ontario spec plus frontiersman - your thoughts?

[Josh Muller]

when my brother picked it up he said "your right.... if i had made this, id think it was a mistarke... definitely something not right"

its an interesting and weird knife. its 3/16, fully flat ground, and has a sharpened upper swedge. but its ground very thin at the edge, so the entire blade is thin in general, and can be bent easily with the hands.

it sharpened redily, and the upper swedge took on a very nice 30 degree angle without having to give up much of its coating in the process.

because of its thin edge geometry, the thing is incredibly sharp - and penetrates like a needle now. i have to patch a hole in my pants because of it actually slipped right in before i even noticed it was penetrating.

the handle is your basic spec plus kraton, but the tube lines in it are set really far apart, so they dont really index with your fingers or anything, they just leave it feeling boxy and weird.

im keeping it because i dont have anything that works on light brush and vegetation as well as this does. requires a lot of wrist controll to snap it back and forth, but its got very little metal behind the edge, and cuts through grasses and things like that way better then anything else i have.

while i dont think its possible to get this thing near as sharp as some of my other blades, the geometry just lends itself to light vegetation better.



thing is, its waaaaaaay to light. it weighs 11oz @ 16" in length.

does anyone know how the tang is constructed on these? mainly, is it a stick tang like is found oin the kabars, or is it thicker then that?

 

[misque]

I have one and it appears to be a 3/4 to full length stick tang.
I see you've immediately found it's strength.
It certainly does excel as a short machete. But, it also seems stout enough for utility chores.
I'm not too sure how it would stack up as a fighter, it does appear to be kinda thin for that, but I imagine it would do the job in a pinch with that 11" long blade. It certainly has the reach and that needle tip is real nasty.

This knife is a bit of a conundrum, but out of the Spec Plus line it's one of my favorites. It intrigues me.

 

[Josh Muller]

It certainly has the reach and that needle tip is real nasty.

This knife is a bit of a conundrum, but out of the Spec Plus line it's one of my favorites. It intrigues me.

ya it is... poked a hole in my pants (At the crotch no less :grumpy: ) when i wasnt paying attention... slipped in like the cloth wasnt even there.

i think it would be brutally simple in a fight... certain blades you really have to work some mojo to get them to full potential, karambits, the heavier bowies, anything sub 5" etc take technique and skill.... this thing seems like it would both slice and insert like nothing was there....

it is a weird knife... i dont particularly like using it to trime hedges, because it sucks on heavier branches, but likewise i dont really have anything thats light enough to handle the 2-3 hours it takes to completely trim them....

considering that it has an 11" blade (wich is form the front gaurd on), balancing 1 1/2"'s away from the index finger makes it pretty light and fast in the hand...


a conundrum is definitely a good way to describe it...

also tha fastest sharpening job of any knife ive had so far only took about 10 minutes for the entire thing and the swedge

 

[Josh Muller]

well, i got an itchin to play with this thing today, so i go out and slice some soda cans with it, side ways cuts (with water) across 1, then across 4, then vertical through one etc. after that on a whim i said "lets see how this thing throws".

this is about as far off from a throwing knife as you can get, its long and very thin, balanced waay of center, and not what i would call of stout construction (sharpened on both sides, 3/16 but thinly ground). though the entire thing i was overal suprised at how the edge and the knife was holding up. about 20 throws in the handle starts rattling, so i go a few more rounds, and go inside.

i decide that it would be a good idea to try to flaw out the rivit to tighten up the handle... so i get a hammer, a punch, and a mini anvil and whack it a few times... turns out, you need a punch on both sides to accomplish what i wanted, and they would have to be dressed first (so their werent sharp mushroomed edges)

so, having split the rivet in two, i remove the handle, and find an odd suprise, in that the tang is bent... at the sop where they put a hole in the center of the tang

kinda threw me off. knife is still functional, i just need to bend the tang back to straight. weird that they would put a hole there though... obviously by how and wear it bent, it is a structural problem. the tang junctions are nicely rounded though

 

[AKA Knife Knut]

What I cannot figure out is why they discontinued it.

 

[Gryffin]

weird that they would put a hole there though... obviously by how and wear it bent, it is a structural problem. the tang junctions are nicely rounded though

I'm betting that they use the same blade blanks for this one as they use for the Hell's Belle, which needs that second hole to rivet on the scales.

 

[misque]

I'm betting that they use the same blade blanks for this one as they use for the Hell's Belle, which needs that second hole to rivet on the scales.

IIRC, the Helles Belle is 1/4" stock and I know the Frontiersman is between 5/32" & 3/16". This would make using the same blade blanks somewhat cost prohibitive due to the sheer amount of stock that would need to be removed. Plus the fact that the Frontiersman's blade steel is 1095(simple Carbon steel) and the Helles Belle is a proprietary stainless.

Twas a good theory though.

 

[glockman99]

...The Ontario Hell's Belle and The Frontiersman...Not even close to being the same blade...I've had a couple of each, and the 'Belle is ALOT more knife than the Frontiersman. The blade of the Hell's Belle is thicker, wider, and (I think) slightly longer.

 

[Gryffin]

OK, my mistake, I saw the same profile, and extrapolated...