Kerry Hampton Knives

I almost had this knife made back in 2009 but I broke a spring and set it aside. It's a fairly tough knife to build...sunk joints, muskrat master, very little space to house the blades, symmetrical equal end, etc. At 3 3/4", this pattern is a smaller version of the Remington R-4353 "Woodsman" (Some catalogs list it as "Outdoorman's Knife") which is 4 1/4". The original 4353 knives that I have seen were covered with bone with the bullet shields positioned near the master blade but I believe the original 4466s were covered with stag with the same bullet shield centered between the bolsters, so this is how I finished my version.

Not being particularly proud of how the blade tip positioning ended up on this guy, I am going to keep this one for myself but it still turned out to be a pretty knife so I am posting it here....enjoy :)

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-1.jpg

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-2.jpg

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-3.jpg

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-4.jpg

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-5.jpg

http://knifehead.com/images/khampton-334StagR4466-P-6.jpg
 
Last edited:
Keepin' it for yourself huh? I'm gonna have to find a way to buy it out of your pocket.

That's a really nice knife Kerry. :thumbup:

- Christian
 
Wow Kerry - I really like it! The stag is perfect :thumbup: I think it's a beauty.
Maybe you do these little specials on purpose to have a "reason" to keep them ;)
 
Looks good, Kerry. You mean I waited all these years just so you could end up keeping the finished product? :eek: :p:

Well, even the maker deserves a sweet knife. Congrats.
 
Kerry: When you say you are not satisfied with the position of blades in closed position......you mean the lack of space to grab the nail nick? Given the sunken joint....there can't be much room unless you make a more dramatic clip on one blade and skimp on the swedge on the other......eh? Was this taken directly from an old Remington? If so...what did they do? It really does look very good. When this happens could you put a half moon or whatever it is called into the frame to give more room for accessing nick? Realize it is not then an exact copy of the old Remington but it does solve a problem. Again...great job ona difficult pattern.

John Lloyd
 
Blues said:
Looks good, Kerry. You mean I waited all these years just so you could end up keeping the finished product? :eek: :p:

Well, even the maker deserves a sweet knife. Congrats.
Click to expand...

HA! That's kinda mean ain't it :p Well, back when I first ground these blades I was still a knifemaking pup, as opposed to an old dog. I'm not sure why these tips didn't center but I'm thinkin it's better this one stays in the vault and/or occasionally takes a ride in my pocket.
 
John L said:
Kerry: When you say you are not satisfied with the position of blades in closed position......you mean the lack of space to grab the nail nick? Given the sunken joint....there can't be much room unless you make a more dramatic clip on one blade and skimp on the swedge on the other......eh? Was this taken directly from an old Remington? If so...what did they do? It really does look very good. When this happens could you put a half moon or whatever it is called into the frame to give more room for accessing nick? Realize it is not then an exact copy of the old Remington but it does solve a problem. Again...great job ona difficult pattern.

John Lloyd
Click to expand...

The problem is with blade tip centering in the trough. I'm guessing I didn't get the tips ground in the center. As you know, it doesn't effect how the knife works...it's just a handmade knife thing. The rest of the knife actually came out quite well. The one thing I would do different is make sure the that spey blade is sitting up higher out of the trough. I ended up grinding a bit of a recurve in it so that it wouldn't rap the spring. There is very little room to house these blades. They are so close to the spring center that they can easily rap it and make a flat spot the blade edge.

The master blade is basically a muskrat clip blade. They typically don't have swedges and the nail nick is very close to the top of the blade, which is usually simply radiused over. There is an ease in the handle to access the nick which is below the edge of the trough.

I patterned this from a 1985 R-4466 which I hope is very close to an original. The originals are as rare as chicken lips and if I had one, probably wouldn't take it apart for patterning unless it was in terrible shape.
 
KnifeHead said:
HA! That's kinda mean ain't it :p Well, back when I first ground these blades I was still a knifemaking pup, as opposed to an old dog. I'm not sure why these tips didn't center but I'm thinkin it's better this one stays in the vault and/or occasionally takes a ride in my pocket.
Click to expand...

Yep... but we'll just have to agree to disagree on that and consider it water under the bridge. That said, better in anyone's pocket than in the vault imho.
 
KnifeHead said:
The problem is with blade tip centering in the trough. I'm guessing I didn't get the tips ground in the center. As you know, it doesn't effect how the knife works...it's just a handmade knife thing. The rest of the knife actually came out quite well. The one thing I would do different is make sure the that spey blade is sitting up higher out of the trough. I ended up grinding a bit of a recurve in it so that it wouldn't rap the spring. There is very little room to house these blades. They are so close to the spring center that they can easily rap it and make a flat spot the blade edge.

The master blade is basically a muskrat clip blade. They typically don't have swedges and the nail nick is very close to the top of the blade, which is usually simply radiused over. There is an ease in the handle to access the nick which is below the edge of the trough.

I patterned this from a 1985 R-4466 which I hope is very close to an original. The originals are as rare as chicken lips and if I had one, probably wouldn't take it apart for patterning unless it was in terrible shape.
Click to expand...


Oh....sorry bout that one Kerry. I did not notice the off center of blades....which is not really that bad at all. Great knife really.

John L
 
I saw an original once that had off centered blades, so Kerry it's perfect :thumbup:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top