Jungle Knife by Sher

I got my new Jungle Knife today. It came with a nice buffalo hide sheath that is welted and seems to be well made. The knife weighs 17 oz, is 1/4" thick at the spine and has a full flat forged grind. The blade is 11.5" long, the handle 5", with an overall length of 16.5". The knife balances about 3" in front of the scales.


The handle is supposed to be Satisal wood, but looks more like buffalo horn to me. It is checkered and quite comfortable. It is riveted to a full tang.

The blade has a near zero flat grind that tapers to a thin edge. The flats of the blade were left in the rough.

The knife chops very, very well, much like my BRKT golok. It bites deep with that thin edge. Unfortunately, I chipped it in the sweet spot. Either it was just too thin there or possibly an inclusion was present in the steel.


I continued chopping on through the limb. This thing chops with such ease.

Then I did some palmetto slashing, what a jungle knife is made for, and it did very well.

I took a look at the chip in the edge and decided to grind it out on my belt grinder, being careful not to overheat the blade.

 

Back from my regrind, the blade now has a convex final edge, just a bit thicker than the original grind (that's a switch for me).


I chopped on through the same piece of wood again, this time with no damage at all to the edge. It still chops great.


Then I slashed a palmetto leaf. Look at how clean the cut is. This knife is made for such work.

I pronounce the Jungle Knife "Good to go". :thumbup:

 

This knife has great balance and feel. It is light in the hand and fast. It chops hard bay wood with ease, and works very well as a short machete. My boonie hat is off to Kami Sher. This is a real working knife, for sure. As for the chip in the edge, I have done it to more expensive blades on occasion. It seems to be plenty strong now. That's why I have a Kalamazoo grinder.

 

Thanks, SG. This knife came nice and sharp, but the edge was quite thin, probably ground more for slashing light vegetation than chopping hardwood. With the new profile, it can do both with ease. This is one of those knives that works better than it looks. It looks rough and crude next to my Chitlangi, but I still like the Jungle knife for what it is, a great beater and all-around camp/jungle knife.

 

There were all kinds of theater-made bolos and choppers used in WWII. Some cutlasses were even used in the Pacific. I would imagine Merrill's Marauders would have found such a jungle knife useful in Burma.

 

I have chipped very few considering how many knives I have reviewed. But yes, I admit to finding weaknesses in knives on occasion. I don't know if it is a gift or a curse.