Matt Graham Knife

One recent episode had Joe use Matt's knife because he said it was a carbon steel (vs. stainless). 420 steel would not be that. Is Matt's made of a different steel?
 
nah, that was a Winkler knife that matt had for one episode.
not the modified condor.
 
When putting my knife together, I struggled with every bit of the design. Figuring I could tweak this or tweak that, and make it just a little bit better. Then, I figured if I did that I would end up with a knife I wanted, rather than keeping my mind open to perhaps there was something new here that I would like even better than where my own thoughts lead. Because so much thought went into this, and I did have to make some tweaks because of build style, I want to take you through every step and though process of this knife from tip to butt. So, that is where we will start. First, here is a picture of the finished knife.



At the tip, you will notice that the Matt Graham knife has quite the curve to the spine, a big drop and the knife point is below center line. I have to admit, my first impression is that it is an odd looking knife. During just about every episode, Matt spins his knife with two hands (almost like a hand drill) and uses the tip to drill something. Instead of keeping the knife true to design, my first instinct was to make that tip right on the centerline of the knife design. I told myself “Matt couldn’t control the cutting edge of the knife, because he hacked it out of an existing one. If he would have had more choice, it would make sense to get that tip closer to center.” It would balance things out, and make that type of drilling easier. I again reminded myself I wanted to stick with the original design, so I kept my tip below centerline. I think Matt’s knife is perhaps even a touch more below centerline, but honestly, this is far away that I could get myself to drift.



Next, is the stock thickness and edge type. As I mentioned earlier, the condor stock is closer to 5/32” than it is to an 1/8” and since I am working in steel made in Pennsylvania, I am working in english sizes. Meaning, 5/32” it is. For the grind, I am pretty sure that Condor is not doing super flat, water stone level type of scandi grinds. I am guessing they have an ever so slight convex quality to them. I could be wrong, but regardless, I am going to do what I want here. Usually, with smaller knives, I am a die hard flat bevel scandi type of person. I cringe when I hear people talk about just stropping and convexing their scandi edges, and yes…I do maintain all my small type knives on waterstones. I have just become addicted to the control that offers (in a small knife) and even the smallest amount of rounding is noticeable to me. I know it is just me being way over the top picky, but that is also why I am making my own knives instead of buying them. I am getting off point here….With a larger knife like this one, I am aware that it is not going to be a precision carver. So, I can give up that little bit of control in favor of gaining durability for chopping, battoning and other things I don’t normally do with a smaller knife. Which means that I going to put a slight amount of convex into this grind.

I generally make my customer knives at 12.5 degrees per side. It is a good general purpose angle, and yet has a lot of durability for whatever use people want to use it for. For my own personal stuff, I go thinner, but that is beside the point. For this particular knife I beefed up the angle, and kind of compromised and went with 14 degrees. It is an odd number, but when I explain how I did it, it was because of where I wanted the actual angle to land when the grind was done.

On a normal scandi, I would grind edge up until I raised a burr, and then go finer and finer grit until I got to the level I wanted to stop at. Since this was going to be slightly convex, I did the grinding at 14 degrees until I almost raised a burr. I mean super thin edge, but just quite not there yet. Then, I quite the edge up grinding. I went to the next finer grit, took the platen off the grinder (so that I could slack grind and get a little bit of the convex shape) and ground until I got a burr. Then it was the next grit, and then the next grit. Much like how I would grind out a machete or some other tool that didn’t have the right edge on it.



Next is the handle guard. This is the one area where I kind did do my own thing. On the Condor knife, there is a bit of guard, both on top and bottom that protrude. Again, my mind said “stick to the original design.” But, I just couldn’t do it. I don’t thrust with my knives. If I have to push on them, I put the butt in the palm of my hand so that there is no forward slippage. While chopping and cutting, the motion tends to pull the knife out of your hand, not your hand into the blade. I just don’t have a use for the guards, in fact, I find that all they do is get in the way for me. When carving, and doing things like battoning notches, the guards want to hit the work surface before the blade is done doing their job. Long way of saying, I really, really do not like guards. Much like a kukri, I just allowed my blade width blend into the handle, and not make any guard type swells.




Finally, the handle. Many knife handle designs are oriented one way or another. Flat back with two swells on the bottom. One swell on the back, two on the bottom, etc. As you can tell from the original knife, it is pretty much a uniform handle from any direction. One thing I wanted to avoid was being truly round, because it can be hard to keep things from spinning in your hand, and it also hard to index where the blade is in relation to the handle. Keeping Matt’s spinning technique in mind, I wanted a handle that felt the same in the forward and reverse grip, capable of spinning, but enough indexing to let you know where the blade was line up with when you held on it to.




So how did all this work out? The whole point was supposed to be an experiment to try something new and I have to say, I really like it. It will cut small and light grasses easier than every machete I have. It doesn’t have the reach and clearing path of a machete, but whatever is within reach of its path falls easily. With super light grasses like that, in my experience it is all about edge sharpness. An otherwise great machete can bend and break grasses, but a super sharp non-optimal tool can some times cut them better. Just saying…I am attributing this surprising feature to the fact that this knife is super stinking sharp and easy to keep that way.

On green wood sticks, ones the size I would normally harvest with my small knife, it obviously cuts them down very easy. What is even better is stuff that is the size that I would normally beaver chew, or intentionally cut through, I can just snap cut through. Super easy, and more importantly super fun! Limbing….easy. Bark stripping, while not as elegant and awesome and a small, super thin, super sharp, flat beveled scandi, was way more impressive than I was expecting. It did it nicely, it did it easily and I was impressed. For all the things that I gain with a knife this size, I can certainly live with that little bit of loss. Plus, nobody is telling me I have to stop carrying a small knife.
Having just completed the knife, I have not put it through a full evaluation to see if will hang in there for the long term. But, I am about ready to head out to the woods for about 10 days or so, and will for sure use it here. Hopefully it will get used on some animals, some fish, some crafting and shelter building, at a minimum. If there is enough interest, I can take pictures and report back further.

I wrote this all up to simply get people to think about things a little bit differently. Looking at this knife, I wouldn’t have given it the time of day. But since it was being used by someone with skills I highly respect, I figured it would be worth my time to look harder. It is in no way an attempt to sell knives. In fact, I probably would not make this knife for anyone. My wait list is way longer than I want it to be, and I am not looking to add it. I don’t want to chain myself in the shop, and I just want to be in the woods like most of you. For me, and my particular skill set and with the materials available to me, making a knife was the easiest way to learn something new. Perhaps for you, it is the same. Perhaps it is something different, like buying a Condor and cutting it up…..I don’t know. My point is this writing is not about promoting any product…..it is all about the fun of big steel and learning something I didn’t know yesterday.

B


Aloha Brian, what a beautiful knife you made. It reminds me of a Filipino barong machete, except your blade edge seems flatter than the barong. Looks great. I am a big fan of machetes.
 
Just wondering anyone moding the condor bush bowie to copy marts blade?
 
I'm a little bit curious about the belly on the spine of that blade. Is it for balance during spinning or to help bring the weight forward for "spinning?"

Eitherway, I'm with you, though my range is a little different. I haven't come across a 5.5-9 inch blade that I've even been happy with. Its always been too much compromise between a small and a large blade: too small to chop well, to large for detail work. I'm not much of a batoner, so that benefit is more or less moot.

Its enough where I just don't bother spending the money anymore. I'd rather just bring a large chopper like the Junglas and a light 3-4in knife to get the best of both worlds. Maybe one of these days, I'll reconsider.
 
I noticed that the Condor Matt Graham knife is available now retail. They are calling it the Primitive Bush Knife apparently.
 
Anybody see the last episode where Joe batons his knife with a rock into a rock? Lol:D
 
Hello Brian,just came to read your thread and to me it was very plausible,i like the design you made with Matt 's knife in mind!altough no use for me,i can see there is much use for your design,i would suggest to make one every now and then and maybe you get surprised how it will be in demand by more "bushmen" than you might think!thank you very much for the explanation of your way of "overthink" such an item,Regards,Robert.(Netherlands).PS: you could call it the "versatility knife".Duc nos quo tendimus.
 
Because I never read this initially and I wish the OP could redo his pics. I love his insight.
 
You know, I'm surprised Matt doesn't use a Kephart. His is kinda Kephart like. Well, sorta.
 
I was inspired to try Matt type mods on a Marbles jungle bowie, which is carbon steel.
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