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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
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Mistwalker
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Oh no, not with the edge!!
Yeah, figured I might as well test the resharpening
Not much damage at all, and was easily fixed. I thought it was ironic that it turned out to be such a cool shot, since it is for a blog post on how ferro rods are meant as an emergency fire starting system. How the edge will throw sparks better than most spines, but to expect at least some edge degradation. I mean if life and limb are at stake in bad conditions, it's worth every bit of the five minutes it took to fix just to get the hotter sparks. If you're well experienced with a ferro rod, and prep for it properly it isn't bad. If you're new to ferro rods, I wouldn't suggest learning with a $200 plus knife... A lot of cheaper knives that work well for those learning experiments 
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Oh no, not with the edge!!
Thought the same thing. Any issues afterwards? And is the spine rounded?
Mistwalker
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Hold on, gotta get the kid on the bus. But see the post above yours
Mistwalker
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Oh no, not with the edge!!
The whole point of the exercise was to test the edge and ease of field maintenance, and to address the fact that the knife comes with a ferro rod loop, and with the supplied sheath having a ferro rod loop, to express my thoughts on this and it being a great emergency option. However to also illustrate that on a well made knife (in my personal opinion) the edge will throw sparks better than the spine. Sharply squared hardened spines are a stress riser in a user bushcraft knife. Those sharpened corners do not mix well with the various lateral stresses that are usually encountered during batonning, both from the wood being split and from the striking of the baton and the harmonic vibrations that produces. The sharp corners are a weakness in a user knife.
Ferro rods are awesome tools, and great emergency fire starters that will work under conditions where a lighter will fail you. I know this, I teach people how to effectively use them, and have written a couple of articles on the subject as well as done field R&D on a few different ferro rod fire starters. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, I am a big proponent of match safes and storm proof matches. In my experiences, which include a panic session at an ER at the age of 17 during discussions on which of my toes should be removed and why, after dealing with long term exposure, severe frost bite, and gangrene...a good quality match safe filled with storm proof matches will allow you to start a fire quicker, even under very bad conditions and better preserve your life and limbs. I still have all ten toes, but it was close, and the nerves were severely damaged.
I tend to keep a ferro rod in my pocket that is environmentally sealed and provides its own striker, or at the least if it doesn't have a supplied dedicated striker, has a tinder compartment. This ferro rod has a capsule full of petroleum jelly soaked cotton for a handle, which will usually ignite with one small spark.
Yet since many like to carry more decorative fire starters with their knives, and because in an emergency that might be all you have....and because I really wanted to test the edge durability and ease of maintenance... I chose to use it as a standard ferro rod with organic tinder material. I was pretty impressed with how well the edge handled the number of strikes it took to ignite the tinder under such damp conditions actually. In these shots we are looking at about the first inch of edge coming from the plunge line.
These two shots were taken after wiping the blade after ignition
and these two after about five minutes of leisurely sharpening on a piece of sand paper and some clean up on a small ceramic stone. What little damage is left is barley noticeable and will clean up in a few minutes on a bench stone
.
Last edited:
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The whole point of the exercise was to test the edge and ease of field maintenance, and to address the fact that the knife comes with a ferro rod loop, and with the supplied sheath having a ferro rod loop, to express my thoughts on this and it being a great emergency option. However to also illustrate that on a well made knife (in my personal opinion) the edge will throw sparks better than the spine. Sharply squared hardened spines are a stress riser in a user bushcraft knife. Those sharpened corners do not mix well with the various lateral stresses that are usually encountered during batonning, both from the wood being split and from the striking of the baton and the harmonic vibrations that produces. The sharp corners are a weakness in a user knife.
Ferro rods are awesome tools, and great emergency fire starters that will work under conditions where a lighter will fail you. I know this, I teach people how to effectively use them, and have written a couple of articles on the subject as well as done field R&D on a few different ferro rod fire starters. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, I am a big proponent of match safes and storm proof matches. In my experiences, which include a panic session at an ER at the age of 17 during discussions on which of my toes should be removed and why, after dealing with long term exposure, severe frost bite, and gangrene...a good quality match safe filled with storm proof matches will allow you to start a fire quicker, even under very bad conditions and better preserve your life and limbs. I still have all ten toes, but it was close, and the nerves were severely damaged.
I tend to keep a ferro rod in my pocket that is environmentally sealed and provides its own striker, or at the least if it doesn't have a supplied dedicated striker, has a tinder compartment. This ferro rod has a capsule full of petroleum jelly soaked cotton for a handle, which will usually ignite with one small spark.
Yet since many like to carry more decorative fire starters with their knives, and because in an emergency that might be all you have....and because I really wanted to test the edge durability and ease of maintenance... I chose to use it as a standard ferro rod with organic tinder material. I was pretty impressed with how well the edge handled the number of strikes it took to ignite the tinder under such damp conditions actually. In these shots we are looking at about the first inch of edge coming from the plunge line.
These two shots were taken after wiping the blade after ignition
and these two after about five minutes of leisurely sharpening on a piece of sand paper and some clean up on a small ceramic stone. What little damage is left is barley noticeable and will clean up in a few minutes on a bench stone
.
Okay man, I have to admit- When I first read your post I was like....
But then I thought about it for a bit and thought- hey you never know what a bad situation might throw at you. What if your blade was all you had? It's good to know that the ferro doesn't do too much damage to the edge. Thanks for doing that test, I'm sure it was difficult to bring yourself to strike that ferro. Thanks man:thumbup: Well done!:thumbup:
Mistwalker
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Actually, not difficult for me at all. The man asked me to test the knife, and testing is what I am doing
I'm sure there would be apprehension for someone who went out and purchased the knife to go abusing the edge like this. But the way I see it, I was sent the knife and asked to run the full battery of tests, and that's just what I'll do. I have no reasons or excuses to not do so. Being charged with this task, I feel obligated to look after Andy's interests in this endeavor, so I am testing it as thoroughly as I know how, without getting into destruction tests.Ferro rods have caused edge degradation on every knife I have ever used them on. The slight damage the Bushfinger suffered was pretty impressive. In my opinion it confirmed the thoughts I had form from other tests, with all of the impacts and abrasion I have put the edge through, I think whoever is doing the heat treatment on these is doing a good job. I moved on to the harder more abusive tests early on because I knew if they weren't that Andy would want and need to know.
Not greatly, but yes the edges are definitely not square,
Mistwalker
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Mistwalker
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Thanks Tech, glad you like the post.
Soooooo..........when do you take on a cinder block?
LOL, saving that one just in case Andy ever does a collaboration with RMJ
Hmmm never heard this before, but I could see where it may work using a harder LMF type rod and dragging rather than pushing the edge. I think mischmetal would be too soft to be of much help.
Mistwalker
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If you look closely, you can tell these were shot after re-sharpening. I prefer S35VN to S30V when it comes to field maintenance.
Making a quick set of L-7 trap triggers.
Making a quick set of L-7 trap triggers.
Mistwalker
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A member of a different forum that makes custom scales and liners made some liners for his production Bushfinger. I figured I would share this pic here.
I'm thinking orange liners would look really nice on the black micarta.
That looks great! I knew this was coming
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A member of a different forum that makes custom scales and liners made some liners for his production Bushfinger. I figured I would share this pic here.
I'm thinking orange liners would look really nice on the black micarta.
Those look great - not sure of the protocol of sharing their reach information but my prod knife is waiting for me at the post office and adding liners is on the top of the list of things I'd like to do
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I'm not sure about how the rules go as far as posting his info goes since I don't believe he has a craftsman membership here. I do believe Whitty at USAmadeblade.com will be selling them soon though. Whitty already sells his custom scales for other various knives.
