Non-Serrated Vaquero

S

spoonslayer

Joined
Feb 8, 1999
Messages
141
I like the CS Vaqueros and El Hombres and am considering buying one in the near future. My problem is that while I like the bigger size of the Vaquero, I prefer a non-serrated blade. I havent been able to find a non-serrated one in any stores or catalogs so my question is do they even make a non serrated Vaquero?

If not, do you guys have any suggestions on any other non-serrated large folders(around 5" blade)? I am open to just about anything, as long as its under $150.
 
Brock,

ColdSteel is probably the only game in town for 5"ers(so far), and to my knowledge, they don't make a straight edge El Vaquero, yet.
I've got the El Vaquero, Xtra lg. clip point and tanto folders(in straight edges).
Between the clippoint and tanto, I like the clippoint because the handle is shaped more like the Vaquero, only flatter and wider, which feels more secure to me. The thumbstud is better placed on the clippoint than the tanto for a comfortable opening, the tanto as many people(including me) have found, can be very uncomfortable to open. I practice opening the tanto in a whip-snap fashion just so I don't have to mess with the stud. The clip point opens in the whip-snap fast and smooth every time for me.

Al Mar knives used to make(maybe still?) a Jumbo Quicksilver linerlock which is, I think, between 5.5 and 6".

Be on the look out for something in the 5" catagory from REKAT and possibly from Spyderco and Camillus in the future, I bet they would offer versions in straight edge.

Ken
 
thanks ken. Im just getting tired of seeing or hearing about a promising knife design, to be disappointed by finding that the knife is way too small for my tastes. The manufacturers need to make more larger folders, because they definitely make enough small and medium sized ones. Oh well, guess Ill just have to sit back and wait for 'em
smile.gif
 
Sit back be damned
biggrin.gif
. Spoonslayer, go post in the "Megafolder" thread on Camillus, go bug Spyderco, etc. THIS is your area to make it happen!

Jim March
 
Spoonslayer, buy one and take the serrations off. The steel used is fairly soft and grinds really easy.

-Cliff
 
Cliff,

I recently got a Vaquero and am considering taking the serrations off as you recommend. I’m a little concerned about the possibility of destroying the temper of the blade if I use a grinding wheel or a Dremmel. I suppose I can use a file if the metal of the blade is not too hard. Do you have any thoughts on the best way to remove the serrations?
 
I used a coarse sanding disk (not a grinding wheel) and used the Dremel at 15000 rpms with light pressure. Very little force was used and I just kept running the wheel along the edge. The steel is very soft and the blade did not heat up to any extent. I could for example hold onto the blade with my fingers after I ground a section of the serrations off. Anyway, just to be safe I kept wiping the blade down with a wet rag (more to remove the ground off metal than to cool it down though).

It took no time at all to do the intial sanding. Maybe 5 minutes maxium. This could be a lot faster if I replaced the sanding disk halfway through as I noticed it was losing a bit of its bite.

Anyway, when this was over I took an x-coarse aluminum oxide water stone and ground the bevel even. I then polished the bevel somewhat on a finer stone and then lastly added a final bevel on the edge with a x-coarse dmt hone. It now slices really well and looks really nice. I have pics of it that I will post eventually.

Start to finish maybe 20 minutes. Putting an edge on it took about 3 times as long as grinding the serrations off. I did some impact tests on the edge after I ground the serrations off and before I actually sharpened it to see if it was effected by the grinding. It wasn't. It held up well to cutting on aluminum cans and graphite rods.

-Cliff
 
Thank you, Cliff. I think I'll use your method, eventually. But first I’m going to play around with the factory edge. I need to practice my defense against vicious free-hanging ropes.
 
The CS serration pattern is a decent one I just wish they put it on a decent steel. It would be really interesting to see it in CPM 3V or 420V. Just take note of how quickly they round out, it sure surprised me.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 17 March 1999).]
 
Note I should have mentioned this before. If you grind the serrations off of a VG you will end up with a knife that pulls to the right on long cuts as the secondard bevel is only on one side. You could of course v grind the edge but that would take a fair amount of work.

Howard glad to see it worked out. To those that are curious about how the edge held up I did a little cutting last night. The edge on the VG was with an x-coarse DMT hone. This produces a very aggressive cutter which will not slip and bites very well. I figured that it would not hold up that well though but I was surprised by the results.

I took an old detergent box that was 9.5" high and made 28 cuts down its length (21+ feet of cutting). The blade pulled to the side a little but cut well. I then drew it 15 times across a moderately hard plastic (old tv remote), and then I drew it hard across kydex another 15 times.

End result - I would be able to tell it had been used but the blade edge still cut well. It would for example slice into thin fabrics well (if the edge had been rolled significantly it would have just slipped along the material), and it still bit into my thumb nail.

With a couple of strokes of the DMT on each side it was back to where it was before. I don't like the way it tends not to want to make straight cuts and I might actually grind a v bevel on it - however that would be a fair amount of work. I might just wait and let one wear into it gradually but burring the side with no grind first whenever it needs to be sharpened.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 18 March 1999).]
 
I did put a partial v grind on mine. I was wondering why my grinding took so much longer. I did not grind all the way to a symetrical v. One side of the v is longer than the other. I'll have to see if it pulls to the side. If it's bad enough I'll even out the v grind. It does sharpen easily on the crock sticks with a v grind.
 
I would have done exactly that Howard it would then have been too much like work was all. It would be interesting to see just how much of a v grind you need to over come the pull. Note that you will not notice this on rope cutting or similar you need to be making long slicing cuts.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 19 March 1999).]
 
I checked the cutting performance of my reground Vaquero tonight. It made straight cuts through the Novell annual report. (Unfortunately, I burned up all the spare cardboard in the fire last night.)

Description of the grind. When viewing the blade from the top, (the thick edge) define the right and left sides of the blade. The length of the side of the v grind on the right side of the blade is 2 mm. The length of the side of the v grind on the left side of the blade is 3 mm.
 
Spoonslayer, I've got an El Hombre, fully serrated. It's a great knife, STRONG lock, very easy to open, very comfortable to carry, sharp as a bastard. I bet that the plain-edged model is a treat to own as well, in fact I plan on getting one eventually. I don't know how much knife fighting you tend to get into, but I think that the 4 inches of El Hombre blade is plenty long enough for practical purposes. I've never carried a Vaquero, but I guarantee you that its more cumbersome than the El Hombre, both in terms of carrying and Law Enforcement reactions. Do you want to go to court in order to get your knife back and your record cleared? When it comes to those big knives, they'll arrest you first, let you ask questions later. As with any group of people, you can't make blanket statements- some of my family are cops, and in fact I just bought a CS mini tanto from a cop here on the forum. It's been my personal experience, though, that cops don't like people to have knives, let alone big ones, regardless of their legality.
 
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