- Joined
- Nov 11, 2009
- Messages
- 1,425
North Arm Knives is located in British Columbia, Canada. It's a father and son outfit.
They manufacture knives mainly using a CNC machine.
I just got this knife and this is just a quick "test run".
Specs:
Blade material: S35VN @ 58-60HRC
Blade length:140mm (5.5")
Blade thickness: 3.4mm (1/8")
Handle material: G10 laminate
Weight: 235 grams/8.2 oz (including sheath)
The fit and finish was good on the knife. It was sharp out of the box, but it wasn't quite up to my "standards". A few minutes on a charged leather strop fixed that easy enough.
This knife is full, broad tang construction with a saber grind/drop point design. The primary grind is not totally flat, but slightly hollow (equals to a 24" wheel) and there's a small secondary bevel as well.
The camo G10 handle slabs are fastened by two stainless Allen screws and there's a lanyard hole at the butt (no sleeve in there).
The pancake style sheath is made out of Kydex. Even the beltloop is Kydex.
In food preparation and processing this blade performs very well, definitely makes some kitchen knives run for their money.
No splitting tendency in the harder veggies either, just nice clean slicing.
The Osprey has excellent cutting and slicing ability, which is due to the geometry of the fairly thin blade. I used a few different materials as cutting subjects. A blade has to be sharp in order to cleanly slice copy paper and even sharper to do the same in newsprint...
Then onto some fibrous stuff, such as polypropylene rope...
...kernmantle type...
...and some tough nylon webbing.
Then a piece of fiber reinforced rubber air hose (used for pneumatic tools).
I had no problems here with any of these materials. Quick and clean.
There was a little whittling as well. Like a point on a stick...
...and some notches.
And this...
Of course I did a little of the heavier tasks too, like batoning and splitting wood.
The Osprey excels in feather-stick making as these pictures can attest to it...
Here's a decent pile of shavings...
and some removed bark.
OK. So the Osprey model is a good blade, has good edge retention (S35VN). It's a very good slicer, excellent food prep knife, good at whittling. Stood up well for all the use and tests. It did not suffer any damages, rolls, nicks, etc... Other than surface scratches on the blade, which is normal. In my opinion this blade is up to light to medium duty bushcraft/survival/camp tasks. Throw in a folding saw and/or an axe and you are well covered. I did not do much testing on the tip as it looks to be a bit on the delicate side (later)... Now, there are a few things that could be improved on this model. First and most importantly I think the handle could use a nice palm swell in the middle to make it more hand filling and comfortable at the heavier or extended tasks. The spine of the blade should/could be sharper, so one could use it to make scrapings or throw sparks with a ferro rod. Perhaps the first inch/inch and a half could be nice and rounded (from the handle), but the rest should be sharp and square. Also, the integrated finger-guard is a bit too pointy and sharp. But so far I'm satisfied with my purchase and will do more testing in the future.
They manufacture knives mainly using a CNC machine.
I just got this knife and this is just a quick "test run".
Specs:
Blade material: S35VN @ 58-60HRC
Blade length:140mm (5.5")
Blade thickness: 3.4mm (1/8")
Handle material: G10 laminate
Weight: 235 grams/8.2 oz (including sheath)
The fit and finish was good on the knife. It was sharp out of the box, but it wasn't quite up to my "standards". A few minutes on a charged leather strop fixed that easy enough.
This knife is full, broad tang construction with a saber grind/drop point design. The primary grind is not totally flat, but slightly hollow (equals to a 24" wheel) and there's a small secondary bevel as well.
The camo G10 handle slabs are fastened by two stainless Allen screws and there's a lanyard hole at the butt (no sleeve in there).
The pancake style sheath is made out of Kydex. Even the beltloop is Kydex.
In food preparation and processing this blade performs very well, definitely makes some kitchen knives run for their money.
No splitting tendency in the harder veggies either, just nice clean slicing.
The Osprey has excellent cutting and slicing ability, which is due to the geometry of the fairly thin blade. I used a few different materials as cutting subjects. A blade has to be sharp in order to cleanly slice copy paper and even sharper to do the same in newsprint...
Then onto some fibrous stuff, such as polypropylene rope...
...kernmantle type...
...and some tough nylon webbing.
Then a piece of fiber reinforced rubber air hose (used for pneumatic tools).
I had no problems here with any of these materials. Quick and clean.
There was a little whittling as well. Like a point on a stick...
...and some notches.
And this...
Of course I did a little of the heavier tasks too, like batoning and splitting wood.
The Osprey excels in feather-stick making as these pictures can attest to it...
Here's a decent pile of shavings...
and some removed bark.
OK. So the Osprey model is a good blade, has good edge retention (S35VN). It's a very good slicer, excellent food prep knife, good at whittling. Stood up well for all the use and tests. It did not suffer any damages, rolls, nicks, etc... Other than surface scratches on the blade, which is normal. In my opinion this blade is up to light to medium duty bushcraft/survival/camp tasks. Throw in a folding saw and/or an axe and you are well covered. I did not do much testing on the tip as it looks to be a bit on the delicate side (later)... Now, there are a few things that could be improved on this model. First and most importantly I think the handle could use a nice palm swell in the middle to make it more hand filling and comfortable at the heavier or extended tasks. The spine of the blade should/could be sharper, so one could use it to make scrapings or throw sparks with a ferro rod. Perhaps the first inch/inch and a half could be nice and rounded (from the handle), but the rest should be sharp and square. Also, the integrated finger-guard is a bit too pointy and sharp. But so far I'm satisfied with my purchase and will do more testing in the future.
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