- Joined
- Mar 27, 2011
- Messages
- 269
A while ago I was looking for a good edc utility knife for work on a ranch/farm. I was dissatisfied with both the size and toughness of many common folders, and some fixed blades. In a thread I made asking for suggestions for a good edc Geoffroy Gautier a young French knifemaker spoke up and offered to make a custom knife for me. A month later we had settled on a design, eventually prototypes where produced before a final knife was finished and that is what I am reviewing today.
The N.1 is made out of O2 steel, with ebony handles. It has a 6.5 blade with 5.75 inches of usable edge length, a total length of 10.625, and a thickness of 0.196(5mm). The edge and primary grind are convex.
I have been using the N.1 pretty much every day since I have gotten it, I have chopped, pried, cut and dug with it. Im going to try my best to recount the performance of the knife at each of these tasks.
So lets start with some cutting, I did a few edge tests, and a lot of wood carving and brush clearing with the knife. The edge has a great curve to it, a slight recurve at the front and a whole lot of belly make for great slicing. I put it through about 200 of cardboard cutting, ran out of cardboard so I stopped and tested the edge for sharpness. It couldnt shave but was still able to slice paper cleanly despite the edge being blunted somewhat by the cardboard. I also made 2000 push cuts through manila rope after which the knife could still cleanly slice newspaper, no visible edge deformation was noted. Some times at work I need to kill some time so I will grab a log of green walnut and start whittling it down. Im starting to wonder if the boss is ever gonna start asking about these piles of wood shaving that keep showing up around the place. The edge retention so far has been excellent and I feel comfortable going a while without sharpening the knife.
A major benefit of the knife is how blade forward the weight on it is. This aids in chopping up material, I use it quite often to chop down brush, weeds, and dangling tree branches in my way. It powers through small stuff easily. Though, I would avoid chopping into any tree branches 4 or more in diameter as the knife starts to struggle with penetration into the wood as the branches get thicker. Making for a drastic increase in the number of chops needed to get through the wood. Attempting to chop through seasoned oak logs was a frustrating experience but not the fault of the knife. While the knife might not have made it through the oak logs, it wasnt damaged by them. Attempts to batton the knife through logs left me exhausted with a knife halfway through the oak log. The knife does not have enough of a wedge shape to be well suited for battoning seasoned hard woods.
The extra width at the end of the knife helps to make digging easier as you are able to get larger scoops. Its almost like having a spade with you, saving me a lot of time from having to go grab a shove when Im far out in a pasture somewhere. Only blunting was noted after digging into various soils around my area. I was also able to pry out several rocks out of the ground without any tip damage. One day I was sorting out concrete from a pile of dirt, I wasnt sure what was dirt or what was concrete so I started using the swedge on the back of the knife to start smashing chunks of dirt and concrete to identify what was what. No noticeable damage was done to the swedge during this. I also tested the swedge by breaking empty beer bottles. Once again no damage was apparent. The intent of the swdge was to be used for smashing things.
I have used it to pry wood and metal. All the prying on wood caused no damage to the knife, I was able to pound the knife several inches into a very large log and flex the blade a lot, I would guess around 20 degrees or so. The knife didnt take any damage from flexing. After prying into metal only a few microchips were observed near the tip of the knife where the edge had been pressed hard against the metal. The knife was also stabbed through some sheet metal with no damage being observed.
The ergonomics of the knife are excellent, for me, it fits my hand perfectly. There are no hot spots for me in use, everything is nicely rounded and it fills out my hand just enough. It is secure in most grips at least the four major ones I can think of, and I often do a three finger hold to maximize my wrist snaps when chopping. YLMD
To clean the knife I just use acetone, jewlers rouge, and cotton balls. To sharpen I used 400 grit wet/dry sand paper on a rubber pad, a ceramic rod, and a steel.
The O2 steel supposedly rusts very easily, however there have been no rust issues for me, I work with and around a lot irrigation and I am often drenched with water and sweat at the end of the day. On occasion knives have rusted just by being in my pocket. Despite this the O2 has not rusted, it has developed a light gray patina though. Still proper care of the steel is sensible.
Please if you have any question, or would like to see something done ask! I am happy to try any suggestions and answer all questions.
The N.1 is made out of O2 steel, with ebony handles. It has a 6.5 blade with 5.75 inches of usable edge length, a total length of 10.625, and a thickness of 0.196(5mm). The edge and primary grind are convex.
I have been using the N.1 pretty much every day since I have gotten it, I have chopped, pried, cut and dug with it. Im going to try my best to recount the performance of the knife at each of these tasks.
So lets start with some cutting, I did a few edge tests, and a lot of wood carving and brush clearing with the knife. The edge has a great curve to it, a slight recurve at the front and a whole lot of belly make for great slicing. I put it through about 200 of cardboard cutting, ran out of cardboard so I stopped and tested the edge for sharpness. It couldnt shave but was still able to slice paper cleanly despite the edge being blunted somewhat by the cardboard. I also made 2000 push cuts through manila rope after which the knife could still cleanly slice newspaper, no visible edge deformation was noted. Some times at work I need to kill some time so I will grab a log of green walnut and start whittling it down. Im starting to wonder if the boss is ever gonna start asking about these piles of wood shaving that keep showing up around the place. The edge retention so far has been excellent and I feel comfortable going a while without sharpening the knife.
A major benefit of the knife is how blade forward the weight on it is. This aids in chopping up material, I use it quite often to chop down brush, weeds, and dangling tree branches in my way. It powers through small stuff easily. Though, I would avoid chopping into any tree branches 4 or more in diameter as the knife starts to struggle with penetration into the wood as the branches get thicker. Making for a drastic increase in the number of chops needed to get through the wood. Attempting to chop through seasoned oak logs was a frustrating experience but not the fault of the knife. While the knife might not have made it through the oak logs, it wasnt damaged by them. Attempts to batton the knife through logs left me exhausted with a knife halfway through the oak log. The knife does not have enough of a wedge shape to be well suited for battoning seasoned hard woods.
The extra width at the end of the knife helps to make digging easier as you are able to get larger scoops. Its almost like having a spade with you, saving me a lot of time from having to go grab a shove when Im far out in a pasture somewhere. Only blunting was noted after digging into various soils around my area. I was also able to pry out several rocks out of the ground without any tip damage. One day I was sorting out concrete from a pile of dirt, I wasnt sure what was dirt or what was concrete so I started using the swedge on the back of the knife to start smashing chunks of dirt and concrete to identify what was what. No noticeable damage was done to the swedge during this. I also tested the swedge by breaking empty beer bottles. Once again no damage was apparent. The intent of the swdge was to be used for smashing things.
I have used it to pry wood and metal. All the prying on wood caused no damage to the knife, I was able to pound the knife several inches into a very large log and flex the blade a lot, I would guess around 20 degrees or so. The knife didnt take any damage from flexing. After prying into metal only a few microchips were observed near the tip of the knife where the edge had been pressed hard against the metal. The knife was also stabbed through some sheet metal with no damage being observed.
The ergonomics of the knife are excellent, for me, it fits my hand perfectly. There are no hot spots for me in use, everything is nicely rounded and it fills out my hand just enough. It is secure in most grips at least the four major ones I can think of, and I often do a three finger hold to maximize my wrist snaps when chopping. YLMD
To clean the knife I just use acetone, jewlers rouge, and cotton balls. To sharpen I used 400 grit wet/dry sand paper on a rubber pad, a ceramic rod, and a steel.
The O2 steel supposedly rusts very easily, however there have been no rust issues for me, I work with and around a lot irrigation and I am often drenched with water and sweat at the end of the day. On occasion knives have rusted just by being in my pocket. Despite this the O2 has not rusted, it has developed a light gray patina though. Still proper care of the steel is sensible.
Please if you have any question, or would like to see something done ask! I am happy to try any suggestions and answer all questions.
