Native Chief

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
27,433
My son in law had carried his Chief around at work and mistook it for a lower end one and beat it like a rented mule. The spine had some major damage and the tip broke off. Then he found the other knife while cleaning the spare room and was heart sick. He asked me to refurbish it as best I could

So I used my sharpening stones and made a nice mirror polished swedge on the spine and reset the bevels and sharpened the edge and fixed the tip

Much nicer now and quite sharp, here it is push cutting unsupported receipt paper


Nice knife with S30v blade
G2
 
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Nice work. Obviously shorter. Do you have any "before" pics?
 
Thanks, I didn’t take any before shots and it might be about 1/8” shorter if that it didn’t need a lot to get the point back so I think it’s just the camera angle that makes it look shorter
G2

Also the recording makes it sound louder when cutting since it is actually pretty quiet

Here’s a shot showing the blade length

https://flic.kr/p/2n4jJf1
 
What did he mistake the knife for? What was he doing with it? I mean regardless of model name… I’d use the knife per its design language… which this one seems obviously designed to be a slicer.

Glad at least it sounds like the knife held up ok.

If it were 1/4” thick, saber ground, and came with a tacticool name or a skull bead, then I could see the confusion!
 
Behold! The Spyderco Chetive ! Sure, go ahead and mock my nomenclature...just remember there's such a thing as an Endela. ;)

Nice work...we've come to expect no less from your bench, btw...I know you said you swedged the spine, I thought it had been crowned at first blush.
 
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Gary W. Graley said:
He thought it was a Spyderco Resilience that his wife/my daughter had bought him

G2
Click to expand...

The Resilience and Native Chief do NOT look or feel the same.

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The key is they are both large knives and made by Spyderco

he’s not as disciplined of a knife guy like we are, hence his confusion ;)
G2
 
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I can totally understand the confusion of the models. Like Gary said, they’re both big knives, similar blade length, with a hole in the blade, black handles. Totally easy for a non-knife knut to confuse…

Personally, I just wouldn’t have beat on either model as hard. But hey! They’re meant to be used; they’re used; and have Gary something to show off to us! I call it a win. Plus, showed us that you can beat on that Chief and it’ll hold up!
 
I'm not religious but the following text comes to mind:

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

Matthew 7:6

LOL! ;)
 
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I was surprised as well that he didn’t know the difference but once he found out he stopped abusing it but was impressed with how well it took the abuse

He and his father run an auctioneer company and setting up the tents and work on a lot of different things to get setup on site brings the knife into a wide variety of chores to do
G2
 
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Comment about the narrow swedge, it is a very flat facet mirror polished that I did using my ruixin sharpener by clamping the blade edge side in between a thin layer of leather and that allows me to set the bevel for the swedge
https://flic.kr/p/2kAaUmT

I made a wooden plate with a hook to keep the stone up and out of the way while I flip the knife over or when I change out the stones

https://flic.kr/p/2kQUuWq

G2
 
The Native Chief is my favorite Spyderco folder. Simple, yet so refined!
I've handled 10 of these in my travels, and find them to be a bit stiff out of the box, but the action is terrific after just a short breakin.
I wish the screws used in assembly were more expensive (they can strip, don't over-tune) but that's just a general criticism of Spyderco folders.
I think you did amazing work restoring this one, Gary.
Cheers - enjoy!
 
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