HB goes trout fishing!

[schmittie]

My wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this past weekend. Would you believe it, she actually picked trout fishing as the trip she wanted to do for our anniversary!!! We had a great time, weather was beautiful.

After much use, I would like to rename my FB Hiking Buddy, that started off as a blank that I put a handle on. I'm calling it my FBFBNTK (Fiddleback Forge Bird and Trout knife)

Why you ask? Especially when the Ladyfinger is Andy's bird n trout knife? Well, after this weekend it has officially replaced my favorite neck knife, a cheapo S&W I got years ago that just doesn't cut it (literally), and last winter it replaced my carry knife for upland hunting. It did and amazing job field dressing and butchering pheasant, rabbit and quail. (Sorry, forgot to get pics last year. But the season is about to start in a few more weeks....) Its just the right size. Actually, I freaked out at one point last year because I was convinced that it fell out of my cargo pocket and I lost it. In reality, it was riding comfortably in my pocket, just waiting for duty. I have to admit, the knives I have used in the past, like that old S&W, needed to be resharpened daily after use. That gets old quick. The O1 blades Andy makes just won't give up their sharpness no matter what you cut through, small bones included. Last year, I fd and butchered a whole deer with just my Hunter. This year, I threw a lot of trout at my FB.

On a side note, do you see the trout on the bottom of that picture? Yeah, that's the one my wife landed. The next day, she got an even bigger one! We had a great weekend, awesome fish, and a sharp knife made it all the cutting tasks that much more enjoyable. Thanks again Andy!

 

[Fresh Air]

Great pics and story! Wish my wife would fish with me .

Thanks for sharing. It helps me figure out how and when to use certain knives.

 

[Fiddleback]

Those are nice pics! I don't see the center tube in the bullseye tube though? What happened to it? If it came out, send the knife back and I can easily fix that.

 

[schmittie]

I don't see the center tube in the bullseye tube though? What happened to it? If it came out, send the knife back and I can easily fix that.

Wow, you looked at that a little too closely bro. That's the blank I got from ya last year

 

[Fiddleback]

Ohhhh. OK. No problem.

 

[Stratmeister]

Great pics and story! Wish my wife would fish with me .

Careful what you wish for... I love my wife to death but once I turned her on to fishing she wants to go all the time, much to the dismay of my fishing guy friends. I started her out on panfish and bass in the Glades and she hooks and fights a gator. The greatest day ever... until I took her salt water fishing in the backcountry, sea trout, redfish, snappers... the greatest day ever, until I took her offshore for cudas, muttons, etc... greatest day ever!

Well at least she looks waay better in a bikini then they do, and she's learning to bait her own hook....

 

[Mistwalker]

I could see the HB making a good B&T. Might be a good model to have in 1/8 cpm s35v with a saber grind just for that...

 

[Mistwalker]

Nice catch by the way, and congrats on the 10yrs!

 

[schmittie]

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen. I agree Brian, the HB is an outstanding B&T knife. I was pretty apprehensive to take mine out to clean trout at the end of the day because I always dunk it in the stream after each fish is gutted and skinned. I ended up keeping it away, high and dry. I was certain it would rust quickly. After I realized it was a sin to bring it this far only to hold it back, I held my breath and used it as normal. All I did was 'wipe it dry on my waders' and resheath it. Every day I prepared to see clusters of rust staking their claim on my beautiful blade. Every morning I was pleasently surprised. O1 is proving more rust resistant that I had suspected. After finally taking my most valued knives out of the protection of the house and using them harder than I thought was fair, I am REALLY impressed with Fiddleback Forge. Yeah it can rust, yeah it can tarnish. But ya know what? Use and neglect/ignorance are very different things. Now, I'm not at all afraid to USE my blades.

 

[Fiddleback]

If you leave water on 01 it will rust. I dry mine on my pants, and re-sheath. Done. No biggie. It will patina, but not rust this way.

 

[Mistwalker]

I never have any trouble at all here. I was mainly thinking of the trout fishing we used to do in the brackish waters at the mouth of the Hillsborough River in Tampa Bay, and what the salt water and salt air did to a hi-carbon German-made hunting knife I used when I first got down there. I got it wet sheath and all one day (one really long day) in the surf. After that I bought a Buck and left the hi-carbon knife at home when I went fishing.

 

[Stratmeister]

That's the exact reason I picked up one of the Ladyfingers that Andy did in CPM154 a little while ago Mist. Need that Chromium content to stand up to saltwater use down here...

 

[Ridge-Runner]

Yea cant beat O1 IMO. If when you first get it you use it and get a patina going I've to have rust trouble outta one of mine.

 

[Mistwalker]

That's the exact reason I picked up one of the Ladyfingers that Andy did in CPM154 a little while ago Mist. Need that Chromium content to stand up to saltwater use down here...

Yeah, as soon as I saw those I thought to myself that I'd be selling something the next day if it took it to get one of them if I still lived in Tampa and still hung out in the Keys a lot. I do love the 0-1 though, and here I all I have to do is use it for food prep for a few meals to get a good patina going, or force one, and even with all the humidity and moisture I never have any problems with it. I've just been working with a knife made of the CPM S35V and have been impressed with it and though how that would make a nice salt water B&T. My worry with rust isn't the blade, I can always clean the blade up, my worry would be with the handles. Even though I cleaned the blade up on the other knife the salt somehow got between the handle and the tang and created a problem I didn't even realize was coming a couple of years later. BUT, I'm one of those guys who likes to take my knife wherever I go. So if we anchored the boat a couple hundred meters from the shore (to keep it from becoming "beached" at low tide in the shallow water) and I swam to shore I might get distracted (ADD apparently...) and be out there swimming around looking at things for a while before I made it to shore and my knife was always there for the ride.

 

[Taonari]

My wife and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary this past weekend. Would you believe it, she actually picked trout fishing as the trip she wanted to do for our anniversary!!! We had a great time, weather was beautiful.

Great post my brother and great pictures!! That's awesome that she nabbed those big trout. I'm glad you weren't afraid to get that blade wet and that it served you well. :thumbup:

Happy anniversary!!