Fun Friday Sale 3! Medium Chopper, .183

Nathan the Machinist

Nathan the Machinist

KnifeMaker / Machinist / Evil Genius
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These are Medium Chopper prototypes that are surplus from development. They vary in thickness. The thinnest is as light as the Light Chopper, but in the MC profile.

We're going to do three separate sales today in the different thickness. Total of seven knives.

These are all non-standard and do not come with sheaths.

We're giving these an acid etch to make them look different than standard to prevent future confusion.

This knife is .183 at the ricasso. There is one. This sale will unlock at 5:00 eastern time.


The knife in the picture is .208. The grind angle is the same on all of them, so the thinner knives have lower grinds.






The Medium Chopper is a little bit more robust than our last 10" chopper for those of you wanting something a little more stout but still not over built. This is not some sharpened prybar, the edge and grind geometry are thin and tuned for cutting performance. It hits hard and bites deep and that power is backed up by the performance of our Delta heat treat CPM 3V.

Delta 3V is Crucible CPM 3V with a heat treat optimized for edge stability. It is a highly refined process developed over years of experience and is significantly different than the industry standard. You'll be surprised how sharp this gets and how well it holds an edge. If you have never used 3V like this, it is gonna blow your mind. Also, a side effect of this heat treat is a higher percentage of free chromium, so although it is not stainless, it is nearly so.


The Medium Chopper has a thoughtfully designed and well developed hand grip. It supports multiple positions to reduce fatigue and accommodate multiple tasks. It works well as a large camp knife when held towards the front with good balance and dexterity. When held towards the back it fully fills the hand and offers control and reduced hand and forearm fatigue for extended hard work.

It has a forward lanyard hole (as used in competition cuts) and a hidden rear lanyard hole.



Specs:
CPM 3V, Delta heat treat, tested 60-61 HRC, .180 - .215" thick at ricasso
Total length 15.950"
Blade length 10.0"”
Weight varies
Grippy 3D machined scales in micarta and Terotuf.
Black oxide treated 18-8 stainless steel fasteners
Ebonite scales with oversize natural color titanium fasteners

Being prototypes, there are no sheaths available.

Tell me what scale option you choose and I'll build it. There is 1 knife available in this sale.

We are sharpening now. These will ship by the end of next week.


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Price is:
$375 without sheath in black or natural micarta
$390 without sheath in OD green Micarta on black micarta liner
$400 without sheath in black (gray) Terotuf (ugly material that works awesome) on black micarta liner
$400 without sheath in black hard Ebonite natural rubber on black micarta liner

Some thoughts on hard Ebonite:

Nathan the Machinist said:
Once upon a time, a long time ago (as in the 1800's) you could make stuff out of wood, bone, stone, glass and other natural materials. There was no "plastic".

Someone recognized there was a need for a waterproof synthetic material to substitute for Ebony for certain applications such as reed musical instruments (think oboe) because ebony was getting spendy and it cracks when it gets wet a lot.

Someone thought to vulcanize the hell out of natural rubber to make a hard semi-plastic. Like phenolic (micarta) this is an old polymer that crosslinks into a hard thermosetting material, but unlike other hard man made materials it is natural rubber base and is still slightly flexible.

Real Ebonite like this is not used much anymore at all because it has some real disadvantages compared to modern alternatives such as nylon, Delrin and other modern thermoplastics, though it is still used in musical instruments, pipe stems, and things like some high end fountain pens etc. Applications where cost isn't a driving factor and properties such as tonal or tactile are important.

Disadvantages:
It's made of natural rubber, being a natural product there can be inconsistencies such as areas that can look a little splotchy.
Being real rubber, it does not tolerate ozone or (years of) extended sunlight. It can check and fade over time if it's stored next to an electric motor that generates ozone in use, or kept out in the sun for a long time.
It's not as strong as some modern alternatives. If you pound on stuff with your handle you're likely to damage it where micarta is tougher.
It smells a little funny at first because it is highly vulcanized which means a faint sulfur and burnt rubber smell. It's not obnoxious, but if you're accustomed to a highly sanitized scent free world you might not like it.
It's expensive because someone has to literally go cut and bleed a rubber tree to acquire the raw material. I'm offsetting this expense some for now because this is prototype development work, but you can expect that once I have Ebonite dialed in it won't be cheap.

Advantages:
With a much lower durometer than other synthetic materials it gives a pleasantly dead "thunk" in an impact compared to modern alternatives. This is nice in a chopper.
It has a pleasant smooth warm feel coupled with nice grippy tactile traction like only rubber can give. It is super pleasant in the hand. This is nice in about anything from a chopper to a small EDC and everything in between.


A long time ago the core of Ebonite brand bowling balls were actually made of real ebonite. They're not anymore, it's polyurethane. But some antique bowling balls were the source of the original Ebonite I used for prototypes. Moving into beta build production I imported Nikko Ebonite from Japan. That's what this is, current production Japanese Ebonite. It's a little harder than the antique ebonite we started with. I have mixed feelings about this.

Being rubber it benefits from a larger screw head to hold it down, so the Ebonite scales will come with a natural color titanium screw with an oversize head. Nothing fancy.

Jo uses Ebonite in her competition chopper instead of terotuf or rubber.
Click to expand...






Shipping is $12


I take paypal, cash, check or MO.


Due to limited quantities, please limit one order per post


Jo will contact you via PM or email on Sunday or Monday. Emails though BF often get lost in spam filters. If you don't hear from her by end of day Monday please contact Jo on her PM, or send us an email at carothersknives at g mail dought com

The first offering of the glorious 12" Behemoth Chopper is up next on the 24th

Thanks for looking,
Nathan
 
HA....saw the announcement earlier. Work trumped. 4 hours late ;)
I'm a lock on a pre-order....but these are wistful dream.
 
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