Grohmann Canadian Belt Knife

J

JNieporte

Joined
Nov 1, 2004
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I picked this one up from a custom maker I know. I'll be rewiewing the grohmann Canadian Belt Knife, more specificaly, the Original Hunting Knife, model 1. It's made in Canada of course, and costs around $56. The custom one I purchased was $20 more. The review is for the custom knife I got, but the only difference is in handle materials. The original has maple handles and stainless pins. Here are the details...

Handle Details: The Grohmann's handle is 4-1/2" long and 9/16" thick. It's off-set to the blade, keepig one's fingers off the blade without needing a guard. The knife is a full-tang design, and the tang is exposed through the handle. The handle on mine is made of black African oak and has mosaic pins.
The handle is extremely comfortable; the butt end is thicker to fill your palm while you work.

Blade Details: The blade is Grohmann's stainless steel, which appears to be somewhere along the lines of nicely heat treated 420HC. It's 4-1/4" long with a 3-3/4" cutting edge. The blade shape is described as elliptical; almost like a teardrop. The blade is 1/8" thick. It's flat ground and very sharp. It's also highly polished, giving it a mirror shine. The blade is absent of markings except for the word Canada on the right side of the blade, above the grind line. There's about an inch of jimping along the spine of the blade, and it works perfectly. This sucker really cuts wonderfully. I can't emphasize how nicely this blade cuts.

The Sheath: The Grohmann comes with a light brown-colored leather sheath. It's a pouch style; no snaps or fasteners to hold the blade in. While seated in the sheath, only 1-1/4" of the handle is exposed. There's a small loop in the back for belt attachment, and it will fit a belt up to 1-1/2" wide. Yes, it will fit a Dickies belt just fine.

gr-2-fs.jpg
(Stock photo, not my knife.)
 
Wow nice handle. Was that custom from the factory or aftermarket?

Had a flat ground one I built from a kit, for years till some ^$@$%$@@# broke in and stole it.

They make great traditional style drop in sheaths too. Some of them even come with the firesteel.
 
I have fancied this style of knife for a long time, I am excited to see a recent review.

I have put off getting the Prod version due to my admitted steel snobbery (I would prefer either clean 1095 or ATS-34 (or perhaps D2).

A few questions if you don't mind (re the Custom version);

- What steel did the Maker use? and the approx Rc?
- Did he use your Prod model as the template (so as to replicate the size of the original as closely as possible)?

Thanks
 
Hillbillenigma said:
A few questions if you don't mind (re the Custom version);

- What steel did the Maker use? and the approx Rc?
- Did he use your Prod model as the template (so as to replicate the size of the original as closely as possible)?

Thanks
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure it's a Grohmann blade; he just added new handles cales to it. The guy's name in Richard, and I have a suspicion that it might be Richard J from the forums, but I'm not sure. They're both in the same area, same name, and same taste in knives. I guess I should've asked Richard his last name, huh? LOL.
 
yeah, Grohmann thread - pile on.

Here's my 1 in carbon, with it's folder pal in stainless:

SANY0012-3.jpg
 
Oh what a beauty! Or should I say beauties. Nice hunting/field knives for the hunter and fisherman, and general outdoorsman. Thats the ticket for sure. I really like the leaf shaped blade, that is a winner.
 
I have never handled one (would love to) - is the skinny handle towards the blade uncomfortable during heavy use?

I normally prefer wide / contoured handles which is why I never picked one up.
 
Daniel, I use it for finer work (food, cord, field dressing) and the narrow handle facilitates control. The carbon is relatively soft, but extremely easy to sharpen in the field with my ceramic stone:

SANY0010-3.jpg


For the heavy lifting (clearing bush, shooting lanes, batoning, hippies), I go to something a little bigger - here's my Nesssmuk trio - flat axe, #1, and I often substitute a sak farmer for the schrade whittler;

SANY0005-4.jpg
 
I've never held one but it does look beautiful.

Nice review, JNieporte.

Nice pics, brians, many thanks!
 
I finally got around to having the darn thing photographed LOL. I should point out that there are no markings on the knife at all except for the Canada stamp on the right side of the blade; no D.H. Russel, Grohhmann, or model number as shown on the left sides of the other blades in this thread. I'm not sure what that means though.

Here's the knife; Grohmann #1 with black African oak and mosaic pins.
003-25.jpg


Close-up of the handle:
007-Copy5.jpg


The back side of the sheath, showing the weird strap system that came loose a few times...
004-Copy8-1.jpg
 
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Those Mosaic pins look beautiful.

I'm not sure if your sheath loop is correct. It's close though. Instead of folding the lower end through the slit as pictured, pull it out and put it over the top of the belt loop and pull tight. When the loop is then pulled tight, this should pull that end inside the sheath and leave a nice tight loop that won't loosen.

That's a beauty for life and will work great in the field. I can easily get their stainless shaving sharp in minutes on the Maker, and it cut well and retains a good edge. I use my folder often and it performs great. That knife of yours is a great balance of form and function.

Brian
 
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brians said:
...I'm not sure if your sheath loop is correct. It's close though. Instead of folding the lower end through the slit as pictured, pull it out and put it over the top of the belt loop and pull tight. When the loop is then pulled tight, this should pull that end inside the sheath and leave a nice tight loop that won't loosen...
Click to expand...

The belt loop came undone and I had to redo it, so maybe my tying wasn't true to the original. I'm a bit concerned at the lack of markings though; at first I thought it was a fake or a reproduction because all it's marked with is the word Canada as pictured.
 
It does lack markings, but it looks well executed. Give Grohmann a call or email and ask them if they have production runs with less markings.
 
brians said:
Those Mosaic pins look beautiful.

I'm not sure if your sheath loop is correct. It's close though. Instead of folding the lower end through the slit as pictured, pull it out and put it over the top of the belt loop and pull tight. When the loop is then pulled tight, this should pull that end inside the sheath and leave a nice tight loop that won't loosen.

Brian
Click to expand...
The loop is definately incorrectly tied through, but it's an easy fix. You might want to make sure it's secure, or you might end up without a nice knife:)
 
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