- Joined
- May 12, 2003
- Messages
- 1,606
OK, all you lovely peoples...it has been several years since I have done any knife work. My shop has become disorganized and cluttered with all sorts of non-knifelike stuff.
However, my New Year's resolve has got me in gear...all be it super low.
The first thing I wanted to do was try to evaluate the knife to see if it needed an overhaul or if I could just tweak it here and there. The first problem was the false edge. The grind had a large dip in it that made the knife look like a somewhat off-kilter Rhino. It was not a big deal, so I took it to the BURR KING and slowly began to work across the area to even it out. That was when I discovered a small crack in the tip of the knife. It was about a quarter inch form the tip and only about an eighth across. Since I do not know what the steel might be hiding I will have to re-shape the tip.. Again this it no problem, as long as the blade is constantly quenched in cool water.
I stopped the work on the tip and false edge so that I could continue to discover what other work would nee to be done.
When I first mentioned the knife here in the HI forum, the plan was to find a STAG crown to replace the wood handle. I got to looking at the wood and it was so pretty! I was truly tempted to just leave it alone, after it had been sanded and buffed and sealed. Then I noticed there was a crack on the top of the handle beginning at the guard and running nearly 2 and a half inches toward the pommel. BUMMER! It was a fairly thin crack, about the width of a fingernail. A bit of "Black Dust Ju-Ju and it would disappear. But close observation turned up a second crack exactly the same length on the bottom of the handle beginning at the guard running toward the pommel. Two cracks like this would mean the chances of having the handle pop loose during use made the decision for me. The wood had to come off.
So, I got out my small ball pain at tapped it a few times. The cracked popped open after the 4th tap, and the handle split in two even halves. Sometimes when a handle is burned on the heat causes the cracking. (Don't know if HI does this but I have watched several VID that show this rather smoky process. (The smoke from a lot of hardwoods will poison you DEAD!) Especially ROSEWOOD. As for me I have been sick from sanding hardwoods so many times that I treat them with extreme care.
After cleaning off the tang the guard slipped off, and a naked blade lay before me. (Easy now...don't get excited this is a family rated thread. LMAO)
I want to tell everybody something that impressed me about this big knife. Several years ago I owned a COLD STEEL NATCHEZ Bowie. It was a cutting mother! There was nothing I did not like about it. The SAN MAI seemed both tough and hard.
I loved it so much I made it a present to a good friend. I am one of those funny people who give away their best stuff to those they love. About a year later, I read a complaint thread about that model knife stating that the tang was not strong, and in fact was built in a way that had caused numerous breakages. A picture of the knife sans handle showed that the rear portion of the tang was a cable instead of solid steel. Inside I was let down and bummed out. (Even though I know many makers use this a sort of construction successfully...I was sad that I had given a knife to somebody that might fail.
Having said al that...the HI CHEROKEE ROSE has a full length tang that is SUBSTANTIAL IN width and depth. It is honking strong in my estimation. I was so happy to find this!
HOORAY for HI!
END OF INITIAL REPORT
I decided to stop here . If you want to hear more let me know, otherwise I will let the thread die and only post after all the work is done.
Let me know.
Shane "Dink" Justice
However, my New Year's resolve has got me in gear...all be it super low.
The first thing I wanted to do was try to evaluate the knife to see if it needed an overhaul or if I could just tweak it here and there. The first problem was the false edge. The grind had a large dip in it that made the knife look like a somewhat off-kilter Rhino. It was not a big deal, so I took it to the BURR KING and slowly began to work across the area to even it out. That was when I discovered a small crack in the tip of the knife. It was about a quarter inch form the tip and only about an eighth across. Since I do not know what the steel might be hiding I will have to re-shape the tip.. Again this it no problem, as long as the blade is constantly quenched in cool water.
I stopped the work on the tip and false edge so that I could continue to discover what other work would nee to be done.
When I first mentioned the knife here in the HI forum, the plan was to find a STAG crown to replace the wood handle. I got to looking at the wood and it was so pretty! I was truly tempted to just leave it alone, after it had been sanded and buffed and sealed. Then I noticed there was a crack on the top of the handle beginning at the guard and running nearly 2 and a half inches toward the pommel. BUMMER! It was a fairly thin crack, about the width of a fingernail. A bit of "Black Dust Ju-Ju and it would disappear. But close observation turned up a second crack exactly the same length on the bottom of the handle beginning at the guard running toward the pommel. Two cracks like this would mean the chances of having the handle pop loose during use made the decision for me. The wood had to come off.
So, I got out my small ball pain at tapped it a few times. The cracked popped open after the 4th tap, and the handle split in two even halves. Sometimes when a handle is burned on the heat causes the cracking. (Don't know if HI does this but I have watched several VID that show this rather smoky process. (The smoke from a lot of hardwoods will poison you DEAD!) Especially ROSEWOOD. As for me I have been sick from sanding hardwoods so many times that I treat them with extreme care.
After cleaning off the tang the guard slipped off, and a naked blade lay before me. (Easy now...don't get excited this is a family rated thread. LMAO)
I want to tell everybody something that impressed me about this big knife. Several years ago I owned a COLD STEEL NATCHEZ Bowie. It was a cutting mother! There was nothing I did not like about it. The SAN MAI seemed both tough and hard.
I loved it so much I made it a present to a good friend. I am one of those funny people who give away their best stuff to those they love. About a year later, I read a complaint thread about that model knife stating that the tang was not strong, and in fact was built in a way that had caused numerous breakages. A picture of the knife sans handle showed that the rear portion of the tang was a cable instead of solid steel. Inside I was let down and bummed out. (Even though I know many makers use this a sort of construction successfully...I was sad that I had given a knife to somebody that might fail.
Having said al that...the HI CHEROKEE ROSE has a full length tang that is SUBSTANTIAL IN width and depth. It is honking strong in my estimation. I was so happy to find this!
HOORAY for HI!
END OF INITIAL REPORT
I decided to stop here . If you want to hear more let me know, otherwise I will let the thread die and only post after all the work is done.
Let me know.
Shane "Dink" Justice
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But if for some other reason it will be expensive to post pics well we will just have to use our very active imaginations 
-- but we all are human, just don't be afraid to forgive yourself and still hang out with us here either.