- Joined
- Sep 5, 2005
- Messages
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Well, this has been fascinating. I just noticed that Nutnfancy just got through batoning the new Cold Steel Voyagers. Has it come to the point where folders are judged, too, on how well they split wood? I recall a couple of years ago someone here batoned a CRKT M21-04. Great knife, a bit on the heavy side, but a nice broad blade and the LAWKS. My choice in the Voyager was a Vaquero blade style, which I don't imagine would baton well. Perhaps that's why they're cheaper than the Clip Point version! I imagine I could baton with a Vaquero plain edge if I had to, but I just don't think knives, especially folders, should be judged on how well they split wood. (I can just see Abraham Lincoln splitting wood with a folding knife....)
The Colt 1911 was designed to be reliable and, of course, extraction of spent shells was the center on its reliability. It's interesting how the Beretta M92 achieved reliability without the need for any extractor. The whole outdoors was its loading and extraction chamber! Innovation gave rise to an entire generation of ultra reliable pistols. But innovation is always based in common sense practicality. The whole "notch" controversy, not to mention the problems with heat treat, would have been handled much differently had Ron Hood still been alive. Again, I suspect his family sees it as his final work...that he's somewhat embodied in the design. It didn't help that Ron may have set expectations a bit high for the knife. People say, "Well, Ron Hood said that the knife would do this and that, but when I tried it, it broke!" So they send it back to Buck and they have to back it up.
Of course, the family points to the hundreds of knives being sold and used without any problems and perhaps rightly concludes that breakages are exceedingly rare. You just won't see me taking a hundred and twenty dollar knife and pounding it into wood with a hammer or a log! I have a $13 knife that will do that just fine! (See previous post.)
Still, I'd like to have the option of passing on the notch!
The Colt 1911 was designed to be reliable and, of course, extraction of spent shells was the center on its reliability. It's interesting how the Beretta M92 achieved reliability without the need for any extractor. The whole outdoors was its loading and extraction chamber! Innovation gave rise to an entire generation of ultra reliable pistols. But innovation is always based in common sense practicality. The whole "notch" controversy, not to mention the problems with heat treat, would have been handled much differently had Ron Hood still been alive. Again, I suspect his family sees it as his final work...that he's somewhat embodied in the design. It didn't help that Ron may have set expectations a bit high for the knife. People say, "Well, Ron Hood said that the knife would do this and that, but when I tried it, it broke!" So they send it back to Buck and they have to back it up.
Of course, the family points to the hundreds of knives being sold and used without any problems and perhaps rightly concludes that breakages are exceedingly rare. You just won't see me taking a hundred and twenty dollar knife and pounding it into wood with a hammer or a log! I have a $13 knife that will do that just fine! (See previous post.)
Still, I'd like to have the option of passing on the notch!
