Wengers Mike Horn Ranger is an excellent knife and I bought it as soon it was released. After short use I figured out I am not Mike Horn and that I need a little different knife. I decided to improve it, based on my needs and theories how should Mike/Samek knife looks like.
Mike Horn Ranger was specifically developed to help Mike Horn with all the extraordinary and extreme situations during his expeditions. But I am not extreme expeditionist and I don't know why should Mikes knife be the best for me.
What I don't like on original Mike Horn Ranger:
Very thick slabs. They are 16 mm thick! (It goes for all Ranger series)
Plastic slabs are hollow. When water comes in, it comes out at most inconvenient moments.
I like knives which are build like a tank and hollow plastic scales are to tender for me.
Mechanism for releasing locked main blade (Swiss cross button) is also not built like a tank.
The main blade (which locks) on Mikes knife is serrated. This may be OK in suddenly happened extreme situations when you need strong, reliable and sharp blade to cut devil in two. My life exclude such situations and serrated blades
.
The straight edged blade is positioned on very weak spring and is not lockable. Using this blade is dangerous and not good for users fingers.
I don't like Wengers thumb openings on OH blades. They are very big and make the knife very wide (and ugly my opinion).
There is no wood saw! I am not sure about Mike, but I do need wood saw very much.
So, I solved this my way:
I made new scales from massive melamine resin (I think), epoxi glued on custom made 0,8 mm brass liners and riveted with inox rivets. Width of new scales is 11 mm.
For releasing locked main blade I made cut out on the left scale for direct thumb push on liner.
I replaced OH serrated blade with common straight edged blade.
Instead of the other blade I put on the knife a wood saw.
The rest of the knife stays in original form and on original place: awl, metal file, can opener, pliers and screwdriver bits hole. Knife is 31 mm thick and is still handy for use. I was playing with idea of adding another straight edged blade ( I love to have another sharp blade when the first becomes dull) but the knife would be too thick than.
All the knife still needs is a little, perhaps 5 6 cm long blade.
Samek
Mike Horn Ranger was specifically developed to help Mike Horn with all the extraordinary and extreme situations during his expeditions. But I am not extreme expeditionist and I don't know why should Mikes knife be the best for me.
What I don't like on original Mike Horn Ranger:
Very thick slabs. They are 16 mm thick! (It goes for all Ranger series)
Plastic slabs are hollow. When water comes in, it comes out at most inconvenient moments.
I like knives which are build like a tank and hollow plastic scales are to tender for me.
Mechanism for releasing locked main blade (Swiss cross button) is also not built like a tank.
The main blade (which locks) on Mikes knife is serrated. This may be OK in suddenly happened extreme situations when you need strong, reliable and sharp blade to cut devil in two. My life exclude such situations and serrated blades
. The straight edged blade is positioned on very weak spring and is not lockable. Using this blade is dangerous and not good for users fingers.
I don't like Wengers thumb openings on OH blades. They are very big and make the knife very wide (and ugly my opinion).
There is no wood saw! I am not sure about Mike, but I do need wood saw very much.
So, I solved this my way:
I made new scales from massive melamine resin (I think), epoxi glued on custom made 0,8 mm brass liners and riveted with inox rivets. Width of new scales is 11 mm.
For releasing locked main blade I made cut out on the left scale for direct thumb push on liner.
I replaced OH serrated blade with common straight edged blade.
Instead of the other blade I put on the knife a wood saw.
The rest of the knife stays in original form and on original place: awl, metal file, can opener, pliers and screwdriver bits hole. Knife is 31 mm thick and is still handy for use. I was playing with idea of adding another straight edged blade ( I love to have another sharp blade when the first becomes dull) but the knife would be too thick than.
All the knife still needs is a little, perhaps 5 6 cm long blade.
Samek