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- Apr 15, 2014
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A few very special to me additions to the collection came over the last two weeks, and thought I'd share them and the story.
I sold one of these Scrapmax 375's a while back, and almost immediately regretted it. Between its ultra-light weight, super-thin Elmax, and grippy War-Dog handle, it is the perfect deer knife IMO and I hope to use it this fall. Maybe not the coolest Busse-kin, but wildly underrated I believe.
The ASHBM, well, I’d have to blame it on Cobalt. I’ve been a little obsessed with the SHBM history over the past few years, and have scoured the forums for any info on the origin, variants, and history of this incredible blade. After handling the Anniversary edition of it at the "INFI in the woods" campout, I was completely sold on its performance. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how a .3” blade was biting so much deeper than my .25” 1111, and many others. It was only a matter of time until I had one. Last week the stars aligned, and lo and behold, here she is in all her glory. I will NEVER part with this one. She is my Mistress for life. One day I hope to have a 1/6 or 1/300 to keep her company. A rookie Hog can dream..
Now, onto this special piece of steel.
This journey began with a wanting to fill a gap in my collection. I was one of the few naive ones who didn't grab a TGLB off the website. I always saw them pop up on the exchange but never quite could bring myself to pay the after-market price. For myself, I knew the 7-8" spot in my collection would be a dedicated fighter, rather than a jack-of-all-trades-master of none.
At Bladeshow while walking through the aisles I picked up a Randall Model 14 and really fell in love with the way it felt. Well balanced, pointy, a dedicated fighter.
About two years before that, I had stumbled upon a video by a guy NateAIM, showing a knife being put through some serious abuse and passing with flying colors. I couldn't find any information on who he was at the time. It wasn't until a year later that I realized it was Nathan the Machinist (Nathan Carothers), and he had been demonstrating a new heat treat protocol developed with himself, Guy Siegfried of Survive!, and Dan Keffeler. The Delta 3V heat treat protocol.
It wasn't until Nathans "what would you like to see" thread that I realized, “you know what, I want a Randal Model 14 in Delta 3V”
I knew Guy at Survive! seemed to be incredibly busy with production, and Nathan's weekly sales were selling out in just a few minutes, so the likelihood of either of them producing a custom knife for me was probably not a possibility.
Now, anyone who is into knives, knows who Dan Keffeler is. His Bladesports titles alone are an incredible accomplishment, watch a video of him running a course and you'll probably get an idea of why his logo is a gorilla (if that doesn't impress you, remember that he holds the world record for fastest Douglas fir, 2x4 cut, 1.2 seconds). On top of that his knives and swords are beautiful, performance driven works of art. I'm sure he's forgotten more about cutting than I know.
I emailed Dan on a whim, never even expecting a response. I told him that I would love to have him make something in the spirit of the Randall Model 14, in Delta 3V.
A little while later I got a response from Dan, telling me to give him a call.
We chatted for quite a while, about Bladesports, how they came to the heat treat protocol, and what exactly I was looking for. We agreed the original 14 handles probably weren't the most ideal shape (keep in mind he has a degree in about the human body and how it's mechanics work). He took the ball from there are ran with it,, and man, did he run!
Sculpted titanium guard replace the traditional Nickel or stainless, and Terotuf with micarta underlays for the incredibly ergonomic handle. The lines in the titanium guards were done by hand. The decorative piece in front of the guard, is a copper/nickel/silver mokume.
Very sharpened swedge, this is a fighter after all..
I sold one of these Scrapmax 375's a while back, and almost immediately regretted it. Between its ultra-light weight, super-thin Elmax, and grippy War-Dog handle, it is the perfect deer knife IMO and I hope to use it this fall. Maybe not the coolest Busse-kin, but wildly underrated I believe.
The ASHBM, well, I’d have to blame it on Cobalt. I’ve been a little obsessed with the SHBM history over the past few years, and have scoured the forums for any info on the origin, variants, and history of this incredible blade. After handling the Anniversary edition of it at the "INFI in the woods" campout, I was completely sold on its performance. I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how a .3” blade was biting so much deeper than my .25” 1111, and many others. It was only a matter of time until I had one. Last week the stars aligned, and lo and behold, here she is in all her glory. I will NEVER part with this one. She is my Mistress for life. One day I hope to have a 1/6 or 1/300 to keep her company. A rookie Hog can dream..
Now, onto this special piece of steel.
This journey began with a wanting to fill a gap in my collection. I was one of the few naive ones who didn't grab a TGLB off the website. I always saw them pop up on the exchange but never quite could bring myself to pay the after-market price. For myself, I knew the 7-8" spot in my collection would be a dedicated fighter, rather than a jack-of-all-trades-master of none.
At Bladeshow while walking through the aisles I picked up a Randall Model 14 and really fell in love with the way it felt. Well balanced, pointy, a dedicated fighter.
About two years before that, I had stumbled upon a video by a guy NateAIM, showing a knife being put through some serious abuse and passing with flying colors. I couldn't find any information on who he was at the time. It wasn't until a year later that I realized it was Nathan the Machinist (Nathan Carothers), and he had been demonstrating a new heat treat protocol developed with himself, Guy Siegfried of Survive!, and Dan Keffeler. The Delta 3V heat treat protocol.
It wasn't until Nathans "what would you like to see" thread that I realized, “you know what, I want a Randal Model 14 in Delta 3V”
I knew Guy at Survive! seemed to be incredibly busy with production, and Nathan's weekly sales were selling out in just a few minutes, so the likelihood of either of them producing a custom knife for me was probably not a possibility.
Now, anyone who is into knives, knows who Dan Keffeler is. His Bladesports titles alone are an incredible accomplishment, watch a video of him running a course and you'll probably get an idea of why his logo is a gorilla (if that doesn't impress you, remember that he holds the world record for fastest Douglas fir, 2x4 cut, 1.2 seconds). On top of that his knives and swords are beautiful, performance driven works of art. I'm sure he's forgotten more about cutting than I know.
I emailed Dan on a whim, never even expecting a response. I told him that I would love to have him make something in the spirit of the Randall Model 14, in Delta 3V.
A little while later I got a response from Dan, telling me to give him a call.
We chatted for quite a while, about Bladesports, how they came to the heat treat protocol, and what exactly I was looking for. We agreed the original 14 handles probably weren't the most ideal shape (keep in mind he has a degree in about the human body and how it's mechanics work). He took the ball from there are ran with it,, and man, did he run!
Sculpted titanium guard replace the traditional Nickel or stainless, and Terotuf with micarta underlays for the incredibly ergonomic handle. The lines in the titanium guards were done by hand. The decorative piece in front of the guard, is a copper/nickel/silver mokume.
Very sharpened swedge, this is a fighter after all..
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> as being "not so cool"...well, cool is as cool does....
