American Kami Colubris. What do you guys think?

manghu67

American Kami Custom Blades / Knifemaker
Joined
Oct 24, 2000
Messages
443
Just finished these. What do you guys think? These are the first stainless, V-ground knives to leave my shop.

Specs below pics.

AKcolubrisRELEASE.jpg


AKcolubris3done.jpg


Specs:

Flat V-ground bevels.

Steel is CPM-S35VN.

Hardened at 58-60.

Tumbled finish.

Handles are G10 in black, coyote, or OD, custom machined with my logo.

100% USA made out of USA made materials.

9" OAL, 4" of blade, 0.187" thick.

Weight is 8.3oz.
 
The blade profile's not my exact cup of tea, though I don't have any particular dislike of it. I absolutely love your execution of everything else!
 
I'd like to hear the motivation for the various design aspects and how they relate to intended use before commenting...
 
Thanks for the feedback, guys. Appreciate that.

Lorien: Design is general purpose utility/combat/fighting knife. Kitchen, woods, street, you name it. Let's start with the handle. You've your jimping. Four locations - spine dish, front of the handle, palm heel, and pinky. Great traction without being violently aggressive. Handle texture, same thing - extremely grippy, but doesn't abrade you or your clothing. The knife needed to work in all major grips, and it does - hammer, inverted edge, edge in and edge out icepick, and FMA. FMA is like hammer, except the thumb dropped into the dish on the spine. When you do this, not only does the knife naturally point wherever your thumb goes, but this also naturally closes up the palm heel area of your hand and fingers, which translates into maximum hand contact with that handle, and thus the strongest grip possible. If you're a hammer grip guy, the front of the handles are contoured to provide a nice thumb rest. Guard is slightly larger than it needs to be for extra user safety, and that choil between the guard and the blade will accommodate up to about a 1/2" ferrocerium fire rod. The jimping in the thumb dish on the spine provides great purchase not only for your thumb, but for a baton, your palm heel for power assisted cuts, and is also great for trapping and opponent control in edge out icepick grip. In any grip, there is ample pommel sticking out the non-blade side of the hand for opponent control and striking. Finally, the blade. If this were a straight up fighter, I'd have gone with a wharny blade, but they have disadvantages. The more acute, the better as stabbing, but it's also a weak tip. And a straight edge wharny kind of sucks for utility work, because you really only ever use the very tip of the blade. And upswept tips tend to roll off the material being cut vs biting in like a wharny. So I sought a compromise - I gave this blade just a touch of belly for general utility, retained the wharny drop tip for bite, and used a more obtuse angle at the tip for strength. And I wanted the package to be low profile for how I carry, which is IWB appendix with shock cord attached to the sheath. So it's optimized for that. The icing on the cake? The point of balance is right at the index finger when utilizing non-icepick grips.

Whew!!! There, I think that about sums it up. :)
 
These are my least favorite handles you've ever done.
But your usual handles are my favorite handles out there.
I like the blade and Love the blade finish.
But to me the handle has lost your signature.
 
Thanks guys.

BadBoyBrad: On the handles, I suspect you might feel differently about them once you held one of these knives. Interestingly enough, I have used this same handle profile on a variety of my customs. I think it's one of the most comfortable handles I make. Nonetheless, I'm glad you at least like the rest of the knife! :D
 
DJ: If I held one I'd have to buy one I'm sure.
I mean no disrespect when I say that I have never looked towards your pieces for their comfort and practical uses!
I lust after several of your blades but would never have them as my go-to bushcrafters.

Unless the bush were made up of the walking dead. Different story. :)
 
Go to the website http://americankami.com/ and look in at ... available ... and buy a spork! :D
I gotta supplement my small supply with that big guy.

This Colubris has to be a real success. It is one tough looking hummingbird.
 
Thanks so much, guys!

BadBoyBrad!!: No offense taken, buddy. :) While some of my stuff may seem kind of out there, it is all made to be used, and there's a reason for pretty much every feature on my blades. My mindset has always been that there are already enough Loveless patterns out there. If I can make something different that looks badass without compromising mission capability, I'm there. :D

Buffalohump: I do build a handmade custom version of these knives, but only in oil hardening steels, and only chisel ground. I just don't have them up on the site yet. If you like, I'd be happy to post up a pic of the prototype that I've been carrying the last nine months.

Esav Benyamin: I think that I get maybe one to three REALLY great ideas a year, and these sporks were one of those. I spent a lot of time thinking about and developing them due to my dissatisfaction with every other Ti spork I had owned, and it was my intention that these would be the most badass Ti sporks on the planet. I'd like to think that I've succeeded. :D
 
Glad to hear you're both enjoying your gear, and looking forward to the show. :)

David: I shall have sporks.
 
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