JK Budget Hunter Review
www.jkhandmadeknives.com
Specs:
Steel: 1095
Blade Length: 3.5”
Height: 1”
Width: 1/8”
Grind: Convex
Handle: About 4,” contoured
This is a great medium size “do all” blade. It is a bit smaller than my Kephart but still bigger than the Hikers Backup. I like the fact that I can get a full grip on this knife, but the blade isn’t so big to be unwieldy.
I set up my knives in a two part series. One is carried as a hard use belt knife for chopping, batoning, digging holes, hammering in tent stakes, building fire, etc. The other is carried in my pack and is kept ultra sharp. That knife is for fine work including cleaning game, preparing food, and making fuzz sticks if I dull my belt knife while I’m out. This Budget Hunter fit’s the role great as a belt knife and a pack knife. When I carry a KaBar or Kephart on my belt, this would be great in the pack to cut up a deer or other game. When I’m just hiking light, this 3.5” blade will get the job done, and be extremely comfortable to carry along.
John sent me this blank with simple instructions: beat it up. I can do that!
Today was a good day in the woods. I planned to do some basic and common wood skills with the JK knife only.
It began with me needing fire wood. I found some dead standing wood about 4” in diameter that needed to come down. Sure I could have used my saw, but I wouldn’t be following John’s rules. I drove this knife through the trunk (cross grain) with the hammer end of my tomahawk. About ten whacks later, tree came down.
This is my buddy with the tree:
Now it’s time to chop it up, baton it into pieces and make some fuzz sticks to get a spark to. I got the tree into three manageable pieces and started banging away. I left a few larger pieces for fuel and made quick work of tinder and kindling.
Once the fuzz sticks were done I decided I better dig a hole for the fire. No it wasn’t that windy, but hey, lets work this thing. Oh look, here’s a nice rocky spot. Dig in!!
So now I’ve got my site and all my material prepared. After a quick spark and a few moments for the flame to run through the tinder, we start adding wood.
I let that cook down a bit while I found a couple good sticks to cook out kielbasa on. After hammering, batoning, fuzz sticks and digging in rocks, I made up a couple wonderful skewers to get some food on the fire. Today was teriyaki rice and fire roasted kielbasa.
Here’s how she looks now:
Will it shave? Well, no. But I wouldn’t expect any knife to be able to after this. The edge is NOT chipped, dented, or rolled over. It is just dull. It is still sharp enough to cut and I could still get a fire going if I needed to. A few quick runs on the stone and she’s back to new.
Conclusion:
JK Convex blade for around $75? BUY ONE!!
www.jkhandmadeknives.com
Specs:
Steel: 1095
Blade Length: 3.5”
Height: 1”
Width: 1/8”
Grind: Convex
Handle: About 4,” contoured
This is a great medium size “do all” blade. It is a bit smaller than my Kephart but still bigger than the Hikers Backup. I like the fact that I can get a full grip on this knife, but the blade isn’t so big to be unwieldy.
I set up my knives in a two part series. One is carried as a hard use belt knife for chopping, batoning, digging holes, hammering in tent stakes, building fire, etc. The other is carried in my pack and is kept ultra sharp. That knife is for fine work including cleaning game, preparing food, and making fuzz sticks if I dull my belt knife while I’m out. This Budget Hunter fit’s the role great as a belt knife and a pack knife. When I carry a KaBar or Kephart on my belt, this would be great in the pack to cut up a deer or other game. When I’m just hiking light, this 3.5” blade will get the job done, and be extremely comfortable to carry along.
John sent me this blank with simple instructions: beat it up. I can do that!
Today was a good day in the woods. I planned to do some basic and common wood skills with the JK knife only.
It began with me needing fire wood. I found some dead standing wood about 4” in diameter that needed to come down. Sure I could have used my saw, but I wouldn’t be following John’s rules. I drove this knife through the trunk (cross grain) with the hammer end of my tomahawk. About ten whacks later, tree came down.
This is my buddy with the tree:
Now it’s time to chop it up, baton it into pieces and make some fuzz sticks to get a spark to. I got the tree into three manageable pieces and started banging away. I left a few larger pieces for fuel and made quick work of tinder and kindling.
Once the fuzz sticks were done I decided I better dig a hole for the fire. No it wasn’t that windy, but hey, lets work this thing. Oh look, here’s a nice rocky spot. Dig in!!
So now I’ve got my site and all my material prepared. After a quick spark and a few moments for the flame to run through the tinder, we start adding wood.
I let that cook down a bit while I found a couple good sticks to cook out kielbasa on. After hammering, batoning, fuzz sticks and digging in rocks, I made up a couple wonderful skewers to get some food on the fire. Today was teriyaki rice and fire roasted kielbasa.
Here’s how she looks now:
Will it shave? Well, no. But I wouldn’t expect any knife to be able to after this. The edge is NOT chipped, dented, or rolled over. It is just dull. It is still sharp enough to cut and I could still get a fire going if I needed to. A few quick runs on the stone and she’s back to new.
Conclusion:
JK Convex blade for around $75? BUY ONE!!
I then batoned said log, using a pipe for the baton. When it split, the log fell over on the bench and landed on my camera, which was on, and broke the lens.....
That sucks:thumbdn:
