"Lofty" Wiseman Survival Tool/Knife

It has a really nice shape, sort of a khukuri/bolo cross. BUT, I prefer a high carbon steel in a knife this size, not 440A. And the rubber handle would get to be "grabby" after a lot of chopping, leading to blisters. I like the the clip point, in addition to the blade's general shape. It should be a useful design, if they changed the materials list a bit. Also, I don't think much of that sheath. Looks like you'd need three arms, AND a good friend, to get that blade out in a hurry. Also, there was no provision for strapping a pouch to the sheath, for survival supplies. I'd take this over the Wilkinson Sword "survival knife", but only if they were my only two *choices*. If you bought yourself a good khuk, and reground the tip to give the same general profile as Lofty's knife, and then got yourself a good Kydex sheath made, you'd have a much better blade. Or talk to Bill over at Himalayan Imports, and see if they could do a custom blade like this.
 
On the specification page image, it says it has a "vulcanised rubber handle" but in the text box, it says the handle is Zytel!

Hmmm.. i have emailed them and wait to hear unless someone here has bought one already!
 
Do a search on here for "Lofty Wiseman" you will get information on his knife from a number of previous threads.
 
This is not a bad knife at all if you like the angled handle. I prefer something more straight. It feels like Zytel, if I remember rightly. Its beefy enough to be a hard wood chopper and construction is a little better than a mid range Cold Steel. The sheaths are fine but nothing to get excited about and to the standard of say Gerber. This type of knife is not a quick draw sabre.

We broke the tip off one of the early ones whilst testing one for a Magazine in the early '90's. Then again we broke or bent anything of this style and length. Hard Wood choppers are very difficult to make without undue mass. They take tremendous forces which 9 inch knives never have to contend with.

I'd like to get my hands on a Becker patrol machete (name?)as I think they have the compromises about right for this length of blade; ie: price to weight to strength to relace it if it does break.

For the NIB collector, this is a knife designed by Lofty Wiseman who is one of the few Survival teachers who has made a living from this subject. The design is to me a classic example of a "best practice" survival knife. It may have been surpassed in performance and steel and not to everybody's taste, but it is "the" Lofty Design. Copies of this design we will see again when a manufacturer wants to take a chance with a long hard wood chopper, but will only come about when steels improve to the point where I can't break them :D
 
Greenjacket, have you tried a traditional design like a dual tapered convex ground forged parang?

-Cliff
 
Hi, Cliff. Funny you should ask.

Steve Filicietti contacted me with a most gentlemanly offer to solve my hard wood chopper delema. Steve is an Australian custom maker and seems to enjoy the challenge of making longer blades. His work looks gorgeouse. I've now sent him a job description and some parameters of what I like. He's going to produce something to fit the bill between his custom work and hunting.

The blade will be somewhere about 14-15 inches long. A handle on the straight side and the blade with some reverse curve. It needs to be able to handle 4 inch soft and hard wood limbs, not vibrate, hold an keen edge, have no bend memory, dig, pry, and take a full force strike agaist a stone (as if one had a misfortunate miss hit) and be as light as posible. Exactly how the blade turns out is up to Steve as he is the one to knows what his steel can and cannot do.

This little project is definately on the "lets keep it fun" side of the fence and is as a prototype for a European theatre hard wood machete survival blade. Similar in concept to Lofty's. Be sure I will keep everyone posted but this will take some time.
 
GREENJACKET;

Go for the BK&T Patrol Machete....it is GREEEAAAATTT! as Tony the Tiger would say!:p
 
The parang/bolo design seems like a favorite amongst SAS and USAF survival school grads...

I know Greg Davenport favors this blade type. He may pop in here and suggest some things!

Best,

Brian.
 
Muzzleup, yep, I probably should but we have crosses replies so you can see one reason why I'm not in a rush.

Another reason is that I have a Blackjack Marauder II which does the job very well. Its been out of production for sometime. Mine I bought only five years ago, having looked for one for sometime on the second hand market.

Once upon a time I did some knife write ups for a combat magazine, so a whole lot of blades passed through my hands. I'm a lot out of date with some of the newer stuff. I already have some good blades that just keep on working. This makes it difficult to have a reason to buy newer stuff. I'm not in a desperate rush to start doing write up tests again as they are hard work. Having said that, I'm moving back out to the countryside with my family after an all too long spell in the city. There is a retail idea I want to try which might give me the chance to fit in some fun knife stuff. My 5 years old son, Freddie, is already into knives/swords/light sabres and will need to be brought up to speed. I've just bought a CR Shaddow III which has just done the "in the kitchen workout" (full story comming to a forum near you). Funny, the CR Shaddow will fit Freddie's hand perfectly next year.;)
 
GREENJACKET :

and take a full force strike agaist a stone
Click to expand...

Is your requirement here simply that the blade not suffer a gross fracture, or that there is some minimum acceptable amount of edge damage.

Steve's work looks very nice by the way, the edge geometry specifically looks like it would lead to high cutting ability :


http://www.unitedbladeworx.com.au/Steve.htm

I will be interested to see what he comes up with and your experience with the blade.

-Cliff
 
I've read Wiseman's books and really respect his opinions. However, I think if I want a knife like the one pictured I will go with a Becker Machax. I like carbon steel over 440 stainless and the handle fits my hand. The Wiseman blade's handle seems to have a more serious bend than that of my Anaconda (which I find very comfortable).

I never did find the price of the Wiseman knife on the site, but I bet it is high compared to the Becker, especially with shipping from England and all. Still it seems to be a well executed idea.
 
Found the price on the web site under "Order"

The Lofty Survival Knife Matte $155.00

The Lofty Survival Knife Bright $165.00

Seems like a lot for a 440 Stainless knife

:)
 
You are going to see price elevation simply because there is a "name" behind the blade, this is very common. It seems however like a decent blade, which has as a rare feature, a grind which changes as you move along the blade to accomodate various tasks. The sharpened clip on top seems like a nice idea as well as a splitting wedge, however the comfort of the handle in that position would seem to be low.

In regards to the steel, 440A is a solid choice for a stainless steel for that blade as it is one of the tougher more ductile stainless steels, and high wear resistance and 60+ RC is not a huge benefit in that class of blade. I would prefer a non-stainless steel though as blade corrosion has personally never been a problem and you can get a tougher blade that way.


-Cliff
 
Cliff, the stone parameter is for no gross fracture or when on a thin blade not to buckle. I've had both happen. The actual edge will be rolled or lost but needs to be field, read DMT, fixable. Catastrophic damage: snap break, buckling or compact cresent chip is what you cannot afford to happen with a survival knife. Then again I want something hard to hold and keep a keen edge but light to carry.

I'm still saving up for a belt sander to sort out some battle damage on a couple of my blades. Dinks are such a bore.

Corrosion has never realy worried me with a working blade. Just remember to oil them up when you give them a rest. Natural blackened blades tell a story. (Old boys used to oil their tools: spades and pitch forks, every night.)

Lofty Wiseman, SAS, Gurkha Kukri and British Army spring to mind. Those kukri chaps will tell you the efficiency of an angled handle. Becker has one in its range and so has Busse gone that way. My thought is that the angle of attack for chopping does have some real advantages, especially on medium short dense blades. They do help if you let the blade do the work. But I like something straighter. Stainless, because modern manufacturers don't believe that their customers could handle the lovely new knives going rusty and black (shelf life/shop soiled/finger prints don't sell well).
 
I have one and the handle feels like Zytel. Not a bad knife for the price. It is in the same class as the Al Mar Quest/Pathfinder types. As a tool it sacrifices speed for mass and length for blade width. There are better tools for the job. You have to decide, whether you want to carry something like this, or a set of tools.

N2S
 
not2sharp, the Wiseman handle is angled a little more acutely than the Al Mar Pathfinders. We broke one of the Al Mar's about the same time, took out a big cresent chip. They are both on the heavy side for extended carry and when working above ones head. The reach is great with these longer blades when attacking hawthorn bushes, hedges and limbing out, but the weight is telling for lighter vegetation.

As you pont out there are a whole lot of other most useful tools you could carry instead. My Glock spade and Project are a good team.

Even with gloved hands my CR Project cannot get into bramble and hawthorn. This goes for all the short blades. Roe deer in their fatal last seconds of life seem to be able to get well deep into thickets. When I was younger we used to set up camp in the middle of a large thicket, which kept the grown ups at bay. Later, I've often used one for setting up an OP; crawl into the centre, prop the roof up and cutout a living area and tunnels to OP's, good for 48 hours as then the vegetation starts to wilt where you have cut; best tool for this are Fiskars Snips.
 
GREENJACKET;

The more of your comments I read the more I am convinced that the BK&T Patrol Machete is just the tool for you. While clearing some grass in my back yard, I took a mighty swing at a clump and discovered that there was a brick under the grass. I thought sure as hell I just screwed up my edge but after brushing off the brick dust and inspecting the edge I found no damage OR dulling of the edge at the point of impact. This is ONE TOUGH BLADE and the geometry of handle to blade just seems to scream "let me cut, let me cut"
At least find one someplace to just handle for awhile and I am sure you will be convinced that its for you.:D
 
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