Medium Douk Doukd

[bdws1975]

Ok,
Too much talk about the douk douk. I had to buy one. I got a medium (3.5 inch blade) and it should be here next week.

does anyone have any experience with them or carry one on a regular basis?

thanks and take care,
brett

 

[jackknife]

At one time I had a small collection of off the wall simple work knives from other countries. like Opinels, Douk-Douk's, Mercator, Okapi, and so on. Now they have been distributed among the nephews, grandkids, kids. I found the Douk's to be a good knife, that like the sodbuster, will do anything you need to do with a pocket knife in the real world. It has a ton of charater that I like. But then I rode those BMW's for years that my friends thought were the ugliest motorcycles in the world with the cylinders sticking out to the sides like that. And my 2-stroke twist shift Vespa gets its share of ribbing. Drove a 1966 bug for many years.

I guess I have a very large soft spot in my heart for funky European designs. I would,nt feel bad about having a Douk in my pocket for the day as my only knife. Come to think of it, I have done so. They work great on bagels! :thumbup:

 

[bdws1975]

Thanks jackknife. as always, I love hearing your input.

I will let you know what I think when i get it.

Brett

 

[shecky]

If you like carbon steel in a thin, pocketable format, the Douk is for you. The backspring is pretty stout, and the blade profile (full grind, slightly hollow ground) makes for good slicing. The mediums are pretty generously sized, too.

 

[bdws1975]

If you like carbon steel in a thin, pocketable format, the Douk is for you. The backspring is pretty stout, and the blade profile (full grind, slightly hollow ground) makes for good slicing. The mediums are pretty generously sized, too.

Do you think it's good for heavy cutting? I have heard some say the RC is too low to make it a good cutter.

Thanks shecky,
Brett

 

[bdws1975]

well, I got my douk douk today.

My first impressions are....What a COOL knife.
It opens and closes with a snap and it's a really sturdy knife.

here's one thing I noticed: it wasn't sharp to the touch and I even thought it was pretty dull, until I sliced a piece of fruit with it. it went through like a light saber. even smoother and quicker than my VERY sharp sak.

I then put it on the 1000/8000 norton waterstones and got it super shaving sharp. i took a piece of paper, made about 10 slices. I then tried to shave my arm and couldn't. I stropped it and was able to shave, only to cut paper and lose that sharpness again.

HOWEVER, after all this, i got a piece of basswood and made soem aggressive cuts and it was through it like nothing. It handled the wood better than my shaving sharp whittler.

I guess this is an edge geometry issue? I am kind of dumbfounded that a knife that didn't FEEL sharp was super efficient at cutting.

Well, after cutting another apple, I set it down to see if a patina will form. We'll see here in an hour or so.

Any thoughts on the edge sharpness issue?

Thanks,
Brett

 

[jackknife]

Any thoughts on the edge sharpness issue?

Thanks,
Brett

Yes, Douk's and Opinels are different. Don't be obssesed with shaving hairs, Its not a strait razor. What it will do though, is be a great cutter for real world use like food, string/rope, wood, plastic drop cloths, opening UPS or fedex boxes, and anything else you would use a pocket knife on durring the course of the normal day. Just give it an after dinner stropping and use the heck out of it.

The Douk-Douk is a bit on the soft side, but its harder than the averige machette or third world knife. It will take a good utility edge right off the stone, and hold it good enough to get you thru a normal day. I don't know if I would even bother to strop it, just use it like that. As you are finding out, it does not need to be hair popping sharp to be very usefull. I don't bother to strop my Opinels, I just use the little diamond hone in my wallet to give it a 2minute touch up when it needs it. And thats not very often, maybe once or twice a week. A minute on each side of the blade and thats it. I don't get carried away anymore about it having to shave hairs off my arm. If it slices through cardboard and opens the box, or cuts the jute twine in one swipe I'm happy. The job gets done.

I think that with knives, just like guns and cars and alot of other things, it easy to go overboard with the obssesion. Like how much of a fraction of an inch minute of angle accuracy do you need on a deer rifle, or how fast does that car have to be to get to work in the morning traffic? The dou-douk is like a piece of utilitarian equiptment that has a unique history behind it. It's worked at it's intended task in some of the far corners of the world that France had colionies in that were some rough places. French Guiana, Algeria, Viet Nam, the Congo.

Using a douk-douk is like stepping into another reality. You have to stop thinking like a knife knut comparing the new wonder steels and how sharp they will get for how long. With a douk-douk you just use it and not think about the technical stuff. It cuts or it doesn't. If it doesn't it needs a touch up. I think you'll find you have to touch it up alot less than you think. Aside from the old German Mercators and Opinels, the douk-douk has one of the best designed blade profiles out there on a production knife.

Use the heck out of that sucker like a Moroccan herdsman.

 

[bdws1975]

Thanks JK.

You know, the more I get into knives the less I am impressed with supersteels, etc. You are completely right. They are tools to use and as long as they serve their purpose, they are worth it.

Thanks again for your insight.

brett