- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 7,443
Specs:
Blade Length: 3.983
Edge Length: 3.860
Blade Width at spine: 0.123
Blade Height at Ricosso: 1.013
Blade at Belly: 1.025
Handle Length 4.700
Handle Height at Palm Swell 1.053
Handle Length from guard to butt point: 4.136
Handle thickness at palm swell: 0.836
Blade Steel:1095
Handle Material: Cocobolo
Handle Pins and tube: Stainless Steel.
Grind: High sabre - Flat Grind - Secondary bevel.
First Impressions:
I am a nit-picky bastard. I am the type to sit and sand, sharpen, and work out little things in knives for a few hours even before using them. Ray's work is some of the best I have seen. For the price, it is flatly the best I have seen. His grind lines are money. His double bevel was sharp, even, and perfect. The handle contours were well done and well finished. The pins are flush and the fit and finish is spectacular.
I did essentially nothing to this knife but sharpen it (this is just one of my rituals) and go use it.
In the Hand:
This knife is a really impressive blend of contoured blade and a neutral blade design. At times something like a dowel handled Mora can be a little too neutral in a hammer hold, and something very contoured (like a Bark River) can be uncomfortable in long use in anything but the hammer hold.
Ray does an awesome job of having a neutral enough grip to make the knife very comfortable in multiple positions yet contoured enough to make it comfortable in the hammer hold.
The knife is VERY nimble and extremely light feeling. The balance is in the middle of the first finger and thus has a great balance and feel to the knife. I was shocked about how light it felt.
A Little wood Time:
I was able to get the USPS man to give this to me right before I went into the woods this weekend. However, I had no sheath so I had to be happy simply using it around the fire.
I was worried that a double bevel knife (this is the only one I own) would not be as smooth with wood as a convex or be as hungry as a scandi. What I found, however, is that Ray's double bevel is money. I had no problem making fuzz sticks, carving wood, or batoning fatwood to get a fire going. In fact, what I loved about this knife is that the edge is so very robust that it does not even need to be touched up when some of my other knife might need to be.
The edge holding of the knife was superb (which tells me a lot about the heat treat) and after considerable work with soft and hard wood, I merely would have sheathed the knife instead of stropping it.
Conclusion for now:
I really enjoy Ray's knife. For the price it is phenominal - this one feels like a keeper. In fact, it will likely bump another knife out of my stable.
TF
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