bikerector
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2016
- Messages
- 6,796
After finally getting a little bird & trout with orange slaps I've more or less completed my orange tromping gear for weekend get-aways I've been piecing together over the year, at least on the cutlery side of things. Several items from the maker's market on the forums, all of whom have been a pleasure to deal with.
Camp/bush knife from @HardedgeKnives. 5" blade with 5" handle with a grip ring on the handle for locking the hand in, in many different grip styles (something I asked for after playing with a cardboard prototype at home). Acid etched CPM M4 steel and G10 slabs. The meat and potatoes of the kit.
Bird & Trout from @Nicholas Crawford. Acid etched AEB-L with G10 slabs and he was able to mirror what Kelley at Hardedge knives had come up with for me quite well for a very nice matching set. 3.5" blade with 4 3/8" handle and several different sheath mounting options to customize how I want to carry it depending on the weekend goals. Currently I mixed a few options to get an angle piggy back setup instead of the straight horizontal orientation we had discussed with a dangler and horizontal options as the primary means for carrying stand alone. The EDC around the camp size and what I plan to keep clean for food related tasks as I work in the food industry and am a bit anal about food safety.
Caper/neck knife from G10 and 9cr18 steel made by someone from the forums but not a maker. Unfortunately I don't have his information as I traded him a folder for the caper a while ago. 2.5" blade and 3.75" handle. I don't have a specific task in mind for this one but it's a mean slicer and fairly lightweight so simply another option for food tasks I suppose.
Lastly, picked up a hawk blank from @Huntsman Knife Co. made solidly of 52100 steel and wrapped it in a light orange/gold-ish paracord as a means of keeping it light and seeing how comfortable it was using a small axe in paracord. It's worked quite well for chopping small trees and debarking logs as I worked on some home-made furniture to work on shelter building skills. I've been strongly considering getting some orange G10 or getting some new paracord on there and epoxying it on for a more permanent setup (and I did a sloppy job wrapping it).
And then the rest of the set. Fiskars folding saw, Spyderco millie, opinel No. 7, Mora companion (for abusive tasks and wood carving but probably will stay home most of the time or for days I want to back superlight), SS vacuum insulated bottle, and fire steel that didn't make the group photo.
A lot of this is kind of for showing off but I also really enjoyed how this worked out on the knife maker's items and become a big fan of heading to the knifemaker's market on the forum for fixed blade needs. I have several other from there as a result for various house tasks and just because. I think I'm up to 6 knives from the forum makers and all have been very fair or very good prices for the quality of build and materials, in my opinion. Only the camp/bush knife has costed over $100 of all of the handmade knives I have acquired.
(sorry about the color, my camera does awful with bright colors.)
Camp/bush knife from @HardedgeKnives. 5" blade with 5" handle with a grip ring on the handle for locking the hand in, in many different grip styles (something I asked for after playing with a cardboard prototype at home). Acid etched CPM M4 steel and G10 slabs. The meat and potatoes of the kit.
Bird & Trout from @Nicholas Crawford. Acid etched AEB-L with G10 slabs and he was able to mirror what Kelley at Hardedge knives had come up with for me quite well for a very nice matching set. 3.5" blade with 4 3/8" handle and several different sheath mounting options to customize how I want to carry it depending on the weekend goals. Currently I mixed a few options to get an angle piggy back setup instead of the straight horizontal orientation we had discussed with a dangler and horizontal options as the primary means for carrying stand alone. The EDC around the camp size and what I plan to keep clean for food related tasks as I work in the food industry and am a bit anal about food safety.
Caper/neck knife from G10 and 9cr18 steel made by someone from the forums but not a maker. Unfortunately I don't have his information as I traded him a folder for the caper a while ago. 2.5" blade and 3.75" handle. I don't have a specific task in mind for this one but it's a mean slicer and fairly lightweight so simply another option for food tasks I suppose.
Lastly, picked up a hawk blank from @Huntsman Knife Co. made solidly of 52100 steel and wrapped it in a light orange/gold-ish paracord as a means of keeping it light and seeing how comfortable it was using a small axe in paracord. It's worked quite well for chopping small trees and debarking logs as I worked on some home-made furniture to work on shelter building skills. I've been strongly considering getting some orange G10 or getting some new paracord on there and epoxying it on for a more permanent setup (and I did a sloppy job wrapping it).
And then the rest of the set. Fiskars folding saw, Spyderco millie, opinel No. 7, Mora companion (for abusive tasks and wood carving but probably will stay home most of the time or for days I want to back superlight), SS vacuum insulated bottle, and fire steel that didn't make the group photo.
A lot of this is kind of for showing off but I also really enjoyed how this worked out on the knife maker's items and become a big fan of heading to the knifemaker's market on the forum for fixed blade needs. I have several other from there as a result for various house tasks and just because. I think I'm up to 6 knives from the forum makers and all have been very fair or very good prices for the quality of build and materials, in my opinion. Only the camp/bush knife has costed over $100 of all of the handmade knives I have acquired.
(sorry about the color, my camera does awful with bright colors.)