I first met Ray Mears at a London arms fair in the late 80's when his friend introduced the fresh faced blond as the guy who designed the Wilkinson Sword Survival Knife. I asked if he should really be bragging about such a thing, and commented that the chances were that such a beast would be left in the drawer when a wilderness situation occurred, and that a 4" drop point would serve the wilderness traveller better. He just smiled and left.
I found out later that Ray was responsible for the shape and grind of the big knife and it was the people at the factory who decided to add the mickey mouse bits to make it sell better to the Rambo crowd.
About a year later, Ray contacted me to discuss a British knife specifically designed for bushcraft. He visitied with a friend who was producing a magazine for Survival Aids, and we discussed his concept.
He wanted a smallish knife that was to become the Woodlore Neck Knife due to it's sheath design that allowed it to be carried around the neck or slung under the arm for discreet carrying and Arctic use. He wanted carbon steel; a full non tapered tang; the short Nordic grind; a wood handle from native trees and a simple design.
Having moved on to stainless I wasn't convinced about the steel choice, and the short grind was against all conventional wisdom whch promoted the convex Moran grind as the ultimate strength/cutting-ability solution. He left and took a 4.1" D2 Spearpoint with a brass guard and micarta handle to use, and to see if the shape was okay. This knife I still have. It has a very mild hollow grind and a heavy convex bevelled edge..........
........He returned the knife and was so unimpressed by the difficulty of sharpening the D2 that he was adamant about wanting non-stainless carbon steel. I suggested 01 as I was familiar with it and knew it was available in a variety of sizes. He also found the brass guard to be more of a hinderance than a safety feature. He included a small sketch of a knife with a similar shape to the spear point he'd tried, but without the guard, and a full handle held with the same two loveless bollts and thong tube. The sketch included a dip in the top of the handle towards the butt and a sharp heel thereafter. I eliminated the latter from the design as it would cause irritation in use.
He still wanted the short grind and explained most people who attended his course weren't "knife people" and that it would be easier for them to sharpen if they could lay the whole bevel on the stone. Also he needed the wedge like edge that it produced for specific bushcraft uses and controlled woodworking cuts.........
.......The first knives were made of 5/32 X 1.25 01 steel at a hardness of Rockwell c56/57 with a flat grind that turned out to be very difficult, not to say aggravating to do. Because I don't use jigs or a guide to grind bevels it was extremely difficult to do right. I fitted maple and shaped the handles with my normal palm swell, with flared and domed butt. The wood was dyed to bring out the grain and given an oil finish. The sheaths were wet-moulded from vegetable tanned sholder and finished with an oil/wax molten mix.
The spine was ground flat with sharp corners for use on a firesteel and other scraping tasks..........
.....Early on ray commented that the spear point design would be better with a little belly near the tip for carving out the bottom of bowels etc., Later he suggested that we try a harder temper to improve edge holding, so I had the next batch hardened to RC57/58. I started to make a loop on the sheaths to hold the firesteels when asked.
Ray's television work was starting to take off and demand grew to the point the knives were being offered to other people. About this time I started to get a few knives returned for re grinding as people wern't laying the hole bevel flat on the hone, so were creating a thick secondary bevel, which destroyed the cutting ability. I decided it would be best to supply the knives with a mild hollow grind similar to that produced when I knife is reconditioned on a Tormek or similar grinder. This would allow users much easier sharpening sessions in the early stages when they were't so skilled.
