THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

Hi every one

I love this thread and hope it never ends, and I thank every one for keeping it interesting and informative.

I still don't have any custom HH knives but I'm in the proces of acquiring a few from a couple of makers including our very own Sam Wilson who I've been communicating with for some time now and he has proven to be every bit as friendly and professional as he is on the forums, it is a pleasure to deal with him and an honor to call him a friend.

I do however own a couple of production HH knives including the Martin designed Boker Apparo which I have not put to any hard use yet but can tell from the feel of it that it is a stout and capable knife.
I also own the Aitor jungle king 2 which has seen some light use as a hunting and camp knife and has surved me well in that regard.
I have recently acquired it's bigger brother the Jungle king 1 which will be the subject of my short revue.
I'm sorry I don't have pictures at this time but this is a famous production knife that you can find anywhere and there are a lot of videos of it on YouTube.

I had seen some videos that mostly showed the knife choping and it seemed like a solid knife, and having had no complaints with its smaller version I decided to buy one and keep it on my hunting pack that I leave at our hunting location.

The Aitor JK1 has an 8" clip point 440c 55-58rc blade that comes in iether black or saten finish, it has a small survival kit in the handle that includes a small ferro rod, needle and thread, scalpel,fishing kit, tweezers, 2plasters, pencil, 2 safety pins and twine. As well as a compass in the buttcap.
The sheath houses a sceletonized secondary blade that has a 2.5" edge and a screw driver and bottle opener end. The sheath also has a sharpening stone, a length of cord, small bottle for disinfectant or ointment, magnisiom block, signal mirror, and sling shot latex tube that attaches to prongs on the sheath for hunting small game.
At 2pounds 3ounces it's is a heavy knife, but I don't mind the weight.

The knife felt solid and well made but did not come very sharp out of the box. A couple of passes on a diamond stone fixed that easily and the knife was razor sharp.
My main concern was testing the toughness of the knife with regard to the blade/handle connection as I was not sure how much abuse the rolled pin that holds the blade in place would take. I also wanted to test the effectiveness of the saw.
I was not worried about how well the edge retention and cutting ability was on the Aitor knives as I have field dressed game, prepared food and did basic camp chores with the JK2 and found it satisfactory, so I was sure this knife would be as good.

My first test was to hit the Back of the blade against some very hard seasoned fire wood logs. I gave it about 50blows as hard as I can and the blade and handle showed no play at all. I then gave it about 25 blows on the flat of the blade as hard as I could, and again the knife had absolutely no play at all.
I then proceeded to throw the knife against a tree (I cannot throw a knife to save my life) sticking the knife only3 time, missing the tree entirely 8 times and hitting it at awkward angles more than 30 times. The blade was again firmly in blace whith no play whatsoever, the only damage was that the compass came loose out of the buttcap (I'm sure Sam is smiling right now).

Having faild to shake the blade out of the handle I turned my attention to the saw, I found a standing dead tree That had a branch about 4" in diameter and managed to saw all the way through it in under a minute with ease.

The knife was used to field dress two deers and a wildebeest on that trip and did a very good job at that, the smaller skinning knife was very helpful and is a very capable knife on its own.

I got the knife for 250$ and I think that It is well worth every penny.


I hope this wasn't too long and I hope you guys enjoy my review.

Thank you
 
Thanks for the review, Nitro! Very informative. You really put that expensive knife to the test. :thumbup:

On another note, I am not affiliated with the knife, but I just spotted a Boker Apparo on a very well-known auction site for a buy it now price of, I think, $85.00. Supposedly, it is brand new.
 
Good review Nitro, I was just thinking about how long I've had mine and realized its since college! lol sooooo way over 30 years. The only thing that has failed over the years is the rubber tubing for the sling shot, its disintegrated from age. I gave it to my oldest daughter about 10 years ago and she has taken it on camping hiking trips and that is one well beat on knife. Its sitting in her box of knives in her gun safe at the moment I think. She is doing quite a bit of field work this summer, she's at ft knox going through the LDAK program and couldn't take a knife just a multi tool. She's used to having a fixed blade in the field so I know she will be griping about that lol. Thanks for the review and enjoy the Jungle king.

Bowie have you used your Wall knife yet?
 
cricketdave said:
Bowie have you used your Wall knife yet?
Click to expand...

Excuse time....:o

Not yet, it's a real busy time for me at work so I haven't had the chance to get out in the field. I think I am going to chop up some branches that have blown down in recent storms though, just to start cuttin' up some wood.
 
My daughter camping army style, they made a condo of hooches
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I'm going to get her a hollow handle knife made for graduating Ldak, its the last big training exercise before she is commissioned in 2 years.
 
Thanks for that review Nitro74. I have a Jungle King 1 but I have never been game to do what you did with it. I love this knife and now have a lot more confidence in using it. What I would like to do though is to find a good sheath for it that only carries the knife with perhaps a place for the additional smaller knife just to cut down on unnecessary weight. From memory I think the knife itself only weighs about 21 ounces.
 
Great review :-) it's made me go and look at that knife :-). Also cricket you must be very proud

I have a maybe crazy idea...could the compass be fitted into the end cap with strong magnets. That way it could be removed before bashing (technical term) or if it popped out then just put back in

Also what ferro rod/firestarter do people put in? Do you use the knife to create sparks or a separate scraper?

I would like to see the various items people have in their HH knives this was a good thread on another forum if I maybe so bold:
http://www.knifetalkforums.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=87156&page=1
 
well the magnets would kill the compass so thats out. I am very proud of her thanks Arc. I use a ferro rod from esee izula kits, combo of magnesium and ferro rod, short enough to fit in the handle and throws great sparks. I use the spine of the blade to throw sparks.
 
Here is a pic of my ferro rod after starting a small fire
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and a pic of most of what I keep in the handles
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and a few of these
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I've had an aitor jk2 since I was young and my experience was much like Nitro's. It's a good knife although I can't claim to have beaten on it. In my experience I think it may be harder than a it or claimed. In any event, it takes longer to sharpen well than other 440c knives that I own.
 
Shaving Sharp, very nice collection! Some in there I have never heard of before. All of them beautiful examples of hollow handle knives.
 
Cricketdave, can you post some close ups of that beautiful Martin w/o the teeth? I love it!
 
Just wanted to add my two blades worth...

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Admittedly not my best wrapping job. You ever try to do anything involving 550 cord with curious and playful cats around?
 
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