Pictorial Essay (Kershaw Antelope Hunter, Mora Laminated, and S30V Native)

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kel_aa

Joined
Oct 1, 2004
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I just want to share some thoughts concerning these three items:
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The Kershaw Antelope Hunter II is about $24, website says it's 3.6 oz, 3 5/8 inch blade. It has the same blade shape as the RAT-3, and generally of the drop point hunters. The steel is Aus8A, with factory edge at about 20 degrees per side. It took some minutes with a small diamond stone to bring it down to 14-15 degrees per side, as shown in the pictures. The finish is that of a shiny satin. Shallow thumb jimping slightly improves control of the blade.

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The handle is what they call co-polymer, basically a rubbery material. The grip and the finger grooves make the knife really secure, although the deep channels in the handle does gather some crud. The sheath it came with is of leather, with a brass snaplock. It is basic and functional, althougth some attention must be excerised in sheathing and unsheathing the knife to not cut up the leather or nick the snaplock.

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I enjoy the full flat grind on the knife. When the edge is brought down from the factory grind, it handles well. The Aus8A appears to be healthy hard. The width of the blade is about the maximum for certain tasks such as peeling an apple (where you are using your index finger to loop around the spine and are cutting toward your thumb).


Overall, I think it is a great functional knife for the price. You get about as good a steel as you would expect. I would definately prefer this to Mora types for hunting/food purposes.
 
I bought two laminated carbon steel Frost Moras some months ago, mainly to try out the Scandi styles. I found out I really didn't like the grind style, as I hate the thick shoulders. I spent quite a while taking down the shoulders using the same small diamond stone. While the grind only moved up several mm, it it somewhat convexed now, the transition between grind and blade flat is much smoother, as well as the thickness behind the edge decreased. A microbevel of 30 degrees total was up on with the Sharpmaker, and polished up at 40 degrees using the fine rods.

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The birch handles were stained twice with a Minwax walnut stain and then two layers of boiled linseed were applied. The handle of the Mora is very comfortable for all uses. In carving, softer feeling surface of the wood is a relief to use compared to the hard varnished surface of an Opinel.

The knife edge holding of this knife appears to be very good in carving pine as well as fruit cutting. The knife peels apples reasonably, and the sharp point cores them well, although when you try to cut wedges the thickness of the grind tends to split them instead.

I batoned this knife trying to break up a pine 2x4 (with knots) into small smaller pieces suitable for carving. Cross cuts were made using SAK saws, and batoning done both parallel and perpendicular to the grain, with a small amount batoning normal to the grain. The edge held up supperbly, as in virtually no difference between carving before and after the batoning. However, the knife is no long true. This is some curve to the right in the blade section, and some more bend at the blade handle junction.

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So is the knife suitable for batoning? Probably not if you can avoid it. A slightly bent knife will still work, but it is a huge distraction.
 
Finally, I recently got some black blade S30V Natives. Several days ago, I needed to cut a TV cable cord. Prehaps being overtaken by the S30V superness hype, I used the Native instead what would normally be a job for a multitool knife or SAK. It put the cord on the 2x4 and pressed down using the tip section of the Native. It wasn't cutting through the copper core, so then I started sawing at it with increaseing pressure.

It finally went through, and I could watch TV again, but I a torn up edge on the Native. Portions of the edge disappeared, and some were folded over to the unground side (side with lower edge angle). So I guess it was poor technique combined with temporary forgitfulness of the fact that even CPM S30V is only steel. Spyderco really needs to put a warning on their knives to that effect: WARNING: AS MUCH AS YOU HAVE DROOLED OVER CPM S30V, IT DOES NOT, NOR DO WE PURPORT IT TO HAVE QUALITIES OF ADAMANTIUM OR UBERTANIUM, OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE SUPERHEROS USE.

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Thank you for the alert. I was hosting them on Yahoo photos, and I thought it was working for a while, but I guess they detect hotlinking. Will try to find another server for them.

Update: I think they are five by five now.
 
kel_aa said:
Finally, I recently got some black blade S30V Natives. Several days ago, I needed to cut a TV cable cord. Prehaps being overtaken by the S30V superness hype, I used the Native instead what would normally be a job for a multitool knife or SAK. It put the cord on the 2x4 and pressed down using the tip section of the Native. It wasn't cutting through the copper core, so then I started sawing at it with increaseing pressure.
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In order to cut this without damage, it is usually necessary to make the cut in one heavy push. If you slowly apply force the copper tends to bend and deform around the edge which can leaded to lateral forces across the edge which is generally not a good thing for high carbon stainless. One sharp push will take most knives through it aside from really heavy ground tacticals.

kel_aa said:
... ...when you try to cut wedges the thickness of the grind tends to split them instead.
Click to expand...

They work mainly well for really shallow cuts where the only force on the knife are on the very edge.

However, the knife is no long true.
Click to expand...

The side laminates on these blades are usually really weak, the blades will take a set under very low forces.

-Cliff
 
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