New (larger) Gunhammer in the works

Reese Weiland is another excellent designer who has a unique style. He also accepts unique designs and is very accommodating to any requests you have. I have Mr. Weiland working on a knife design for me right now. It should be done very soon.

For custom orders, does Mr. Ralph accept original designs, or does he mostly do modifications and special requests on his own designs?

Also, regarding the Gun Hammer - does Mr. Ralph accept pre-orders through this forum? :D
 
More stuff for me to ask, Darrel. I did get a price quote, but am not ready to reveal it yet since I got confused and wanted to verify whether he and I are on the same page about the HTM Gunny. Info soon though!

As far as original designs, that's a bit of a stretch. I'll ask him though.
 
harkamus said:
More stuff for me to ask, Darrel. I did get a price quote, but am not ready to reveal it yet since I got confused and wanted to verify whether he and I are on the same page about the HTM Gunny. Info soon though!

As far as original designs, that's a bit of a stretch. I'll ask him though.
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Awesome. Thanks, harkamus.

As a side note - I noticed that you were very recently made moderator in this forum. You're such a natural at this I would have guessed you had been a moderator for a long time.

Thanks for advocating for us. Much appreciated.
 
Got some info!

Price for the 4 inch bladed Gunhammer will be $500 - 600. Blade steel will be s30v and offered in bowie, radian, or spear point (he calls them torpedo), and have the option of an assisted opening or not. There will also be a damascus blade option. American made using American products. Darrel works hard to keep his knife making domestic. If something goes wrong, he can check on it personally. It's also easier for him to evolve his knives over time based on user input.

That Gunhammer has evolved so many times, I lost track. For a glimpse at the evolution, check in my review thread: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-HTM-Gunhammer-2-bowie-WARNING-big-pix-inside

You might ask why s30v over s35vn. Darrel's tested the two steels. Several makers and just users in general have also tested the steels and come to the conclusion that there is no discernible difference between the two, except s35vn costs more and is a bit easier to polish.

Finally, I may be a mod, but I'm just a fan of DDR knives just like many other people.
 
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harkamus said:
Got some info!

Price for the 4 inch bladed Gunhammer will be $500 - 600. Blade steel will be s30v and offered in bowie, radian, or spear point (he calls them torpedo). There will also be a damascus blade option.

You might ask why s30v over s35vn. Darrel's tested the two steels. Several makers and just users in general have also tested the steels and come to the conclusion that there is no discernible difference between the two, except s35vn costs more and is a bit easier to polish.

I may be a mod, but I'm just a fan of DDR knives just like many other people.
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Thanks for the info, hark.

I'm a little confused though. The 3-inch, 4-inch, and 5.5-inch Madd Max knives all cost $449 according to HTM's website, and there's no discernible difference between the three knives other than their blade length.

So why such a large difference in the price between the 3.5 and 4-inch Gun Hammer? Is DR doing something else to the knife that increases the cost of it? Frame lock? Titanium?
 
harkamus said:
Got some info!

Price for the 4 inch bladed Gunhammer will be $500 - 600. Blade steel will be s30v and offered in bowie, radian, or spear point (he calls them torpedo), and have the option of an assisted opening or not.

You might ask why s30v over s35vn. Darrel's tested the two steels. Several makers and just users in general have also tested the steels and come to the conclusion that there is no discernible difference between the two, except s35vn costs more and is a bit easier to polish..
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Yep - $5 or $6 bills for an addtl. .5 " of blade? Count me out. And in regard to the info on S30V vs S35VN there isn't a study, review or set of graphings that don't mention that S35VN Has better edge retention.

I hope something has been lost in the passing of information, as this ridiculous. I'll keep a cold steel Recon-1, Military, BM710 on me when I want a 4" blade if this is the case. :rolleyes:
 
cziv said:
And in regard to the info on S30V vs S35VN there isn't a study, review or set of graphings that don't mention that S35VN Has better edge retention.
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I haven't had a chance to try out S35VN yet, but I think we must have seen completely different studies/reviews/graphs, since everything I've seen indicates that their wear resistance (if that's what you meant by edge retention) is identical. ;) Are you referring to a difference in toughness? That's where S35VN is supposed to have a small advantage over S30V, although whether it's enough for an end user to tell the difference I'm not sure. Below is a comparison graph from Crucible's knife steel info sheet showing their wear resistance to be identical; the numerical data in the S35VN data sheet also bear this out.

72035bc5.jpg



And yeah, as far as the price, I'm guessing/hoping that some info got lost/mixed up, since as you guys have already pointed out that's a very big difference in price unless there have been significant changes beyond just scaling up the knife by half an inch.
 
neuron, my charts were different than your charts! :D W/o going off on an hour long research hunt to argue about nothing, I've found tons of stuff saying that they're similar like you post but have some better qualities. Here's something I don't understand from Crucilble 1st & CRK site.

Toughness (Transverse Charpy C-notch Testing)
Grade Impact Energy
CPM S35VN 12.0 ft. lbs.
CPM S30V 10.0 ft. lbs.
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A small yet significant advance was made when S35VN was introduced in 2009. The addition of Niobium to the alloy results in finer grain structure which gives more toughness.
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What's not to understand? The S35VN can take 2 more foot pounds of pressure in a toughness test, due to the addition of the niobium. Seems perfectly consistent. Toughness is slightly better, but wear resistance is the same.
 
cziv said:
neuron, my charts were different than your charts! :D W/o going off on an hour long research hunt to argue about nothing, I've found tons of stuff saying that they're similar like you post but have some better qualities.
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Yep, that sounds right. :)

As far as the quotes regarding toughness from Crucible and CRK, like crimsonfalcon said they're just two ways of saying essentially the same thing. The Charpy test is the standard industrial measure of toughness; higher values (i.e., more force needed to fracture the material) mean higher toughness. The quote from CRK is just a qualitative way of saying what the Crucible data say quantitatively.
 
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That's cool with me since I only regurgitate what I read and don't really get it although I passed chemistry in college with a C :confused: :D. Guys selling S35VN are claiming it's tougher, more wear resistant. Guys who aren't are saying they're essentially the same. I think they are "essentially the same" and I've also been thinking makers pushing the 35VN are doing it more because it's easier on their equipment. But that's just a thought I've had in the back of my mind since it got popular with CRK & Hinderer (who I follow a lot).
 
Great breakdown on the steels guys. It is amusing though to see how disparate the conclusions tend to be about steel performance.

I really hope there's a proper explanation for why the new 4" Gun Hammers are due to cost $200 more than their shorter counterparts. Barring a huge design overhaul which includes all-titanium handles, I'm just not seeing a reason to charge that much for only 0.4 of an inch of steel. Especially when you consider there's no cost difference between the Madd Max knives of various lengths.

I hope the final price ends up being in the ballpark of $300. Otherwise I won't be able to get a HTM DDR knife for awhile.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Oh just get the 3.6" one and be done with it :D
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I know you're mostly joking, but I want to see what the final verdict is. What Darrel says matters in how I will view his business practices and, by extension, his knives. There's a reason why I don't buy Emersons anymore...

It matters whether the $200 discrepancy is a SNAFU or a genuine cost estimate.
 
I'm sure that he's got his reasons for pricing it, and that it will be gorgeous. It's a DDR, after all. Part of the cost may come from having to do some retooling; a longer blade means a longer handle, and the ETAC handle has to be more difficult to produce than the Mad Maxx handle. Especially with the radian blade, the geometry is a bit different.

Overall, I wouldn't be surprised if the initial cost is higher than what the cost will settle at if the knife turns out to be popular. It's a bit high for my tastes for sure; if I'm going to think about spending that much, I'd rather just save up and get a full-on custom, personally. But even if it's just a scaled up version, machining the new handles at minimum is going to cost, and a lot more than you'd think, if they have to CNC it.
 
crimsonfalcon07 said:
Part of the cost may come from having to do some retooling; a longer blade means a longer handle, and the ETAC handle has to be more difficult to produce than the Mad Maxx handle. Especially with the radian blade, the geometry is a bit different.
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That's a fair point. The cost of CNC machining the longer aluminium handle might be substantially higher. But if that's the case, DR should consider changing the handle on the larger version to reduce cost. Most people (like myself) are only going to see the difference in blade length and get confused by the price discrepancy.

crimsonfalcon07 said:
It's a bit high for my tastes for sure; if I'm going to think about spending that much, I'd rather just save up and get a full-on custom, personally.
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My thoughts exactly.
 
Having handled the ETAC handle, I can safely say that it needs to stay. It's amazingly comfortable and grippy.
 
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