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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread
- Thread starter Sam Wilson
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
Some of my work will be tested on Forged in Fire on the history channel on Oct. 10. There will be some battoning and interestingly, there is a hollow handle weapon. I hope you enjoy it. It was one of the most fun things I have ever done.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
Nice job Ian
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
This is the secret weapon I had hidden inside the handle of the Tabar Shishbar I made for Forged in Fire.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
- Messages
- 4,421
Is there an option for a 12Gauge shell in the handle once the secret weapon has been deployed?
'Not very period-specific though
Looking forward to seeing the episode!
For a minute I was toying with the idea of having it shoot a dart from inside but even I could see that would be just too much. Also, the rules said it had to be of "all-metal" construction.
The other thing I saw in my mind's eye was a ballistic knife.
At least it would be all metal (but also very NOT period-specific)!
- Joined
- May 16, 2010
- Messages
- 9,347
Well..., works for me.
From a previous thread (OT as not a HH):
**************WARNING! GRAPHIC PICS!****************
Lon Humphrey posted a great looking Bowie on the forums a few years ago.
I wanted one just like it set up for pig sticking and asked him, if he could be persuaded to make me one.
He said yes and here is the knife.
Lon holding the Pig Sticker and the knife, which made me contact him (Pig Sticker being the top one).
I picked up the knife myself and Lon could not have been nicer to deal with.
We even went for a meal at his local watering hole and had a great talk.
I then proceeded to go hog hunting and used Lon's knife with great succes.
The knife is scary efficient - far more effective than I would ever have imagined.
I'd have thought, that I'd have to use a lot of force, but that turned out to not be the case at all.
Quite the contrary; sticking the hogs was like cutting through warm butter on a hot summer day!!!
Knife slides in very very easily and the design is devastating. A very efficient knife, which kills the hogs very fast.
The point lets the knife slide in very fast and easy, the blade has more than enough length and width to cause massive immediate trauma.
At the same time, the Humphrey Pig Sticker is incredibly fast and easily lend itself to snappy shifts in direction, should one so desire (not a bad trait for a knife used in the fast and furious, if not chaotic, pig sticking).
The handle is wide at the end and this is a help in extraction - especially helpful in regards to pig sticking as the handle can get very gory, wet, messy and slippery.
There is ample handguard which not only help to protect the hand/fingers, but where you can also hook a finger over the guard to help in extraction, should one so desire.
I spcified a generous choil with the above in mind and I really like how that came out.
Heck, I like how the entire knife came out.
Its a very efficient tool and PERFECT for my use. Im overjoyed with it and could not be happier with the project.
I would not change an iota about the knife after using it, for that it was designed and made for.
Did I mention, that it is a slicer as evidenced by the first pic below - it went in like slicing water!
The Devil Dog! Super fast extremly willing to Work. Did one heck of a good job too along as did the other dogs involved.
A very nice pooch to talk to....., once it calmed down a little ;-).
As mentioned; absolutely devastating and highly efficient blade config:
Lon's pic of the knife
So after trying out about a dozen "Main" Survival Knives and 5 different "secondaries", my small Survival Knife "collection" is finally reaching what I think is close to its "final" form...
I started out with knives in the 7-8" blade range for the "Mains", gradually going up to 9-10", finally upping the standard to a minimum of 10.5"/11" of blade, and a minimum of 20-22 ounces, after seeing the large chopping gains when going over 10" and 20 ounces.
The best knife in weight/performance at 9" or less was the Al Mar "Special Warfare" at 7.75", but it achieved this with a seemingly cartoonish 5.75" long handle that underscored the importance of handle bulk in lowering hand fatigue. The much larger 9.5" SMIII Trailmaster did not really chop any better, in large part because its handle was far, far too thin. Since building a worthwhile shelter could easily consume 1000 chops, anything sub par in the handle thickness area is not a small factor...
The other big discriminating factor was the tendency, or not, to micro-roll the edge apex after a few chops, as rubbing the nail away from the apex revealed. A mildly rolled apex may hang on forever, but it creates a tendency for a "skipping" bounce on one side of the V-cut, which is unacceptable on a "Survival Knife". The S30V on an RJ Martin did this even with a roughly 20 dps main edge bevel, as did CPM 154 and CPM 3V. Best geometry with other steels was 15 dps on the main edge bevel, with a 20 dps micro-bevel. 5160, D-2, Aus-6 and several makes of 440B and C passed, while D-2 could make it even without a micro-bevel, but occasionally micro-chipped on the hard core of big rotten logs in this form...
Batoning will micro-roll everything, so should be kept to an absolute minimum...
Another cause of the "skipping bounce" on the sides of a V-cut can be a low blade height of less than 1.5", combined with a thick 0.25" blade, especially with a sabre grind. The 8.75" blade Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II was noticeably affected by this.
Some of the rejected knives below: The Neeley SA9 at the bottom performed best, but the handle kept unscrewing itself(!), and its 440C edge crumbled badly even at around 20 dps:
I narrowed down the requirements as such: Maximum amount of items on two concealed knives, one waist carried with a 10.5" blade, balanced 1/2" into the blade minimum, 1/4" stock and 20-22 ounces minimum. The other being shoulder carried, 7.5" to 8.5" blade, 3/16" stock minimum, acutely tipped yet with a very strong point, 9 ounces maximum. Kraton handle with no hard butcap (so the entire handle is removable).
The main reason for the shoulder knife is that 1-With no backpack (as is the case when cycling, and no, the bike does not carry gear either), the space is available (the straps are easily found and improved from cheap United Cutlery Karambits), 2-it can carry the required items missing on the main knife, 3-its edge is "expendable" for rough tasks, with a strong point geometry for prying, digging, drilling, throwing, spear attachment, etc.
Minimum included items, across the paired knives:
1- 2 socks (makes IWB carry of the main far easier)
2- Flat surface sharpener (preferably diamond)
3- Flashlight
4- 10-12' of 550 cord minimum
5- Thermal blanket
6- 12-15 matches plus striker in waterproof container
7- One handed wheeled sparkmaker + 1-3 cord tinder
8- 3.8 ml tube of crazy glue gel (securing knots, closing wounds or tears)
9- 6-10 Advils (secured from water, or pressure)
10- 2 hooks, 10' of fishing line, 3-5 split sinkers, needle+thread
11- 3-5 safety pins
12- 4-6 nails on the secondary knife for shaft attachment, plus an X-acto blade to help removing the Kraton handle.
13- Compass
14- 3-6 Band-Aids
Colin Cox 10 5/8" blade "Survival" + Cold Steel "Oyabun" 7.5" blade.
Missing items on main knife: None(!), except that the REK regrind moved the knife's balance point back about 1/4", right into the guard (this entirely from the higher/deeper hollow grinds, not from any loss of length...). This poor balance can be compensated with the long 5.5" handle, but is sub-optimal. The spine "chopping saw" is now about 70-80% as effective in chopping as the main edge, and is set at 25 dps for chewing hard knots.
The Tanto carries 4 nails and the X-acto blade, but no cord.
Voorhis 11.25" blade "Rambo" + Blackjack "Tartan Dirk" 8 5/8" blade.
Missing items on main knife: Flashlight, tube of glue, spark maker, compass, only 4 Advils in handle, no sharpener.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except Advils. One extra thermal blanket.
Busse 11 1/8" blade Battlesaw (>15 dps apex convex) + Al Mar "Shadow IV" 7.6" blade.
Missing items on main knife: All except socks, 20' plus feet of cord, and a Silva rotary compass.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except matches and Advils. The secondary has some thinner cord, nails, a large pin that fits the lanyard hole exactly, but the handle is hard Zytel, not Kraton, so it cannot be removed. The secondary's pouch carries a small, very light, spring loaded glass breaker/prying/rescue tool (S&W). The dagger's tip, and its 17 dps edge, are both overly delicate, to a true fighter standard, so more of an "urban" slant to this pair...
Gaston
I started out with knives in the 7-8" blade range for the "Mains", gradually going up to 9-10", finally upping the standard to a minimum of 10.5"/11" of blade, and a minimum of 20-22 ounces, after seeing the large chopping gains when going over 10" and 20 ounces.
The best knife in weight/performance at 9" or less was the Al Mar "Special Warfare" at 7.75", but it achieved this with a seemingly cartoonish 5.75" long handle that underscored the importance of handle bulk in lowering hand fatigue. The much larger 9.5" SMIII Trailmaster did not really chop any better, in large part because its handle was far, far too thin. Since building a worthwhile shelter could easily consume 1000 chops, anything sub par in the handle thickness area is not a small factor...
The other big discriminating factor was the tendency, or not, to micro-roll the edge apex after a few chops, as rubbing the nail away from the apex revealed. A mildly rolled apex may hang on forever, but it creates a tendency for a "skipping" bounce on one side of the V-cut, which is unacceptable on a "Survival Knife". The S30V on an RJ Martin did this even with a roughly 20 dps main edge bevel, as did CPM 154 and CPM 3V. Best geometry with other steels was 15 dps on the main edge bevel, with a 20 dps micro-bevel. 5160, D-2, Aus-6 and several makes of 440B and C passed, while D-2 could make it even without a micro-bevel, but occasionally micro-chipped on the hard core of big rotten logs in this form...
Batoning will micro-roll everything, so should be kept to an absolute minimum...
Another cause of the "skipping bounce" on the sides of a V-cut can be a low blade height of less than 1.5", combined with a thick 0.25" blade, especially with a sabre grind. The 8.75" blade Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II was noticeably affected by this.
Some of the rejected knives below: The Neeley SA9 at the bottom performed best, but the handle kept unscrewing itself(!), and its 440C edge crumbled badly even at around 20 dps:
I narrowed down the requirements as such: Maximum amount of items on two concealed knives, one waist carried with a 10.5" blade, balanced 1/2" into the blade minimum, 1/4" stock and 20-22 ounces minimum. The other being shoulder carried, 7.5" to 8.5" blade, 3/16" stock minimum, acutely tipped yet with a very strong point, 9 ounces maximum. Kraton handle with no hard butcap (so the entire handle is removable).
The main reason for the shoulder knife is that 1-With no backpack (as is the case when cycling, and no, the bike does not carry gear either), the space is available (the straps are easily found and improved from cheap United Cutlery Karambits), 2-it can carry the required items missing on the main knife, 3-its edge is "expendable" for rough tasks, with a strong point geometry for prying, digging, drilling, throwing, spear attachment, etc.
Minimum included items, across the paired knives:
1- 2 socks (makes IWB carry of the main far easier)
2- Flat surface sharpener (preferably diamond)
3- Flashlight
4- 10-12' of 550 cord minimum
5- Thermal blanket
6- 12-15 matches plus striker in waterproof container
7- One handed wheeled sparkmaker + 1-3 cord tinder
8- 3.8 ml tube of crazy glue gel (securing knots, closing wounds or tears)
9- 6-10 Advils (secured from water, or pressure)
10- 2 hooks, 10' of fishing line, 3-5 split sinkers, needle+thread
11- 3-5 safety pins
12- 4-6 nails on the secondary knife for shaft attachment, plus an X-acto blade to help removing the Kraton handle.
13- Compass
14- 3-6 Band-Aids
Colin Cox 10 5/8" blade "Survival" + Cold Steel "Oyabun" 7.5" blade.
Missing items on main knife: None(!), except that the REK regrind moved the knife's balance point back about 1/4", right into the guard (this entirely from the higher/deeper hollow grinds, not from any loss of length...). This poor balance can be compensated with the long 5.5" handle, but is sub-optimal. The spine "chopping saw" is now about 70-80% as effective in chopping as the main edge, and is set at 25 dps for chewing hard knots.
The Tanto carries 4 nails and the X-acto blade, but no cord.
Voorhis 11.25" blade "Rambo" + Blackjack "Tartan Dirk" 8 5/8" blade.
Missing items on main knife: Flashlight, tube of glue, spark maker, compass, only 4 Advils in handle, no sharpener.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except Advils. One extra thermal blanket.
Busse 11 1/8" blade Battlesaw (>15 dps apex convex) + Al Mar "Shadow IV" 7.6" blade.
Missing items on main knife: All except socks, 20' plus feet of cord, and a Silva rotary compass.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except matches and Advils. The secondary has some thinner cord, nails, a large pin that fits the lanyard hole exactly, but the handle is hard Zytel, not Kraton, so it cannot be removed. The secondary's pouch carries a small, very light, spring loaded glass breaker/prying/rescue tool (S&W). The dagger's tip, and its 17 dps edge, are both overly delicate, to a true fighter standard, so more of an "urban" slant to this pair...
Gaston
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2012
- Messages
- 29,050
I've never had an edge roll while batoning.So after trying out about a dozen "Main" Survival Knives and 5 different "secondaries", my small Survival Knife "collection" is finally reaching what I think is close to its "final" form...
I started out with knives in the 7-8" blade range for the "Mains", gradually going up to 9-10", finally upping the standard to a minimum of 10.5"/11" of blade, and a minimum of 20-22 ounces, after seeing the large chopping gains when going over 10" and 20 ounces.
The best knife in weight/performance at 9" or less was the Al Mar "Special Warfare" at 7.75", but it achieved this with a seemingly cartoonish 5.75" long handle that underscored the importance of handle bulk in lowering hand fatigue. The much larger 9.5" SMIII Trailmaster did not really chop any better, in large part because its handle was far, far too thin. Since building a worthwhile shelter could easily consume 1000 chops, anything sub par in the handle thickness area is not a small factor...
The other big discriminating factor was the tendency, or not, to micro-roll the edge apex after a few chops, as rubbing the nail away from the apex revealed. A mildly rolled apex may hang on forever, but it creates a tendency for a "skipping" bounce on one side of the V-cut, which is unacceptable on a "Survival Knife". The S30V on an RJ Martin did this even with a roughly 20 dps main edge bevel, as did CPM 154 and CPM 3V. Best geometry with other steels was 15 dps on the main edge bevel, with a 20 dps micro-bevel. 5160, D-2, Aus-6 and several makes of 440B and C passed, while D-2 could make it even without a micro-bevel, but occasionally micro-chipped on the hard core of big rotten logs in this form...
Batoning will micro-roll everything, so should be kept to an absolute minimum...
Another cause of the "skipping bounce" on the sides of a V-cut can be a low blade height of less than 1.5", combined with a thick 0.25" blade, especially with a sabre grind. The 8.75" blade Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II was noticeably affected by this.
Some of the rejected knives below: The Neeley SA9 at the bottom performed best, but the handle kept unscrewing itself(!), and its 440C edge crumbled badly even at around 20 dps:
I narrowed down the requirements as such: Maximum amount of items on two concealed knives, one waist carried with a 10.5" blade, balanced 1/2" into the blade minimum, 1/4" stock and 20-22 ounces minimum. The other being shoulder carried, 7.5" to 8.5" blade, 3/16" stock minimum, acutely tipped yet with a very strong point, 9 ounces maximum. Kraton handle with no hard butcap (so the entire handle is removable).
The main reason for the shoulder knife is that 1-With no backpack (as is the case when cycling, and no, the bike does not carry gear either), the space is available (the straps are easily found and improved from cheap United Cutlery Karambits), 2-it can carry the required items missing on the main knife, 3-its edge is "expendable" for rough tasks, with a strong point geometry for prying, digging, drilling, throwing, spear attachment, etc.
Minimum included items, across the paired knives:
1- 2 socks (makes IWB carry of the main far easier)
2- Flat surface sharpener (preferably diamond)
3- Flashlight
4- 10-12' of 550 cord minimum
5- Thermal blanket
6- 12-15 matches plus striker in waterproof container
7- One handed wheeled sparkmaker + 1-3 cord tinder
8- 3.8 ml tube of crazy glue gel (securing knots, closing wounds or tears)
9- 6-10 Advils (secured from water, or pressure)
10- 2 hooks, 10' of fishing line, 3-5 split sinkers, needle+thread
11- 3-5 safety pins
12- 4-6 nails on the secondary knife for shaft attachment, plus an X-acto blade to help removing the Kraton handle.
13- Compass
14- 3-6 Band-Aids
Colin Cox 10 5/8" blade "Survival" + Cold Steel "Oyabun" 7.5" blade.
Missing items on main knife: None(!), except that the REK regrind moved the knife's balance point back about 1/4", right into the guard (this entirely from the higher/deeper hollow grinds, not from any loss of length...). This poor balance can be compensated with the long 5.5" handle, but is sub-optimal. The spine "chopping saw" is now about 70-80% as effective in chopping as the main edge, and is set at 25 dps for chewing hard knots.
The Tanto carries 4 nails and the X-acto blade, but no cord.
Voorhis 11.25" blade "Rambo" + Blackjack "Tartan Dirk" 8 5/8" blade.
Missing items on main knife: Flashlight, tube of glue, spark maker, compass, only 4 Advils in handle, no sharpener.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except Advils. One extra thermal blanket.
Busse 11 1/8" blade Battlesaw (>15 dps apex convex) + Al Mar "Shadow IV" 7.6" blade.
Missing items on main knife: All except socks, 20' plus feet of cord, and a Silva rotary compass.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except matches and Advils. The secondary has some thinner cord, nails, a large pin that fits the lanyard hole exactly, but the handle is hard Zytel, not Kraton, so it cannot be removed. The secondary's pouch carries a small, very light, spring loaded glass breaker/prying/rescue tool (S&W). The dagger's tip, and its 17 dps edge, are both overly delicate, to a true fighter standard, so more of an "urban" slant to this pair...
Gaston
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2001
- Messages
- 6,135
So after trying out about a dozen "Main" Survival Knives and 5 different "secondaries", my small Survival Knife "collection" is finally reaching what I think is close to its "final" form...
I started out with knives in the 7-8" blade range for the "Mains", gradually going up to 9-10", finally upping the standard to a minimum of 10.5"/11" of blade, and a minimum of 20-22 ounces, after seeing the large chopping gains when going over 10" and 20 ounces.
The best knife in weight/performance at 9" or less was the Al Mar "Special Warfare" at 7.75", but it achieved this with a seemingly cartoonish 5.75" long handle that underscored the importance of handle bulk in lowering hand fatigue. The much larger 9.5" SMIII Trailmaster did not really chop any better, in large part because its handle was far, far too thin. Since building a worthwhile shelter could easily consume 1000 chops, anything sub par in the handle thickness area is not a small factor...
The other big discriminating factor was the tendency, or not, to micro-roll the edge apex after a few chops, as rubbing the nail away from the apex revealed. A mildly rolled apex may hang on forever, but it creates a tendency for a "skipping" bounce on one side of the V-cut, which is unacceptable on a "Survival Knife". The S30V on an RJ Martin did this even with a roughly 20 dps main edge bevel, as did CPM 154 and CPM 3V. Best geometry with other steels was 15 dps on the main edge bevel, with a 20 dps micro-bevel. 5160, D-2, Aus-6 and several makes of 440B and C passed, while D-2 could make it even without a micro-bevel, but occasionally micro-chipped on the hard core of big rotten logs in this form...
Batoning will micro-roll everything, so should be kept to an absolute minimum...
Another cause of the "skipping bounce" on the sides of a V-cut can be a low blade height of less than 1.5", combined with a thick 0.25" blade, especially with a sabre grind. The 8.75" blade Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II was noticeably affected by this.
Some of the rejected knives below: The Neeley SA9 at the bottom performed best, but the handle kept unscrewing itself(!), and its 440C edge crumbled badly even at around 20 dps:
I narrowed down the requirements as such: Maximum amount of items on two concealed knives, one waist carried with a 10.5" blade, balanced 1/2" into the blade minimum, 1/4" stock and 20-22 ounces minimum. The other being shoulder carried, 7.5" to 8.5" blade, 3/16" stock minimum, acutely tipped yet with a very strong point, 9 ounces maximum. Kraton handle with no hard butcap (so the entire handle is removable).
The main reason for the shoulder knife is that 1-With no backpack (as is the case when cycling, and no, the bike does not carry gear either), the space is available (the straps are easily found and improved from cheap United Cutlery Karambits), 2-it can carry the required items missing on the main knife, 3-its edge is "expendable" for rough tasks, with a strong point geometry for prying, digging, drilling, throwing, spear attachment, etc.
Minimum included items, across the paired knives:
1- 2 socks (makes IWB carry of the main far easier)
2- Flat surface sharpener (preferably diamond)
3- Flashlight
4- 10-12' of 550 cord minimum
5- Thermal blanket
6- 12-15 matches plus striker in waterproof container
7- One handed wheeled sparkmaker + 1-3 cord tinder
8- 3.8 ml tube of crazy glue gel (securing knots, closing wounds or tears)
9- 6-10 Advils (secured from water, or pressure)
10- 2 hooks, 10' of fishing line, 3-5 split sinkers, needle+thread
11- 3-5 safety pins
12- 4-6 nails on the secondary knife for shaft attachment, plus an X-acto blade to help removing the Kraton handle.
13- Compass
14- 3-6 Band-Aids
Colin Cox 10 5/8" blade "Survival" + Cold Steel "Oyabun" 7.5" blade.
Missing items on main knife: None(!), except that the REK regrind moved the knife's balance point back about 1/4", right into the guard (this entirely from the higher/deeper hollow grinds, not from any loss of length...). This poor balance can be compensated with the long 5.5" handle, but is sub-optimal. The spine "chopping saw" is now about 70-80% as effective in chopping as the main edge, and is set at 25 dps for chewing hard knots.
The Tanto carries 4 nails and the X-acto blade, but no cord.
Voorhis 11.25" blade "Rambo" + Blackjack "Tartan Dirk" 8 5/8" blade.
Missing items on main knife: Flashlight, tube of glue, spark maker, compass, only 4 Advils in handle, no sharpener.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except Advils. One extra thermal blanket.
Busse 11 1/8" blade Battlesaw (>15 dps apex convex) + Al Mar "Shadow IV" 7.6" blade.
Missing items on main knife: All except socks, 20' plus feet of cord, and a Silva rotary compass.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except matches and Advils. The secondary has some thinner cord, nails, a large pin that fits the lanyard hole exactly, but the handle is hard Zytel, not Kraton, so it cannot be removed. The secondary's pouch carries a small, very light, spring loaded glass breaker/prying/rescue tool (S&W). The dagger's tip, and its 17 dps edge, are both overly delicate, to a true fighter standard, so more of an "urban" slant to this pair...
Gaston
Good grief.
Most of the knives that you are discussing are not hollow handle. This is THE HOLLOW HANDLE KNIFE THREAD, not the random survival knife thread.
LEGION 12
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2009
- Messages
- 62,011
Lol..........So after trying out about a dozen "Main" Survival Knives and 5 different "secondaries", my small Survival Knife "collection" is finally reaching what I think is close to its "final" form...
I started out with knives in the 7-8" blade range for the "Mains", gradually going up to 9-10", finally upping the standard to a minimum of 10.5"/11" of blade, and a minimum of 20-22 ounces, after seeing the large chopping gains when going over 10" and 20 ounces.
The best knife in weight/performance at 9" or less was the Al Mar "Special Warfare" at 7.75", but it achieved this with a seemingly cartoonish 5.75" long handle that underscored the importance of handle bulk in lowering hand fatigue. The much larger 9.5" SMIII Trailmaster did not really chop any better, in large part because its handle was far, far too thin. Since building a worthwhile shelter could easily consume 1000 chops, anything sub par in the handle thickness area is not a small factor...
The other big discriminating factor was the tendency, or not, to micro-roll the edge apex after a few chops, as rubbing the nail away from the apex revealed. A mildly rolled apex may hang on forever, but it creates a tendency for a "skipping" bounce on one side of the V-cut, which is unacceptable on a "Survival Knife". The S30V on an RJ Martin did this even with a roughly 20 dps main edge bevel, as did CPM 154 and CPM 3V. Best geometry with other steels was 15 dps on the main edge bevel, with a 20 dps micro-bevel. 5160, D-2, Aus-6 and several makes of 440B and C passed, while D-2 could make it even without a micro-bevel, but occasionally micro-chipped on the hard core of big rotten logs in this form...
Batoning will micro-roll everything, so should be kept to an absolute minimum...
Another cause of the "skipping bounce" on the sides of a V-cut can be a low blade height of less than 1.5", combined with a thick 0.25" blade, especially with a sabre grind. The 8.75" blade Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II was noticeably affected by this.
Some of the rejected knives below: The Neeley SA9 at the bottom performed best, but the handle kept unscrewing itself(!), and its 440C edge crumbled badly even at around 20 dps:
I narrowed down the requirements as such: Maximum amount of items on two concealed knives, one waist carried with a 10.5" blade, balanced 1/2" into the blade minimum, 1/4" stock and 20-22 ounces minimum. The other being shoulder carried, 7.5" to 8.5" blade, 3/16" stock minimum, acutely tipped yet with a very strong point, 9 ounces maximum. Kraton handle with no hard butcap (so the entire handle is removable).
The main reason for the shoulder knife is that 1-With no backpack (as is the case when cycling, and no, the bike does not carry gear either), the space is available (the straps are easily found and improved from cheap United Cutlery Karambits), 2-it can carry the required items missing on the main knife, 3-its edge is "expendable" for rough tasks, with a strong point geometry for prying, digging, drilling, throwing, spear attachment, etc.
Minimum included items, across the paired knives:
1- 2 socks (makes IWB carry of the main far easier)
2- Flat surface sharpener (preferably diamond)
3- Flashlight
4- 10-12' of 550 cord minimum
5- Thermal blanket
6- 12-15 matches plus striker in waterproof container
7- One handed wheeled sparkmaker + 1-3 cord tinder
8- 3.8 ml tube of crazy glue gel (securing knots, closing wounds or tears)
9- 6-10 Advils (secured from water, or pressure)
10- 2 hooks, 10' of fishing line, 3-5 split sinkers, needle+thread
11- 3-5 safety pins
12- 4-6 nails on the secondary knife for shaft attachment, plus an X-acto blade to help removing the Kraton handle.
13- Compass
14- 3-6 Band-Aids
Colin Cox 10 5/8" blade "Survival" + Cold Steel "Oyabun" 7.5" blade.
Missing items on main knife: None(!), except that the REK regrind moved the knife's balance point back about 1/4", right into the guard (this entirely from the higher/deeper hollow grinds, not from any loss of length...). This poor balance can be compensated with the long 5.5" handle, but is sub-optimal. The spine "chopping saw" is now about 70-80% as effective in chopping as the main edge, and is set at 25 dps for chewing hard knots.
The Tanto carries 4 nails and the X-acto blade, but no cord.
Voorhis 11.25" blade "Rambo" + Blackjack "Tartan Dirk" 8 5/8" blade.
Missing items on main knife: Flashlight, tube of glue, spark maker, compass, only 4 Advils in handle, no sharpener.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except Advils. One extra thermal blanket.
Busse 11 1/8" blade Battlesaw (>15 dps apex convex) + Al Mar "Shadow IV" 7.6" blade.
Missing items on main knife: All except socks, 20' plus feet of cord, and a Silva rotary compass.
Fulfilled on secondary: All except matches and Advils. The secondary has some thinner cord, nails, a large pin that fits the lanyard hole exactly, but the handle is hard Zytel, not Kraton, so it cannot be removed. The secondary's pouch carries a small, very light, spring loaded glass breaker/prying/rescue tool (S&W). The dagger's tip, and its 17 dps edge, are both overly delicate, to a true fighter standard, so more of an "urban" slant to this pair...
Gaston
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- Jul 6, 2007
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Good question, but I don't own the knife. I just like posting photos of these old relics so they can shine one more time and relive their glory days.
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Amazing, what is out there ...
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Ah, got it. Personally, I find I have to buy them when I see them. I admire your restraint. (But where was that knife posted, precisely?Good question, but I don't own the knife. I just like posting photos of these old relics so they can shine one more time and relive their glory days.
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