- Joined
- Sep 10, 2010
- Messages
- 3,955
Hey guys,
Went hunting this year and while I came home empty handed due to being a terrible shot, my brother bagged a nice buck and I processed it with him.:thumbup:
The knives used were my Custom M390 (61-62) Nessmuck made by J Rosa, and a Scrap MAX 460 in ELMAX (unknown hardness). Both have handles made by me from stabilized wood and micarta.
Both knives performed like champs and made extremely quick work of the deer. Last season I used an ESEE 3 and a Swamp Rat Rodent Solution for the same work and had some serious difficulty with slicing the meat as well as dullness after some tough cuts and contact with hair. ELMAX and M390 in thin blades with solid edge geometry cut very aggressively and take a long time to get dull. Both blades could still shave arm hair easily when the work was done.
As for design aspects, the Scrap Max is great for removing meat from bone and slices very nicely for such a flat blade. Its not a very robust blade though and shouldn't be used for some of the tougher stuff like dislocating the hips. I really think that for the money there isn't a better knife out there than the scrap max models.
The M390 Nessmuck is my design and overall Im very happy with it. The handle is comfortable as can be and is slices very well. It really excelled at skinning and due to its thickness (.150) it can stand up to hard work. M390 is much tougher than it gets credit for, I think it could hand with something like 01 in terms of durability. I need to tweak the edge geometry though and get the angle down to about 22 inclusive. Im also very pleased with how grippy the stabilized wood was when bloody. Koa and Mango wood are very porous and even with a 1500 grit finish the pores create a grippy surface.
Overall Im really impressed with how ELMAX and M390 performed in comparison to traditional steels like 1095 and 52100. They just seem to have more bite when slicing and hold a razor edge much longer.
Here's some pics!
My hunting setup ( 454 Casull + Big Chris Customs 13 inch Bolo machete.)
Went hunting this year and while I came home empty handed due to being a terrible shot, my brother bagged a nice buck and I processed it with him.:thumbup:
The knives used were my Custom M390 (61-62) Nessmuck made by J Rosa, and a Scrap MAX 460 in ELMAX (unknown hardness). Both have handles made by me from stabilized wood and micarta.
Both knives performed like champs and made extremely quick work of the deer. Last season I used an ESEE 3 and a Swamp Rat Rodent Solution for the same work and had some serious difficulty with slicing the meat as well as dullness after some tough cuts and contact with hair. ELMAX and M390 in thin blades with solid edge geometry cut very aggressively and take a long time to get dull. Both blades could still shave arm hair easily when the work was done.
As for design aspects, the Scrap Max is great for removing meat from bone and slices very nicely for such a flat blade. Its not a very robust blade though and shouldn't be used for some of the tougher stuff like dislocating the hips. I really think that for the money there isn't a better knife out there than the scrap max models.
The M390 Nessmuck is my design and overall Im very happy with it. The handle is comfortable as can be and is slices very well. It really excelled at skinning and due to its thickness (.150) it can stand up to hard work. M390 is much tougher than it gets credit for, I think it could hand with something like 01 in terms of durability. I need to tweak the edge geometry though and get the angle down to about 22 inclusive. Im also very pleased with how grippy the stabilized wood was when bloody. Koa and Mango wood are very porous and even with a 1500 grit finish the pores create a grippy surface.
Overall Im really impressed with how ELMAX and M390 performed in comparison to traditional steels like 1095 and 52100. They just seem to have more bite when slicing and hold a razor edge much longer.
Here's some pics!
My hunting setup ( 454 Casull + Big Chris Customs 13 inch Bolo machete.)
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