Since Ive had this thing for nearly a year I thought a brief review was in order for those of you waiting for either the hand made version or the forthcoming Spyderco version of Bob Lums Chinese broadbladed tactical utility. Ive been buying knives (or trying to) from Bob for quite some time now and I was lucky to get this one from him at last years Solvang show. As undocumented in the west as the subject may be, the Chinese have produced a plethora of blade designs through the centuries w/a good number of them being fairly specialized in nature. Up until the end of the Qing dynasty (1911) most Chinese in fact were rather fussy about using the specific knife for a given purpose (See the basement exhibit of Chinese knives at the NHM in NY).
Anyway it appears that Bob has chosen a basic southern style (Cantonese) general purpose type blade for his Chinese folder. The general design isnt really new to Bob since some of his very early slip joint folders sport the blade as well. Bobs skillful and flawless rendition of the very broad, flat ground blade provides a very strong yet relatively thin geometry up to the edge which excells at linear cutting or light chopping chores. When used on several layers of loosly held bubble wrap, the blade always maintained the cut and never dragged or ripped as is apt to happen. The width of the blade isnt really condusive for cutting through and along rigid things that require a lot of curves, zig-zags or turning (like pumpkin carving) but it excells at most other cutting chores. Also despite the almost sheepsfoot like appearance of the dropping point, the thing actually punctures and penetrates deceptively well--at least on several layers of cardboard and an old wet telephone book.
The blade on my speciman is about 3.75 and is the fairly typical ATS34 in the 55-60RC range. At the time I got this one, Bob also had one in Devon Thomas Damascus which was very nice but the old wallet just wouldnt spit out anymore cash. Bob makes the design w/either the Spyder hole or exaggerated nail nick (and in different OA sizes). Both work but the hole is a bit more positive w/wet or greasy hands. The lock remains the almost banal liner lock but Bobs rendition, at least for me is the best there is. Almost all liner locks have a nasty way of accidentally disengaging in my grubby hands. Bobs is the only one I really trust. It barely engages the blade which I prefer on a new knife but its also sprung fairly stiffly (like early Bob Terzuolas) and the combination of handle geometry, liner thickness and stiff spring constant seems to do the trick.
So in terms of function, design and execution the knife is hard to fault. There are a couple of druthers though. For one, Bob makes and designs his own clip to match each knife which is quite respectable the only problem is that he tends (after examining more than a few of his knives) to leave plier or vice grip marks where the clip was bent into shape. While this is only an aesthetic nit pic and easy to fix w/the right files and grades of sandpaper, it does tend to cheapen the feel of a rather pricy knife. A small guard or recess for the index finger would also be nice in order to limit the inate clod factor in some of us. The bannana handle shape helps in this regard though. Lastly, the blade stop pin is hardened drill rod (probably a better material for this purpose) and not SS so this will more easily rust on us sweaty types.
Ill try and get a image up of the knife and a few other Bob Lums if anyone is interested.
Brian
