For You Hartsfield Fans

He just calls the bowie a "western style bowie". Top clip is sharpened. The blade is really nice. Crisp grind lines, very even and symetrical everywhere. As for the finish, it looks great and very appropriate for a working blade. Steel guard with nice fit. It's a cool knife.

Speaking of Africa, the Zahid Special was built for Muhammad Zahid and were used exclusively on his annual safaris to field dress elephant. as well as everything else. One year, a PH guiding the hunt wanted the "Special" in a bad way and told Zahid he'd guide a lion hunt if he could have the knife. Zahid agreed, but reluctantly. I'm going to ask Phill to make me a 6 1/2" or 7" Zahid with a oversized (5 1/4"), wrapped handle and minimal recurve. No sharpened clip. It'll be cool.

Pete
 
Thanks, Pete. Back in the day, my wait was 18 months. I only sold one of Phill's blades, a copper handled kozuka. Oh, well. Pohan Leu replaced it with a beaut!
Rolf
 
Completely different style and more my style of Hartsfield. Double ground blade.

http://www.arizonacustomknives.com/products/?id=920

BTW, my reason for saying they cut so well comes from a time when I decided to buy similar styled knives from custom makers who were touted as delivering more bang for the buck. Nicer work, better finish, newer steels, lower prices. I picked up a few on the secondary market. I was working in a shop that summer and doing a LOT of cutting. Fabrics, thick zip ties (a lot of them), wood, cardboard. I had a small Hartsfield, 1/16" chisel ground blade, clip sheath. I used it hard all summer. Pushed it through zip ties at all angles, even using just the very tip sometimes. It cut easily. The FIRST zip tie I cut with the other makers kozuka (1/8" stock) deformed the edge. The edge dented inward. The second cut, tried with another part of the edge did the same thing. The second KNIFE from this maker also had the same problems. I straightened the edges as much as I could and put them next to the Hartsfield cutting cardboard. Less cutting efficiency and they went dull within an hour or less. The Hartsfield cut better from the start with no perceptible difference ALL SUMMER. That's right, I never sharpened that knife. Ever. I tried a couple of my other Hartsfields for the same tasks with the same result on the zip ties and a slighlty different result on cardboard. These were 1/8" stock chisel ground kozukas. They cut just about as well, but tracked sideways more then the thinner blade, which is why I don't really prefer chisel ground blades for general purpose utility knives. Chisel ground would pierce things better probably, but I don't do much of that. I've tried other maker's knives (Emerson folders for instance) with pretty much the same result although no edges caved in as much as those from the maker who makes a Hartsfield style knife, "only better and for less $$". I think the reason for all this is that Phill does a great job with A2. The edge hardening heat treat works for the steel and the grind geometry and finish leaves an edge that can maintain it's integrity at 60+Rc. BTW, the clip sheath was so good and so thin that when worn between the belt and the pants, it was unnoticeable. Phill has been doing this for better than 40 years now, full time for more than 30 years, his son has been working on knives in the shop since he was 16, he's mid-40's now. I don't care who grinds the blade in that shop, as long as their initials are "PH". They try and test all new steels that come out and have stuck with A2 for their purposes. It's reasonable to say that they know what works. Anyway, that's why I like these knives. I don't believe hype or crap I read until I try it for myself and these knives proved themselves.

Pete
 
Very interesting. Thanks. Phill told me Ernie Emerson got the idea to put a CG blade on a folder from him, hence the CQC-7. But only a True CG on that folder works for me.
 
Those are both really, nice,, Pete. That Khan is really wicked!

That's a real good write up about your experience. Keep us informed on the Zahid "Pete's" Special. Sounds like a winner to me.

Win
 
AV8R, the Limited Edition bowie #32 and the Khan belonged to me. I sold them through Nordic Knives. The LE Bowie was an order and I bought the Khan from Phill at the 1995 Solvang show.
Have a large Hartsfield collection, most of the knives at Nordic are from me including the mid size White Crane that I bought at the 1998 Solvang show.
JParanee, your Force III belonged to me as well. I was the second owner for many years. Actually I bought it by chance. The JK on the blade stands for John Kleinman, a veteran photographer of custom knives. He used to photograph custom knives for the 1st "Gun Digest Book of Knives." Many years back, I went to his house to look at a Loveless Lawndale fighter he had from the late Harry Archer collection. He showed me a bunch of old custom knives which included the Force III with his initials on it.
It actually came with a matching mini force III that I also sold through Nordic. Phill made both for him in 1979-1980. Am very happy the knife found a good home.
AV8R, I also really like the Zahid Special. I met Mohammad Zahid many years ago in Phills shop, he had many interesting stories to tell. I have 8 variations of the Zahid Special, including oversized and chisel ground ones. Glad the both of you like your knives!
 
TALON158 said:
AV8R, the Limited Edition bowie #32 and the Khan belonged to me. I sold them through Nordic Knives. The LE Bowie was an order and I bought the Khan from Phill at the 1995 Solvang show.
Have a large Hartsfield collection, most of the knives at Nordic are from me including the mid size White Crane that I bought at the 1998 Solvang show.
JParanee, your Force III belonged to me as well. I was the second owner for many years. Actually I bought it by chance. The JK on the blade stands for John Kleinman, a veteran photographer of custom knives. He used to photograph custom knives for the 1st "Gun Digest Book of Knives." Many years back, I went to his house to look at a Loveless Lawndale fighter he had from the late Harry Archer collection. He showed me a bunch of old custom knives which included the Force III with his initials on it.
It actually came with a matching mini force III that I also sold through Nordic. Phill made both for him in 1979-1980. Am very happy the knife found a good home.
AV8R, I also really like the Zahid Special. I met Mohammad Zahid many years ago in Phills shop, he had many interesting stories to tell. I have 8 variations of the Zahid Special, including oversized and chisel ground ones. Glad the both of you like your knives!
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Thanks Talon158 for the info and letting the knife pass on. I have alot of Phill's stuff and really like it
 
Talon---Do you have the PH folder and are you on the Market for Hartsfields? Thanks.
 
JParanee, glad the Force III found a place in your collection.
Pete, Ill email you..
Lycosa, yes I have a numbered PH folder. Not sure what you mean by "are you on the market for Hartsfields?"
 
TALON158 said:
JParanee, glad the Force III found a place in your collection.
Pete, Ill email you..
Lycosa, yes I have a numbered PH folder. Not sure what you mean by "are you on the market for Hartsfields?"
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seeing as the i and o are next to each other on a keyboard I am quite sure we can assume he meant in not on.

in the market means are you looking to buy.
 
Thanks, ST!
Talon--- Are you in the market to buy Hartsfields? Would you please think about posting a pic of the folder? :)
 
JParanee said:
I know there are not alot of Hartsfield fans on this forum but I know there are some. Well anyway Hartsfield posts usually start some commotion. I am a big Phill fan and have known him for almost 20 some years. I have never gotton a Phill from anybody but Phill but Dave from Nordic knives was kind enough to sell me this vintage Force lll. I called Phill and because of the markings on the blade he was able to track it back to the exact order form and is sending me a copy of it. The blade is 28 years old and is one of the first Force lll's that Phill ever made.It had a small crack in the handle coming from the front pin. I fixed that crack and you can see where it was from a little glue left on ricasso of blade. I have since cleaned off the glue and you can hardly see where the crack was and would never notice unless you knew. The blade is like new and after a quick clean up and a light wick down a jewel stik It is like new and scary sharp. It has one of his early leather sheath's and I will be sending it out for a new one. Phill has offered to make a new metal lined sheath for it and I will send it to him when he has the time. Mr. Long will get it first for a little Paul love. People can say what they want about Phill's finishes but they sure are easy to clean up and ya do not have to be afraid of really using it. Well thanks for looking.
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What's with the gaps and irregular shapes with the pins in the handle? It looks like they were notched and then the handle was ground down too far. Just curious.
 
NS---That's a good question! Someone else will help you out there.
That's a Mean looking blade! Thanks.
 
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