- Joined
- May 9, 2002
- Messages
- 12,612
A few weeks back I opened up one of those coveted USPS boxes with Yangdu's unmistakable lovely handwriting on the address. I will admit, the holidsu season and work have kept me hopping and I had not be following all the new comings and goings of blades making their way in from the shop. Shame on me, I know.
After tearing into the box like a 5 year old on Christmas morning (Its been nearly 17 years, and I never tire of breaking into these
), I pulled out a wrapped package. It FELT like a knife. I kinda KNEW it was a knife. However for its size it felt...well, light (by HI standards).
Upon opening it up, I found an old friend staring back at me...well, sorta. What the kamis had done was to reimagine a knife they had already been making a decade ago. The humble and oft times underappreciated SARGE (or KPH as I call it...I'll get into that in a moment).
A bit of history: The SARGE was the brainchild of our good forum friend Kismet. Now Kismet will probably deny this (and he'd be wrong. I've told him as much), but he has more practical woodswalking wisdom than any 10 random people. He's a guy who is often quiet, but he speaks volumes in a few words. Anyway, some years back he found an old file and crafted a small Nesmuk-like blade out of it. He married it to an old piece of antler (I think) with some glue and dubbed it SARGE after another forum friend who also was a very practical and worldly fellow with lots of outdoor experience (here and abroad). The SARGE was a no nonsense little belt knife that clocked in around 3 or 4" of blade and weighed next to nothing. It was a handly little fellow that could accomplish most any real task you might find on a walk (log cabin building and battoning through a cord of firewood not withstanding). It was for all intents and purposes a practical hunter. So to give credit where credit is due, I have always suggested giving the SARGE the subtitle of "Kismet Practical Hunter" or KPH, and it was produced by HI to be sold to y'all.
I had a SARGE many years ago produced. The kamis made it pretty close to Kismet's design, but a bit thin and hard in the tip and mine snapped about 1/8" off while giving it a hard strop. Yangdu in typical Yangdu fashion immediately sent me a new one. Kismet asked if he could have the broken one, and Yangdu said sure.
A few weeks go by, and I receive a package from Kismet. Inside is what he dubbed "the Corporal" as the break at the tip had demoted the knife He reground the edge and gave it more of the Nesmuk vibe that the kamis had lost in translation and had also set it into a piece of antler for a handle with an old spoon handle crafted as a guard. That little knife probably rode more miles with me than any other. I only retired it after nearly losing it on the trail. It sits in my drawer and I plan on passing on to someone who can appreciate it one day. Special knife from a good man.
My old friend the Corporal next to the beastly new guy.
ANYWAY, on the the new knife, right? What I found in the box from Yangdy a couple of weeks ago was not the tiny practical hunter. Instead I found a knife that would quarter an elk with no problem. To continue the play on words, I've dubbed this one Sergeant Major as it's a major step up in size with a different use.
First a few specs:
This knife is about 11" overall
About 6" is blade.
4.5" of that is cutting surface (I'll explain)
Just a hair under 1/4" thick at the spine
Belly for days and about an inch and 5/8 wide at the widest point.
Like the original SARGE it is a partial tang. Plenty strong. I have no way of knowing for sure how far the tang is set, but a gut/feel is most likely about halfway. Just a guess, but I dont think you could break this knife without setting out to do so.
The benefit to this is that to my hand it feels like this knife is about 9oz overall. Crazy easy to pack for such a large knife.
I haven't put it through its paces yet, so I can't review it beyond that it will indeed slice lemons for cocktails, but I have been EDC the last several days along with the rest of my kit, and it has grown on me even more than I thought it would. I'll try to do a little backyard bushcraft with it this weekend if the weather cooperates.
So instead I'll give you a bit of a run down on some of its quirks. Nothing bad about these, just deviations from the parent knife....besides size.
This knife is only roughly the shape of the old SARGE. It's got the belly and a bit of the drop at the spine, but the original prototype was more of a Nesmuk style. The Sergeant Major also has some really nice shallow fullers in the center of the blade. Not exactly where you would expect them, but it gives the blade an AK vibe when you get up close.
Finally, the edge on this knife has a lot of potential to customize it to your liking. My particular sample is completely without edge for a solid inch up from the guard.
Flat and squared off. It then takes it's time for another half inch meeting up with the edge. This does limit the fine work this knife can easily do just holding the handle, but it does give you an area that you can choke up on where you can put the guard through your grip.
It's not uncomfortable, but I think it could be a little more rounded off there if that is the purpose. In short, you could rough in an edge all the way to the guard, take the shoulders off the edge to make it more comfy to hold, or just cut in a monstrous choil if that's your thing. I think I'm just going to hog off the squareness of it and use it for an area to choke up. Works great for that.
So final first impressions, this is a awesome knife. I feel it will snap cut beyond its weight class, and the edge is ridiculously sharp. I roughed in a bit more at the tip then took it to 2000 grit paper before a leather strop. Hair pops now.
So, if you are looking for good all purpose belt knife with a bit more reach but won't pull your pants down, give the Sergeant Major a look. It's just good medicine. To paraphrase Kismet, enjoy every large sandwich.
I'm really looking forward to putting this one through the paces
Thanks for taking a look.
After tearing into the box like a 5 year old on Christmas morning (Its been nearly 17 years, and I never tire of breaking into these
), I pulled out a wrapped package. It FELT like a knife. I kinda KNEW it was a knife. However for its size it felt...well, light (by HI standards).Upon opening it up, I found an old friend staring back at me...well, sorta. What the kamis had done was to reimagine a knife they had already been making a decade ago. The humble and oft times underappreciated SARGE (or KPH as I call it...I'll get into that in a moment).
A bit of history: The SARGE was the brainchild of our good forum friend Kismet. Now Kismet will probably deny this (and he'd be wrong. I've told him as much), but he has more practical woodswalking wisdom than any 10 random people. He's a guy who is often quiet, but he speaks volumes in a few words. Anyway, some years back he found an old file and crafted a small Nesmuk-like blade out of it. He married it to an old piece of antler (I think) with some glue and dubbed it SARGE after another forum friend who also was a very practical and worldly fellow with lots of outdoor experience (here and abroad). The SARGE was a no nonsense little belt knife that clocked in around 3 or 4" of blade and weighed next to nothing. It was a handly little fellow that could accomplish most any real task you might find on a walk (log cabin building and battoning through a cord of firewood not withstanding). It was for all intents and purposes a practical hunter. So to give credit where credit is due, I have always suggested giving the SARGE the subtitle of "Kismet Practical Hunter" or KPH, and it was produced by HI to be sold to y'all.
I had a SARGE many years ago produced. The kamis made it pretty close to Kismet's design, but a bit thin and hard in the tip and mine snapped about 1/8" off while giving it a hard strop. Yangdu in typical Yangdu fashion immediately sent me a new one. Kismet asked if he could have the broken one, and Yangdu said sure.
A few weeks go by, and I receive a package from Kismet. Inside is what he dubbed "the Corporal" as the break at the tip had demoted the knife
He reground the edge and gave it more of the Nesmuk vibe that the kamis had lost in translation and had also set it into a piece of antler for a handle with an old spoon handle crafted as a guard. That little knife probably rode more miles with me than any other. I only retired it after nearly losing it on the trail. It sits in my drawer and I plan on passing on to someone who can appreciate it one day. Special knife from a good man.
My old friend the Corporal next to the beastly new guy.
ANYWAY, on the the new knife, right? What I found in the box from Yangdy a couple of weeks ago was not the tiny practical hunter. Instead I found a knife that would quarter an elk with no problem. To continue the play on words, I've dubbed this one Sergeant Major as it's a major step up in size with a different use.
First a few specs:
This knife is about 11" overall
About 6" is blade.
4.5" of that is cutting surface (I'll explain)
Just a hair under 1/4" thick at the spine
Belly for days and about an inch and 5/8 wide at the widest point.
Like the original SARGE it is a partial tang. Plenty strong. I have no way of knowing for sure how far the tang is set, but a gut/feel is most likely about halfway. Just a guess, but I dont think you could break this knife without setting out to do so.
The benefit to this is that to my hand it feels like this knife is about 9oz overall. Crazy easy to pack for such a large knife.
I haven't put it through its paces yet, so I can't review it beyond that it will indeed slice lemons for cocktails, but I have been EDC the last several days along with the rest of my kit, and it has grown on me even more than I thought it would. I'll try to do a little backyard bushcraft with it this weekend if the weather cooperates.
So instead I'll give you a bit of a run down on some of its quirks. Nothing bad about these, just deviations from the parent knife....besides size.
This knife is only roughly the shape of the old SARGE. It's got the belly and a bit of the drop at the spine, but the original prototype was more of a Nesmuk style. The Sergeant Major also has some really nice shallow fullers in the center of the blade. Not exactly where you would expect them, but it gives the blade an AK vibe when you get up close.
Finally, the edge on this knife has a lot of potential to customize it to your liking. My particular sample is completely without edge for a solid inch up from the guard.
Flat and squared off. It then takes it's time for another half inch meeting up with the edge. This does limit the fine work this knife can easily do just holding the handle, but it does give you an area that you can choke up on where you can put the guard through your grip.
It's not uncomfortable, but I think it could be a little more rounded off there if that is the purpose. In short, you could rough in an edge all the way to the guard, take the shoulders off the edge to make it more comfy to hold, or just cut in a monstrous choil if that's your thing. I think I'm just going to hog off the squareness of it and use it for an area to choke up. Works great for that.
So final first impressions, this is a awesome knife. I feel it will snap cut beyond its weight class, and the edge is ridiculously sharp. I roughed in a bit more at the tip then took it to 2000 grit paper before a leather strop. Hair pops now.
So, if you are looking for good all purpose belt knife with a bit more reach but won't pull your pants down, give the Sergeant Major a look. It's just good medicine. To paraphrase Kismet, enjoy every large sandwich.
I'm really looking forward to putting this one through the paces
Thanks for taking a look.
I had several good conversations about the silliness of it with our late resident ninja Dannyinjapan (RIP, good buddy) and he literally WROTE A BOOK on throwing them.