Condor Hudson Bay - initial impressions

Even though I already have a fine Hudson Bay Camp knife from Bark River, this review has made me order the Condor version as a real beater. My Barkie is almost too pretty to use! Thanks for the review. :thumbup:
 
I have one of these knives on the way now.Thanks for the great reviews and pics everyone. It'll pair up well with my Hudson bay Axe (snow and Nealley).Now I just need a Hudson bay fire kit and I'm golden.
 
Quote--"As you can see from the pics"--Unquote. Give the guy a break why don't cha, because the back of the sheath pic you have is very black on my screen and the front you can hardly tell if it is dark dark brown or black. But definetly more black looking on my screen than brown.

Nice knife and thanks for the Review. But you did leave out a lot of specs. How long, type of grind, Steel has been answered thanks. I have the Becker/Kabar BK2. How does it compare in size to that if you are familiar with the BK2, and who wouldnt be on here. After seeing the great review of the Tops Power Eagle and now your beautiful Classic looking Hudson Bay I am thinking my buy was a little on the "short" side for chopping which I was hoping to do with it. Heavy enough that BK2 is but not enough swing to it.

Again thanks for introducing me to this knife. And as you said it, that knife is very affordable. How heavy, blade thickness etc. I may have missed this but i do not think you mentioned it. Sure looks like a convex grind. Curse blah if it is.

Well thanks again, and, this is definetly one to consider for sure. I love it. Love the classic look against the high tech. what the hell is that sort of stuff you see today. And you are 100% right if it were me I would scrape, sand, whatever it takes to get that black crap off of the blade and do a Dr. Pepper soak and then a light sand with 2500 grit wet dry. Very very light. I may even have some 20K grit kicking around. Would look much better with it being blued like that with the nice patina that process gives than the black. A classic knife deserves to look classic right.

Cajun


A.L. said:
Brown, as you can see from the pics.



1075 carbon.
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Doesnt look much better. It is absolutly beautiful compared to the black gunk treatment. A Job well done and thanks for the photo.

cajun



Liveitloud said:
I know this thread is a little old but A.L. would you mind sharing how you stripped the blade? It looks awesome. I am going to go order one right now to do just that to the blade. Good job and thanks for the pics!!!
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Patina/light blueing looks good. Like you stated a little touch up and it will be even more beautiful. Might I ask how you put on the pat. I call it a light blueing because it definetly helps with the prevention of rust when taken care of. But def. is a good deterance from rust. Just wipe dry in the field and when home a little clean job and veggie oil or whatever and it is good to store for you next adventure.

But ya I know how I would go about putting a patina on the blade but I am curious on how you did this one.

Thanks in advance.

cajun
 
Thanks for the feedback. I have to do some measurements when I have time. The grind is convexed, but almost zero in other hand. It's something between.
 
OK, I've been dinking around with my Hudson Bay for about a week, and here are a few pics, with a mini review.

First, I stripped the coating, and hit the edge with my belt sander. Didn't go as thin as I like, but thinner than the factory edge. It was slicing free-hanging newsprint by the time I was satisfied.
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Next, I took the handle to my belt sander. I had to round off some sharper edges, and I noticed that the pins on one side stood out from the handle material. After I got things smoothed out to my liking, I soaked it in linseed oil, then for a laugh I put a few burn marks on it (no, I didn't lay it on the BBQ, although it does look that way!)
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Just today, I finally got a little outdoors time in my front yard, and decided to beat on the knife a little bit. Chose a knotty piece of seasoned cedar, thought that would be a good test.
First, a little batonning, straight through the knot:
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Then, did a little cross-grain chopping:
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And finally, a test of the post-beating edge. So-so fuzzsticks, I'm more at fault than the knife, I guess I'm just spoiled by my Mora.
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All-in-all, I'm pretty impressed by the knife. I noticed the handle was a little slippery with gloves on, mostly when I was batonning. I'm considering some grip tape on the handle, but I'd hate to cover up those character marks! I also had some fun with patina today, but it didn't come out so well, so I skipped the pics. I might just go back to the satin finish, see how it holds up in dry Colorado for a while.
 
Very cool!
I hope I had change to test mine.
I have noticed the same with the pins, they stand out. I think it might be the moist level that shrinks the handles significantly. I didn't have this problem out of the box.
 
Great pics and mods. That really looks good! I am really liking mine. Fooling around with some lime juice on it now to see if I can get a different effect. This is a great knife to play with.

Flitz it up and try something else.

Wonder what a mustard pattern would look like on it.

This is the grown up version of the etch-a-sketch. :D
 
I've never tried mustard, but seen some pretty cool outcomes from folks using it. I've tried mostly vinegar, and potatoes. Never tried lime until this time. I think I'll go back to vinegar, it gives the patina some consistency. I'll be sure to post more pics when I get a good one going.
 
twl said:
I did a little researching on removing powder coating, and the general consensus on the internet is that Permatex Gasket Remover Spray works like a charm.
Spray it on,wait 10-15 minutes, and the powder coat bubbles up and comes right off with a wipe. May have to repeat the process on some stubborn spots.
Doesn't hurt the metal, according to the reports, which makes sense since it is made to remove gaskets and adhesives from iron and aluminum engine parts..
You can get it at Auto Zone.

I haven't tried it yet, myself.
I'd recommend doing a good masking of the handles, because I don't know what effects it will have on handle materials.
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Do you know if it will remove enamel? I'm waiting for a CS pipe hawk to arrive that I want to strip and force patina. I've wanted a Hudson Bay but didn't like the powder coating, and didn't really want to have to sand it off. If I can use the Permatex remover for both jobs, I cans save a little green on the whole deal.
 
My Hudson bay arrived the other day.Thank you everyone for turning me onto this knife.This is a great blade for relatively small cost.
Oh well less yapping and more beauty shots.:D
A couple of out of the box photos.
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The glare in this shot makes it look almost see through.
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I stripped the black stuff off.It's tougher than the black stuff cold steel uses on their tomahawk heads cause I stripped both at the same time and the hawk was done much sooner.
It did some light batoning today.worked great at both splitting and chopping.
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I wanted a little more unique look for the knife so burnt rings were in order.It's sitting on my Minnatoka moccasins.
P1292809.jpg
 
I recently purchased an Condor El Salvador machete and was so impressed with the value of this blade I knew I had to go for another from Condor. Well...this thread had done it. Just ordered the Hudson Bay from DLT, think I'm going to go for the stripping and patina look also.

Thanks again fellas for making it easy to spend mo' money :D
 
I wonder if the grips will loosen after long term battoning ? How would you tighten them back up, hammer and punch to the pins ?
 
They shouldn't loosen. The pins are quasi-rivets in that they do have a slight flare to them. If you experienced a pin drifting out you could either rough it up, dab some epoxy on it, and shove it back in, or you could buy a small brass rod of equal diameter and use a ball pein hammer to dome a rivet head, drive it through the hole, and dome the other end to rivet it nice and solid. I riveted my Baryonyx machete like that and it's held up great in spite of only using 3/32" rod for the rivets.
 
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