Any Winkler fans?

Came up in my feed last week.

Blast From The Past – The Winkler Knives Story - Soldier Systems Daily

We published this in 2014. Since then, Daniel Winkler has grown his business and his blades have grown in popularity in no small part thanks to Retired SEAL and Best Selling Author Jack Carr featuring them in his hit book and Amazon series featuring the character James Reece. Since so many new...
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Just got a new sd1

No more tapered tang

Definitely doesn't feel as good

Unfortunately the dealer i got it from still had it listed as tapered with an image of tapered and shipping to australia is 1/3 the cost of the knife so can't return it for a tapered version...

Not very happy with the dealer, they were on my no buy list (the only one, as well as bark river) but i caved... should've been more patient
 
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No they've always been tapered I've got a few other sd1s and they are tapered as well as listed and photographed as tapered on all dealer sites i can see. Just checked winkler site they seem to have updated to say skeletonised bUt this is very recent
 
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That really sucks to hear.. the tapered tangs are one thing I love about my winklers
 
Twoody said:
That really sucks to hear.. the tapered tangs are one thing I love about my winklers
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Was surprised to see that the blue ridge hunter has a skeletonized tang instead of a tapered one (that's how it's listed on the Winkler website anyways), I thought it was just supposed to be a smaller belt knife. Was it always this way?
 
Been following this thread for a bit now and I think Im gonna jump in and get my first Winkler, prob the Woodsman. I have read others in this thread have seen improvement when reprofiling to 15DPS. Was wondering if you could provide advise on how best to accomplish this. I have a KO Worksharp and a fresh set of belts that I have been getting pretty good at sharpening with but never actually used to reprofile, at least not purposefully. How long should I expect the reprofiling to take, should I cool the blade down throughout this time any tips you pros might have?

Thanks,
J
 
4TheLoveofSteel said:
Been following this thread for a bit now and I think Im gonna jump in and get my first Winkler, prob the Woodsman. I have read others in this thread have seen improvement when reprofiling to 15DPS. Was wondering if you could provide advise on how best to accomplish this. I have a KO Worksharp and a fresh set of belts that I have been getting pretty good at sharpening with but never actually used to reprofile, at least not purposefully. How long should I expect the reprofiling to take, should I cool the blade down throughout this time any tips you pros might have?

Thanks,
J
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I used the ken onion work belt sharpener when re profiling and found it took maybe around an hour. 80CrV2 is incredibly easy to grind and sharpen, but there is a lot of material behind the edge so it takes a decent amount of time depending on how shallow the grind is out of the shop. I think I had a particularly steep grind around 25 dps when Winkler advertises about 18 degrees per side. I actually kind of messed up on the reprofile, I got impatient, wasn't pulling the knife evenly across the belt and my hand started wobbling a bit from fatigue. As a result, the belly of my knife is no longer a perfect curve. It's pretty easy to accidentally screw up your knife using the belt sharpener unless you take things slow. I suggest to have a container filled with cool water so you can intermittently dunk the blade in to keep it cool as you grind. Don't spray the belt itself with water, I tried that once and most of my belts fell apart. Try to focus on being consistent as you run your knife along the belt and use the slowest setting, the speed at which the belt grinds away material will make any inconsistencies in your technique really noticeable. In my case, I fucked up the belly of my knife a bit and the tip is a bit shallower than the rest of the knife, it was a shame but worth it IMO for the performance boost if your knife is gonna be a user. It's a bit of a trip seeing such a thick knife being able to literally split hairs after the reprofile, 80CrV2 can get extremely sharp thanks to its very fine carbides and you will end up with an extremely sharp knife as a byproduct of the reprofile.
 
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kafolarbear said:
Was surprised to see that the blue ridge hunter has a skeletonized tang instead of a tapered one (that's how it's listed on the Winkler website anyways), I thought it was just supposed to be a smaller belt knife. Was it always this way?
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The blue ridges have always been full skeletonised

Originally they also had the tang stick out a bit from the scales or the scales a bit smaller than the tang - not sure the term for this - which was awesome. I had a few of these and sold them- regret -
 
Herr geiser said:
The blue ridges have always been full skeletonised

Originally they also had the tang stick out a bit from the scales or the scales a bit smaller than the tang - not sure the term for this - which was awesome. I had a few of these and sold them- regret -
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I would give my left nut for a blue ridge hunter with a pommel, that's the reason I chose the woodsman over the belt knife because I just love the utility of a pommel on my fixed blades. I didn't realize at the time that the crusher was a belt knife with a pommel, or I would've gone for the crusher in all likelihood. But yeah I'm in the market for another fixed blade this year, I wonder if I was to order to blue ridge hunter straight from Winker I'd be able to request they leave a pommel on the knife?
 
https://imgur.com/a/QbNXqte

I got gifted a Blue Ridge Hunter by my girlfriend for our three year anniversary. It already got put to box breaking and kitchen duty.

My first impressions are that it’s super slicey, much more so than my woodsman. And even feels slicier than my sebenza, This really shocked me especially given the thick blade stock on paper this knife cuts super well, it definitely helps that it came with a pretty shallow (15-18 degrees if I had to guess) edge. It came incredibly sharp to the point I could horizontally cut a tomato resting on the counter, and it’s maintained a shaving sharp edge through all the box cutting and cooking I’ve done today (though the edge very quickly got stained as can be expected). It’s also really light in the hand and a genuine pleasure to hold (I’ve got small to medium hands). It’s also pretty thin at the tip which I quite like. The jimping is a bit skinny and can potentially be painful if you’re not used to jimping or have a soft thumb, but I found it was super useful for cuts that required more pressure downwards.

So far I’m loving this knife and I can see it quickly becoming a new favorite as far as my fixed blades go. I’m really exited to see how it performs in the woods especially.
 
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zippifish said:
Winkler was never on my radar until I ran across this thread, started getting into EDCing small fixed blades recently and picked up this SD1. Won't be my last and not in a hurry but already planning on picking up a Blue Ridge Hunter in the future.

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Hows it fit in your hand? Do you have a knife that you could compare it to in terms of size/length?
 
JohnnyRoastbeef said:
Hows it fit in your hand? Do you have a knife that you could compare it to in terms of size/length?
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I get 4 fingers on it and like how it feels, I would compare it to a Bradford Guardian 3, the G3 has a shorter handle and slightly shorter overall length but has the finger choil to get a full comfortable grip, gifted the G3 to my son. Purchased the SD1 from a vendor and have since ordered a Blue Ridge Hunter direct from Winkler to take advantage of their veterans discount, long wait but I'm not in a hurry and it should be ready to ship mid March.
 
I think the BRH is kind of the 'Goldilocks' size - big enough to work in the field, but still compact enough to be pretty easy to EDC. I sold my Belt Knife after getting the BRH, since I also have a Field Knife for bigger tasks. The combo of the BRH and the FK covers a lot of bases.

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Smithhammer said:
I think the BRH is kind of the 'Goldilocks' size - big enough to work in the field, but still compact enough to be pretty easy to EDC. I sold my Belt Knife after getting the BRH, since I also have a Field Knife for bigger tasks. The combo of the BRH and the FK covers a lot of bases.

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I agree. I had it. Sold it. The sheath, beautiful as it was, is the biggest issue I have. Bulky. The disparity between the sizes of the sheaths is something I can’t get around. I feel like both options for his knives should be given in terms of sheaths. The SD and other models use a low profile kydex. The BRH as you said, is the perfect balance. Some of his offerings on the bigger knives can still be carried IWB but that leather sheath takes up too much real estate
 
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