Murray Carter neck knife

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,620
Hi folks, this is a mini review of a fairly older vintage of a neck knife by Murray Carter, while it has the stamp of By Carter, I emailed him a picture of it and he said that was made a long time ago back when he was doing the entire knife, now it means he has his men do quite a lot of the work I believe. So it's a special knife, one I use to have like it a very long time ago. But I am taking a rabbit trail, let me refocus ;)

This is a small wharncliff bladed, conventional ground, not chiseledge, with a san mai blade having a core of Hatachi white steel. The blade is about 3.4" long with the ironwood scaled handle about 3.5" long

The handle is very comfortable to hold and the blade took an exceptionally sharp edge, that Hatachi white steel sharpened up quickly to a razor edge, very nice.

Now, the back story on this, a friend of mine, JEFFREY.. on the forums whom I've known through the forums many a year now, reached out to me asking some advice about selling some of his collection. Amongst the knives in his list was this Murray Carter, I was keenly interested as I miss the one I had so long ago and asked him to keep me in mind if he gets close to selling it, at the time I had no funds to even put a down payment but wanted to know when and if he posted it up for sale.

Next I know, this knife arrives on my doorsteps as a gift from Jeff, I emailed him and said 'REALLY?' I was floored as you might imagine. He said it had been used and was badly in need of a good sharpening as well as a sheath, he had made an attempt at one, well lets just say he would not do so well if there was a "Forged in Kydex" competition ;) but he knew that and warned me.

so I sharpened her up, anxious to see how that white steel would take an edge, as my sharpening skills have progressed a bit from back in the day when I had mine. I was amazed how keenly this cut through very soft paper towel, not the kitchen type, but more a work type that is hard to tear, but soft and very pliable, so cutting it needs a sharp knife and this just glided through...'It will Cut' sorry couldn't resist.

Here's some shots of the knife taken tonight, Murray Carter keeps them in a 'working' finish at least back then and also on some of the new stuff to, they are meant to be used but still look kool.

Carter_knife.jpg~original


Carter_name.jpg~original


Here you can make out the lamination of the blade the line that shows where the Hatachi white steel starts, the edge took a nice mirror finish too

Carter_edge.jpg~original


Thanks so much Jeff for this knife from memory lane!!!

BUT the story doesn't quite end there, I was in need of a neck sheath for this rascal, while I do folder sheaths in leather, I don't do kydex, so I reached out to Ronnie aka Hale Storm on the forums to see how much a small neck sheath would cost me.

Again, I was taken back as Ronnie emailed me and said that he's always appreciated my threads where I help others with tutorials and reviews and wanted to make me one as a thank you from him...I asked him...'you sure?' and he said it would be his pleasure. So I checked his material list and picked one I though was kind of neat and here's what arrived back today from him.

Carter_sheath.jpg~original


Carter_out_sheath.jpg~original


I've had several kydex sheaths over the years and I do not recall any that had their edges finished quite as nice as this one, it retains the knife well, and lets me draw the knife without a great deal of force either, I call it the Goldie Locks fit...just right...

sheath_edging.jpg~original


So thanks again to both Jeff and Ronnie for this combined effort to make my September 2016 a great one !

G2
 
Thanks! after getting back from Ashokan I'm still recovering from lack of sleep ;) I found my calipers today and measured the edge bevel thickness, I knew it was ground down fairly thin, it comes in at about .016" thick at the top of the edge bevel and the spine is about 2.8mm thick.

It is one handy and light knife, being thin makes it an easy neck knife carry too and the sheath really sets off the entire setup :)

G2
 
Gary

Admittedly that is a fine sheath. Actually, I've yet to see one as well crafted with such attention to detail. Kudos to Ronnie.
 
Thanks for the shout out Gary and thanks to Jeffrey for the compliment.

I hope you get many years of enjoyment from carrying that beautiful blade.
 
Thanks guys and thanks again Jeff for a very nice knife and Ronnie for the sheath which works well, carried it to work today and being it is a slim design it didn't hardly imprint that I was wearing a neck knife at all, that plus it being light made it almost not there, which are two very nice things to consider in a neck knife carry !

Folks at work were impressed how sharp it was, well, not too impressed as usually everything they look at from me is razor sharp so it was hard to impress upon them how MUCH sharper this was ;) and they liked the sheath too, asked how the markings were done, I just said it was a material that he had and it comes with that on it, I forget now the name of that kydex but it is kool.

G2
 
nice score, I'm a fan of his neck knives and use his patterns. Now the Carter neck knives have 3 pins and the middle is sometime as mosaic.

Gary W. Graley said:
asked how the markings were done, I just said it was a material that he had and it comes with that on it,
G2
Click to expand...
Are the you referring to the hammer forged marking on the blade? You probably know those are in fact done by hand with a marked and scored hammer.

regards
Harbeer
 
Thanks sir, as to the markings, that was about the kydex and not the knife itself, there is a white pattern on the black kydex that I was asked how that was done.

G2
 
Gary W. Graley said:
Thanks guys and thanks again Jeff for a very nice knife and Ronnie for the sheath which works well, carried it to work today and being it is a slim design it didn't hardly imprint that I was wearing a neck knife at all, that plus it being light made it almost not there, which are two very nice things to consider in a neck knife carry !

Folks at work were impressed how sharp it was, well, not too impressed as usually everything they look at from me is razor sharp so it was hard to impress upon them how MUCH sharper this was ;) and they liked the sheath too, asked how the markings were done, I just said it was a material that he had and it comes with that on it, I forget now the name of that kydex but it is kool.

G2
Click to expand...

Kryptek Typhon is the pattern. Kryptek makes a ton of different colors in the same pattern. The kydex is "infused" which is the process of adding the different patterns onto the surface of the kydex. Similar to "printing" the pattern on the kydex but a little more complex than ink on paper. It's how they can get white color on black kydex.
 
Thanks Brian, it is very cool, it carries so easily that you can forget it's there, yet it has the umph behind it to really cut well.
G2
 
Carrying it now for a while, again you almost forget it is even there and being thin it doesn't imprint on your shirt, it does depend on how long the cord you use of course.

Still very easy to deploy and also to return back to the sheath, since you are holding the sheath it's not as risky as trying to find the opening if it were on your belt ;)

did I mention how SHArP this thing is ?? still razor sharp, crAzy sharp :)
G2
 
I added a small Cross concho on one side of the sheath, makes it just a tad tighter but still able to draw it out without any trouble, plus it does dress it up a bit ;)

Carter_Cross_sheath by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

And this week I took my stones and flattened out the main bevel and put some ferric chloride to etch the Hitachi White center core, makes a dramatic difference in looks.

Cross_Carter_wharncliff by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

VERY sharp knife this one is !
G2
 
Beautiful the etching you've done really looks good as well as the little cross you installed on the sheath. Nice work I like it also your reviews and pics are very good too. :thumbup::thumbup:
 
Thanks, it took a while to flatten that primary bevel down but it was worth it, once I applied the ferric chloride I had to take the edge back to the stones again, as of course the etching removed the very fine edge I initially had :( but, that's how it goes!
G2
 
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They're pretty good knives for sure, here is one that I recently picked up, I sanded down the main flats and then applied some ferric chloride along the edge as well to bring out that black on the Hitachi White steel, seems almost backwards to have the White steel show up as Black ;)

IMG_6402 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr


IMG_6405 by GaryWGraley, on Flickr

G2
 
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