- Joined
- May 9, 2002
- Messages
- 12,684
There is nothing I dislike more passionately than winter. Business slows, the phones don't ring as much though the bills certainly keep coming in, it's cold, it's miserable, and I start getting super antsy. Working in a seasonal business that relies heavily on the sun and warmth to keep the coffers full, I can now see why some ancient cultures threw perfectly good virgins into the mouths of hungry volcano gods
It's a shame because I really do enjoy the holidays this time of year.
Anyway, one of my antsy projects was to finally clean up my workbench in the back of our warehouse. "Work" is a very liberal term as it generally becomes the catch all of projects I'm going to get to one day, projects I just know I can fix (though I really can't), and an unorganized clutter of various tools an scraps of leather, metal, fabric, or anything else I feel that might one day be useful to make a sheath or holster. At any rate, the bench needed a clean up. I gregariously gave up some of my prized space (through direct order of my uncle/boss) to one of our service guys, so I needed to consolidate my non-work stuff into an area so that he could have a place to do whatever he needs to do (generally stuff I can do better in half the time and NOT at an hourly rate...but I'm not bitter)
After about an hour of cussing and cramming nearly 8 years worth of stuff into half the space, I was finally sweeping up. Plenty of dust, leather shaving and scraps, rivets that I couldn't be bothered to pick up when I dropped them, and lots of dead wolf spiders (Seriously, why do wolf spiders just die in the middle of the floor? Do they have a predisposition to just up and give up the ghost mid-stride due to some sort of massive (relative to their size, of course) coronary infarction? Do we have top men working on this? Are they covered under new health laws? I need to know if they are because I don't want to get sued...I digress). As I was sweeping up the last of dirt/bodies, the wide side of my pushbroom struck something of substantial weight just under the lip of the bottom shelf causing it to clatter a bit. I got down to a prone position with a groan and met the dull gaze of the eye of god.
Well, not really. It was the peened keeper and buttcap of a JKM-1 that I had embarrassingly forgotten about owning. For some of you newer guys, the JKM-1 was designed by the late forum friend John Mattis. Sadly, I never got to know Mr. Mattis as he was before my time. However, it's basically an Nepali version of of Puuko. It was a very common knife to pop up on the deal of the day back then. Of course this was before the R-series and the Sarge/Kismet Practical Hunter came into being. Back then, you had mostly Khuks and a couple of "novelty" items like the AK Bowie or the JKM-1. However, that is not a slight against the knife. It's a ridiculously stout and handy EDC knife. I've actually "owned" 5 of them. I bought this little guy first. I had an antler one that I LOVED (I love anything in antler though) that was sadly destroyed in the same fire
, and I got one for each of my groomsmen in my wedding as gifts for sharing my special day. I've always liked how utterly practical and massively stout the design was.
I reached around more spider bodies and retrieved my old friend. This particular knife was adopted early into my collection and found its way to my bench as a general utility cutter/pry bar. It's at least 8 years old, but I'm thinking I've had it closer to 9, and it was in rough but not irreparable shape with quite a bit of tarnish on the brass and plenty of rough, dark surface rust that gives the blade an almost a parkerized look and texture. It must have fallen under the counter before 2008. Back in August of that year, we had a break-in where the yahoo set the building on fire in the warehouse near my workbench. Between the water and the acrid smoke made up of a concoction of chemicals and burning plastic, it must have tarnished the knife is some sort of weird way. The horn handle is going to need some TLC. It's not falling off or cracking, but it's dried out enough to have gapped away from the tang in some spots. If I don't fix it soon, it might fail in 50 or 60 years Here's a shot of the ol' timer with a nearly equally old Kumar-made Seax for comparison.
I think I'm going to leave the tarnish as is since it appears to be quite stable. I took a stone to the edge an it's still tempered nicely. I did go ahead and clean up my hand-filed choil with my grinder. By the way, grinding a choil into a JKM-1 of this knife's age was incredibly common back then. Back when Mr. Mattis designed the blade, he did so in the Finish tradition of taking the edge nearly all the way to the hilt. The kamis being the kamis started to worry about us cutting our massive western hands and "fixed" this issue by shortening the handle and progressively adding more creep between the edge and the grip. It got to be common practice for some of us to start grinding in a place to choke up a finger. It wasn't traditional nor Mr. Mattis' design, but with the way they were making them it's much more comfortable in the hand with a place to put your finger
. I also had hand filed in some (remarkably straight) jimping on the back. I like it so much that I'm going to rotate it into my EDC as either a boot knife or a general poker-sodcutter-pry bar. It's a neat piece you don't see as much these days.
It was a fun find that really takes me back to when I could remember every HI piece in my collection
It's a lot of fun having to go back and do a little research as to where the design came from and who made it. On top of that, it makes me reflect a little bit as how much my life has changed...and how dang long I've been stalking around blade forums
:thumbup:
It's a shame because I really do enjoy the holidays this time of year.Anyway, one of my antsy projects was to finally clean up my workbench in the back of our warehouse. "Work" is a very liberal term as it generally becomes the catch all of projects I'm going to get to one day, projects I just know I can fix (though I really can't), and an unorganized clutter of various tools an scraps of leather, metal, fabric, or anything else I feel that might one day be useful to make a sheath or holster. At any rate, the bench needed a clean up. I gregariously gave up some of my prized space (through direct order of my uncle/boss) to one of our service guys, so I needed to consolidate my non-work stuff into an area so that he could have a place to do whatever he needs to do (generally stuff I can do better in half the time and NOT at an hourly rate...but I'm not bitter
)After about an hour of cussing and cramming nearly 8 years worth of stuff into half the space, I was finally sweeping up. Plenty of dust, leather shaving and scraps, rivets that I couldn't be bothered to pick up when I dropped them, and lots of dead wolf spiders (Seriously, why do wolf spiders just die in the middle of the floor? Do they have a predisposition to just up and give up the ghost mid-stride due to some sort of massive (relative to their size, of course) coronary infarction? Do we have top men working on this? Are they covered under new health laws? I need to know if they are because I don't want to get sued...I digress). As I was sweeping up the last of dirt/bodies, the wide side of my pushbroom struck something of substantial weight just under the lip of the bottom shelf causing it to clatter a bit. I got down to a prone position with a groan and met the dull gaze of the eye of god.
Well, not really. It was the peened keeper and buttcap of a JKM-1 that I had embarrassingly forgotten about owning. For some of you newer guys, the JKM-1 was designed by the late forum friend John Mattis. Sadly, I never got to know Mr. Mattis as he was before my time. However, it's basically an Nepali version of of Puuko. It was a very common knife to pop up on the deal of the day back then. Of course this was before the R-series and the Sarge/Kismet Practical Hunter came into being. Back then, you had mostly Khuks and a couple of "novelty" items like the AK Bowie or the JKM-1. However, that is not a slight against the knife. It's a ridiculously stout and handy EDC knife. I've actually "owned" 5 of them. I bought this little guy first. I had an antler one that I LOVED (I love anything in antler though) that was sadly destroyed in the same fire
, and I got one for each of my groomsmen in my wedding as gifts for sharing my special day. I've always liked how utterly practical and massively stout the design was. I reached around more spider bodies and retrieved my old friend. This particular knife was adopted early into my collection and found its way to my bench as a general utility cutter/pry bar. It's at least 8 years old, but I'm thinking I've had it closer to 9, and it was in rough but not irreparable shape with quite a bit of tarnish on the brass and plenty of rough, dark surface rust that gives the blade an almost a parkerized look and texture. It must have fallen under the counter before 2008. Back in August of that year, we had a break-in where the yahoo set the building on fire in the warehouse near my workbench. Between the water and the acrid smoke made up of a concoction of chemicals and burning plastic, it must have tarnished the knife is some sort of weird way. The horn handle is going to need some TLC. It's not falling off or cracking, but it's dried out enough to have gapped away from the tang in some spots. If I don't fix it soon, it might fail in 50 or 60 years
Here's a shot of the ol' timer with a nearly equally old Kumar-made Seax for comparison.
I think I'm going to leave the tarnish as is since it appears to be quite stable. I took a stone to the edge an it's still tempered nicely. I did go ahead and clean up my hand-filed choil with my grinder. By the way, grinding a choil into a JKM-1 of this knife's age was incredibly common back then. Back when Mr. Mattis designed the blade, he did so in the Finish tradition of taking the edge nearly all the way to the hilt. The kamis being the kamis started to worry about us cutting our massive western hands and "fixed" this issue by shortening the handle and progressively adding more creep between the edge and the grip. It got to be common practice for some of us to start grinding in a place to choke up a finger. It wasn't traditional nor Mr. Mattis' design, but with the way they were making them it's much more comfortable in the hand with a place to put your finger
. I also had hand filed in some (remarkably straight) jimping on the back. I like it so much that I'm going to rotate it into my EDC as either a boot knife or a general poker-sodcutter-pry bar. It's a neat piece you don't see as much these days.It was a fun find that really takes me back to when I could remember every HI piece in my collection
It's a lot of fun having to go back and do a little research as to where the design came from and who made it. On top of that, it makes me reflect a little bit as how much my life has changed...and how dang long I've been stalking around blade forums:thumbup:
