Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,139
Do you have, or have you had, one particular Fiddleback model that just ticked the most boxes for you in your uses in the field?
I didn't realize it would be for me at the time I had it sadly, there were too many others I wanted to try back then. But looking back over all of them, for me it was my old Tuxedo Recluse from 2012.
The 4 inch blade became the first knife I officially used as a size referrence when I started out taking images, for what would over the next 12 and going on 13 years, become a very indepth database of plant identification images. Sadly most of the ones with the Recluse were lost when the desk top PC I had from 2012 crashed in 2016, but I found a few deep in my face book pictures. Fortuneately I've gotten better at composing the images in better lighting over the years...
It was made of 5/32 O-1 Tool Steel, and had a high saber rather than full-height grind, and that combined with the tapered tang made magic for me in the field when I wanted to travel light through fallow fields, and make less noise, so I could capture more wildlife images. Using the pinkie lanyard to hold the knife in a two-finger grip around the pommel swell, the forward mass would easily and quietly flick-cut through brier vines and sappling limbs, so I could get closer to my targets and/or clear my line of sight for better images.
With Andy's refinement of all the models over time, and his dislike for 5/32 on models with 4 inch blades these days, I don't expect to ever see that particular set of specs and configuration available again, but what it had to be sold for me to fund, I can't regret doing. I do miss it, but at least I still have images from which to remember the magic
I didn't realize it would be for me at the time I had it sadly, there were too many others I wanted to try back then. But looking back over all of them, for me it was my old Tuxedo Recluse from 2012.
The 4 inch blade became the first knife I officially used as a size referrence when I started out taking images, for what would over the next 12 and going on 13 years, become a very indepth database of plant identification images. Sadly most of the ones with the Recluse were lost when the desk top PC I had from 2012 crashed in 2016, but I found a few deep in my face book pictures. Fortuneately I've gotten better at composing the images in better lighting over the years...
It was made of 5/32 O-1 Tool Steel, and had a high saber rather than full-height grind, and that combined with the tapered tang made magic for me in the field when I wanted to travel light through fallow fields, and make less noise, so I could capture more wildlife images. Using the pinkie lanyard to hold the knife in a two-finger grip around the pommel swell, the forward mass would easily and quietly flick-cut through brier vines and sappling limbs, so I could get closer to my targets and/or clear my line of sight for better images.
With Andy's refinement of all the models over time, and his dislike for 5/32 on models with 4 inch blades these days, I don't expect to ever see that particular set of specs and configuration available again, but what it had to be sold for me to fund, I can't regret doing. I do miss it, but at least I still have images from which to remember the magic
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