- Joined
- May 5, 2000
- Messages
- 1,478
Just got a slightly used G10 Harpy and I'm generally impressed.
The blade is a little shorter than I expected, and the steel is a little more difficult to sharpen than I expected, but the knife is also truly overbuilt and it's more of a quality piece than I thought it'd be.
I now understand why people were clamoring for a larger Harpy. If it'd be a G10 model (colors!), I'd get a couple myself. (The Matriarch and Civilian really aren't just larger Harpies.)
BTW, could someone tell me why there's only one liner? I understand that it keeps down the weight, but a second liner would allow for another set of clip screw holes, which would make the knife totally ambidextrous. Personally, it's not an issue for me, and the knife is more than solid. I'm just curious.
Maybe I'm not being fair about the ease of sharpening, since the part that took me the most time was the recurved plain section right at the point. That'll never be easy. But I'm beginning to think that ATS steels, in general, deserve their hard-to-sharpen reputation. If VG-10 costs about the same, I'd go with it 10 times out of 10.
Oh, here's a tip about getting a tip on this little guy... Sharpening the recurved, plain-edged front part (about 1/8 of the knife) will almost always get you a dull point, as it will on most knives. I kept trying to carefully fashion a needle-sharp point as my last step, but that was dulling the front edge. And then I realized something: you can turn your Harpy completely upside down, so that the handle points to the ceiling and the knife looks like an upside-down question mark, and then you can sharpen the tip by working the rear end of the point perpendicular to a stone. If that doesn't make sense, let me know, because it did a great job.
Overall, I really like the knife and I'm very glad I got the G10 version. It'll find its way into my pocket, primarily as a backup and a not-so-enormous work tool.
The blade is a little shorter than I expected, and the steel is a little more difficult to sharpen than I expected, but the knife is also truly overbuilt and it's more of a quality piece than I thought it'd be.
I now understand why people were clamoring for a larger Harpy. If it'd be a G10 model (colors!), I'd get a couple myself. (The Matriarch and Civilian really aren't just larger Harpies.)
BTW, could someone tell me why there's only one liner? I understand that it keeps down the weight, but a second liner would allow for another set of clip screw holes, which would make the knife totally ambidextrous. Personally, it's not an issue for me, and the knife is more than solid. I'm just curious.
Maybe I'm not being fair about the ease of sharpening, since the part that took me the most time was the recurved plain section right at the point. That'll never be easy. But I'm beginning to think that ATS steels, in general, deserve their hard-to-sharpen reputation. If VG-10 costs about the same, I'd go with it 10 times out of 10.
Oh, here's a tip about getting a tip on this little guy... Sharpening the recurved, plain-edged front part (about 1/8 of the knife) will almost always get you a dull point, as it will on most knives. I kept trying to carefully fashion a needle-sharp point as my last step, but that was dulling the front edge. And then I realized something: you can turn your Harpy completely upside down, so that the handle points to the ceiling and the knife looks like an upside-down question mark, and then you can sharpen the tip by working the rear end of the point perpendicular to a stone. If that doesn't make sense, let me know, because it did a great job.
Overall, I really like the knife and I'm very glad I got the G10 version. It'll find its way into my pocket, primarily as a backup and a not-so-enormous work tool.
