Sodbuster monster !

Casares

Casares

Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
341
New Boker Arbolito just arrived this morning.

The tang is stamped Argentina, it is 4.5 inches closed and the blade is 3.75 inches long !!! a nice piece of steel, with a decent edge out of the box.

Gaaaaaah ! this is one of the biggest folders I own. It is even bigger than my Boker trapper.

I just touched up the edge on an oil stone and it really shines now .

This one is going to live inthe kitchen, ready for me to use in the garden and to take with us on picnics !
 
Thanks Casares. Your report on the spring makes me lean toward not buying one. I like positive snap!
 
Yeah, Waynorth, I know what you mean.

This will be a good user knife and will get a lot of use.

But I too prefer a stronger snap than this one has......

I would not recommend the larger one, but the junior size is fantastic, with a great spring......maybe this has something to do with the proportional strength of the steel stock used for the spring... and/or the leverage force exerted when the blade is opened and closed...? it seems excellent at 3.5 inches long, but not so good at 4.5 inches.

There must be knifemakers around who could explain this to us.... but I am not sure how many people are left that still build knives using this sort of spring....there are certainly very few left in Britain, after the serial demise of so many knife makers in Sheffield and the old hand building skills vanishing.
Perhaps there is an iptimum size for a sprung slipjoint ? this might explain why so many old pocket knives are exactly 3.5 inches long, or is this to with practicalities of fitting into a normal sized pocket?

what about Mr Ruple and the like ? could he explain how you build the strongest possible snap into a knife ?

Anyone here with any technical know-how to help explain this ?

: )
 
I suspect tang geometry has something to do with snap also. But if you've ever had a long slim melon tester, you may agree they are always lazy. So maybe length is part of the equation. I have a large sized Camillus-made MooreMaker soddie, and it's lazy too!
 
I vote lazy springs. I just gave up a Victorinox Nylon Solo, a atypically larger than usual model with a 3.25" blade, and it snaps open and shut like it means business!

I wonder how the Boker rates against the similarly sized Kissing Crane?
 
I agree that springs are probably the biggest factor, but I just had a thought! If you make a huge blade, and give it tremendous snap, say 5" of wide spear blade with a saber grind!! You are talking a heck of a lot of fast moving steel, enough to take 1/4" off the end of your finger!
Now what company is going to knowingly take on that kind of liability! It would give their legal department fits!
Maybe they purposely soften the snap of longer/bigger blades? In general, anyway.
 
shecky said:
I wonder how the Boker rates against the similarly sized Kissing Crane?
Click to expand...

I have the KC35 Brown Mule. It has a strong spring and snaps like it means it. It is a little gritty through the arc, but I just now dapped a little mineral oil in the joint area, so it will probably need a little time for the gunk to work out. It is smoothing some just playing with it.

I guess it isn't length that is the culprit. The KC35 is 8 1/2 inches long opened. My Remington Daddy Barlow is about 9 inches opened and has a nice spring, snap, and walk and talk. However, that's my one bone handled one. The delrin one I picked up NIB is weak springed. A second bone handled one I recently got off ebay, again NIB is a little stronger than the delrin handled one, but only a little and not nearly as strong as my first mentioned bone handled DB. The strong one is my user, the other two will just sit in their boxes.

A few of us have been contemplating just what it is that makes some knives strong sprung and others seem so weak. So far carbon versus stainless springs and large versus short knives hasn't proven out. I had a small Boker Congress that was very weak. I'd heard from one seller that that particular model was known for weak springs. Boker USA sent me a larger replacement for it and that one has fine springs and good walk and talk. Seems everytime I think I'm on to something, I find out, I ain't.

But to answer your original question, at least in the one I have, the large Kissing Crane sodbuster is well sprung.
 
Those Brown Mule Sodbusters sound like a great deal! I’ve been meaning to pick one up for a while. Everyone seems to comment that they have strong springs.

My large Eye Brand Sodbuster might have the strongest backspring of any of my slip-joints. There’s some serious snap to that sucker! :) IMO, a strong spring is more important on larger slip-joints, as it takes less force to close a long blade (when the force is applied near the point).

I really like the large Sodbuster design. There’s plenty of room on the handle and the wide blade is easy to get scary-sharp. I’ve been carrying mine pretty frequently in a horizontal belt sheath.
 
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