Hawkbills>>Their Uses?

J

JD Spydo

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Nov 20, 2004
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I have just posted a similar thread over on the Spyderco.com Forum but this has me so interested that I want to get all of the feedback I can from it. I personally over a year ago put a Spyderhawk in my pocket more or less by mistake. I was working in some wetlands and really needing a good knife for various jobs I was doing. To my surprise it even worked better than the Spyderco Renegade that I was EDCing at the time.

I had to cut some rope and twine and the Spyderhawk worked like a dream. Since then I have personally found a multitude of uses for a knife that I previously wondered if there really were a lot of legitimate uses for. Spyderco undoubtedly makes some of the VERY BEST Hawkbills so it only makes sense to pick the brains of the great folks who use them. The G-10 Harpy at the moment is my very favorite but I really like the Dodo a lot too.

So what uses have you all stumbled upon for HAWKBILL knives?
 
Chances are, I will have either a PE Dodo or a PE Harpy in my pocket on any given day. All of my everyday tasks are accomplished with these knives, with the exception of slicing food stuff. From opening letters and packages to cutting yarn at work,the Hawkbill works for me.
 
Everyday cutting is a natural for the Harpy/Spyderhawk. I have been using a CF Harpy for EDC since it arrived, along with an older hawkbill (an antique farmer's jack) for mundane little jobs. The Harpy does the heavy cutting though.

JD, you're preaching to the choir with many of us, but keep on preachin' !!!
 
AMEN, BROTHER JD! In addition to the usual, rope, cordage, etc...I like em for gardening, harvesting and pruning. My mom left us beacoup flower beds, mostly around the fenceline a of a BIG yard. Little saplings are always coming up in the flower beds, and my merlin, spyderhawk or matriarch will zip right through some pretty tough little trees sometimes 1 inch or more around, almost always in one easy swipe. No other blade shape works as well. Various aggressive vines and weeds, even easier. Harvesting Brobdignagian (for you Gulliver's Travels fans) pumpkins with huge tough stalks to cut...no sweat.:thumbup:
 
You know ED I would bet that one of the very original uses for Hawkbills had to do with the agricultural field. I know they use them for fruit tree grafting. I have even heard that Phillipine farmers used their Karambit knives as we know them today for all kinds of agricultural chores. I was just using my PE Merlin today for some mundane household chores. I'm telling you guys this type of blade really grows on you. JD
 
My Harpy put the hurt on an orange in the kitchen today! I didn't think it would perform very well, but it made quick work of slicing that thing up, really efficient actually.
 
Hawkbills do great work on cutting boxes. Lots of draw cutting power without putting your hand in a weird position, and with more controll.
 
Planterz said:
Hawkbills do great work on cutting boxes. Lots of draw cutting power without putting your hand in a weird position, and with more controll.
Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean there Planterz. It does seem like you can exert leverage with a Hawkbill blade that you can not begin to do with a standard drop point or clip point blade. There are just so many legitimate uses for these wonderful tools. This is truly a case where looks are deceiving. Also when you think about cutting boxes there seems to be more of a safety aspect to it. You are certainly less apt to slip and cut yourself. with the leverage you have with a Hawkbill you also have a great deal of directional control as well. JD:thumbup:
 
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