The Bears' Den--Shirogorov Showcase

Oh man. I was sliding in here to get caught up and ready. Finally joined the Shiro club. Well bought, just putting in the mail time now.

After six months of reading, mulling and dealing. As well as finally accepting just how little "dealing" there is to be done on these. lol

First thing I see is this.

Screenshot_20240817_113012_Chrome.jpg


😂 🤣
 
scorpnsnake said:
Oh man. I was sliding in here to get caught up and ready. Finally joined the Shiro club. Well bought, just putting in the mail time now.

After six months of reading, mulling and dealing. As well as finally accepting just how little "dealing" there is to be done on these. lol

First thing I see is this.

View attachment 2638335


😂 🤣
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I've added 4 more. That said, I'm uber excited to see what ya got!
 
crk1984 said:
I've added 4 more. That said, I'm uber excited to see what ya got!
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I suppose you've a large assortment of P.M. steels there -- starting from "basic" Cromax and Elmax, through "premium" M390 and up to "limited" alloys MagnaCut / M398 / S90V / S110V...

Did I miss anything exotic? Vanax maybe?
 
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Got the White/Blue G10 apart after some major struggles, and dyed the scales
S3QgIpc.jpg


Turned out really well after a lot of elbow grease lol. It is G10 but the way the scales are cut, they shimmer in the sun like Carbon. Went ahead and blacked it all out including the backspacer & G2 Lanyard.

This F3 is my overall favorite action of my Shiro’s I’ve had and am the most fond of it (I don’t have any CD’s though). Since dying it, I’ve made it personal and a keeper now.

8XKR2Ih.jpg

RoadEgk.jpg

5gANy1Y.jpg

mMvHGo0.mp4
 
Your F3 looks really sweet now, Cwilliams563 Cwilliams563 . The white G10 looked sorta cool, but I can see that that it would be impossible to use the knife and have it look anything but dirty and smudgy. I was wondering about the concentric blue around both sides of the pivot, having always thought that feature on that level of F3's was a pivot collar. Studying your pics above and on the preceding page I see that the blue highlights were just dyed areas. Blowing up your after pics I can see just a tase of blue showing through--really gotta look for it, though, and you dye job looks great!

Is your blade Elmax? IIRC, that was the steel used on that line of F3's. I've thought about getting one of those more economical F3's to use for a work knife. I do carry and use my Python, but don't want to beat it up badly and the Micarta needs regular bathing if used a lot or sweatily.
 
I really liked the unique white/blue initially. I just didn’t really carry it much due to the white, and the white lanyard. Yes it got dirty pretty fast lol.

To me it looks like the blue accents are blue and glued into the white scale (2 separate pieces). They look like they were separate pieces at one point.

The steel on this F3 is CTS-40CP, but a lot of them were Elmax. I really love the comfort of the F3, and this SRBS fires like a rocket and as drop shutty as my other MRBS’s.

KaOeEPF.jpg

07NS7kN.jpg
 
Cwilliams563 Cwilliams563 , that makes more sense that they were glued in. Thinking about it, how could they have dyed them in place and not have the blue bleed irregularly and into the white? It looks like they must do prelim bores around the pivot area, glue in the collars, and then finish the surface milling as the fluting carries through into them. Blowing up your pics again I can just make out the clean arc of the pivot collar through your black dye.

Your knife looks really sweet. Now that I'm mostly retired--just working a little here and there--I'm at the point where I really should sell a few before I buy another knife. I've got a few I've been thinking about moving and should probably do that, stash the $, and keep my eye out for an F3 like yours (though not white). The thought of CTS-40CP is intriguing, but any steel from Shiro is fine--all the various alloys I have from them perform excellently. I'm good with SRBS too, as my pivots in that configuration have great action.
 
ChazzyP said:
The thought of CTS-40CP is intriguing, but any steel from Shiro is fine--all the various alloys I have from them perform excellently. I'm good with SRBS too, as my pivots in that configuration have great action.
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CTS-40CP (a powder version of 440C) is mentioned as the "default/standard" steel for 1-tier F3 in the maker's web-catalogue, but the page is a little outdated -- the recent F3 models are 3.5mm, not 4mm. The blade shape has also changed a bit at the end of 2023, AFAIR.

And US-made alloys became rather expensive and hard to obtain, hence the switch to Elmax / Cromax is very likely.

Earlier F3:

cc206201b530c6db05b2481daa50db40.jpg


The most recent version, available from the maker's web-shop:

F3-Elmax.jpg
 
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Thanks for that info, B Bacchus . When you mention the "web-catalogue" is that the page at shirogorov.com translated as MODELS (МОДЕЛИ)? There seems to be a rather limited number of offerings there, for example no F3NS. Is that just what was currently in production at the time of the last updating?
 
Cwilliams563 Cwilliams563 that does look sweet now and resembles CF. I think it’s a cool steel also because it’s kind of scarce in their lineup. Bob Dozier has made a bunch of hunting knives in CTS-40CP and I’ll trust any steel he’s willing to use!
 
Cwilliams563 said:
Got the White/Blue G10 apart after some major struggles, and dyed the scales
S3QgIpc.jpg


Turned out really well after a lot of elbow grease lol. It is G10 but the way the scales are cut, they shimmer in the sun like Carbon. Went ahead and blacked it all out including the backspacer & G2 Lanyard.

This F3 is my overall favorite action of my Shiro’s I’ve had and am the most fond of it (I don’t have any CD’s though). Since dying it, I’ve made it personal and a keeper now.

8XKR2Ih.jpg

RoadEgk.jpg

5gANy1Y.jpg

mMvHGo0.mp4
Click to expand...
I REALLY preferred the white, but you did a great job on em, and hey, its yours, and you love it! I certainly agree the f3/f3ns is the best action of all my shiros.
 
crk1984 said:
I REALLY preferred the white, but you did a great job on em, and hey, its yours, and you love it! I certainly agree the f3/f3ns is the best action of all my shiros.
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I have to agree with you and I really liked the white a lot as well. When it initially came up for sale and the white/Blue G2 lanyard. I jumped on it. I like white handled knives and stand out.

The problem I had is that I rarely carried it due to the white color and lanyard, but love the F3. It spent too much time in the safe and was time to sell it, dye it, or try to find some different scales. I didn’t want to have to go black, as all my others are black too, minus the Stellar, but that’s the color that wound up covering the blue.
 
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Cwilliams563 said:
I have to agree with you and I really liked the white a lot as well. When it initially came up for sale and the white/Blue G2 lanyard. I jumped on it. I like white handled knives and stand out.

The problem I had is that I rarely carried it due to the white color and lanyard, but love the Fe. It spent too much time in the safe and was time to sell it, dye it, or try to find some different scales. I didn’t want to have to go black, as all my others are black too, minus the Stellar.
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Totally understand. You did a wonderful job on em!
 
ChazzyP said:
Thanks for that info, B Bacchus . When you mention the "web-catalogue" is that the page at shirogorov.com translated as MODELS (МОДЕЛИ)? There seems to be a rather limited number of offerings there, for example no F3NS. Is that just what was currently in production at the time of the last updating?
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Yes, that's the page. It is extremely brief and rather outdated. The idea was to give an impression of the model range, I guess, regardless the actual stock.

BTW, prior to 2024 it was a very common situation when just a couple of models were in stock -- now it's not the case anymore, 20+ models/variations available.

The most recent info is provided in the Shop section for each specific variation in stock, but without registration and authorization a few sections are hidden (including Shop and Forum).
 
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Bacchus said:
BTW, prior to 2024 it was a very common situation when just a couple of models were in stock -- now it's not the case anymore, 20+ models/variations available.
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The batches must be getting larger because it’s a similar situation with R1’s website, usually stock was slow to make it but they have quite a bit of current offerings available. With that said, I think it’s safe to say that the Quantum Ursus line has been stretched to its end with all the colors and choices between G10, the anodized Ti versions, logo’d scales, lefty models etc. and it appears they don’t sell. Not only R1’s website but other authorized dealers have multiple models of the Ursus just sitting there. I think they can safely abandon that model for a long while!
 
Jsega51 said:
The batches must be getting larger because it’s a similar situation with R1’s website, usually stock was slow to make it but they have quite a bit of current offerings available. With that said, I think it’s safe to say that the Quantum Ursus line has been stretched to its end with all the colors and choices between G10, the anodized Ti versions, logo’d scales, lefty models etc. and it appears they don’t sell. Not only R1’s website but other authorized dealers have multiple models of the Ursus just sitting there. I think they can safely abandon that model for a long while!
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I agree. The only Quantum version I was inclined to buy was a sort of special edition 'Quanti-Hati' (for the lack of better nickname) -- silver twill front-side, fully stonewashed lock-side (without inlay!) and S90V blade.

Sadly, there were just a few made, sold on the 1st day of the show.

Regarding the supply, I am not sure, if they finally managed to scale up the production. I have a feeling that the supply is more or less the same, but the demand is shrinking due to the general economy decline...
 
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Bacchus said:
Regarding the supply, I am not sure, if they finally managed to scale up the production. I've a feeling that the supply is more or less the same, but the demand is shrinking due to the general economy decline...
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I think it’s awesome that Shirogorov reaches back to early generations and still offers reasonably priced versions like we saw with the recently released 111 and large run of color F3’s. Some companies would progress and leave the basics behind but those basic versions of their core lineup are awesome mechanically and represent a good amount of user knives. Makes it easy for people to try the brand as well before making that jump to the upgraded models.
 
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