This is a frontier style ball handle trade knife from Robert Appleby. Here's the story with this knife....It has been used and carried, and used somewhat abused. I first lent it to some friends who had bought a small house in upstate NY to use. I thought they were going to use it for camping/woodwork/outdoors stuff. They ended up using it to fix the house with, cutting wallboard. Then they did yardwork with it clearing vines from the ground, fence, and trees. Then they played with it by using it as a throwing knife against a tree. They got it to stick in some throws, but mostly they just hit the tree wrong. During the many bad impacts against the tree they managed to break off a small part of the tip and crack the handle in two places (see last photo). When I heard about that I told them to stop and just use the knife for cutting and chopping chores.
I got it back after 6 months and was surprised that the damage wasn't as bad as it sounded. My friends said they liked the knife a lot and asked for Robert's info. Along with the mentioned handle cracks and broken tip there was a small fold in the blade where they had tried to cut through a metal wallboard screw. And of course lots of scratches and blemishes of the blade flats. I superglued the cracks in the handle, as well as coating the handle in polyurethane to help prevent the crack going further. I sharpened out the tip and fold in the blade. I then used it in some yard work at a friend's house in Brooklyn. Since then it's been in my bug-out bag as the go to knife since I can be assured of its performance.
Needless to say, this is a user grade knife. But it's a great user.
Specs: 6.25" from tip to scales. 11" overall. Steel is forged 0-1. Thickness at tang is 3/16", but it tapers toward the tip so from in front of the ricasso it's about 5/32" thick. Curly maple slab handle with decorative along the perimeter.
Sheath is from the maker. I must say though, I can't quite figure the sheath out. It uses a variation of the frog design, but the belt loop is in the wrong place I think. The way it is the only way I can get it on a belt is if I wear it as a left handed cross-draw behind the back, or a right handed front cross-draw but the blade would face up when drawn. So I never used the sheath on my belt. I just carried it with sheath in hand or in a pack.
$90, SPF delivered in the 48 states. International shipping would be more, and you'd have to assume the risk of international mailing and customs.
No trades please. Trying to help my brother who's lost his job.
I got it back after 6 months and was surprised that the damage wasn't as bad as it sounded. My friends said they liked the knife a lot and asked for Robert's info. Along with the mentioned handle cracks and broken tip there was a small fold in the blade where they had tried to cut through a metal wallboard screw. And of course lots of scratches and blemishes of the blade flats. I superglued the cracks in the handle, as well as coating the handle in polyurethane to help prevent the crack going further. I sharpened out the tip and fold in the blade. I then used it in some yard work at a friend's house in Brooklyn. Since then it's been in my bug-out bag as the go to knife since I can be assured of its performance.
Needless to say, this is a user grade knife. But it's a great user.
Specs: 6.25" from tip to scales. 11" overall. Steel is forged 0-1. Thickness at tang is 3/16", but it tapers toward the tip so from in front of the ricasso it's about 5/32" thick. Curly maple slab handle with decorative along the perimeter.
Sheath is from the maker. I must say though, I can't quite figure the sheath out. It uses a variation of the frog design, but the belt loop is in the wrong place I think. The way it is the only way I can get it on a belt is if I wear it as a left handed cross-draw behind the back, or a right handed front cross-draw but the blade would face up when drawn. So I never used the sheath on my belt. I just carried it with sheath in hand or in a pack.
$90, SPF delivered in the 48 states. International shipping would be more, and you'd have to assume the risk of international mailing and customs.
No trades please. Trying to help my brother who's lost his job.
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