Moss

Lorien

Lorien

Nose to the Grindstone
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Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Dec 5, 2005
Messages
28,377
Yet another new knife for me!:D:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

I've been really lucky lately, and have acquired several new knives.
This latest one is by the talented young Chris Moss. Preliminary testing saw this knife slice through empty beer cans, and take large chips out of seasoned wood. I only just got it, but for its weight and size, this knife looks like it's going to be a star performer.

The handle is made from PEEK- a high performance rubber bearing compound. It fits my hand perfectly and is uber comfortable. The hamon is just gorgeous. Hopefully you can kind of see it ok in the pictures.

Enjoy the pics!

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looks like it would make for an excellent bush knife among all other kinds of useful stuff

Congrats
 
Beautiful knife. I'd bet it's a helluva chopper. The handle looks a bit slippery. I hope that it just looks that way.
 
Congrats, Lorien! :thumbup:
Great looking knife, Chris does do very nice work.
Really dig that hamon.

Doug
 
Congrats!

Thehandle mterial is interesting, it looks like it would be really comfortable.
 
Hello

Congrats, Lorien!Beautiful knife.:thumbup:


Stefan
 
SO, You the lucky dog that scored that beauty:thumbup:Nice score buddy:thumbup:
 
Nice knife. Beautiful hamon.
Not very fond of the handle material, but it looks very comfortable.

Nice score!

Kind regards,

Jos
 
DennisStrickland said:
please do'nt chop with this knife. show quality, put in safe
txs. for pics
Click to expand...

Not likely:)



thanks for all the positive comments! Chris Moss makes a great knife and deserves accolades for his work, and his customer service. He has a repeat customer here.
 
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I'm just so stoked about how great this knife fits!

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It sits just right in my hand. Now I just gotta make a sheath so I can get er out there!
 
I'm happy to report that this knife is much more than just another pretty face:)

I took an alder down a few days ago, and it was 5" diameter. Not a big tree, and alder is soft and easy to chop, (burns HOT too!). Anyway, it wasn't a big job, but I was very impressed with the performance of this blade. Limbing the tree out was really cool- the branches were like butter to cut through.

The knife is very, very light. There's really just not much material, but it still has great reach and nice balance. The forward belly in the blade is just right, and shears into stuff and the chips were flying. I was surprised at how efficient the knife is, especially when it weighs 40% less than the knife I usually use for this kind of work. I'm interested to see how the recurve handles the stringy vegetation which grows over all our trails.

I did find the handle to rotate a little bit, partially due to the smooth surface. I think I will wrap it with hemp cord at some point in the future.

So, next step is to stitch a sheath together so I can get this knife out on the trail. It's just too good and too fun a knife to leave at the house, it's home is in my hand:thumbup:
 
had some fun with the ole girl today!

This cherry tree, I chopped it. I cannot tell a lie.

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It's been a real pain in the ass, due to the fact this is a high speed section and it is difficult to clear this tree as there is a choke point directly uphill from it. The best you can hope to do is slow down enough to pedal over it, otherwise it's OVER THE HANDLEBAR!
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This knife is really light for chopping, and I totally don't intend to use it for this application as I have better knives for that, but it's very packable due to its weight and size, and proved itself to me today of being a top performer.
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Ah, nice, clear trail!
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and a regularly spectacular ocean view!
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I don't believe in allowing any of my knives to be lonely.
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after my last trail session, I realized the problem with using a bearing material for handle slabs- the glue doesn't stick so great!
The slabs started to separate from the tang at the butt of the handle and at the ricasso, so I Crazy Glue'd them and clamped them in the vise for a bit for the glue to harden.

I wrapped the handle with polished hemp twine, and saturated it with spar varnish. This helps keep the slabs from separating and provides excellent traction.
While the handle shaping is beautiful and tailor fit, the material itself is pretty slick. The wrap is just the ticket, and I get the wonderful impact damping characteristics of the PEEK handle slabs underneath.

A knife like this is pretty hard to pack into the woods without a sheath, so I whipped this one up. It doesn't look amazing, but it's 9oz veg tan saturated in Sno Seal, (bees wax based waterproofing) and should be plenty durable.
I plan on making a snap on belt loop, but mainly I'll carry a knife like this in my pack.
The knife just drops right into the sheath, as there is plenty of room at the throat, but it necks right down and holds the tip in snug. The rivet is to help keep the tip from tearing through if there's a big side load, like if I fall on it.

For security, I plan on punching one hole and using a piece of cord and a toggle, which will stay out of the way if the knife is going in and out of the sheath a lot.

There is also a neat little drainage system built into the sheath, where water is channeled away from the tip of the knife, in a kind of labyrinth format.

I have found that sheaths treated with bees wax somehow keep my blades from rusting, and so that's where my knives are stored even though I know you're not supposed to do that:)

Anyway, here's some more pictures, (sorry, a couple are over exposed);


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That's too bad the handle material started to separate f/the blade... but I like your solution. Looks very 'usable' and durable.

Did you contact Chris about it and if so, what did he say? Just curious about it for future pieces he does.

Sheath looks like it works good too. :)
 
thanks Le Seb, I just traded for that knife, and it has really done the rounds, but I love it and unless something really cool comes along by way of a trade, I expect I'll hold on to it for a long time. I had another BC and that was a great knife, but a little dainty. This one's a bruiser with its long handle and heavy oak scales.

I didn't talk with Chris about the adhesion issue, but you know for the price I got this knife for, I don't want to bother him with it. From when I first saw this knife up for sale, I knew I wanted it and I also knew that the handle would probably be too slick for my uses and that I'd be wrapping it anyway.

I'm even more pleased with this knife now than I was when I first got it!
Part of me wants to say I Garsonnized it, but it would probably be more accurate to say that it's been Lorienized:D
 
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