Hello from the Deep South Everybody
I Ordered dad a Howling Rat for Christmas and it arrived today. I don't know if he's gonna be impressed but I sure am. There is more knife there than the pictures led me to believe. When I unwrapped it, I just kinda stared at it with a "wowed" look on my face.
I have several of the nicer production knives but I must say, there is a huge difference. You know it right away when you sharpen it. That steel is tough! It was sharp enough right out of the box to saw my table in half but I wanted to see what it could do. I wanted to see how long it would take to make it shave hair.
I started with a DMT Fine(red). Made about 5 passes on each side, fairly light. Checked the edge, not much of an improvement at all (AND NOT THAT THIS IS A BAD THING). This is the average pressure that I usually use just to get the ball rolling with the other knives. I pressed a little harder and I felt the stone bite into the edge just a bit. I continued for about 5 more passes each side with this harder pressure. This time I had a good wire-edge going, not a huge one though, it seemed just about right. After progressing to finer stones I felt the wire-edge break away. It reminded me of when "Conan the Barbarian" whacked the old sword on the stone to get to the good stuff underneath.
Talk about a razor! This thing is scary sharp. It almost cut my arm when I shaved a little hair (pressed just a "LITTLE" to hard).
I will definately be getting my own pretty soon. For my uses I think a D-2 would suit me best. I can't wait till it's introduced.
Come to think of it. My dad's gonna love his Howler! I don't think there is any way to avoid it.
Chris
I Ordered dad a Howling Rat for Christmas and it arrived today. I don't know if he's gonna be impressed but I sure am. There is more knife there than the pictures led me to believe. When I unwrapped it, I just kinda stared at it with a "wowed" look on my face.
I have several of the nicer production knives but I must say, there is a huge difference. You know it right away when you sharpen it. That steel is tough! It was sharp enough right out of the box to saw my table in half but I wanted to see what it could do. I wanted to see how long it would take to make it shave hair.
I started with a DMT Fine(red). Made about 5 passes on each side, fairly light. Checked the edge, not much of an improvement at all (AND NOT THAT THIS IS A BAD THING). This is the average pressure that I usually use just to get the ball rolling with the other knives. I pressed a little harder and I felt the stone bite into the edge just a bit. I continued for about 5 more passes each side with this harder pressure. This time I had a good wire-edge going, not a huge one though, it seemed just about right. After progressing to finer stones I felt the wire-edge break away. It reminded me of when "Conan the Barbarian" whacked the old sword on the stone to get to the good stuff underneath.
Talk about a razor! This thing is scary sharp. It almost cut my arm when I shaved a little hair (pressed just a "LITTLE" to hard).
I will definately be getting my own pretty soon. For my uses I think a D-2 would suit me best. I can't wait till it's introduced.
Come to think of it. My dad's gonna love his Howler! I don't think there is any way to avoid it.
Chris
