Stalker by Jim Burke

J

jaime

Joined
Aug 2, 2001
Messages
63
I had been looking around for a while for a 3-5´´ blade mostly for camping and kitchen use, that sort of blade to handle shaving wood, cutting small poles and preparing family food in day trips. After looking around a lot I found Jim and his beaty. You can see a picture of it here:

http://www.burkeknives.com/product_6.htm

I also got a prick knife, in S30V,

http://www.burkeknives.com/product_5.htm

I contact Jim and ordered a customized version of the Stalker, with a straight handle, full tang, S30V and black micarta slabs. After using it around for a couple of weeks I found out that I could not have made a better choice.
Out of the box it was so sharp I could push cut through smoking paper. Impressed as I was I got to use it right away.
I quartered half a lamb, chopping through the backbone, legs and making big stakes out of the meat with no problem. Chopping was slow, because it is quite a light blade (only 3/16 thick), but I could easily hold it with two fingers to give it and extra forward balance. After that it was still very sharp and just a few strokes on a steel got it back to full sharpness.
Cutting vegetables was not a problem either for it, being very comfortable to prepare a salad and cutting a big watermelon into dices for dessert, but that is not a big suprise since its thin and sharp.
What amazed me most was the ability to SLICE through chicken bone with very little effort. In fact, I discovered I went through a bone (not a joint, but an actual epiphisis) thinking I had just cut a slice of meat :eek:. This knife is no kidding! (can you say that?)
After the bone incident I went primitive and made a few bone needles, but insteat of sanding it to shape I sharpened them to shape only sanding for final finish. Note that a bone needle will break if you use too much pressure shaving it. Making the hole for the needles was not a problem either for it. I made a hand drill set and it also worked very well, and gripping the knife half handle and half blade to make holes in the wood felt very secure and very comfortable, in part thanks to the guard.
The prick knife came with a beatiful coating, but the most intresting thing is that the cord wrapping alternates in thickness from left to right part of the handle, this is, you get a thicker portion of wrapping first in one side, then on the other, then back to first side... five or six times. This contributes A LOT to secure the grip. It is a very inteligent feature. It also came with a short length of cord on the talon hole that proved very useful for chocking up holding the knife with the cord wrapped aroung your pinky and using just the tip of the fingers to direct the cut. This made a difference when carving a hook out of bone. Great knife too!.
The sheath of the Stalker was the best I have seen. Note that in Spain if a production knife of about 30 US$ does not come with a hand stitched 8-9 oz. leather sheath, everybody laughs at it. Honestly, I am sick of ordering custom leather sheaths and/or custom hand stitching for non-spanish knives, but this is THE sheath. You can hold the knife up side down and shake it vertically, and the knife won´t fall. This is a sheath. Jim got some nice fringes on it for me too. Thanks Jim!!
Overall, this knives are a sure bet and I am more than proud to own them.
Next are his folders!.
Jaime
 
Interesting comment on the bone needles, I have never tried that. Is there anyway you could get a few pictures up? Is the knife hollow or flat ground?

-Cliff
 
The knife has a primary hollow bevel, and it is sharpened to quite a low angle. I am sure Jim will answer to these questions much better than me.
Posting pictures is not possible for me at this moment, but I will try. I need help in finding where to post them, BTW.
If you would like some pictures of my bone work (let my ego feel so), I consider it a compliment and will be more than happy to post them. :D
Jaime
 
Hey guys. The Stalker is hollow ground. With the S30v blade I grind to about a .030 edge then sharpen at about 20 degrees angle. For the handle I used the same shape as the Prick knife, upsized, fulltang, split guard, with kanvas micarta slabs. Jaime liked the shape of the handle on the Prick so that was the motivation behind that. It was a custom job just for him.

Thanks, Jim
www.burkeknives.com
 
Looks like you made an excellent choice. I have my eye on the Montana Camp Knife, hope to get one VERY soon! The folders look awesome too.
 
These are the pics. Thanks Cliff, for the info.
I could not do better. Sorry.

This one is with a needle I did. It is done only with the Stalker, no sanding yet. I made this one in a twisting shape, not straight as I did the first ones.

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictu...5.jpg.orig.jpg&caption=dsc00235&id=4224070549

The two next ones show the sheathe.

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictu...8.jpg.orig.jpg&caption=dsc00236&id=4224070552

http://www.imagestation.com/mypictu...9.jpg.orig.jpg&caption=dsc00239&id=4224070553
 
This needle was made out of chicken. The thing is that I normally make this kind of things after supper, while I calmly smoke, and therefore I have time to carve them out of lamb or pheasant. I normally throw them away when I´m finished, so when you asked for pics I had to do a new one in a pinch, so I used chicken (my lady won´t eat the same kind of meat twice a week) :)
This is how I make a needle:
I cut the bone in two through the diaphysis. I normally notch it all around the perimeter to allow for a clean break.
I then split the bone lenghtwise a couple of times. This can be frustrating at times.
Now the next bit is somewhat removing some bone by notching/breaking and carefully shaving. I kept the shavings of the last needle to take a picture of them, but I am too bad a photography and couldn´t do a proper shot. The order of magnitude of the shavings is 1mm. Most of them are around 2-3mm. You have to be very careful at this point. The objective is to get something you think a needle can be taken from, but not remotely the needle itself.
Now you should have perfectly planned the shape of your needle, so make the hole for it. Do half of it from each side, to prevent the hole from being too broad.
Shape needle by grinding. I do this with a sharpening stone. There are many ways to finish it, but the hardest is rounding it.
Also, if you prefer to have a very, very thin needle, the hole (which is the most restrictive section) can be made long, like a trench, instead of rounded. You can do this by scratching lenghthwise with a knife, and it is a pain in the neck to do, but the result is very rewarding.
You can also make it curved, as a medic sewing needle, by using the epiphysis as part of the body of the needle (hole part, not tip, as it is too soft). Also you can make a twisting needle, like the one in my pic.
The statement I made about using the stalker to make the shape of the needle was an ilustration of what a good cutter it is. I normally don´t do that because it doesn´t normally work if you want to get a proper final product.
All I can say about this method is that it is somewhat similar to that used in the stone age, as I have learned in the museums I have been to. The british museum of anthropology, the one in valencia (spain) and the one in toronto (if I remember well) are the best I have ever been to.
I have looked up in the internet and the only good museum site I have found is the following. Unfortunately it is only in spanish, because the english translation is under construction, but i am sure they will finish it soon.

http://www.xarxamuseus.com/prehistoria/museo/prehis2.htm

I will look around and drop you an email if I find something on the subject worth mentioning, if you wish.
I will also try to get a bit more skilled with the cam.
Jaime.
 
:) My Jim Burke #2 Utility Folder is in my pocket as I type this,gwt 'em before the line grows even more!
 
Thanks for the additional info. The needles I can see myself being able to make, they look difficult but not impossible. However roundshapes like barbed hooks have me shaking my head, that looks to be massively more difficult. What is the time frame involved in making a simple needle, and then for something complicated like a barbed hook. Have you ever tried out a hook, it would seem to me to be fairly limited in actual use. I have a pile of bones on hand, it should make for some interesting work when I get some free time.

-Cliff
 
Sorry about the delay, but I have been out for a while.
The time it takes me to make a needle ranges from 10´ for a simple one to maybe 1 hour for a rounded well made heavy needle. The thing is that you need a good bone with heavy walls to make a real primitive piece. The ones that I have done that were really caveman quality were made out of cow.
Making a fishhook is a completely different story. It takes me a whole afternoon to make one, mostly because I still have to think carefully where to grind and shave. It is easier if you start with a piece of bone about the size of the intended hook, outline the shape you want with a pencil and start drilling out the parts you don´t want.
The idea I use is weakening the area around the intended hook so it can be broken out, instead of sanding it all off. After that it´s a matter of carefully grinding it into shape.
For drilling the holes I am sure a dremel would be perfect, but as I do it for fun I take my time and do it with an awl, the type you use to mark the wood before driving a screw in.
I really get much better results with the needles, but I imagine the hooks would work just fine too. About the limited use, well, if you have a steel hook... Never tried my hooks, though.
One piece of advice: Gerber makes a diamond sharpening stick that works quite well with the hooks. In case you don´t know it, it has a flat and a rounded side, so the corner between them can be used to get more or less into shape the barb. Final finish of the barb needs lots of patience, anyway.
I will post the several stages of how I make a hook, but I am sure there are better ways of making one.
Hope it helps.
Jiame.
 
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