Hawksbill Pruners and Coal Miners

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Ok I'm late to the party, and everything seems to be answered lol. But I did want to add, I have a bunch of family members who are/were miners. I'm originally from southwest Virginia, an area with a long history of coal mining. My Dad has several hawkbill knives,mostly scattered throughout his various tool boxes. Stripping heavy electrical cables and cutting conveyor belts seemed to be the main function. The most common issued ones was Klien in our area, heres an example of what you'd find in allot of miners tool box.

Apparently according to my Dad they were quite popular in barroom brawls back in the 70's, YIKES!

 

[cjtamu]

Ok I'm late to the party, and everything seems to be answered lol. But I did want to add, I have a bunch of family members who are/were miners. I'm originally from southwest Virginia, an area with a long history of coal mining. My Dad has several hawkbill knives,mostly scattered throughout his various tool boxes. Stripping heavy electrical cables and cutting conveyor belts seemed to be the main function. The most common issued ones was Klien in our area, heres an example of what you'd find in allot of miners tool box.

Apparently according to my Dad they were quite popular in barroom brawls back in the 70's, YIKES!

We picked one just like that up last weekend, just haven't had a chance to post it yet. Very cool knife. I assume yours is a liner lock?

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

C cjtamu
Yep, its a liner lock. But the spring is stout enough that the lock is almost redundant lol.

 

[cjtamu]

C cjtamu
Yep, its a liner lock. But the spring is stout enough that the lock is almost redundant lol.

Yep. I'll try to get a pic of Kim's up this weekend.

 

[Eli Chaps]

My oldest daughter is a gardening fiend and I've been pondering getting her one of these for some time now. How is that blade shape for sharpening? Do you need a rod or edge of a bench stone?

 

[cjtamu]

Haven't had to do it yet but have looked at it for future reference. I'm going to use one of the rods from my Spyderco. Case also makes a Hawksbiil. I got Kim one a couple months ago and she loves it. It's a slip joint, but with a strong pull and half stops. The handle is much thinner on the Case than the Klein, so depending on your daughter's size it might fit better.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Eli Chaps

A diamond rod followed with a ceramic rod is easiest, however I used a flat pocket diamond "stone" I hold it at a shallower angle than you think you need. Hard to describe my technique, but its more by feel and eye, my pocket hone is only about an inch wide

Accusharp, I carry it in a CK slip

 

[Eli Chaps]

Thanks David. That's pretty much what I figured.

 

[meako]

My Grandad was amongst other things a Nottinghamshire coal miner...I remember one of his tales about a giant miner they called Big Fred...he may have been small in stature...those crazy guys...you could tell where Fred had been by the trail of tobacco gob he spat out....so cutting a plug o chaw would have been a likely task for the handy miners knife.
Cheers.

 

[22-rimfire]

Yeah, snuff and plug tobacco are and were common with coal miners. They aren't allowed to smoke underground, but some do of course from time to time. A knife was pretty much mandatory underground. Cutting conveyor belt takes a tough knife.

 

[Jack Black]

One of my great grandfather's was a Yorkshire miner, and was known for his love of plug tobacco. He also always drank his tea cold, having got used to drinking it that way underground in the days before Thermos flasks.

 

[22-rimfire]

My wife's side of the family still has active coal miners. But the numbers are dwindling due to fairly tough times for the industry as the shift in electrical power generation is toward natural gas along with nuclear, water, and solar sources. I was in the coal mining industry for 15 years and I shifted out of the industry into another due to layoffs and so forth.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Yesterday we had to clean out a house and yard. I knew that there was several peices of conveyor belt in the back yard that may have needed cutting into manageable peices. So I took this Klien along, and I'm glad I did. These was 4 feet across and 3/4 of an inch thick and there is a cord reinforcement inside. I had to cut about 2 feet off 2 peices so it would lie flat in out 16 ft trailer. Using the point I pressed down and made 2-3 passes and I could hear it zipping through the cords. Then starting on one side I pulled up on the belt to open the split,then using a slight sawing motion cut all the way across. The curve of the blade helped it to stay in the tough material. Using this knife it was actually quite a bit easier than I thought it was going to be. I can see now why this type blade is popular for this task. I believe it can cut thinner belt in one pass,I'll know Monday as there is 2 more large peices but ar only half as thick.