- Joined
- Jun 23, 1999
- Messages
- 1,209
Back in October I think I started a thread over here asking if there was anyone out there who wanted to make a utility/hunter out of 3/32" stock with a 4" blade about 1" wide flat ground from the spine. Basically a straight hunter or mild drop or clip point.
Only two knife makers responded to my request. One had a Bird & Trout available and I had a look. Really nice, but the blade was too long, and the handle very specialized. A really nice knife, but not for the general purposes to which I intended to put it.
The other maker was Tim (Taz) Johnson. He said he'd do it in ATS-34 for $100 so for that I said hey lets try it! We exchanged emails for a while, made some drawings and modified them. Eventually Tim went to work on it. The result arrived on my doorstep yesterday. There is a picture and some vital stats here at:
http://www.quine.home.sonic.net/taz.html
I think the knife has a nice profile. Taz offered me a few handle shape options, and the one in the picture is what I was looking for. It's a nice red micarta, the dropped end of the handle serving to enhance grip in a pull stroke and also to index the knife to the pinky. The handle is nicely shaped and finished, though I prefer a more oval cross section (like () this) as compared to its more rectangular one (like [] this). This is not a criticism of Taz's work though as we did not speak about such details.
The blade profile is just about perfect for me, though I do favor a slightly more acute tip. The flat grind is nicely done and the steel has a clean satin finish. Another nice touch is the barest hint of a finger notch that you can just barely see in the picture. I asked Taz to try to balance the knife exactly on the second finger, and he came pretty close being just barely forward of it, which I prefer to being behind it.
Tim also included a kydex sheath. A very simple sheath holding the knife in with a spring-like pinching around the lateral indentations on the handle slabs (visible in the picture). This is probably the simplest engineered sheath I've ever seen with the exception of the one that came with my Aki light-machete. The work is a little rough. The edges don't quite come together in one place, but the pins hold it securely enough. It is intended for weak-side carry with a cross draw. The kydex sheath has a leather strap attached between a pin near its tip, and one up by the handle. This looks like it will cause the sheath to ride vertically on the belt with the belt being at about its middle, but what happens is that the sheath to slides forward at a 45deg angle putting the handle into a perfect cross draw position. Very simple, and works very well.
The only specification Tim didn't exactly meet was the 3/32" stock thickness. I suspect that he started with 1/8" stock and ground 1/32" away from it, or at least he tried to. The knife came out just a little thicker than 3/32, more like 7/64". Still, its very light. Lighter than my 1/8" thick Dozier K-1 which is 1" shorter!
Having been into small-shop and a few custom knives in the same class for a little while now, I have learned to look and pick out the little imperfections that demonstrate the knife's true custom status, and by a non-master maker who is, never-the-less, very good and I'm sure will be even better in years to come. The only real flaw I found is that the primary grind is not perfectly centered. That is, the edge is not aligned exactly under the center of the spine, but is set off to the left about 1/64" inch (or less). This causes the secondary bevel lines to be of slightly different widths even though the two secondary bevels do (as far as I can tell) meet at exactly the same angle.
So far I've used it to make fuzz sticks, cut fiberglass insulation, made sandwhiches for lunch (bread, mustard, cheese and dried salami), and slice up various vegetables for dinner, along with a few cardboard boxes. It will be my EDC around the farm here for some time to come so I'll be able to report more fully on it in the future. At the moment, I love the extra reach of the 4" blade.
Taz was great to work with. Answered all my questions, and was very responsive (almost always in 24 hours) to emails. Indeed I told him there was no hurry, and as the months went by, he kept me up progressive developments even without my asking.
Only two knife makers responded to my request. One had a Bird & Trout available and I had a look. Really nice, but the blade was too long, and the handle very specialized. A really nice knife, but not for the general purposes to which I intended to put it.
The other maker was Tim (Taz) Johnson. He said he'd do it in ATS-34 for $100 so for that I said hey lets try it! We exchanged emails for a while, made some drawings and modified them. Eventually Tim went to work on it. The result arrived on my doorstep yesterday. There is a picture and some vital stats here at:
http://www.quine.home.sonic.net/taz.html
I think the knife has a nice profile. Taz offered me a few handle shape options, and the one in the picture is what I was looking for. It's a nice red micarta, the dropped end of the handle serving to enhance grip in a pull stroke and also to index the knife to the pinky. The handle is nicely shaped and finished, though I prefer a more oval cross section (like () this) as compared to its more rectangular one (like [] this). This is not a criticism of Taz's work though as we did not speak about such details.
The blade profile is just about perfect for me, though I do favor a slightly more acute tip. The flat grind is nicely done and the steel has a clean satin finish. Another nice touch is the barest hint of a finger notch that you can just barely see in the picture. I asked Taz to try to balance the knife exactly on the second finger, and he came pretty close being just barely forward of it, which I prefer to being behind it.
Tim also included a kydex sheath. A very simple sheath holding the knife in with a spring-like pinching around the lateral indentations on the handle slabs (visible in the picture). This is probably the simplest engineered sheath I've ever seen with the exception of the one that came with my Aki light-machete. The work is a little rough. The edges don't quite come together in one place, but the pins hold it securely enough. It is intended for weak-side carry with a cross draw. The kydex sheath has a leather strap attached between a pin near its tip, and one up by the handle. This looks like it will cause the sheath to ride vertically on the belt with the belt being at about its middle, but what happens is that the sheath to slides forward at a 45deg angle putting the handle into a perfect cross draw position. Very simple, and works very well.
The only specification Tim didn't exactly meet was the 3/32" stock thickness. I suspect that he started with 1/8" stock and ground 1/32" away from it, or at least he tried to. The knife came out just a little thicker than 3/32, more like 7/64". Still, its very light. Lighter than my 1/8" thick Dozier K-1 which is 1" shorter!
Having been into small-shop and a few custom knives in the same class for a little while now, I have learned to look and pick out the little imperfections that demonstrate the knife's true custom status, and by a non-master maker who is, never-the-less, very good and I'm sure will be even better in years to come. The only real flaw I found is that the primary grind is not perfectly centered. That is, the edge is not aligned exactly under the center of the spine, but is set off to the left about 1/64" inch (or less). This causes the secondary bevel lines to be of slightly different widths even though the two secondary bevels do (as far as I can tell) meet at exactly the same angle.
So far I've used it to make fuzz sticks, cut fiberglass insulation, made sandwhiches for lunch (bread, mustard, cheese and dried salami), and slice up various vegetables for dinner, along with a few cardboard boxes. It will be my EDC around the farm here for some time to come so I'll be able to report more fully on it in the future. At the moment, I love the extra reach of the 4" blade.
Taz was great to work with. Answered all my questions, and was very responsive (almost always in 24 hours) to emails. Indeed I told him there was no hurry, and as the months went by, he kept me up progressive developments even without my asking.
Kind of defeats the purpose most small blades supposedly are designed for.
One point, the steel is D2, not ATS-34...