- Joined
- Jun 25, 2013
- Messages
- 12
Hi guys, this will be my first post on the blade forum besides my wishful attempt to enter an ESEE draw earlier. I have read the thread rules. But if I miss anything please feel free to point it out. Any way, lets get down to business.
I recently purchased the Belt Knife from BLS Custom on Gear Bastion. For just a little less than $100 I thought it would be a good place to start my custom knife collection. Let me roll in some specs here:
Weight: (unofficial) around 5 to 6 oz
Total Length: 10
Blade Length: 5.25
Steel Type: 15N20
Hardness: 59 RC
Blade Thickness: 0.13
The knife comes with a Kydex sheath with no attachment hardwares. I had some old webbings lying around. So with some paracords, I was able to come up with a half decent horizontal carry loop for the sheath. Also, using the original buckles on the webbing as a quick release, I can now mount the knife vertically tip up to my shoulder strap of my backpack. The sheath has decent retentions and retrieving the knife is very easy. One biggest complaint I have with this whole package is the fact that the sheath scratches the blade..... a lot. But since this will be my new user camp knife, it doesn't really matter that much. I just hope the handsome scratches from the batoning will blend with the ugly scratches.
In case you are wondering what the handle material is, I have attended some tennis grip tape to thicken up the handle a bit. I found it to be too thing for my medium size hand and squeezes my fatty palm a little. The finger choil is very deep a very comfortable with gloves on. However, without gloves, it just makes the index finger portion of the knife too narrow. All my testings were done without the tennis grip tape. As you'll see in later photos, the original handle is made up of layered G10, OD green and black. It's quite attractive. The handle shape makes the knife decently ergonomic however not very gripping because of the high polishing on the G10. I'm not worried about my hand slipping forward though because of the shape of the handle.
Now let the testing commence. For roughly two weeks I have worked with this knife (without the grip tape) in the kitchen. It is a great meat slicer with the 2/3 high convex grind. The knife came not very sharp and had a lot of burr on the end. But that was easily taken care of with about 20 minutes of stropping on a regular old leather belt. The 15N20 steel takes a razor sharp edge. As little and as fine arm hair I have, the knife strips my arm of fur like nothing. It also handled a water melon with ease one night in front of the TV. And no, I did not cut the water melon with the hair follicles still stuck on the blade.
Kitchen cutting aside, this knife also performed very well in "bushcraft" related tasks, or in my case "shopcraft." I didn't get a chance to go camping this summer because of work, so I decided to test out the knife in the workshop with some wood instead.
Even with it's relatively thin 0.13 inch blade, it batons like a true champ. In the last photo you can see some of the kindling size wood that I was able to baton through with this thing. I also carved a baton handle out of the same wood. The baton wasn't even that heavy and that should speak for the batoning ability of the knife itself. There were quite a few pieces of knotty wood, but they were of course no problem.
After the batoning came the feather sticking. I have to admit that I am not the best feather stick maker. However, the fuzz that I was able to create with this knife truly made me a happy kid. With a long, slicing stroke from the tip to near the guard of the blade, I came up with a few feather sticks that just might start a few fires if I wasn't in my bloody apartment doing this.
I am very impressed with the edge holding of this blade like I said earlier. I haven't had any experience with 1095 yet. But at least compared to my 1075 Condor Bushlore, the BLS belt knife is definitely a lot better thanks to the thin grind and the convex edge as well as the steel. Now I know that 15N20 is traditionally used in the damascus steels. But man.... it's doing so well by itself already. I was religiously applying a coat of oil after every time I used the knife. I find that to be good but unnecessary. This knife definitely resists rust far better than 1075.
I guess I can't say for sure that it will be a good camp knife unless I actually go camping with it. But I suspect it to be so from what I have seen in my "Shopcraft" activity. I am no survivalist or bushcrafter or Chuck Noris, so a good blade that will make my life easy is very much appreciated. Thankfully, this knife may just do that.
Here are some comparison pictures with the popular Condor Bushlore and the Ontario Rat 1.
It is a little thicker than the Condor (I think by like 0.3 mm). But it is also an inch longer. I haven't tried batoning it through some hard wood. But it should handle wood with up to 4 inches in diameter easily.
Some other miscellaneous survival tasks I performed were striking a ferror rod with the back of the blade. It didn't do very well, which was very surprising considering how sharp the spine already was. Maybe I will sharpen up the spine with a file in the future to see how it does.
Overall, the knife was a pleasure to use. Though it was a big longer than I intended my camp knife to be, I'm glad that I made the purchase. I think our marriage will last a long time if not a life time. That concludes my review. Thank you for reading. Any comments or recommendations are greatly appreciated.
ps. Can anyone recommend a cheap, reliable vertical belt carrying option for this style of sheath? Thank you!
I recently purchased the Belt Knife from BLS Custom on Gear Bastion. For just a little less than $100 I thought it would be a good place to start my custom knife collection. Let me roll in some specs here:
Weight: (unofficial) around 5 to 6 oz
Total Length: 10
Blade Length: 5.25
Steel Type: 15N20
Hardness: 59 RC
Blade Thickness: 0.13
The knife comes with a Kydex sheath with no attachment hardwares. I had some old webbings lying around. So with some paracords, I was able to come up with a half decent horizontal carry loop for the sheath. Also, using the original buckles on the webbing as a quick release, I can now mount the knife vertically tip up to my shoulder strap of my backpack. The sheath has decent retentions and retrieving the knife is very easy. One biggest complaint I have with this whole package is the fact that the sheath scratches the blade..... a lot. But since this will be my new user camp knife, it doesn't really matter that much. I just hope the handsome scratches from the batoning will blend with the ugly scratches.
In case you are wondering what the handle material is, I have attended some tennis grip tape to thicken up the handle a bit. I found it to be too thing for my medium size hand and squeezes my fatty palm a little. The finger choil is very deep a very comfortable with gloves on. However, without gloves, it just makes the index finger portion of the knife too narrow. All my testings were done without the tennis grip tape. As you'll see in later photos, the original handle is made up of layered G10, OD green and black. It's quite attractive. The handle shape makes the knife decently ergonomic however not very gripping because of the high polishing on the G10. I'm not worried about my hand slipping forward though because of the shape of the handle.
Now let the testing commence. For roughly two weeks I have worked with this knife (without the grip tape) in the kitchen. It is a great meat slicer with the 2/3 high convex grind. The knife came not very sharp and had a lot of burr on the end. But that was easily taken care of with about 20 minutes of stropping on a regular old leather belt. The 15N20 steel takes a razor sharp edge. As little and as fine arm hair I have, the knife strips my arm of fur like nothing. It also handled a water melon with ease one night in front of the TV. And no, I did not cut the water melon with the hair follicles still stuck on the blade.
Kitchen cutting aside, this knife also performed very well in "bushcraft" related tasks, or in my case "shopcraft." I didn't get a chance to go camping this summer because of work, so I decided to test out the knife in the workshop with some wood instead.
Even with it's relatively thin 0.13 inch blade, it batons like a true champ. In the last photo you can see some of the kindling size wood that I was able to baton through with this thing. I also carved a baton handle out of the same wood. The baton wasn't even that heavy and that should speak for the batoning ability of the knife itself. There were quite a few pieces of knotty wood, but they were of course no problem.
After the batoning came the feather sticking. I have to admit that I am not the best feather stick maker. However, the fuzz that I was able to create with this knife truly made me a happy kid. With a long, slicing stroke from the tip to near the guard of the blade, I came up with a few feather sticks that just might start a few fires if I wasn't in my bloody apartment doing this.
I am very impressed with the edge holding of this blade like I said earlier. I haven't had any experience with 1095 yet. But at least compared to my 1075 Condor Bushlore, the BLS belt knife is definitely a lot better thanks to the thin grind and the convex edge as well as the steel. Now I know that 15N20 is traditionally used in the damascus steels. But man.... it's doing so well by itself already. I was religiously applying a coat of oil after every time I used the knife. I find that to be good but unnecessary. This knife definitely resists rust far better than 1075.
I guess I can't say for sure that it will be a good camp knife unless I actually go camping with it. But I suspect it to be so from what I have seen in my "Shopcraft" activity. I am no survivalist or bushcrafter or Chuck Noris, so a good blade that will make my life easy is very much appreciated. Thankfully, this knife may just do that.
Here are some comparison pictures with the popular Condor Bushlore and the Ontario Rat 1.
It is a little thicker than the Condor (I think by like 0.3 mm). But it is also an inch longer. I haven't tried batoning it through some hard wood. But it should handle wood with up to 4 inches in diameter easily.
Some other miscellaneous survival tasks I performed were striking a ferror rod with the back of the blade. It didn't do very well, which was very surprising considering how sharp the spine already was. Maybe I will sharpen up the spine with a file in the future to see how it does.
Overall, the knife was a pleasure to use. Though it was a big longer than I intended my camp knife to be, I'm glad that I made the purchase. I think our marriage will last a long time if not a life time. That concludes my review. Thank you for reading. Any comments or recommendations are greatly appreciated.
ps. Can anyone recommend a cheap, reliable vertical belt carrying option for this style of sheath? Thank you!
