Slip Joint Whittling Contest

[Buzzbait]

I had a relaxing couple days in the Adirondacks planned for this weekend, so I thought I’d have some fun up there. I’ve been looking for a premium quality slip joint pocketknife, and decided to have myself a little slip joint contest. I already had a few, and spent Friday picking up various other brand name slip joints. The prettiest of the lot was a “pocket worn” Case large stockman, which I really hoped would turn out best. Another was a Buck Cadet that I bought a few days ago, which is a small stockman. To add a little variety to the mix, I grabbed a carbon steel Old Timer large stockman. I already possessed an Uncle Henry small stockman and a Camillus Muskrat. Using the Muskrat wasn’t very fair, considering that the Turkish style blades have much less belly than a clip blade, but I wanted to try all of them.

So I picked up a piece of nice hard cherry wood from the fire pile on Saturday, and used my new BG-42 Buck110 to make one side of the cherry very flat. I figured that a large flat area would provide a nice even contest. My Buck110 actually got its own name during this little bit of prep. My father-in-law commented that the custom Buck110 cut like an angry beaver, which it did. That BG-42 made the cherry look like copy paper, shaving off huge sheets of wood with each stroke. So, whenever I pulled out the Buck110 during the rest of the weekend, all you’d hear from the rest of the family was, “Watch out! Beware of the angry beaver!!!”. I’ll have to have that 110 engraved now with the name of Angry Beaver.

Anyway, after the Angry Beaver had done its job, I set to sharpening the primary blades on all of the slip joints. To my surprise, out of all these knives, the Buck Cadet was the only one that came with any degree of sharpness. All the rest were dull as butter knives. Fortunately, an hour with my SharpMaker took care of this. All knives were shaving sharp on both sides.

Now to the cutting tests. My father-in-law, my wife and I all tested out the various knives on the piece of cherry. We took as long as we wanted, whittling away the afternoon. One person whittled while the other two performed the various camp repair chores that needed doing. We tried our best to account for the differences in size by choking up on the larger blades. When all testing was done, our preferences were all very close. The Case and Uncle Henry came in last, never doing a very good job on the cherry. These are both stainless steel blade knives, but pretty close to POS. The next best were the Shrade Old Timer and Camillus Muskrat. The carbon steel of the Old Timer did a nice job of cutting, as did the stainless steel of the Camillus. I wish I’d had a Camillus stockman with me. My guess is that it would have performed much better. I must admit to being disappointed by the Old Timer. I expected more from their carbon steel.

The undeniable winner of the contest was the little Buck Cadet. Between the outstanding blade geometry and the exceptional stainless steel, the little Buck sliced through the cherry with no effort whatsoever. The Buck cut more like a full-sized 110 than a tiny slip joint!!! Buck has really outdone themselves with their slip joint folders. So I now have to order up a couple more Buck slip joints for the rest of the family. Everybody wanted mine, but they’d have had to get by the Angry Beaver to claim the master slip joint!!!

So it was a great weekend. We all had a ball, whittling everything we could get our hands on, far into evening. The sundown was spent whittling new walking sticks, the three of us sitting on the cabin’s front porch steps. If you haven’t done so lately, get your family whittling a little wood. It’s great for passing the time with the ones you love. Just make sure you’re whittling with a Buck.

 

[knifenerd]

I wholeheartedly agree with you on the Buck traditional folders. They are a step above when it come to real "useabilty". I have had a 301 Stockman for several years and it is a gem. I don't know what type of steel they use, but it does the job.

The Case knives are more collectible because of the variety of handle materials, etc., but the Bucks are true users.

 

[FK]

Great story, thanks for sharing with us.

Years ago I was in the Navy, while stationed on Adak Island in the Aleutians I purchased a Buck stockman folder at the exchange. This was the first issue and did not have a model number, today it would be the 301 medium stockman.

Having lots of free time when off duty, I decided to sharpen the sheepsfoot blade with a single bevel, like a wood chisel or plane blade. This took many hours on the small Buck Washita stone. I continue to favor this modification to stockman folders for that one blade, it shaves feather thin slices of wood and leaves a polished surface. With our diamond hones and ceramic finishing stones it takes less than a hour to single bevel a sheepsfoot blade.

First the entire bevel must be removed from both sides, the blade is held at 90 degrees to the stone. The back side will require honing flat, exactly like a wood chisel. Lastly, the single bevel edge is created. Even better is a convex or Moran edge. This will keep sharp longer and allow some concave cutting the flat edge cannot offer. I am right handed and use the blade in a pull cut, the flat side is up and the sharpened bevel is down. Reverse the relationship for push cuts with RH. Of course reverse everything with LH usage.

Regards,
FK

 

[Buzzbait]

It's funny that you should mention chisel grinds. My wife went to forestry school, where she often had to shave wood samples from trees. She was tought to grind down her bblades to chisel grinds, just to get a nice thin shave.

 

[Bugs3x]

Thanks, Buzzbait. Very interesting. I have a used Schrade Old Timer large stockman that has/had Shrade + or something of the sort steel. I thought it was stainless, but maybe not.

Anyhow, when I got it, the sheepsfoot blade was extremely sharp. My wife used it for hours cutting up the empty boxes which have replaced our cars in the garage. I had opened the sheepsfoot blade for her, and it was the only one she used. She cut more than enough to fill the back end of our Taurus wagon w/the second seat down. I checked the blade, expecting to find it dull as could be. It felt exactly the same as before she began. Don't know what that means. But, I was convinced that the Uncle Henry were top-flight slip joints. In fact, I bought the little Junior or whatever to use for carving/whittling which I never seem to get to.

Am thinking now should get a Buck, if I have to replace the missing Uncle Henry. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[RDaneel]

Great story. Always nice to hear tales about slip joints. My favorite for many years was the Uncle Henry 897 stockman. I'll have to look into one of those Buck Cadets!

 

[Buzzbait]

Bugs - Definitely replace the Uncle Henry with a Buck. The Buck costs a little more, but the gains are tenfold. The Uncle Henry isn't a terrible knife. It's just not up to the task of some harder woods. It would probably be fine for many soft woods. I guess you get what you pay for, up to a certain point.

I know that Queens Cutlery has recently manufactured a few ATS-34 slip joints. I may have to try one some time. I'm a little dubious though as to how much of an improvement the AT-34 would make over Buck's steel. It might make a difference on a larger knife, but I don’t think I’d see much difference on something as small as a slip joint.

I can’t really imagine a small blade of any steel cutting better than the Buck Cadet. I think that blade geometry is a key factor here. Most slip joints are either a flat grind or slightly hollowed. The Buck slip joints are VERY hollow in grind. I know there’s some debate as to which grind is best on a blade, but the proof is in the pudding as far as whittling goes. The hollow grind on the Buck seems to offer much less resistance against the wood when whittling. After the initial push into the wood, the Buck just glides along. Flatter grinds require you to keep pushing the blade through the entire pass.

Then again, this is all just my opinion. I could be totally wrong, or juts crazy!!!