Kodiak PA
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 1998
- Messages
- 2,447
One of the best things about BladeForums.Com IMO is getting to do reviews on knives made by fellow BFC members. You really get to know the makers well here and I recently had an opportunity to test one of Matt Lameys new knives. Matt has been on the forum for quite a while and we first met when I was looking for an old issue of Blade. Matt was nice enough to send me the issue I was looking for and we started talking
about knives! Like there would be something else?
Matt informed me that he was a new maker and asked if I would like to test one of his camp knives. Who wouldnt? I said sure and he went to work. Our plan was for me to test a large camping knife here in Kodiak. Due to cost restraints and Matt being new to the knife making circuit we agreed upon a large camp knife in a basic steel. I wanted a tough knife so we agreed that the RC would be around 57-59.
What I got was a 1095 bead blasted hollow grind camp knife. A large one, too! The blade is 9.5 inches long with an expose tang and thick brown micarta scales. OAL is 15 1/8 Take a peak:
Also, since I am getting spoiled by these forums Matt made arrangements that my buddy Gary Graley would do the sheath. Gary did another bang up job on the sheath and it is gorgeous! Since this is Kodiak and we got a 100 inches of rain last year I told Mark Mrozek, President of Sentry Solutions that I was going to put his Marine Tuf-Cloth (MTC) to the test. Bead blasted tool steel + Kodiak should not mix. Tuf-Cloth + rain did. Here is the knife in Garys sheath (sorry about the poor picture qualityI really need a digital camera):
When I got the knife my first impression was that it was a big, sturdy, hefty piece. I was impressed with how balanced the knife felt in my hand. The handle was very comfortable and fit my hand perfectly and I wanted to see if it would be as comfortable during use. The exposed tang was Matts idea. He knows I sometimes travel by bush plane and he wanted me to be able to use part of the knife in case of emergency (i.e., knocking out the planes window or using it as an emergency hammer). I loved that idea. The grind lines on the spine of the knife are a little off but the cutting edge is flawless. There is a nice section of serrations on the top of the spine to help prevent my hand from slipping forward. Matt admits that his knives are going to get better and they are but to be honest, the slight imperfections of the spine grind lines do not detract from the knifes usefulness at all. He did a good job on the bead blasting and the knife was very sharp when I got it in the mail. Gary saw the knife first since he was making the sheath and gave me a quick heads up. Gary was quite impressed with it and believe me, he calls them as he sees them. He is such a perfectionist when it comes to his sheaths; he would not have had a problem telling me if the knife wasnt up to par. He told me I had a winner.
I loaded up the knife with MTC the night before my review. Luckily it was pouring rain the morning of the test. Ideal Kodiak conditions. After all our rainy season here runs from January 1st to December 31st each year.
Chopping. I love chopping with fix blade knives and that was the first thing I wanted to do. So I chopped away. The knife has a very nice sweet spot just to the rear of the belly and the knifed performed admirably. I found a freestanding spruce tree in the forrest and decided that I would put the knife to the test. Just using the knife, I chopped the tree in half and though it was a dead tree the wood was very hard. 30 whacks and the tree was cut in half. Take a look at it on my Photopoint site:
Tree Cutting Test
Examining the knife I noticed that the forward section of the cutting edge was perfect. There were a few slight edge deformations nearer the handle where the steel is softer but NO chips. Please note, I am being extremely picky. These are just slight movements of the edge and after using the Sharpmaker they disappeared.
Heres the kicker but I noticed this during the test. Lameys knife held up just as well and to be honest a bit better than my Busse Basic Model 7 did with its modified INFI during the chopping tests in the edge deformation department. I know that is a subjective statement since I was testing the knives at different times and wasnt using any controls such as using identical woods, etc., but this is my observation. Even my 11 year old son noticed the same thing. That tells me something when a craftsman gives so much individual attention to a single knife and babies it through its heat treatments. Joe Talmadge is right. The success of a knife steel is in its heat treatment. I guess that is why I love custom knives so much. I was very proud of this and Matt should be, too. Now I know that the Busse will stay sharper longer with its combination flat and convex grinds compared to 1095 but I was still plenty impressed examining both of the knife edges and seeing how well Lameys knife did.
Rope. I love all those hemp-cutting tests. Well I did my own. I had a bunch of 1 inch manila rope in the shed and I decided to see how the knife did against all that mean rope .well, I just used chopping motions and I had a blast cutting through it all. I just used single chops and the rope went flying off. The only reason I stopped was because I ran out of rope. My stoop looked like a barber'sshop. Take a look for yourself:
Rust & Handle. I put the knife in a waterfall and totally saturated the handle. The brown micarta handle didnt slip at all. I felt very confident that the knife wouldnt fly out of my hand when wet. Since I have large hands I would have liked the handle a tad bigger but I can order that with my next custom knife. There were absolutely no signs of rust on the knife at all two weeks posttest. Sentry makes a fine product. The knife though large, touched up easily on the Spyderco Sharpmaker. This knife has my full confidence. I have no reservations at all taking this knife out in the wilderness with me. I think if Matt Lamey sticks with knife making he is well on his way and hes going to impress us. Here is an example of another of Matts knives:
Lamey Camp Knife with Blued Blade
Matts knives are very affordable. His price list as of Oct 2 was a large Camp knife (9.5) running at $175 with a custom sheath and $150 without it. His 7 model is $150 with the sheath and $125 sans sheath.
Steels are negotiable. Matt is starting to work with 5160. Handles are customer choice though I impressed with my rustic brown micarta ones. It holds up very well.
For more info you can contact Matt at:
rmlamey@ametro.net
Oh one last shot. Sorry about the quality but I love these outdoor scenes. After all I had to wet the handle to test it.
Regards,
------------------
~Greg~
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
Matt informed me that he was a new maker and asked if I would like to test one of his camp knives. Who wouldnt? I said sure and he went to work. Our plan was for me to test a large camping knife here in Kodiak. Due to cost restraints and Matt being new to the knife making circuit we agreed upon a large camp knife in a basic steel. I wanted a tough knife so we agreed that the RC would be around 57-59.
What I got was a 1095 bead blasted hollow grind camp knife. A large one, too! The blade is 9.5 inches long with an expose tang and thick brown micarta scales. OAL is 15 1/8 Take a peak:
Also, since I am getting spoiled by these forums Matt made arrangements that my buddy Gary Graley would do the sheath. Gary did another bang up job on the sheath and it is gorgeous! Since this is Kodiak and we got a 100 inches of rain last year I told Mark Mrozek, President of Sentry Solutions that I was going to put his Marine Tuf-Cloth (MTC) to the test. Bead blasted tool steel + Kodiak should not mix. Tuf-Cloth + rain did. Here is the knife in Garys sheath (sorry about the poor picture qualityI really need a digital camera):
When I got the knife my first impression was that it was a big, sturdy, hefty piece. I was impressed with how balanced the knife felt in my hand. The handle was very comfortable and fit my hand perfectly and I wanted to see if it would be as comfortable during use. The exposed tang was Matts idea. He knows I sometimes travel by bush plane and he wanted me to be able to use part of the knife in case of emergency (i.e., knocking out the planes window or using it as an emergency hammer). I loved that idea. The grind lines on the spine of the knife are a little off but the cutting edge is flawless. There is a nice section of serrations on the top of the spine to help prevent my hand from slipping forward. Matt admits that his knives are going to get better and they are but to be honest, the slight imperfections of the spine grind lines do not detract from the knifes usefulness at all. He did a good job on the bead blasting and the knife was very sharp when I got it in the mail. Gary saw the knife first since he was making the sheath and gave me a quick heads up. Gary was quite impressed with it and believe me, he calls them as he sees them. He is such a perfectionist when it comes to his sheaths; he would not have had a problem telling me if the knife wasnt up to par. He told me I had a winner.
I loaded up the knife with MTC the night before my review. Luckily it was pouring rain the morning of the test. Ideal Kodiak conditions. After all our rainy season here runs from January 1st to December 31st each year.
Chopping. I love chopping with fix blade knives and that was the first thing I wanted to do. So I chopped away. The knife has a very nice sweet spot just to the rear of the belly and the knifed performed admirably. I found a freestanding spruce tree in the forrest and decided that I would put the knife to the test. Just using the knife, I chopped the tree in half and though it was a dead tree the wood was very hard. 30 whacks and the tree was cut in half. Take a look at it on my Photopoint site:
Tree Cutting Test
Examining the knife I noticed that the forward section of the cutting edge was perfect. There were a few slight edge deformations nearer the handle where the steel is softer but NO chips. Please note, I am being extremely picky. These are just slight movements of the edge and after using the Sharpmaker they disappeared.
Heres the kicker but I noticed this during the test. Lameys knife held up just as well and to be honest a bit better than my Busse Basic Model 7 did with its modified INFI during the chopping tests in the edge deformation department. I know that is a subjective statement since I was testing the knives at different times and wasnt using any controls such as using identical woods, etc., but this is my observation. Even my 11 year old son noticed the same thing. That tells me something when a craftsman gives so much individual attention to a single knife and babies it through its heat treatments. Joe Talmadge is right. The success of a knife steel is in its heat treatment. I guess that is why I love custom knives so much. I was very proud of this and Matt should be, too. Now I know that the Busse will stay sharper longer with its combination flat and convex grinds compared to 1095 but I was still plenty impressed examining both of the knife edges and seeing how well Lameys knife did.
Rope. I love all those hemp-cutting tests. Well I did my own. I had a bunch of 1 inch manila rope in the shed and I decided to see how the knife did against all that mean rope .well, I just used chopping motions and I had a blast cutting through it all. I just used single chops and the rope went flying off. The only reason I stopped was because I ran out of rope. My stoop looked like a barber'sshop. Take a look for yourself:
Rust & Handle. I put the knife in a waterfall and totally saturated the handle. The brown micarta handle didnt slip at all. I felt very confident that the knife wouldnt fly out of my hand when wet. Since I have large hands I would have liked the handle a tad bigger but I can order that with my next custom knife. There were absolutely no signs of rust on the knife at all two weeks posttest. Sentry makes a fine product. The knife though large, touched up easily on the Spyderco Sharpmaker. This knife has my full confidence. I have no reservations at all taking this knife out in the wilderness with me. I think if Matt Lamey sticks with knife making he is well on his way and hes going to impress us. Here is an example of another of Matts knives:
Lamey Camp Knife with Blued Blade
Matts knives are very affordable. His price list as of Oct 2 was a large Camp knife (9.5) running at $175 with a custom sheath and $150 without it. His 7 model is $150 with the sheath and $125 sans sheath.
Steels are negotiable. Matt is starting to work with 5160. Handles are customer choice though I impressed with my rustic brown micarta ones. It holds up very well.
For more info you can contact Matt at:
rmlamey@ametro.net
Oh one last shot. Sorry about the quality but I love these outdoor scenes. After all I had to wet the handle to test it.
Regards,
------------------
~Greg~
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Kodiak PA (edited 03 October 1999).]
