Some affordable user grade customs

G

Grapevine

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Mar 5, 2002
Messages
1,470
These are good stylish users. Fit and finish aren't so polished that you would hesitate to put them to use, but plenty good enough to be proud to carry. All prices include shipping to the 48 states.


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kimbreed.jpg

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First up is a Kim Breed personal carry. 3-3/4" hand forged blade (sorry I don't know the steel) flat ground, 8-3/8" overall. Stacked leather handle, and I think the crown but is whitetail. Spacers of black micarta, nickel silver, and white micarta.

Kim often writes reviews for Blade magazine, and is half of B&W Bladeworks. The fit and this knife is great. A flaw in finish in that there's some discoloration around the solder joint of the guard to blade, though the fit there is tight and smooth. Blade is blued gray, with some marks on the blade where the gray isn't even. I don't know the cause of it; rub marks or uneven blueing? Strong hamon line as you can see in the pics. The stag butt is biased more for right hand carry as you can see from the pic of the top view of the knife. I have sharpened it after getting it, but haven't used it other than to slice paper to test my sharpening.

Price: $150. Reduced to $135. Sold


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bobham.jpg

This is a Bob Ham hunter. ATS-34 hollow ground blade at 3-1/2", overall length at 8". Beautiful maple burl handle with red liners. Tapered tang with dovetailed stainless steel bolsters. File worked spine along the thumb rest area.

I got this off Ebay and was very happy with it for the price. I just have so many drop point hunters that I need to clear out some. Haven't used it nor carried it.

Price: $135 Sold


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Jerid Johnson hand forged hunter. Forged O-1 blade, edge quenched. Rounded spine for comfort. Flat grind to convex edge. Hand rubbed 6-1/8" blade slightly less than 1/4" thick, 11-1/8" overall. Nickel silver guard and threaded buttcap. Stabilized box elder handle with ironwood spacer.

This knife doesn't come with a sheath. The problem with this knife is purely cosmetic—in the close up picture you can see that the solder joint is kind of sloppy. And the pics can't show it, but the finger guard isn't totally smooth; toward the bottom there are some small flat planes in the grinding instead of a totally smooth curve. Neither used nor carried.

Price: $100 Sold
 
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Greco Whisper CT Deluxe. 5-3/4" blade, 10-1/8" overall. I don't know what the blade steel is. I think the handle's butt is elk.

The curve on the handle of this one just fits my hand beautifully. Great grinds. No real problems in fit and finish. I haven't carried or used this. I've been really tempted to take it out and use it some, but the blade shape and size is too much like a fighter for me to make full use of as a utility. A shame too because it feels great in the hand, and the point just makes you feel like you want to stab something.

Price: $125 Sold


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Doc Wacholz drop point. Hand forged 3-7/8" blade of 52100. Overall length at 8-5/8". Leather washers, stainless steel and black spacers, I believe the handle is whitetail. Nickel silver guard.

Doc apprenticed with Charlie Ochs, and sometimes writes for one of the knife magazines, I forget which one. This knife has been used and been extensively sharpened by me. It started out as a flat ground blade with a V edge, but I turned it into a high convex edge through re-sharpening the bevel at progressively lower angles, starting at 15 degrees per side at the primary down to 3 degrees as it goes up to the rest of the blade, then stropping the heck out of it with progressively finer sandpaper on a mousepad until the bevels smoothed out into a convex curve. So there's alot of 400 grit sandpaper stropping lines on the blade, though the grit is fine enough that it looks satin finished, just not in one perfect direction. The are some stains on the blade from use, but most of it gets taken off during stropping. It's much sharper now than when I bought it. Edge holding is great. Other than use marks and wear, there's a major flaw in the fit/finish when I got the knife in that the solder joint does have a hole, a bit more than 1 millimeter high by 1/2 millimeter wide. I never tried to fill that nor send it back, since I knew I was going to test this knife out. Performed really well, just time for me to move on to trying out another.

Price: $80. Reduced to $70. Sold


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bprimitive.jpg

1/8" thick, 5-1/2" forged blade, I think of 1095 steel. 10-1/4" overall. Handle is curly maple died reddish brown. Partial tang construction (stops after going 2-3/4" into the length of the handle).

I don't know the name of this maker. I bought this at a dealer's table and forgot the maker's name afterwards. His logo is in the inset of the photo. Got this when I was in my rough finish, rustic style phase. I love the semi-skinner blade shape and how it's offset a bit from the handle the way the Canadian Grohmann knives are. Felt like it would feel great to use. Sadly I haven't gotten a chance to try out how well it performs. Just too many other knives to test and use in my collection.

Price: $80 Reduced to $70


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Fishing Fool (David Hanson) carver. 6-1/2" blade ground from a carbon steel saw blade, 12" overall. Very thin blade. Handle is Walnut stained dark brown. Partial tang construction (stops after going 2-1/2" into the 5-1/2" handle).

This knife doesn't come with a sheath. David Hanson is Don Hanson's brother. He sells knives with blades made out of saw blades on Ebay under the name Fishing Fool. I was going to use this in the kitchen, but had bought one of his filet knives at the same time and am enjoying using that. Haven't had a chance to test this one out since I like the filet knife so much I'm happy just to use that. I have another upswept 4" knife of his that I also use in the kitchen as my main utility knife. His knives work great.

Price: $25. Or if you buy two of the knives above I'll send this one to you as a bonus. Sold
 
Really nice knives! Please consider me second in line for the Greco and third in line for the Jerid Johnson if by any chance those deals fall through.


Thanks,
Danny
 
Got the knives today! They are all very nice. Thanks for the deal and speedy service. Stabber
 
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