I've got to toot my own horn!

Karl B. Andersen

Karl B. Andersen

Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
5,667
I just received this photo and email from the owner of Backland Outdoors, which is a hunting program on The Outdoor Channel, to whom I have done a Product Sponsorship with a few knives for promotional reasons.
I add his email unedited and a photo -

"Your knife worked wonderful last week in Texas. We did 6 bucks and 10 does - photo attached - with your knife and only touched the blade TWICE! Awesome ! Merry Christmas to you and your family.


Scott Anderson"


I could NOT have accomplished this without the help of Kevin Cashen's input.

Texas_2006_U_Ranch-1.jpg
 
Good to see your knives out there gettin put through thier paces. They dressed a mess of deer.
 
Karl...how did you quench the blade? did you use oil or salt? interupted quench? edge or whole blade?etc, etc.
 
If you dont toot your own horn once in awhile somebody will use it for a spintoon.

Nice work! A happy customer is wonderful thing.
 
jdm61 said:
Karl...how did you quench the blade? did you use oil or salt? interupted quench? edge or whole blade?etc, etc.
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First, I must say, that I grind my blades to complete FULL finish before hardening. Right down to the cutting edge, which will decard some, but I then file that off after completion. I just keep filing with a fine file until it gets the decar off.
With a blade ground out fully finished, I have NEVER - not ONCE! - had any kind of warping. The blade is even symmetrically, and you don't have unequal forces of mass from side to side cooling at different rates pulling the steel this way and that.
They almost look like they could be sharpened and sold!
After forging, they do get a sherodizing anneal in the controlled oven.
My 5160 works best at a 10 minute soak and 1525, full blade interupted quench tip down in Tex. A (A medium speed oil). Tempered three times.
 
dod you do a "soft back draw" on the big knives? I have Brownells Tough Quench, which is a pretty fast oil. That will work well for my W@, but not so sure about doing an intterupted quench on the 5160 I have. I waas thinking about doing the 5160 with the oil at room temp to slow down the quench a bit. How long do you leave the blade in the oil for the interrupted quench? I was thinking 5 or 6 seconds in 150 degree Tough Quench for the W2.
 
jdm61 said:
dod you do a "soft back draw" on the big knives? I have Brownells Tough Quench, which is a pretty fast oil. That will work well for my W@, but not so sure about doing an intterupted quench on the 5160 I have. I waas thinking about doing the 5160 with the oil at room temp to slow down the quench a bit. How long do you leave the blade in the oil for the interrupted quench? I was thinking 5 or 6 seconds in 150 degree Tough Quench for the W2.
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Yes, I will draw back a bowie or a camp - if I'm in the mood!
From what I've been reading on this forum and others, Tough Quench might be a little fast for 5160. I just don't know how to compensate for that variable. I think Kevin Cashen would say to get the oil best for the steel. On the Tex A and 5160 I do about 5 1/2 seconds for the Quench. On a fully ground blade, that seems to be about right.
I just did my first W1 @ 6-7 seconds, but then I noticed that I was a little high on the temp! I was over 150! Now, Tim Zowada and Kevin would say something more like 120-140 I believe. Anyway, I took that W1 blade and stabbed it REPEATEDLY into the end of my contact wheel support bar without damaging the point in any way. I was impressed!
That pretty much brings my heat treatment up to date..
 
It's not very often I make a knife that does NOT take-dwon, but this happened to be one of them.
Nothing special about the knife, really.
Mortised handle with some osage that I sent off to be stabilized.
Slight recurve to the blade.
Stainless guard and handle bolt.
I don't keep a record of any specs on my knives - when they're gone, they're gone. It was probably about a 5 1/2 inch blade and a 5 inch handle.

kba1.jpg



kba2.jpg



kba4.jpg
 
nice.....that is some ORANGE osage orange!! No takedown, eh? That is your trademark. Why the change on this one?
 
jdm61 said:
nice.....that is some ORANGE osage orange!! No takedown, eh? That is your trademark. Why the change on this one?
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No particular reason. Not even sure why. I do NOT like making a knife that I don't have access to. I like that take-down feature a lot. Just makes sense to me.
I've talked to this guy in the deer photo above numerous times, and he just flat out raves about the performance of this knife and its edge holding ability. After a lot of time, I've been going over what I've been doing the past 6 months or so, and I'm pretty sure why this blade is holding such a good edge.
Only a little more testing and I'll know why.
It's stupid simple.
 
talk about great luck!!!! getting "the knife that won't stop cutting" into the hands of a guy with a nationally broadcasted TV hunting show:D :thumbup: Now if you can only get YOURSELF on the show to talk the knives, then you will be rolling in that FAT cash and have a 4 year order backlog.....lol
 
Congrat's. Niothing like a little recognition for all your hard work! TEXAS DEER! It just doesn't get any better than that!
 
jdm61 said:
talk about great luck!!!! getting "the knife that won't stop cutting" into the hands of a guy with a nationally broadcasted TV hunting show:D :thumbup: Now if you can only get YOURSELF on the show to talk the knives, then you will be rolling in that FAT cash and have a 4 year order backlog.....lol
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Actually, the filming crew is already being scheduled! Should be at my house this Spring.
 
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