The biggest problem with the Trailmaster is the edge profile. This is not a
complaint about Cold Steel specifically, in fact they are better than many
in that regard, however the edge on the knives are still a lot thicker than
they need to be for wood working. On the Trailmaster you can expect an edge
profile of about 22 +/- 2 degrees or so. I would cut that profile in half,
to get more specific I would put a convex edge on it that would sweep out
from about 8-10 degrees and edge at about 10-12 degrees. You will see an
increase in general cutting ability by about 100% and a significant increase
in chopping, however not nearly as great, 25-50% (depends on your style, and
type of wood).
To clarify, this is no longer an edge that you would use to chop heavy bone,
nor hardened metal, but based on what I have seen it could not do that in
the first place anyway. However if you do want to do heavier work than just
plan wood chopping you can leave a short section of the edge with the NIB
thickness. As well the exact angles that you choose depend both on the type
of wood you will be cutting as well as your technique and strength. Some
experimentation is in order to find what is optimal. The steel will also
influence the geometry as well, better materials will allow a thinner
profile and thus produce a better cutting blade.
Anyway, the edge width is now much greater than when it was NIB. This means
that when you sharpen the blade you have to hone across a greater section of
steel and thus the hone will load up much more quickly and you will see an
increase in the time it takes to finish the edge to a specific level of
polish and alignment. There are two basic ways to deal with this problem,
first of which is to take the knife to a belt grinder and grind along the
primary flat bevel. This will take quite some time as you have to hog off a
lot of metal and it isn't that ideal as it wastes a lot. The optimal way is
to change the primary grind from one of a full flat to two opposing convex
bevels. The first convex bevel should sweep down from about 2/3 blade height
and meet the edge. The second should sweep up from the first and thin out
the spine. This also increases the flex that the blade will take and as well
raises its ability to handle lateral shock
Now while the first change (edge profile), can be done with a coarse hone if
necessary, the second would take many days without power equipment. As well
if you do the second modification you will be removing enough metal to
change the balance of the knife. The balance will be shifted back a little
towards the guard. However the change will not be that great and you can
counteract it by removing the clunky guard and tapering the tang if the
blade loses too much heft. As well, if you are willing to do that much work
you are probably better off making a blade from scratch anyway, or at the
least taking the temper out of it and getting someone to redo the heat
treatment on it. It will make the grinding go a lot faster.
Now comes the handle. There are a lot of personal issues at play here
because so much depends on the size of the individuals hand as well as the
nature of their grip (balance of power, skin durability etc.). First off you
have the materials issue. Kraton stands out as a poor choice for a
wilderness blade is it gets ripped very easily, even the ends of seasoned
limbs will readily tear Kraton not to mention that it will wear down slick
with use anyway. Far from ideal.
In regards to handle shape, you will find a lot of debate here. However
there are general rules to go by. First off all the human hand when curled
in a grip does not enclose a volume that is square nor cylindrical. The grip
should be swelled along the sides and along the top and bottom to fill out
the grip. This does two things, first off all it makes a greater power
tranansfer possible, and second it makes absorbing impacts much easier.
Lastly the end of the handle should have a hook that you can drive off of,
but which is sloped backwards enough that your hand will ramp off on it.
There is a balance there that must be met, if the angle is too steep it will
be uncomfortable, if it is too shallow the grip will be too insecure. Here
is a knife that has an excellent grip (the blade profile is near ideal as
well, its from Ray Kirk) :
http://www.tah-usa.net/raker/img9.jpg
Finally in regards to tips. There is a tradeoff that is critical. The more
acute you make the tips the weaker they are, the more obtuse you make them
the stronger. However penetration is negatively correlated to strength so as
you increase one aspect you directly decrease the other. The Trailmaster has
quite an acute tip that gives very good penetration, however I had no
trouble snapping a large part of the tip off. It does not have the tip
strength I would want in a large knife, nor would I want any sharpened
swedges nor false edges. These will all greatly help penetration, and make a
lot of things effortless, but also prevent a lot of use as well. There is no
rigth nor wrong way to proceed here, just a decision that must be made about
what you want a blade to do.
Can you do anything about the tip on the Trailmaster? Well you could just
throw away some length and grind a more obtuse tip, but you will be losing a
lot of reach, mass and reducing the blade balance if you do so. You would
probably be better off in just going with the tip that is there and taking
advatantage of the greater penetration and avoiding tasks that put a lot of
lateral stress on the tip.
There are other things I would change about the Trailmaster as well, but it
is not practical or even possible (for some) for the ELU to do so. The
handle should not be inline with the blade but dropped which will increase
cutting and chopping ability (for two different reason). The steel as well
doesn't have the required properties that you would want in a heavy use
field knife. It fractures too readily and as well rusts really easily,
something that I would put up with if the durability was there (L6). They
probably just have it 1-2 points harder than optimal. I would also increase
the length a little to give greater protection from harsh vegetation and as
well the extra reach will make a lot of tasks like limbing easier
Basically there are a lot of things I would change about it to improve its
performance, however the only one that is really that practial would be the
edge profile. Other options to explore besides what is given above is an
edge cant (which simulates a dropped handle) and a distal taper.
In regards to spike vs poll, by all means try it out, both have advantages
and draw backs. The more experience you get with various equipment the
better prepared you will be. The Next Generation looks like a very solid
piece of equipment indeed which should be very enjoyable to work with.
I checked the balance on my Rogers Rangers Spike, it is tilted off center
head balanced by about 4 +/- 1 degrees. It does slant towards the spike, so
odds are I have influenced it by sharpening the spike.
-Cliff
