The "Ask Nathan a Question" Thread

Nathan the Machinist said:
Had been .125

I am considering bumping that up an rch to .130-.135 because I'm going to scale the entire thing up 5%. It's still a small bird and trout size knife but this was a request that my father-in-law made that I'm going to honor.

There's going to be a few minor tweaks.

I decided to leave the profile alone. Overall it's going to be a replica of the OG Skinner.

Is there room for ergonomic enhancements? Are there little things that could be done differently such as adding a thumb ramp or jimping? I made the Kephart a faithful copy of the original design and I'm going to leave the design of the Skinner more or less fundamentally the same too. Part of the appeal to me was the elegant simplicity of the design and I'm going to retain that. It's not going to be the ergonomic masterpiece of our regular product line, but it's well designed for the way I skin and gut a deer and the way that I hold the knife and the design that I came up with 20 years ago still suits me very well.

There have been some drastic changes in my manufacturing process over the years

There's going to be a basic model which will be flat ground. Relatively thin but still enough for some careless use. ($340 with an excellent kydex sheath)

There will be a signature model that is hand hollow ground very thin, satin, hardwood of my choosing (probably American Osage orange) with a nice leather sheath for $650.

And there will be a basic steak knife set in Magna cut with Delrin handles. These are machine washable. A set of four for $1,000, no sheaths. I'm not sure why you would want to spend $1,000 on a set of steak knives, but I don't make cheap knives and I know some of you knuckleheads are going to be using it as a steak knife...

Some changes compared to the original, the scales will be removable but it's going to use different hardware than I normally use. Rather than quarter inch pins I'm going to use 3/16" and have custom 6al-4V titanium hardware made that can be anodized. It will be skeletonized for weight reduction but I'm going to leave it solid at the butt because I want a rear balance on this.

The cross section of the scales won't be quite so boxy. However I'm going to leave it square on top up near your thumb. This will give you a control surface when your hands are slippery and create that wider cross section at the top that I like at the front of the scales. The scales will be textured.

The steel choices will be:

3V Delta at HRC62. This is a special tweaked version of Delta 3V that has been processed for finer primary carbides and subsequently a slightly higher hardness sweet spot. Choose this if you're also going to use it primarily as a general purpose utility knife. The steel is very durable, and it holds an edge well in rough use while still retaining good abrasion resistance. It's practically stainless. This is one of the most well-balanced most capable materials you will come across.


D2 at HRC61. Take $20 off your purchase. Choose this if you're going to primarily use this as a skinning knife. This does not have the toughness or edge retention in rough use, but it does have an optimized heat treat with far better edge stability than you think is possible for this alloy and it performs very well in hide.

Magna cut with an optimized heat treat at HRC 62. Choose this if you're running it through the dishwasher. It's still probably going to stain though. This is a high hardness high carbon martensitic stainless steel. It is highly corrosion resistant for what it is but, you know...


TL;DR it used to be an eighth of an inch thick but I'm probably going to go just a hair thicker
Click to expand...
Not to be weird, but…..🤣

IMG_1987.jpeg
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
Had been .125

I am considering bumping that up an rch to .130-.135 because I'm going to scale the entire thing up 5%. It's still a small bird and trout size knife but this was a request that my father-in-law made that I'm going to honor.

There's going to be a few minor tweaks.

I decided to leave the profile alone. Overall it's going to be a replica of the OG Skinner.

Is there room for ergonomic enhancements? Are there little things that could be done differently such as adding a thumb ramp or jimping? I made the Kephart a faithful copy of the original design and I'm going to leave the design of the Skinner more or less fundamentally the same too. Part of the appeal to me was the elegant simplicity of the design and I'm going to retain that. It's not going to be the ergonomic masterpiece of our regular product line, but it's well designed for the way I skin and gut a deer and the way that I hold the knife and the design that I came up with 20 years ago still suits me very well.

There have been some drastic changes in my manufacturing process over the years

There's going to be a basic model which will be flat ground. Relatively thin but still enough for some careless use. ($340 with an excellent kydex sheath)

There will be a signature model that is hand hollow ground very thin, satin, hardwood of my choosing (probably American Osage orange) with a nice leather sheath for $650.

And there will be a basic steak knife set in Magna cut with Delrin handles. These are machine washable. A set of four for $1,000, no sheaths. I'm not sure why you would want to spend $1,000 on a set of steak knives, but I don't make cheap knives and I know some of you knuckleheads are going to be using it as a steak knife...

Some changes compared to the original, the scales will be removable but it's going to use different hardware than I normally use. Rather than quarter inch pins I'm going to use 3/16" and have custom 6al-4V titanium hardware made that can be anodized. It will be skeletonized for weight reduction but I'm going to leave it solid at the butt because I want a rear balance on this.

The cross section of the scales won't be quite so boxy. However I'm going to leave it square on top up near your thumb. This will give you a control surface when your hands are slippery and create that wider cross section at the top that I like at the front of the scales. The scales will be textured.

The steel choices will be:

3V Delta at HRC62. This is a special tweaked version of Delta 3V that has been processed for finer primary carbides and subsequently a slightly higher hardness sweet spot. Choose this if you're also going to use it primarily as a general purpose utility knife. The steel is very durable, and it holds an edge well in rough use while still retaining good abrasion resistance. It's practically stainless. This is one of the most well-balanced most capable materials you will come across.


D2 at HRC61. Take $20 off your purchase. Choose this if you're going to primarily use this as a skinning knife. This does not have the toughness or edge retention in rough use, but it does have an optimized heat treat with far better edge stability than you think is possible for this alloy and it performs very well in hide.

Magna cut with an optimized heat treat at HRC 62. Choose this if you're running it through the dishwasher. It's still probably going to stain though. This is a high hardness high carbon martensitic stainless steel. It is highly corrosion resistant for what it is but, you know...


TL;DR it used to be an eighth of an inch thick but I'm probably going to go just a hair thicker
Click to expand...
I resemble the knucklehead comment. But only want a hand ground skinner. 😆
 
Casinostocks said:
Apologies in advance for my childish behavior after reading Nathan's post. I'm so psyched about dropping ~ couple of Gs on Friday!

giphy.gif
Click to expand...
Hey Matt. Hope you are doing great! Is there going to be a pre-sale? I missed the memo
 
Richard338 said:
I don't even like to think about good knives in a dishwasher, especially after my HEATHEN student ruined three of mine.
Click to expand...

I put D2 skinners in the dishwasher all the time

This is how I know that Osage orange is actually dishwasher tolerant. It's the epoxy on the liner that lets go.

Potato knives in the dishwasher too

IDGAF

I don't recommend you do this. But I'm always breaking shit. That's how I learn.

But yeah, the new steak knives will be fine
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I put D2 skinners in the dishwasher all the time

This is how I know that Osage orange is actually dishwasher tolerant. It's the epoxy on the liner that lets go.

Potato knives in the dishwasher too

IDGAF

I don't recommend you do this. But I'm always breaking shit. That's how I learn.

But yeah, the new steak knives will be fine
Click to expand...

GANGSTER
 
Nathan the Machinist said:
I put D2 skinners in the dishwasher all the time

This is how I know that Osage orange is actually dishwasher tolerant. It's the epoxy on the liner that lets go.

Potato knives in the dishwasher too

IDGAF

I don't recommend you do this. But I'm always breaking shit. That's how I learn.

But yeah, the new steak knives will be fine
Click to expand...

Knives? How many tater knives do you have kicking around?
 
Will the blades on the steak knives have the same specs as the basic? And have sheaths available separately for those of us that may want to carry around a steak knife? One in the pocket, one on the belt, and one in each boot.
 
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