THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

Noticed that Newt Martin has a new model on his website called the Covey

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Basically a Mce2 without the saw teeth with guncote in 5160 steel and a pretty good price.
 
Had a Christmas campfire this evening, cut the wood and used my Martin Mce2 to start the fire with a fire steel.

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Well it is Finally happening!! My new hh knife,the one I have been waiting for, which is being made by Sam Wilson, has Begun!!! I saw a few very first WIP pics and man oh man, a true monstrous yep perfectly made beast this knife is going to be. PROTOTYPE #1 and Series #1!!

All I can say is Yippie Ki Yayyyy!! LOL when I get it I will be Blasting the forums with pics of it!!! I am even more excited about this one than I was when I finally ordered my Ray Matton FB knife!!! I tell ya one thing...Sam Wilson has been taking the custom knife world by storm for being as new as he is. I have his Prototype #2 of Only 2 of his M1 model!! And man, that knife is solid!!

And this new model is gonna Rock Da House!!! I can hardly wait!!!
 
I have a handmade MCE 2 also by Newt Martin. I LOVE that knife and Newt did me a Great one on it!! But my most cherished knives right now are my Andrew Clifford Handmade knife collection...6 of them total...and my Ray Matton FB knife!!

And coming soon to a hand of mine, the Exciting Superb Handmade brand new model knife by Sam Wilson!! I have other favorites too Including my MCE 2. Favorites such as my Schiller handmade FB knife which is the Only FB knife in existence that he made!! And I also love my Black Blade Aitor JK 1 knife!! Hell, might as well just call All my knives my favorites!! LOL
 
Still waiting on my Martin MCE 2.

Supposed to be finished before the end of this year.

I just bought a Hollywood Collectables Rambo 1 First Blood knife to compare it to. (Go ahead and laugh, I did) The cheapo Rambo is an exact dimensional copy of the movie knife, 14 teeth and all.
It actually looks pretty nice for a hundred buck HH. However, the rust on the inside of the threads is the first tip that this ain't no Lile! Wouldn't trust my life with this one! It will work for comparison purposes though.

I also bought a Boker Apparro just to get an idea of the Martin HH capacity/dimensions. I also wanted to see what green cord looked like on these knives. I liked the green better than the black so I had Newt change my order to that color.

So far, it has cost me an extra $200 for that MCE2 and I don't even have the knife yet. :p
 
Go to his website and from the drop down menu pick Newts available then available hollow handle and it should take you right to it.
 
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I think you will be very pleased when you get your knife, did you go for the stainless s35vn model?

I've kind of wanted one of the cheap Rambo copies to mess with too, the lines are different from the Martin Mce2 by quite a bit, its closer in size and looks to the Rambo 2 knife I think, at least from pics. Now I'm wanting to pick one up and take comparison pics. Crap.
 
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I just came up with a new design for my next knife from Sam!! We discussed it and he is more excited about getting it started as I am getting it made!! Gonna make One Big Bold Statement!!! More to come on this as time goes by. This will be my 3rd knife from Sam with my newest one now being made!!! YEP YEP!! Some awesome knife days coming my way.!!
 
Just got a response from Randall for my Model 14: Resonably quick, given their insistence on paper mail...

Basically, they say the ridges in the hollow grind surface are from the "normal" manufacturing process, which I expected: I saw the same ridges on the front left hollow of my Model 18, but the big difference is that on my Model 18 someone went over with a rougher grit to make the surface a true "unstepped" hollow, and yet a "ghost" of the ridges still shows: I find this acceptable, since the surface is now at least "true", if of a little rougher grit in that place... On my model 14 the surface was out of true, and that is what caused my diamond sharpener stone to "slip" where the "ridges" meet the edge in a diagonal... I'll have better photos of this, as the 18's "ridges" photographed better than the 14's own ridges for some reason...

Gary Randall contended I used a guided sharpener, which is not recommended on such long knives, which caused the sharpener to slip mid-blade as the reach of the guide was exceeded...: I do not own a guided sharpener, and free hand all my knives, but it is flattering to think he thought my work was so precise that it was guided by an angle control device... (I discovered long ago that the best way to sharpen was to do the stroke as close to paralell to the edge as possible, and not sideways as often advised...)

Bottom line: Around $40 for refinishing, plus $35 for the shipping to insured value. My only concern at this point is that they at least do the finish right, erase the ridges, and DON'T MESS UP MY NEW EDGE ANGLE... I'll insist in writing that they please don't change my edge angles...

The Model 18 has hit its own snag, of which I'll go into deeper some other time: The blade is great, with MUCH better point geometry, despite the point being rather blunt initially as well, but I later discovered the guard is badly off-centered : I had to grind it down to a more symmetrical appearance... Fortunately, brass polishes very easy...

The good news is that, despite the blade being off-centered to the handle(!), it is straight in all other aspects, so it is a keeper.

The bad news is the guard is still assymetrical enough to twist the knife in the sheath and cause edge contact within the sheath (as witnessed by oil swiping off on the blade at the edge): That could not be corrected, despite several attempts to fix it, and so, as it is, the sheath dulls the knife completely every 20-40 draws, to the point it won't cut paper from a push-cutting paper condition. This means the guard/handle situation is "roughly" acceptable in appearance, but makes the sheath unuseable... This dulling happens even though you can't feel the edge being dulled as you push the knife in...

The solution wil have to be going to a Spec-Ops 8" Combat Master sheath. Of the two knives, this one has by far the better sharp point (actually excellent now), which is not easy to achieve given the way the knife is designed...

Of note is that the Randall sheaths do look fantastically good, but the leather is kind of sensitive to accidental scrapping by nails (while fitting different tight-fitting items into the stone pouch), unlike my Chris Reeves 5 year old Jereboam sheath, that seems to have a much harder finish surface...

Anyway, I'll update all this with photos soon.

Gaston
 
This is pretty much what the lower left side flat surfaces flaws looked like on the 14, but here I used the 18 as an example, where they are buffed out to a "true" hollow, and so acceptable to me, even if the irregularities are still easier to photograph for some reason(!): Imagine that the empty areas would be actual flats, and that was what the 14 was like...:

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Interestingly, on the right side the 14 in the same place was absolutely flawless, while the 18 on the right has a slight centered variation of grit finish, but still true in surface hollow (again OK-looking and acceptable)...

I gave this left side Model 18 issue above a pass, because here the hollow grind surface was a true continuous hollow. "Out of true" surfaces is where I draw the line... Never did I even have to think about these issues with any other knife, mind you... In person the 18 looks better than here, and the 14 looked worse in person than in photos...

As I said, the 18 however turned out to have a much more obvious issue that took me a while to understand, so unexpected it was: The guard is badly askew, and the entire blade is mounted off-center to the handle!:

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And now for the good news: The blade was off-center but straight, from the top and sides, so at least the minimal requirement was there (it looks a bit askew here in the photo, but that is just the lens):

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The bad news: The wider guard part was on the sheath side, so the off-set guard made the knife sit askew in the sheath, deforming the outer layer and rubbing the edge badly: The knife, in fifty draws, went from push-cutting paper to tearing it (and I don't think the steel is bad at all)...:

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So out of two knives so far, neither was serviceable as delivered...

Here you see the basic problem with "isn't wonderful how different they all are!": The only way Randall can fix the guard is to send me another 18, yet they are all vastly different, so how would I even know what I am going to get? They are all like different knives... I ground off some of the brass (it polished back beautifully) but the problem of the sheath dulling persisted: I housed it in a Spec Ops nylon sheath (which looks great, but needed leather "rails" inserts added for a tight blade fit), and it actually feels more at home now than than it ever did in the original leather...: Spec Ops sheath quality is truly awesome, except for the generic fit of the liners...

The way I think one should look at Randall's Model 18/14s is to ignore their shocking price tags, fix their flaws, and use them as enjoyable "beater" knives meant to pick up scratches. This made me realize just how superior and well crafted my Chris Reeves was... Even the Reeves sheath finish is far more durable, as is the sheath's function and interaction with the knife... Do not look at Randalls as expensive knives, because then you will be disapointed... They just feel cheap in blade heft, and even sometimes finish... The Randall Model 14 does look prettier in the handle than the 18, and I am now hanging on how they will fix it, because after that guard issue I am all set to give up on Randall...


Gaston
 
Gaston,

Since you were disappointed with the #18, why didn't you just send it back for a refund? Steve Peters offers a 14 day inspection period and pleasantly stands behind it.
 
Gaston,

You can also pop the liner out of the spec ops sheath and dip it in some boiling water then form it to the blade. Not too tight or the saw edge will bind. The difference in the blade being centered on the Randall would bother me as well.

Has the package I sent you gotten there yet?
 
No David I haven't seen your rope in yet. I'm thinking of using your thinner rope on the 18 after I have it re-coated in duracoat at Razoredgeknives: I find the current rope I put on is just a touch on the bulky side, and I am glad yours is on its way!

The reason I did not send the 18 back to Steve is that it took me quite a few days to even know the blade and guard were off-centered: It is not something I am used to look for on a knife (I did not even think it was possible for them to misalign such parts), and I was more concerned about the blade finish, and re-grinding the point, after my experience with the Model 14's very dull point.

I did at least check if the blade was straight, and it was: Centering to the guard and handle just did not occur to me...

After I had carefully examined the blade finish, particularly in the areas the Model 14 had troubles, I felt sure that this time I would be satisfied that this was good enough, so I went ahead with the sharpening: If you read my initial posts about it, you will see I was generally happy with it... The tip was again very hard work sharpening, if way better than on the 14...

By the time I noticed the guard and handle alignment, the blade was heavily hand re-sharpened, with some assymetry in the edge finish at the tip (due to the blade geometry I think, but not too bad): With a heavily re-worked blade, sending it back to Steven I assumed was no longer possible: I had to send it back directly to Randall for "correction".

This "error" obviously cannot be "corrected" on this particular knife (they would have to destroy it to get the guard off), so my assumption is that their only other option is to send me a completely new knife... In this case, even if they did offer a "corrected" knife free of charge, my reasoning was that out of Steven's 8 to 10 blades in the style of the Model 18, there was only 2 that I liked, which were the ones I got, all the others being essentially like completely different knives, most with much narrower blades, or blunter point profiles, sometimes both, and also with a whole slew of very, very different serrations styles that I often disliked... If Randall were to send me a brand-new replacement Model 18, I would have no absolutely idea what I would be getting in terms of actual blade shape, point profile, blade width, serration style, or even number of teeths...

Then there is the additional fact that my Model 14 is already with Randall for 6-9 weeks, so I did not feel like having two knives tied up with them, one of them maybe coming back as something I don't like... (At least I know for sure what the Model 14 I sent will look like...)

So I will probably duracoat it and live with the off-centered handle, rather than being deprived of it for months on end, like is already happening with the 14... This O-1 steel takes stains faster than any other carbon steel I have seen (way faster than the CR's A-2), so I would say duracoating it is going to be a good improvement...

Gaston

P.S. I have traced a countour on tape on the guard, and figured out a precise contour which will elliminate completely all the assymetries of the guard visible above. This will remove the two lashing holes, which will "square off" the guard to look more like a Robert Parrish guard. The only remaining assymetry will be a very slight off-centering of the blade to the handle (not the guard), but that is hardly noticeable... In overall gray it will look just like a Robert Parrish-made Randall! The trick will be having the re-grinding be precise, and not having harsh square machined edges, but smooth evenly radiused corners all over.
G.
 
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Wow, after reading all of your posts of concerns and disappointments, it sounds like Randalls just aren't the knives for you. At this point, you should probably follow your instincts.

Gaston444 said:
...I am all set to give up on Randall.
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TAH said:
Wow, after reading all of your posts of concerns and disappointments, it sounds like Randalls just aren't the knives for you. At this point, you should probably follow your instincts.
Click to expand...

Well, who else makes a 7"+ hollow handle with an edge grind width under 1 mm?

Didn't your read that I was happy with the 18 until I found the guard was put on all screwed up?

Have you ever heard even United Cutlery put on a crooked guard? There's nothing wrong with the conception, but you have to wonder where the quality control is for the $600 they charge...

Gaston
 
I am disappointed to hear about your problems with Randall Made Knives. I hope this was a glitch, and not the norm. I never had problems with my model 18 or two model 14's. I do have some knives from the late 60's with "ripples" in the blade cause by the hammer forging. Of course the price was only $45 back then. Finishing was not a high point on their blades until the 80's I think. When I was in the shop talking to Pete Hamilton regarding the blade polish he said more people were complaining and they started to "square" the back of the blades, ( I liked the round shape better) and making the grinds sharper, more defined.
 
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