- Joined
- Jan 24, 2010
- Messages
- 3,920
On to the next knife in the series. As Sarah surmised, this model 55 Northfield houndstooth with wharncliffe blade will be my favorite of the bunch. At least it is so far. Now down to the brass tacks of the review.
First, an overall view of the knife open:
and closed:
The overall length of the knife open is 6-1/16" (154 mm) and closed 3-1/2" (89 mm). The blade length of my specimen is 2-9/16" (65 mm) from bolster to tip.
The closed length is right in my sweet spot for an EDC. Forget for a while that my favorite carry is a mini copperhead. I do really like knives of this length, such as the Texas jack, the mini trapper, the mini copperlock, the TC barlow and boy's knife.
I have the model 550113 with autumn bone covers. The jigging is well done and fairly bold making it feel good to the naked fingers.
The overall effect of this knife with the wonderfully swedged wharncliffe blade, the grooved and pinched bolsters, the UN-X-LD trademark shield is pretty much on par with WOW!. It is a good looking folder.
The finish is good on this knife. The backspring is flush in closed position, slightly high in the half stop position and just a tiny, tiny bit high when fully open. You have to look closely to notice it and you can just feel it with your fingernail. If I hadn't been doing this review, I probably would not have noticed it at all. Such is not among my "pet peeves". I won't accept gross issues, but this knife is clearly well within my definition of acceptable for this part of the review.
One other very minor issue is a slight gap on the blade end. Again, it is very small and is acceptable to me as is. I will leave it to you, the reader, to determine if this would be okay for you or not.
A couple other items that you might like to know is the pull on the houndstooth is about a 6 to start opening and about a 7 from half stop to open. It actually feels like an 8 to begin the closing. I think this is good, but you might think it too hard. I think this will get a bit lighter as the tang/spring polish a bit.
The knife came almost acceptably sharp, but had a couple of spots that would hang and tear when opening junk mail. It borders on failing my grade on OOB sharpness. I don’t need to be able to shave for church with it OOB, but I don’t particularly like having to sharpen a brand new knife that cost what these knives cost in order to use it. I have been using it with the factory edge, but after the pictures get posted here, I am going to work it over with the stones.
Maybe it is a bit harder to build this knife than the Pemberton, but it is not quite as perfect as the Pemberton. However, it is definitely a keeper for me. I like the knife, it is my favorite of these three.
A couple more pictures for your information:
Ed J
I'll review the toothpick tomorrow complete with pictures. It is a gorgeous knife!
First, an overall view of the knife open:
and closed:
The overall length of the knife open is 6-1/16" (154 mm) and closed 3-1/2" (89 mm). The blade length of my specimen is 2-9/16" (65 mm) from bolster to tip.
The closed length is right in my sweet spot for an EDC. Forget for a while that my favorite carry is a mini copperhead. I do really like knives of this length, such as the Texas jack, the mini trapper, the mini copperlock, the TC barlow and boy's knife.
I have the model 550113 with autumn bone covers. The jigging is well done and fairly bold making it feel good to the naked fingers.
The overall effect of this knife with the wonderfully swedged wharncliffe blade, the grooved and pinched bolsters, the UN-X-LD trademark shield is pretty much on par with WOW!. It is a good looking folder.
The finish is good on this knife. The backspring is flush in closed position, slightly high in the half stop position and just a tiny, tiny bit high when fully open. You have to look closely to notice it and you can just feel it with your fingernail. If I hadn't been doing this review, I probably would not have noticed it at all. Such is not among my "pet peeves". I won't accept gross issues, but this knife is clearly well within my definition of acceptable for this part of the review.
One other very minor issue is a slight gap on the blade end. Again, it is very small and is acceptable to me as is. I will leave it to you, the reader, to determine if this would be okay for you or not.
A couple other items that you might like to know is the pull on the houndstooth is about a 6 to start opening and about a 7 from half stop to open. It actually feels like an 8 to begin the closing. I think this is good, but you might think it too hard. I think this will get a bit lighter as the tang/spring polish a bit.
The knife came almost acceptably sharp, but had a couple of spots that would hang and tear when opening junk mail. It borders on failing my grade on OOB sharpness. I don’t need to be able to shave for church with it OOB, but I don’t particularly like having to sharpen a brand new knife that cost what these knives cost in order to use it. I have been using it with the factory edge, but after the pictures get posted here, I am going to work it over with the stones.
Maybe it is a bit harder to build this knife than the Pemberton, but it is not quite as perfect as the Pemberton. However, it is definitely a keeper for me. I like the knife, it is my favorite of these three.
A couple more pictures for your information:
Ed J
I'll review the toothpick tomorrow complete with pictures. It is a gorgeous knife!
Last edited:
