JK Tin Knife - short review

1066vik

1066vik

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Joined
Nov 28, 2009
Messages
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A while back I got a Tin Knife from John and am finally getting around to posting up my thoughts on it.
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When it first arrived, I felt the need to touch up the edge, so I can't comment on how the "as received" edge would work.
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Grinds are even, all edges are left square, and I can strike great sparks off a ferro rod with any part of the knife, but they don't feel so sharp in the hand that I'm worried about cutting myself accidentally.
No problems cutting soft materials - paper, cardboard, cordage
Strong tip - drills well without rolling the edge.
produces good fuzz sticks, shavings, and sawdust for fire making.

Overall, it seems like a good piece of kit to me for last ditch type things, but due to the size of the tang, I would not want it to be the only knife available for a long period of use. (sorry about the fuzzy "in -hand" pics)
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With that in mind, I looked at grip alternatives -- I had made a set of wood scales for an izula/eskabar a while back and to my surprise the holes in the handle of the tin knife are big enough for a chicago screw and spaced almost far enough apart for the holes in the scales -- 30 seconds later, I had scales on the knife that increased the comfort & usefulness significantly.
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Looks pretty good. I've been looking over so many tin knives, I always just end up buying something bigger.
 
John's Tin Knives are great. I've had mine in my pocket for a couple of years now. It is the handiest knife I know of.
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Here`s my personal Tin Knife. It`s a little larger than the one in the original post.

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Hi guys -

1066vic - cool idea on he handle for your tin-knife.

Here is the smallest tin knife that I had seen - John put micarta scales on this one and made a sheath for it - I have not measured or weighed it, but it is a little smaller than your standard tin knife.

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I think it would be cool to have a collection of JK mini replicas - I have been kicking the idea around since I won the above-pictured knife at the recent gathering.

Here is a shot of my "scanduckie", my own design that John made at a gathering last year when he made each of the attendee's their own tin knife -

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Here is a shot of several custom tin knives fresh out of the initial heat-treat -

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Of course no JK is truly finished until it has had it's moment "on the stump".

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best regards -

mqqn
 
I loved the look of the scanduckie when I saw the gathering pics last year -- looks pretty close to perfect to me for the way i use a blade in this size range.
 
It appears that John is now making Tin knives in many different styles. There goes my checkbook.
 
here's a small one made by John so that it would fit in my wallet (I made a duct tape/plastic milk jug "sheath" for it")

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