daizee
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 11,139
Friday night I got the OK to hunt a neighbor's property Saturday afternoon, so I quickly finished up this handle on the belt and then gave it a sheath and edge Saturday morning. No luck.
But SUNDAY was another story...
I whomped a 3pt buck at 9yds with my T/C .54 hawken (230gr sabot pistol bullet over 100gr of Triple-7).
He went down in a heap and it was all over quickly.
This was my first solo field-dressing, and it was... successful. a bit inefficient, perhaps.
However, I was delighted with the performance of this knife, which was the culmination of two years of knife-making. I started making in order to make its predecessor and in the meantime realized I wanted things to be slighty different. The knife performed admirably - the user needs more practice. Heheh.
The general design is a 3" blade (max legal here), high flat grind, thin edge, and a 4.25" handle with a lanyard.
This one is A2 with black/green micarta at 360 grit.
My buddy came over to help me disassemble the carcass and coach me some more - we did this together once before, but it's been awhile...
He brought the 3" O1 hunter I made for him last year.
In the end, we took apart the entire deer with only those two 3" knives and didn't reach for anything else. He had brought other blades and so had I, but the small ones were the right tools for the job.
The edges held up fantastically well. After the field dressing, I cleaned the knife at home and it shaved hair right off my arm. We had the same experience Monday, and myself as well yesterday with the cleaning an packing. The edges didn't generally need sharpening, what they needed was *cleaning*. The blades would get gunky and start to drag.
So after spending 3 days with this blade extensively, I'm happy to say I wouldn't change anything. yet.
Some pictures:
After field dressing:
Jim's knife that he brought with him:
The two knives at work:
Cleaned up alongside the one used to do most of the detailed cleaning and packing:
But SUNDAY was another story...
I whomped a 3pt buck at 9yds with my T/C .54 hawken (230gr sabot pistol bullet over 100gr of Triple-7).
He went down in a heap and it was all over quickly.
This was my first solo field-dressing, and it was... successful. a bit inefficient, perhaps.
However, I was delighted with the performance of this knife, which was the culmination of two years of knife-making. I started making in order to make its predecessor and in the meantime realized I wanted things to be slighty different. The knife performed admirably - the user needs more practice. Heheh.
The general design is a 3" blade (max legal here), high flat grind, thin edge, and a 4.25" handle with a lanyard.
This one is A2 with black/green micarta at 360 grit.
My buddy came over to help me disassemble the carcass and coach me some more - we did this together once before, but it's been awhile...
He brought the 3" O1 hunter I made for him last year.
In the end, we took apart the entire deer with only those two 3" knives and didn't reach for anything else. He had brought other blades and so had I, but the small ones were the right tools for the job.
The edges held up fantastically well. After the field dressing, I cleaned the knife at home and it shaved hair right off my arm. We had the same experience Monday, and myself as well yesterday with the cleaning an packing. The edges didn't generally need sharpening, what they needed was *cleaning*. The blades would get gunky and start to drag.
So after spending 3 days with this blade extensively, I'm happy to say I wouldn't change anything. yet.
Some pictures:
After field dressing:
Jim's knife that he brought with him:
The two knives at work:
Cleaned up alongside the one used to do most of the detailed cleaning and packing:
