nothing else, and I also mentioned what admiration I held for Garys standards of sharpness. Ive handled knives sharpened by Gary, and he has an unusual talent for imparting awesome edges. If he said Davids cobalt cut better, I believed it--but what about durability? Im most interested in hunting knives, and I worried that deflection off bone during field dressing and butchering might be more than a fine cobalt edge could take.
By way of an answer, David rummaged around and came up with a cobalt folder that had been used as a test knife on a deep-sea kayaking expedition. It had obviously seen a lot of hard use, as the area just above the edge was visibly worn and the knife had a generally battered look, although still solid in operation. He trued up the edge with what looked like a little ceramic stone, and then tried it by crisply cutting a few pieces off a 1 ships halyard which he kept for test purposes. (His target market these days is comprised of saltwater sailors and fishermencheck out his website at www.boyeknives.com)
He looked around his shop and said, Lets try this..., walking over to the base-plate of some kind of machine, possibly a drill press. It was a rectangular, solid plate of steel bolted to his workbench. He took the edge of the cobalt knife and placed it against a corner edge of the steel plate, making a shallow shaving motion. To my surprise, he cut a little sliver from the edge of the steel. Can I try that? I blurted. Sure, he said, just dont cut too deep.
Using the same motion he had demonstrated, I surprised myself by successfully lifting another little steel shaving from the edge of the plate. To my even greater surprise, I ran my thumbnail along the knifes edge and felt not the least bit of deformation after having cut the steel. I thought this stuff was supposed to be soft, I remarked. Well, its softer than my hardened steel blades, but it will still cut mild steel, he explained. And certainly harder than any bone, I added. He nodded.
What about grinding a really thin edge on the cobalt, thoughlike the edges you put on my dendritic steel hunters? I asked. He shrugged, walked over to retrieve a caliper, and closed its jaws on the dendritic edge of the folder wed just shaved steel with. He turned the face of the gauge up so I could see it, and I grinned, shaking my headthe edge micd right at 5/1000ths of an inch. Jeez! was all I could muster.
We continued the tour, ending up at a table with some rough blade blanks ready for finishing and assembly. One caught my eyea 6 blade destined to become a Galley Chefs Knife, one of the newer models showcased on his website. I picked it up and felt its heft, surprised by how sturdy it was. That spine is almost 3/16 thickon a chefs knife? I asked. I like to build them so theyll stand up to just about any use someone could reasonably ask of one, he replied.
I mentioned that hunting in south Texas, we are using longer hunting blades these days, because we now completely bone out our big three game animals -- deer, wild boar, and nilgai antelope -- in the field. Even in November and December, temperatures often rise into the 80s in the borderlands, and weve found it best to butcher game in the field when it gets that hot, putting the meat directly onto ice, rather than hanging a carcass and risking spoilage in the heat.
That chefs blade would make a fine field-butchering knife with just a little re-profiling, I mused. Well, if I start grinding on it, youve bought it, he grinned. I must have looked like a kid who finally caught Santa in the living room. Soon, I was experiencing the perfect end to an amazing dayDavid Boye hand-grinding a blade to my own specifications, right in front of me.
As you can see from the comparison photo of my knife in a post below, shown lying on top of a picture of his standard Galley Chefs Knife, he shaved about ¼ of width from the widest part of the blade and in the process thinned the tip down into a finer working point. He later added a mammoth-ivory spacer and finished it off with a select piece of desert ironwood burl.
The flat-ground blade transitions into a slightly convex, Moran-like edge bevel, with 6 cutting edge and 11.5 overall length. The knife weighs 7.5 oz. and balances at the front of the ivory spacer, with the proven ergonomics inherent in Davids handle design. Just an incredibly beautiful, ultra-high-performance piece, and the perfect field butcher knife, IMHO.
The cutting performance on ½ sisal rope has been phenomenal, and though Ive not done any long-run cutting tests with it, subjectively it out-cuts every other blade I have on pull-cuts through hard ropeincluding my other Boye hunters. By subjectively, I mean that by feel, it obviously parts the rope more quickly and with less effort than any other knife I own.
Also, after multiple pull cuts through very hard, sisal-fiber rope, the extra-fine edge has shown no deformation or flattening under 30x magnification. Thats about as hard a material as I expect to cut with this blade, as its meant for use primarily on raw hide and meat. As happy as I am with its performance and durability so far, I can assure you I will not be lending it to anyoneit will come out of its sheath exclusively for use by my own hand (and for the occasional show-and-tell).
Cant wait to try it in the field, but looks like that will be next year as our deer season here is all but over. Never know, thoughI might have to schedule a late-winter hog hunt just for an excuse to try out this big boy(e). Voila:
A few days before leaving for a vacation with my wife and daughter in Las Vegas last year, I called David Boye to ask for information on some back roads in northern Arizona. I quickly get tired of the glitz and clamor of Vegas, but love to get into a 4WD vehicle and head into the vastness of the Great Basin outback. Over the years, David has built more than a dozen custom knives of all kinds for my brother and myself, and after giving me the info I needed, he graciously invited me to come by for a visit at his home and shop complex in the little town of Dolan Springs, AZ. I gratefully accepted.
As we prowled around his shop discussing comparative metallurgy, I told him I had never fully converted to his dendritic cobalt blades for two reasons. First, he had told me himself the cobalt was not as hard or strong as his dendritic steel blades. And second, I liked his dendritic steel so much I saw no reason to change to cobalt. I had done some edge testing with one of his steel blades, and it proved to be one of the most efficient cutters Ive ever used. I asked him if there was a reason the cobalt was better, other than the fact it is inert to corrosives such as salt water and most acids. He said, simply, The cobalt cuts better and holds an edge longer. Okay, he had me.
I related to him that another customer of his, sheathmaker Gary Graley, agreed with him that the dendritic cobalt cut like nothing else, and I also mentioned what admiration I held for Garys standards of sharpness. Ive handled knives sharpened by Gary, and he has an unusual talent for imparting awesome edges. If he said Davids cobalt cut better, I believed it--but what about durability? Im most interested in hunting knives, and I worried that deflection off bone during field dressing and butchering might be more than a fine cobalt edge could take.
By way of an answer, David rummaged around and came up with a cobalt folder that had been used as a test knife on a deep-sea kayaking expedition. It had obviously seen a lot of hard use, as the area just above the edge was visibly worn and the knife had a generally battered look, although still solid in operation. He trued up the edge with what looked like a little ceramic stone, and then tried it by crisply cutting a few pieces off a 1 ships halyard which he kept for test purposes. (His target market these days is comprised of saltwater sailors and fishermencheck out his website at www.boyeknives.com)
He looked around his shop and said, Lets try this..., walking over to the base-plate of some kind of machine, possibly a drill press. It was a rectangular, solid plate of steel bolted to his workbench. He took the edge of the cobalt knife and placed it against a corner edge of the steel plate, making a shallow shaving motion. To my surprise, he cut a little sliver from the edge of the steel. Can I try that? I blurted. Sure, he said, just dont cut too deep.
Using the same motion he had demonstrated, I surprised myself by successfully lifting another little steel shaving from the edge of the plate. To my even greater surprise, I ran my thumbnail along the knifes edge and felt not the least bit of deformation after having cut the steel. I thought this stuff was supposed to be soft, I remarked. Well, its softer than my hardened steel blades, but it will still cut mild steel, he explained. And certainly harder than any bone, I added. He nodded.
What about grinding a really thin edge on the cobalt, thoughlike the edges you put on my dendritic steel hunters? I asked. He shrugged, walked over to retrieve a caliper, and closed its jaws on the dendritic edge of the folder wed just shaved steel with. He turned the face of the gauge up so I could see it, and I grinned, shaking my headthe edge micd right at 5/1000ths of an inch. Jeez! was all I could muster.
We continued the tour, ending up at a table with some rough blade blanks ready for finishing and assembly. One caught my eyea 6 blade destined to become a Galley Chefs Knife, one of the newer models showcased on his website. I picked it up and felt its heft, surprised by how sturdy it was. That spine is almost 3/16 thickon a chefs knife? I asked. I like to build them so theyll stand up to just about any use someone could reasonably ask of one, he replied.
I mentioned that hunting in south Texas, we are using longer hunting blades these days, because we now completely bone out our big three game animals -- deer, wild boar, and nilgai antelope -- in the field. Even in November and December, temperatures often rise into the 80s in the borderlands, and weve found it best to butcher game in the field when it gets that hot, putting the meat directly onto ice, rather than hanging a carcass and risking spoilage in the heat.
That chefs blade would make a fine field-butchering knife with just a little re-profiling, I mused. Well, if I start grinding on it, youve bought it, he grinned. I must have looked like a kid who finally caught Santa in the living room. Soon, I was experiencing the perfect end to an amazing dayDavid Boye hand-grinding a blade to my own specifications, right in front of me.
As you can see from the comparison photo of my knife in a post below, shown lying on top of a picture of his standard Galley Chefs Knife, he shaved about ¼ of width from the widest part of the blade and in the process thinned the tip down into a finer working point. He later added a mammoth-ivory spacer and finished it off with a select piece of desert ironwood burl.
The flat-ground blade transitions into a slightly convex, Moran-like edge bevel, with 6 cutting edge and 11.5 overall length. The knife weighs 7.5 oz. and balances at the front of the ivory spacer, with the proven ergonomics inherent in Davids handle design. Just an incredibly beautiful, ultra-high-performance piece, and the perfect field butcher knife, IMHO.
The cutting performance on ½ sisal rope has been phenomenal, and though Ive not done any long-run cutting tests with it, subjectively it out-cuts every other blade I have on pull-cuts through hard ropeincluding my other Boye hunters. By subjectively, I mean that by feel, it obviously parts the rope more quickly and with less effort than any other knife I own.
Also, after multiple pull cuts through very hard, sisal-fiber rope, the extra-fine edge has shown no deformation or flattening under 30x magnification. Thats about as hard a material as I expect to cut with this blade, as its meant for use primarily on raw hide and meat. As happy as I am with its performance and durability so far, I can assure you I will not be lending it to anyoneit will come out of its sheath exclusively for use by my own hand (and for the occasional show-and-tell).
Cant wait to try it in the field, but looks like that will be next year as our deer season here is all but over. Never know, thoughI might have to schedule a late-winter hog hunt just for an excuse to try out this big boy(e). Voila:
