- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Christof already posted a few peaks of this one, his duel wood traditional leuku. Now he hasn't actually told me what two wood they are made of. My guess is osage orange and walnut but hopefully he will chime in here. He wanted me to guess with the clue that they were both native woods.
Here are the specs:
Overall length: 14 7/8"; weight (without sheath): 11.45 oz
Blade length: 10", edge length: 9 5/8"
Blade Height/width: 1 5/8"
Blade thickness: 1/8"
Blade steel: L6
Sheath - black leather
Tang - extends the full length of blade and is welded at the but plate.
Initial impressions. This is a BIG knife and basically a small machete in size. Balance is blade heavy with the balance point at 1.5" forward of the pommel.
Handle is barrel shaped with a bit of tapering as towards the blade end. The handle feels really comfortable in the hand and readily accepts a number of grips. The handle is also absolutely gorgeous. The seam between the two woods is perfect, no gap and can just be barely felt. Both the pommel and butt plate have a nice forged look to them and the welded tang on the butt plate lends to its rustic appearance. The blade disappears into the pommel without any visible seam.
The forged finish is expectedly rough in places and not fully even in colour. However, this will likely smooth with further use. Having pounded the blade through some wood already, there was no evidence of wear on the blade itself. As expected, there is some flex to the blade given its 1/8" thickness. However, the enhanced width of the blade keeps the rigidity in check and I feel confident in its overall strength.
The knife sports Christof's famous wide convex grind. It is plenty sharp and very readily slices through computer paper. Looking down at the spine, the grind line tapers nice even at the tip, forming a nice sharp point. The spine itself is very nicely squared off and readily produces sparks off my firesteels. Actually, the spine works as good as the awl on my vic soldier at producing sparks. There is a slight bit of uneveness where the grind starts at the ricasso, one side of the grind starting somewhat ahead of the other. This is an overly picky detail (hell there is 9" of perfect grind line on this thing) that can easily be fixed through successive sharpening and hitting the edge with the corner of a stone for a bit.
Batoning it through a 4" piece of seasoned hardwood was effortless. Now there is real beauty in batoning a large knife. No worries about this thing disappearing into your round without a tip to strike. I only did a bit of light chopping and the knife feels really good in the hand. Despite its lack of mass, it bits into the wood with conviction. I haven't done enough chopping with it yet to really figure out where the sweet spot is, but it is on my to do list for tomorrow.
I could get it to make fuzzies but I don't find this the easiest thing to do with a blade this size. It is plenty sharp enough, but I have a hard er time controlling the blade compared to a smaller knife. Fuzzies worked best for me when cutting near handle as opposed to further up the blade. Again, it is a matter of practice I think. I just never owned a blade this long before.
Sheath is black leather, 1/16" width about simple beautiful to look at. The double stitching is nice and even. Its a bit lighter in weight than I expected but I suspect that is a good thing. The sheath has an integrated belt loop set up for right side carry which is something I requested. I had a little bit of trouble re-sheathing the knife. There was a slight catch of the pommel on the lip of the sheath. Clearly the design of the rounded handle and pommel presented some design challenges to Koyote girl and she did a good job navigating the curves. The snag was easily fixed by shallowing out the part of the lip to remove a tiny scallop of leather material. Now it slides in effortlessly.
All in all this is an amazing leuku and long knife. I managed to get my order into to Christof just as he was raising some of his prices but he let me sneak in at his older rates. Well, the knife was a steal at $120 + shipping. Anybody doubting Koyote's knives should ban any such thoughts from their head. This is a great blade with its own distinctive koyote look.
Here are the specs:
Overall length: 14 7/8"; weight (without sheath): 11.45 oz
Blade length: 10", edge length: 9 5/8"
Blade Height/width: 1 5/8"
Blade thickness: 1/8"
Blade steel: L6
Sheath - black leather
Tang - extends the full length of blade and is welded at the but plate.
Initial impressions. This is a BIG knife and basically a small machete in size. Balance is blade heavy with the balance point at 1.5" forward of the pommel.
Handle is barrel shaped with a bit of tapering as towards the blade end. The handle feels really comfortable in the hand and readily accepts a number of grips. The handle is also absolutely gorgeous. The seam between the two woods is perfect, no gap and can just be barely felt. Both the pommel and butt plate have a nice forged look to them and the welded tang on the butt plate lends to its rustic appearance. The blade disappears into the pommel without any visible seam.
The forged finish is expectedly rough in places and not fully even in colour. However, this will likely smooth with further use. Having pounded the blade through some wood already, there was no evidence of wear on the blade itself. As expected, there is some flex to the blade given its 1/8" thickness. However, the enhanced width of the blade keeps the rigidity in check and I feel confident in its overall strength.
The knife sports Christof's famous wide convex grind. It is plenty sharp and very readily slices through computer paper. Looking down at the spine, the grind line tapers nice even at the tip, forming a nice sharp point. The spine itself is very nicely squared off and readily produces sparks off my firesteels. Actually, the spine works as good as the awl on my vic soldier at producing sparks. There is a slight bit of uneveness where the grind starts at the ricasso, one side of the grind starting somewhat ahead of the other. This is an overly picky detail (hell there is 9" of perfect grind line on this thing) that can easily be fixed through successive sharpening and hitting the edge with the corner of a stone for a bit.
Batoning it through a 4" piece of seasoned hardwood was effortless. Now there is real beauty in batoning a large knife. No worries about this thing disappearing into your round without a tip to strike. I only did a bit of light chopping and the knife feels really good in the hand. Despite its lack of mass, it bits into the wood with conviction. I haven't done enough chopping with it yet to really figure out where the sweet spot is, but it is on my to do list for tomorrow.
I could get it to make fuzzies but I don't find this the easiest thing to do with a blade this size. It is plenty sharp enough, but I have a hard er time controlling the blade compared to a smaller knife. Fuzzies worked best for me when cutting near handle as opposed to further up the blade. Again, it is a matter of practice I think. I just never owned a blade this long before.
Sheath is black leather, 1/16" width about simple beautiful to look at. The double stitching is nice and even. Its a bit lighter in weight than I expected but I suspect that is a good thing. The sheath has an integrated belt loop set up for right side carry which is something I requested. I had a little bit of trouble re-sheathing the knife. There was a slight catch of the pommel on the lip of the sheath. Clearly the design of the rounded handle and pommel presented some design challenges to Koyote girl and she did a good job navigating the curves. The snag was easily fixed by shallowing out the part of the lip to remove a tiny scallop of leather material. Now it slides in effortlessly.
All in all this is an amazing leuku and long knife. I managed to get my order into to Christof just as he was raising some of his prices but he let me sneak in at his older rates. Well, the knife was a steal at $120 + shipping. Anybody doubting Koyote's knives should ban any such thoughts from their head. This is a great blade with its own distinctive koyote look.
:thumbup:
