This is a preliminary review of 2 knives the Blackjack Slick and the Blackjack Small, both in AUS10 Stainless Steel with the leather handles. Both knives have the convex ground blade and are made in Seki Japan. The edge angle was about 12 degrees with the Slick showing a slight secondary edge and the Small a primary edge only.
Slick out of the box this knife is 6-15/16 long with a clip point blade of 3-5/16 OAL and a cutting edge of 3-1/8 (very little ricasso) and is 1-1/8 at its widest and 3/16 thick with a distall taper running from the beginning of the clip to the point. The clip is curved with a slight swedge and is 2-3/8 long.
Small - out of the box this knife is 6-7/8 long with a clip point blade of 3-3/16 OAL and a cutting edge of just over 3 (very little ricasso) and is 1-1/8 at its widest and 3/16 thick with a distall taper running from the beginning of the clip to the point. The clip is straight with a slight swedge and is 2-7/16 long.
Both knives have a brass guard and a stainless steel pommel and come with a leather pouch sheath.
Out of the box both knives were very sharp and cut in a similar manner. They cut leather, rope and cardboard easily as well as bring a ½ hardwood dowel to a point. On ripe tomatoes they sliced well, but on the carrot test both only cut about 2/3rd of the thick end of new carrots before splitting started. The Slick was better at deboning chicken thigh and legs given its finer point but both knives cut well even through sinew and skin.
At this stage both knives were stropped on a leather strip charged with jewelers rouge. Both knives easily cut ½ x 3/16 leather into 1/8 and ¼ inch widths. Using 3/8 manila rope both knives made around 30 cuts before showing slight slippage. I again stropped the blades and made short work of a couple of cardboard boxes although starting to stick when cuts were made 6 to 8 from the edge. Moving on to the ½ hardwood dowel both knives bought the dowel to a point a number of times and after both were still able to shave arm hair.
Out in the field I took the Slick on a picnic and it performed well on bread rolls, tomatoes, Stras sausage (about 2 in diameter), peeling apples, cutting tasty cheese and using the point to extract pickled onions from a bottle. I carried the Small on the farm for a while and used it to trim back bushes, opening hay blaes and feed bags, making walking staffs out of fallen branches, skin a dead sheep and take the hind legs off a roadkill roo for dog meat. The knife performed well and only needed to be stropped to keep the edge in tip top condition.
Both knives kept their edges. Having not used AUS10 before it was hard go gauge but I would say it was better than 440c but not as good as VG10. The round handle is comfortable and didnt create any hot spots but it may be a bit small for some hands. The knives worked well in most knife holds inc., the basic, nicking, fiddling, press and thrust. For Australian game either knife would work well up to small deer (fallow) with preference given to the Small for goats and roos as it has the better skinning shape (in fact its shape is similar to that recommended by John Leidreiter in his book A Handbook on Knives Skinning ant Tanning) and its a shame the shape is not made as much any more. The Slick would be too big for rabbits and hares but its finer point could prove its worth on foxes.
The guard does provide some measure of safety but the lack of any reasonable choil prevents choking up on the blade unless you are very careful. It also provides some problems when sharpening with some systems you will miss the first part of the blade. There is no thumb grip on the back of the blade but it is thick enough not to dig into the thumb in press cuts.
To conclude these knives excel at shallow cuts but are not as good on materials that are thick and stiff whereas a knife like the Spyderco Moran Featherweight would perform much better. Blackjack do make these knives with other handle materials like maple and stag so if you dont like the round leather than have a look at the others. The sheaths are well made and hold the knives well but may loosen up with use so it is an idea to keep a watch on this. You could argue for thinner blade stock but this would take away from the robustness of the blade. Fit and finish are good although on one knife the swedges didnt match whilst on the other the blade seems to be 1/8 out from tip to pommel.
Well thats about if for me for a while I have more reviews to type up and make presentable for the WebSite inc., BM553, Pacific Salt, Spyderco Delica and Moran FB01, Buck MiniStrider SP, Tom Kreins TK1, Kabar Dozier (AUS8) and F-Dick 8 Chefs.
So if youre getting sick of my threads relax I wont have any for a few weeks.
Slick out of the box this knife is 6-15/16 long with a clip point blade of 3-5/16 OAL and a cutting edge of 3-1/8 (very little ricasso) and is 1-1/8 at its widest and 3/16 thick with a distall taper running from the beginning of the clip to the point. The clip is curved with a slight swedge and is 2-3/8 long.
Small - out of the box this knife is 6-7/8 long with a clip point blade of 3-3/16 OAL and a cutting edge of just over 3 (very little ricasso) and is 1-1/8 at its widest and 3/16 thick with a distall taper running from the beginning of the clip to the point. The clip is straight with a slight swedge and is 2-7/16 long.
Both knives have a brass guard and a stainless steel pommel and come with a leather pouch sheath.
Out of the box both knives were very sharp and cut in a similar manner. They cut leather, rope and cardboard easily as well as bring a ½ hardwood dowel to a point. On ripe tomatoes they sliced well, but on the carrot test both only cut about 2/3rd of the thick end of new carrots before splitting started. The Slick was better at deboning chicken thigh and legs given its finer point but both knives cut well even through sinew and skin.
At this stage both knives were stropped on a leather strip charged with jewelers rouge. Both knives easily cut ½ x 3/16 leather into 1/8 and ¼ inch widths. Using 3/8 manila rope both knives made around 30 cuts before showing slight slippage. I again stropped the blades and made short work of a couple of cardboard boxes although starting to stick when cuts were made 6 to 8 from the edge. Moving on to the ½ hardwood dowel both knives bought the dowel to a point a number of times and after both were still able to shave arm hair.
Out in the field I took the Slick on a picnic and it performed well on bread rolls, tomatoes, Stras sausage (about 2 in diameter), peeling apples, cutting tasty cheese and using the point to extract pickled onions from a bottle. I carried the Small on the farm for a while and used it to trim back bushes, opening hay blaes and feed bags, making walking staffs out of fallen branches, skin a dead sheep and take the hind legs off a roadkill roo for dog meat. The knife performed well and only needed to be stropped to keep the edge in tip top condition.
Both knives kept their edges. Having not used AUS10 before it was hard go gauge but I would say it was better than 440c but not as good as VG10. The round handle is comfortable and didnt create any hot spots but it may be a bit small for some hands. The knives worked well in most knife holds inc., the basic, nicking, fiddling, press and thrust. For Australian game either knife would work well up to small deer (fallow) with preference given to the Small for goats and roos as it has the better skinning shape (in fact its shape is similar to that recommended by John Leidreiter in his book A Handbook on Knives Skinning ant Tanning) and its a shame the shape is not made as much any more. The Slick would be too big for rabbits and hares but its finer point could prove its worth on foxes.
The guard does provide some measure of safety but the lack of any reasonable choil prevents choking up on the blade unless you are very careful. It also provides some problems when sharpening with some systems you will miss the first part of the blade. There is no thumb grip on the back of the blade but it is thick enough not to dig into the thumb in press cuts.
To conclude these knives excel at shallow cuts but are not as good on materials that are thick and stiff whereas a knife like the Spyderco Moran Featherweight would perform much better. Blackjack do make these knives with other handle materials like maple and stag so if you dont like the round leather than have a look at the others. The sheaths are well made and hold the knives well but may loosen up with use so it is an idea to keep a watch on this. You could argue for thinner blade stock but this would take away from the robustness of the blade. Fit and finish are good although on one knife the swedges didnt match whilst on the other the blade seems to be 1/8 out from tip to pommel.
Well thats about if for me for a while I have more reviews to type up and make presentable for the WebSite inc., BM553, Pacific Salt, Spyderco Delica and Moran FB01, Buck MiniStrider SP, Tom Kreins TK1, Kabar Dozier (AUS8) and F-Dick 8 Chefs.
So if youre getting sick of my threads relax I wont have any for a few weeks.