testing knives with gloves.

[BarberFobic1992]

the cold weather finally hit in oklahoma. it came pretty suddenly, as yesterday it started at 75 degrees and by 10:00 that night, it was 10 degrees (seriously, no exaggeration, you can check the weather). accompanying the cold last night was some hail (pea sized) followed by freezing rain. no good for the roads, but it got my classes cancelled today. so, i headed outdoors. the temp today was about 10-15 degrees, but with the windchill, it was well below zero.

anyway, i wanted to see what knives opperated best in the cold. so, i got the most likely candidates for cold weather knives and did a little testing.

i made a fire first, so i could warm up my hands before testing each knife, so my hands numbness level wouldnt vary from one knife to the next.

the knives in testing are (from left to right) knife i made, stromeng leuku, helle brakar, koyote psk (i didnt really expect much fm this one in these conditions, but i brought it out anyway), and a koyote bushcrafter.

the koyote bushcrafter went first.

the handle on the koyote felt really good in the hand, and even with the glove it was very secure. i think i remember christof mentioning that this was one of the specialties of his handle designs, and it worked quite well. i would feel quite safe using this knife with cold gloved hands.

next, the koyote psk:

the psk, as expected, was not very comfortable to use under these conditions. i would say it is almost dangerous. its not really this knife, it is any knife with a thin handle.

more to come.....

 

[BarberFobic1992]

next, the helle brakar:

the brakar also did well, probably because in was designed by nordic folk, so it was intended for such use. nut quite as much controll as with the koyote, but it was definatly close.

the stromeng leuku:

the leuku is probably my overall favorite for a cold weather knife, as the handle shape gives a really sturdy grip on the knife, especially while wearing gloves. i thought the extra length might be a bit cumbersome, but it operated well.

the knife i made:

this guy was alot more comfortable to use during drawing cuts, since it is rather small. it was great at shaving wood because of its thin blade. overall, for a cold weather knife, it worked pretty well, about equivilent to the brakar.

 

[Rockywolf]

I love these kind of threads. Great to see what works! It's cold here in MN and I switch from hands to mitts/gloves and back again. Where did you get that Helle?

 

[BarberFobic1992]

I love these kind of threads. Great to see what works! It's cold here in MN and I switch from hands to mitts/gloves and back again. Where did you get that Helle?

i got the helle froma knife shop in northern kentucky, it was there last one though, i think it is a dicontinued model unfortunatly.

 

[Rockywolf]

I just did a quick search of Ragnar's site and he has them!

 

[koyote]

That Stromeng is pretty nice

I'm glad my glove design worked out for you, for the PSK, it has the tang holes that would allow you to put some thick oak scales on or something. I'm gonna have to try a bigger rubber and cord wrap up in the mountains and see what I can come up with.

 

[Wandering_About]

I've really come to like the leku knife pattern as an all around blade. I don't own any traditional leku knives, but my Breeden Peacemaker is pretty close to it. Just like the way the handle and blade shape of this pattern work together. And the handles are usually generously sized and nicely shaped, which makes using them with gloves much easier.

Hopefully I can slip out for a while tomorrow and try a knife or two with gloves. It's supposed to snow tomorrow, looking forward to playing around in some fresh white stuff.

Good post!

 

[BarberFobic1992]

I just did a quick search of Ragnar's site and he has them!

man, they went up in price since i got mine. i paid $55. oh well, still definatly worth it.

 

[BarberFobic1992]

That Stromeng is pretty nice

I'm glad my glove design worked out for you, for the PSK, it has the tang holes that would allow you to put some thick oak scales on or something. I'm gonna have to try a bigger rubber and cord wrap up in the mountains and see what I can come up with.

i like the stromeng alot. i got it for $35 from a guy that didnt know much about knives. i checked ragnars and its regularly $90.

i thought about doing some thin scales on the psk, but then it would be difficult to make a spear out of.

 

[Rockywolf]

Well BarberFobic, you have inspired me. I am going to go out today and test some knives for this very same thing and add to this thread, with your blessing. I have some well known makers' knives and some not-so-well-known. Simple tests like using in hand and in glove/mitten, cutting wood, and in and out of sheath while cold. (It is -9 right now!)

 

[BarberFobic1992]

Well BarberFobic, you have inspired me. I am going to go out today and test some knives for this very same thing and add to this thread, with your blessing. I have some well known makers' knives and some not-so-well-known. Simple tests like using in hand and in glove/mitten, cutting wood, and in and out of sheath while cold. (It is -9 right now!)

have fun and stay warm.

 

[Rockywolf]

Ok, now that I am back inside with cold toes and fingers (and the tip of my nose), I'm adding to this thread. I took 14 knives outside and got my hands nice and cold without mittens, then put the mittens back on and used the knives to make some curls on wood to simulate use with cold hands and with gloves in the woods. Obviously this is the next best thing to scientific theory I could come up with on the spot!

I really was looking for handle comfort and ease of use, as well as transitioning knives to and from sheaths. Handle size is a big deal to me, I like something that doesn't feel "lost" in my hand, and that is especially important in the cold. Same goes for sheaths-I like pouch style with a wider opening and one that comes up about halfway on the handle so I can grab the knife easily. It was about -2 durning the testing process.

All these knives performed well during the cutting, I like my knives SHARP (who doesn't :thumbup, and anyway that wasn't the test. Also, since I was wearing gloves, the knives with a full, exposed tang didn't matter either.

Here's the lineup of knives, L to R:

Becker Campanion, Stomper Field, Bark River Fox Magnum, Laconico HWK+, Breeden Pathfinder, Dmitri Puukko, Woodlore style I bought off ebay, Whipple, Patrick knife, Enzo, Charlie Ridge Nessie, Fiddleback Bushie Jr, BGoode Grimlin, Koyote EDC.

I have a few other knives, but I have given them to my 2 sons, so I left them out of this test, although I'm certain they would have performed well!

So the skinny is this: With gloves on, cold fricking hands, -2 temp, the Stomper Field knife and the Laconico tied for first place. Big, fat, hand-filling handles on both that I could easily feel while using, and could transition easily.

Campanion, Charlie Ridge, Barkie were next. The smaller knives, Fiddleback, Koyote, BGoode, are great tools and I love them all, just not suited as well for gross motor skills in a colder environment. The Enzo, Woodlore, Breeden, Dmitri, and Whipple were smack dab in the middle, just like I thought they would be. Now notice NONE of these knives has a longer blade than 5 inches. I have one, a Tusker by Gossman, but didn't test it. It isn't a knife I take hiking-these others are.

That said, the Enzo has the best sheath to trasition to and from. The leather sheaths overall are better in cold for securely holding yet removing easily for me. I like the kydex of the ones that have them, leather is just easier to work with for me in the cold.

 

[koyote]

i thought about doing some thin scales on the psk, but then it would be difficult to make a spear out of.

Use some chicago screws, the tang holes are sized to fit the standard ones.

 

[valcas1]

Very interesting stuff. I think that larger round handles are much better for cold weather work than small handles. It is just my opinion based on my experience. Things that work very well with warm hands just don't work in the winter.

 

[siguy]

cool tests, thanks for sharing.

i find that in the cold my hands get rather dry, and very smooth and slippery. this means that knives slip around more easily, making an integral gaurd more necessary. i don't like gaurds very much though, so i have just tried to teach myself to be careful in the cold. i have had some close calls though.

mostly, i wear gloves though, which do inhibit some of the finer motor stuff, especially if they are thicker (warmer).

anyways, thanks for sharing!

 

[koyote]

All depends on the gloves. The reason I like the two layer military ones is that the knit wool liners are very close fitting and near as make no difference to dexterity. The leather overlayer is a bit more like a work glove once you have it on, but isn't too bad. Then I'll pop on mittens over it all if I'm just walking or freezing.

 

[revhard05]

in the last pic what are the two knives with the red and green handels

 

[BarberFobic1992]

green one is a bgoode gremlin, and the red one is probably the koyote edc

 

[Fonly]

Nice, thanks for the view on cold temps knife use.

I find I only remove gloves when I need to do something that requires fine work, shaving, fuzz sticks things like that. Other than that, and old pair of leathers come with and they take the brunk of the work.

 

[hollowdweller]