Boye Basics

dogboye

dogboye

Gold Member
Joined
Nov 23, 1999
Messages
7,140
Anyone have any experience with any one of these? Either the steel or cobalt variety? My understanding is the steel is just cast 440C, whereas the "cobalt" is case Stellite. Correct? I am considering purchasing one of the small ones for wear along the coastal regions, near salt water, but not necessarily in the water. If in the water, I would be cleaning/rinsing/protecting the blade after any immersion.

Thanks in advance.

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It just a ****ing staple!!
Guess who...
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt
 
RS, I've got each of the three 440C Basics, and like them alot. They take a great edge, keep them for a long time, and when a touchup is needed, the rear edge of the "guard" or "bolster" (hard to explain on these particular designs) are cast to the correct angle to be used as a sharpening guide. The smallest is great around the office (lab, in my case), and is often described as "cute" and never seems to threaten the most diehard sheeple. The medium and large I use at home for kitchen and general knock around work. The skeletonized handle can be a bit hard to hold onto if exerting heavier force while cutting, but for all around use, they are comfortable. I've never had any sort of rust problem with mine, regardless of how long they sometimes sat with food, water, and other *ick*, awaiting the dishwasher (me).

If used around seashores, I would recommend getting in touch with someone like Chiro75 here in the forums and having a custom kydex sheath made up for it. You'll be much happier. The factory sheath is a brass liner secured inside a sewn over and together piece of nylon webbing, that might become ruined from the adverse effects of seawater-soaked nylon in contact with the brass liner. I tend to use my Boyes and then store them already cleaned up, so the sheath is fine for that. On the other hand, the sheath is so innocent looking that several people have seen mine out and asked, "What's in that thing?" In the same regards, it shouldn't scare or concern anybody you might run into while strolling about on the beach, hiking, or camping.

If you opt for the cobalt, keep in mind that while it's almost twice the price, you should never have to worry about rust or corrosion in shore climes, but the stainless versions should only need a wipe down every now and then, so I wouldn't worry about that much either. Also, AFAIK, I've only ever seen the cobalt version available in the 4" blade, so if you're looking for the medium or small size, you can only get it in the cast stainless.

In the end, love the knives, sharp little buggers for any general use, could use a better sheath and a bit more "grip" if use while wet or slippery. Hope this helps.

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Don LeHue
Royal Oak, Michigan

The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arm's reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.

 
FWIW, I concur,

I have a Basic 1 and a Cobalt dive knife,
They do have a very nice "bite" and cut
quite well, I had a folder at one time,
made a mistake and got rid of it.

I was considering getting some sort or rubber or something to cover the handle, it can be a bit slippery when wet.

DaveH
 
Thanks, both of you. That is just the kind of information that I wanted/needed to hear.
As far as the handle goes, do you think some heat shrink tubing would help? Or would it just mess up the lines?
I could have sworn that I saw a Basic 2 or 3 in cobalt in either the Knifeoutlet or Discount Knives. I'll have to look again.
Thanks for the info on the sheath, especially. I was thinking that, if I went for it, I would probably sent it off to either Chiro75 or Mike Sastre and see if either of them could put together a sheath that could be used with swim trunks. I don't like the idea of taking a brass lined nylon sheath to the beach either.

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"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt

 
> Handles

You can try heat shrink, easy enough to take off if your don't like it. Cord wrap might work but difficult to anchor. You could even try some rubber tool grip tape.
 
Good ideas.
Well, I think that I'm proably going to go with the Basic 1. I like the idea of that little knife riding along at the beach. You know, it wasn't until BladeForums that I realized how many places I go where I actually don't have a blade with me. So, now I realize that I'm way behind in my purchases. But, I a-cathin' up.
Thanks again.

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"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt

 
You might try the cord wrap, similar to what I did on my Basic 3 and Basic 1, check my web page below, the Basics are on the lower left corner of the page.

I used Stingray skin for the underlayment and then used shoe lace to do a Japanese wrap around the handle, the Basic 1 worked out better, second ones always benefit from hindsight!

I used a Devcon 2 part epoxy brushed onto the lace, it provides a very grippy surface.

G2


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If you can't be kind,
at least have the decency to be vague. Stephen Wright

www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Cabin/7306/blades.html

Gillett PA

 
RS, you may be entirely correct about all the Basics being available in cobalt. I just checked James Mattis' site and he has listed all three available in stainless and cobalt, while Discount Knives only lists the Basic 3 (4") and the Basic 4 (4" w/serrations) as available in cobalt, while Knifecenter lists no cobalt blades at all. The last couple of times I was surfing around and checked on the Basics, I probably didn't check as extensively as I should have, so the Basic 1 and 2 in cobalt slipped under my radar. My apologies for the oversight.

Gary, that is some beautiful work on wrapping the Basics. I remember seeing these a short time ago, and must have completely forgotten about your work, but I did save several web pages about "Wrapping 101" to the hard drive, I'll have to dig them up and give it a try, as I'll need something to do this winter besides keep up on the house restoration.

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Don LeHue
Royal Oak, Michigan

The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arm's reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.

 
Hey Gary, you know of anywhere to get directions to do a Japanese wrap like that? Or did you just make it up, making it look like the typical wrap on a Japanese blade?
They REALLY look nice. Where do you get the ray skin?

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"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt

 
I have the basic model in 440c that I recieved on a trade with Gary. It has the braided wrapped handle and one of his leather sheaths. He does outstanding work both in the wrap and in the sheath arena's.
This knife has never needed sharpening. Granted haven't used it that much but enough to where I think it would at least need a touch up. Not yet. Outstanding edge holding abilities. Keep'em sharp
 
Rockspyder,
I got the Stingray for those from a friend, David Goldberg, on the Tanto I make it started out with some of Dave's Stingray skin but I really botched the job and RJ Martin took pity on me and let me have some Stingray skin so I could re-wrap the handle, worked out much better. Below is a layout of how the wrap was done, but you don't have to alternate the twisting;

wrap.jpg


G2


------------------
If you can't be kind,
at least have the decency to be vague. Stephen Wright

www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Cabin/7306/blades.html

Gillett PA



[This message has been edited by Gary W. Graley (edited 10 December 1999).]
 
There is a combination approach to building up a grip. You can do a spiral wrap using cord and then apply shrink tubing over the outside. This is trivial to do and gives you a secure ribbed grip. I like to use wet leather lacing which shrinks to fit, but that is only good in dry surroundings.
 
Thanks for the pics Gary. That doesn't look too hard, although I bet it takes some time and practice to get it right.


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"Absolute safety is for those who don't have the balls to live in the real world."
St. Mary's County, Republik of Marilundt

 
rockspyder, you're welcome.
Longbow, glad you like the knife and sheath!
I was sorry to see it leave and recently got a hold of another Basic3, it's a nice size knife!

Boye does make a Cobalt Basic series and I'd reccomend them, with one note of warning, David Boye does state that the Cobalt knives are not for cutting into HARD substances, but for fiberous cutting chores they are hard to beat.

Anyone interested in buying that little Basic1 I have email and let me know, need to work up some Christmas cash. It comes with the leather sheath shown and the handle wrap with Stingray skin underlayment.


G2

------------------
If you can't be kind,
at least have the decency to be vague. Stephen Wright

www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Cabin/7306/blades.html

Gillett PA

 
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