Did you ever have a knife that checked all or most of the boxes, but you still did not carry a lot?
The Tuff was that way for me. I wanted a sturdy blade in a heavy-duty folder, that was a good cutter but capable of any chore that did not require a long fixed blade. I love pocket fixed blades, but folders win on convenience - they are usually more portable for a given blade length because they fold, and the "sheath" is attached and not going to be separated from the blade and misplaced. "Hard use" gets thrown around a lot, but it is one of those things that leaves little doubt in some instances. The Tuff certainly fits the bill - relatively beefy 3V blade with a high flat grind, titanium RIL, extra-large pivot, solid lockup, great ergos for cutting chores... all the boxes.
But I rarely carried it and almost always carry a PM2 and more recently I have discovered the benefits of the Military. Both are light, thin bladed great cutting tools, very easy to carry, and good for most jobs as long as that thin tip is not a concern (I've only broken one on my PM1, but still obviously not as beefy a blade as the Tuff). Besides the light weight, the main reason I ALWAYS carry a PM2 or mili is the narrow tip, that I use a lot for piercing and drilling in soft material. I don't mind the weight of the Tuff for chore coat pocket carry, but the tip just did not cut it for me (pun intended
). I see the value of Ed's design - keeping a lot of metal towards the tip makes for a very strong blade, plus the rounded drop point is a common feature of bushcraft knives, and lots of other designs have a lot of belly carried towards the tip (lionspy is an extreme example). But the lack of pointiness is why I pick up the PM2 or mili if I'm just taking one knife.
So it finally occurred to me that I could "fix" this
I contacted Chris Berry (Big Chris - check him out under knifemakers and service providers - great craftsman and very knowledgeable about steels and such) and asked him to reshape the blade of one of my Tuffs - basically clip the spine straight from in front of the opening hole to the existing tip. I just got it back and it came out great!! The blade still has more belly than a PM2 or mili, but has much more of a pointy but still beefy tip.
Photos:
with Mili and PM2 for comparison
showing spine to show how much steel still carries to the tip
The Tuff was that way for me. I wanted a sturdy blade in a heavy-duty folder, that was a good cutter but capable of any chore that did not require a long fixed blade. I love pocket fixed blades, but folders win on convenience - they are usually more portable for a given blade length because they fold, and the "sheath" is attached and not going to be separated from the blade and misplaced. "Hard use" gets thrown around a lot, but it is one of those things that leaves little doubt in some instances. The Tuff certainly fits the bill - relatively beefy 3V blade with a high flat grind, titanium RIL, extra-large pivot, solid lockup, great ergos for cutting chores... all the boxes.
But I rarely carried it and almost always carry a PM2 and more recently I have discovered the benefits of the Military. Both are light, thin bladed great cutting tools, very easy to carry, and good for most jobs as long as that thin tip is not a concern (I've only broken one on my PM1, but still obviously not as beefy a blade as the Tuff). Besides the light weight, the main reason I ALWAYS carry a PM2 or mili is the narrow tip, that I use a lot for piercing and drilling in soft material. I don't mind the weight of the Tuff for chore coat pocket carry, but the tip just did not cut it for me (pun intended
). I see the value of Ed's design - keeping a lot of metal towards the tip makes for a very strong blade, plus the rounded drop point is a common feature of bushcraft knives, and lots of other designs have a lot of belly carried towards the tip (lionspy is an extreme example). But the lack of pointiness is why I pick up the PM2 or mili if I'm just taking one knife.So it finally occurred to me that I could "fix" this
I contacted Chris Berry (Big Chris - check him out under knifemakers and service providers - great craftsman and very knowledgeable about steels and such) and asked him to reshape the blade of one of my Tuffs - basically clip the spine straight from in front of the opening hole to the existing tip. I just got it back and it came out great!! The blade still has more belly than a PM2 or mili, but has much more of a pointy but still beefy tip.
Photos:
with Mili and PM2 for comparison
showing spine to show how much steel still carries to the tip
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