Prototyes of large folding knives from P.J. Turner

Cliff Stamp · Oct 3, 2000

There are a couple of *prototypes* of large folding knives from P.J. Turner (maker of the Uluchet). A shot closed :

and opened :

I have only done some light work with them so far, just some scrap whittling, chopping and splitting.

The edges are ground nice and thin (estimate about 18-20 degrees) and slice soft and medium wood as well as my Battle Mistress.

There is a huge difference in the chopping ability when opened and of course the extra reach is a significant advantage.

Details to follow as I use them.

-Cliff

Steve B. · Oct 3, 2000

How are these considered "folders"? I think "adjustable tang" is more accurate. There`s nothing "folding" about these!

Marion David Poff · Oct 4, 2000

Most interesting....

I think I like the curvier one, the better of the two.

And they look a little disproportionate when short.

But, very cool idea.

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Marion David Poff aka Eye, Cd'A ID, USA mdpoff@hotmail.com

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[This message has been edited by Marion David Poff (edited 10-03-2000).]

RLR · Oct 4, 2000

Just a thought: wouldn't these be considerably weaker when 'opened?' Looks like only an inch or so of tang, compounded by the extra leverage... I don't know, just rambling...

RLR

Bronco · Oct 4, 2000

Kinda looks more like an "OTF" than a folder to me

. I wonder if that makes it illegal here in Kalifornia

.

Thanks for the pictures Cliff.

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Semper Fi

-Bill

not2sharp · Oct 4, 2000

They look very ackward to me

Cliff Stamp · Oct 4, 2000

Marion, the idea of a variable balance and reach has been one that I have been interested in for quite some time. It is a major advantage for the "one knife" situations. If you can carry more than one blade, then a couple of dedicated blades would be a better choice, which I think most readers here would opt for, but we are not exactly representative of the knife buying public as a whole.

RLR, yes, when I did very heavy prying with the Uluchet (same handles) I could put enough of a bend in it so as to shear off the stop pin which holds the handles in place. This however is only a cosmetic problem really as your grip will keep them stable. As well, the amount of force it takes to do this has broken many blades, the damage the Uluchet's handle took in comparison is rather small.

One possible change would be to make the handles out of a much stronger material, there are some very high strength grip materials like G10, G11 etc. . I don't know however if even then they would be stiff enough on their own though. Titanium of course would be strong enough, but then you are looking at a large jump in price as well as a significant change in balance which would call for a large change in design.

Not2sharp :

They look very ackward to me

They looked very odd to me at first when unfolded and looked "chunky" when closed as Marion commented. However they work well in both regards which is of more importance to me than appearing to do so which many blades I have used do. After using a blade I tend to "see" its function when I look at it, this is why the blades that currently "look" the best to me are my HI khukuris, my Battle Mistress etc., I have little doubt that these will rank up there after a few weeks of work.

The "folding" description is mine by the way, I don't know how P.J. plans on describing them.

-Cliff

Marion David Poff · Oct 5, 2000

Cliff,

I did not qualify my appearance comment well enough.

Closed the center line of the handle is approximately the back line of the blades, kinda odd looking.

But, I really like the curvy one. Is PJ ofering them for sale yet?

MDP

Cliff Stamp · Oct 7, 2000

Marion, the blades are dropped slightly and this effect is enhanced visually by the front guard being upturned. I doubt they are for sale yet, as these are just prototypes. By the way, the discoloration on the blades is just oil. I was doing some work trying to see if I could notice a difference in cutting ability due to the lubrication effect.

I did some chopping work yesterday and the performance went well :

Closed, on small soft wood (<1" wide pine), using wrist snaps + light elbow rotation, the chop at about 75% of the ability of the Battle Mistress.

Closed on medium wood (1-2" wide, spruce), using shoulder powered strikes with a firm wrist, they chop at less than 20% of the BM and are very hard on the hand. As well the handles will pop upen unless a very tight grip is used which beats the hands off of me.

Note all neutral balance blades behave in this manner (low performance, very high impact shock). However these ones have a significant advantage which is they can be opened up and thus :

Opened on similar wood with a similar powered chop the performance jumps up significantly and they are back to around 75% of the performance of the Battle Mistress. This is exactly what I wanted to see in a variable balance blade.

Note, the numbers quoted are very loose estimates, I only did about 3-4 runs with each as I wanted to get a quick overview. More work will be done later to give a more precise estimate as well as explore many more aspects.

P.J., my email is down while our main sever is being upgraded, I'll drop you a note on monday.

-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 10-06-2000).]