A knife is an extension of the human hand, if it doesn't feel or fit right it isn't going to perform well either no matter how nice the blade is. I probably spend more time working up the handles than the blade work. By paying attention to the feel of the handle italso becomes part of the soul of the knife. Good handle and good blade= good knife!
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Knife Handles
- Thread starter Coldwood
- Start date
EmsRescueGuy, first off, the Camillus isn't a "repro" of anything since Camillus had the first "fighting/utility" to the WWII troops before KaBar. The KaBar name caught on and stuck even though they made fewer issue knives than Camillus. Second, since WWII, KaBar has not had a contract to furnish knives to the military. Camillus has, up until about ten years ago. Ontario has it now. Third, the KaBar has a nice blade coating and handle polish, it looks good, but does not hold up any longer than the Camillus. I carried a Camillus for ten years in the Army. Many had them because they were only about $20 at the PX. You couldn't buy a KaBar at the PX. Fourth, I too feel the roundness of the Camillus allows the knife to twist when used hard so I used coarse sandpaper to take a little off both sides, then used black boot dye to bring back the original color. It feels great now.
The Camillus fighting/utility functions well and takes no back seat to the KaBar "repro".
The Camillus fighting/utility functions well and takes no back seat to the KaBar "repro".
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2006
- Messages
- 2,718
Thanks to all of you for your input!
g moutafis, I agree with what you say about some Scandinavian knives, even though I like the styling but am concerned about the lack of a guard. I have an old Frosts Mora, which I acquired used in 1960...it's traditional, they still make it today, dark red ovoid handle, no guard...looks like what was called a "sloyd" knife for shop work. It's slippery and not real comfortable to me, I'm afraid my hand will slide up the blade...although I expect most of us get a "death grip" on handles like that, so no danger.
I was thinking about reshaping the handle so I would like it better, but then thought "why disfigure a good old knife like this?" when I can just buy something new. So I got the Mora Clipper:
EmsRescueGuy, and Bruce, thank you for your information on the M2, interesting viewpoints. So I'm still wondering what to do with my Camillus
It's not a WWII antique and I don't have a lot of money in it. Considering that Camillus is undergoing restructering, to put it politely, it may have decent resale value in 10 years. But I'm getting too old to wait for that. So I think I'm just going to reshape the handle the way I like and use it and forget about it.
I also have a USN Mark 1 original made by PAL, which is a now defunct company local to me and it is one of my favorite carry knives, stacked leather handle, very comfortable to use. PAL was one of the early knife contractors in WWII, we could do a whole discussion on early contractors and theatre/shop knives, but I don't think that is for this forum. Bernard Levine does that best.
Thanks
g moutafis, I agree with what you say about some Scandinavian knives, even though I like the styling but am concerned about the lack of a guard. I have an old Frosts Mora, which I acquired used in 1960...it's traditional, they still make it today, dark red ovoid handle, no guard...looks like what was called a "sloyd" knife for shop work. It's slippery and not real comfortable to me, I'm afraid my hand will slide up the blade...although I expect most of us get a "death grip" on handles like that, so no danger.
I was thinking about reshaping the handle so I would like it better, but then thought "why disfigure a good old knife like this?" when I can just buy something new. So I got the Mora Clipper:
EmsRescueGuy, and Bruce, thank you for your information on the M2, interesting viewpoints. So I'm still wondering what to do with my Camillus
It's not a WWII antique and I don't have a lot of money in it. Considering that Camillus is undergoing restructering, to put it politely, it may have decent resale value in 10 years. But I'm getting too old to wait for that. So I think I'm just going to reshape the handle the way I like and use it and forget about it.I also have a USN Mark 1 original made by PAL, which is a now defunct company local to me and it is one of my favorite carry knives, stacked leather handle, very comfortable to use. PAL was one of the early knife contractors in WWII, we could do a whole discussion on early contractors and theatre/shop knives, but I don't think that is for this forum. Bernard Levine does that best.
Thanks