Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,017
A while back I was talking to Gene Pinault, Gunknifenut here on the forums, about some knives he has been forging. There was one style of hidden tang in particular that I really like. Tknife had picked one up back in June and the old world look of it really caught my eye. As it turned out Gene was in the process of a similar knife and showed me some pics, and it was/is just one of the coolest looking knives I've seen. It looks like something made in bygone days, I just love all of the little artistic touches and hand-worked craftsmanship that Gene put into the knife. Between work and the move I haven't had a chance to do a lot with the knife and camera, but I have carried it on a few hikes and played with it some while out and about. The handle is extremely comfortable, I love the contours. Aesthetically I love the composition of the handle as well, it just makes for a very nice package over all. I need to get it out and spend more time using it, but for now I thought I'd post a few pics and express some initial impressions.
To me the knife has a nice old world, puukko-esque sort of appearance, looks older than it is and I like that very much. It has somewhat of a Fallkniven F-1-ish blade profile.
The specs are:
Overall..............................8 1/2-inches / 21.6-cm
Blade length.......................4.-inches / 10.2-cm
Blade width........................1 5/16-inches / 3.3-cm
Blade Thickness..................3/16-inch / 5mm
Blade steel.........................5160 spring steel
Handle material...................Ok root, epoxied leather, rosewood, and black micarta.
The sheath is a hand-sewn, deep pouch sheath that is wet formed and holds the knife well, but isn't to hard to draw the knife when needed.
The blade is hand-forged from spring steel, the leaf springs of a Pontiac fire bird if I remember right.
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I really like the look of the peened hilt and pommel, the artistic detail in that just looks wonderful.
The colors of the handle materials really compliment each other well I think, to me it looks every bit as good as it feels, and it is a hand-filling handle that is very comfortable in use. From the hilt to butt the materials are peened steel hilt, epoxied leather, live oak root, more epoxied leather, rosewood, black micarta, rosewood, epoxied leather, peened steel pommel.
When Gene and I talked about the knife before he mailed it, he described the edge as being thick, but very sharp, and if I wanted it thinned later to let him know. I'd say that was an accurate description, as it is a bit on the thick side, but did arrive damned sharp!
The thickness of the edge was most notable during cuts using a thumb push like notching and the ring-and-break technique, but with the very sharp edge, it was still manageable.
So, my initial impressions of the knife are that, it is one of the coolest looking knives I've ever had, and it is one of the most comfortable knives I have handled. It is a great size to be useful, but not overly large or heavy. I really like the blade geometry a lot. It has a shallow continuous curve that cuts very well. It has a good mix of point and belly to be very utilitarian, and though not seeming to have the same sort of edge retention as some of my RC 59-61 knives, it does seem to hold an edge reasonably well. I haven't done much batonning with it, just a little bit of truncating to harvest a dead bowed limb to serve as the bow for a fire bow, but it handled it just fine More on that sort of stuiff as I get to use it more.
Over all so far I just really like the knife very much, nicely done Gene, I look forward to seeing more of your creations later on man.
.
To me the knife has a nice old world, puukko-esque sort of appearance, looks older than it is and I like that very much. It has somewhat of a Fallkniven F-1-ish blade profile.
The specs are:
Overall..............................8 1/2-inches / 21.6-cm
Blade length.......................4.-inches / 10.2-cm
Blade width........................1 5/16-inches / 3.3-cm
Blade Thickness..................3/16-inch / 5mm
Blade steel.........................5160 spring steel
Handle material...................Ok root, epoxied leather, rosewood, and black micarta.
The sheath is a hand-sewn, deep pouch sheath that is wet formed and holds the knife well, but isn't to hard to draw the knife when needed.
The blade is hand-forged from spring steel, the leaf springs of a Pontiac fire bird if I remember right.
.
I really like the look of the peened hilt and pommel, the artistic detail in that just looks wonderful.
The colors of the handle materials really compliment each other well I think, to me it looks every bit as good as it feels, and it is a hand-filling handle that is very comfortable in use. From the hilt to butt the materials are peened steel hilt, epoxied leather, live oak root, more epoxied leather, rosewood, black micarta, rosewood, epoxied leather, peened steel pommel.
When Gene and I talked about the knife before he mailed it, he described the edge as being thick, but very sharp, and if I wanted it thinned later to let him know. I'd say that was an accurate description, as it is a bit on the thick side, but did arrive damned sharp!
The thickness of the edge was most notable during cuts using a thumb push like notching and the ring-and-break technique, but with the very sharp edge, it was still manageable.
So, my initial impressions of the knife are that, it is one of the coolest looking knives I've ever had, and it is one of the most comfortable knives I have handled. It is a great size to be useful, but not overly large or heavy. I really like the blade geometry a lot. It has a shallow continuous curve that cuts very well. It has a good mix of point and belly to be very utilitarian, and though not seeming to have the same sort of edge retention as some of my RC 59-61 knives, it does seem to hold an edge reasonably well. I haven't done much batonning with it, just a little bit of truncating to harvest a dead bowed limb to serve as the bow for a fire bow, but it handled it just fine More on that sort of stuiff as I get to use it more.
Over all so far I just really like the knife very much, nicely done Gene, I look forward to seeing more of your creations later on man.
.
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