THE Hollow Handle Knife Thread

[J-Utah]

Thanks bowie69.

 

[Sam Wilson]

Sam,

BTW, I really like the pouch you made for the compass. Another great idea! That Suunto compass is the best liquid filled compass on the market. I have several of them and none have formed a bubble.

Speaking of needles, if you're looking for a place to keep it safe, that's what the slot is for on the brass sparking tool in my photo. Place the needle in the slot and wrap the shaft with thread.

Tom, I agree. I love those Suunto's. I really love the larger face, it is just easier to read the markers, and I too have found them to be accurate and durable. I don't mean to be down on the compass in the buttcap feature, it is definitely taking advantage of space and makes sure you always have a compass handy. I have just had some negative experiences myself with that feature, so have been hesitant to embrace it. And what is that sparking tool? It looks neat, and needles are always handy. I like the focus on fire in your handle, I have always thought of hollow handle knives as basically a knife with a built-in match safe.

J-Utah, I agree with Bowie, nice collection! You are certainly not hurting for hollow handle knives there. Thank you for the compliments, I am truly glad you are pleased with my work. I am glad you have found this thread, you obviously have a lot to contribute.

Here is what I normally have in my kit and in the knife handle. Its stuff that has proven useful in the woods over the years, its an evolving kit. The string is kevlar cord, mini multi tool, Esee arrowhead, bandaids, antibiotic gel, signal mirror, fire steel, flashlight, split weights, fish hooks, those little chem lights and a rubber deal that makes them into a floater, on the back of the tin i have some wet dry paper to touch up an edge, and I usually close the tin and have a couple of ranger bands around it.

For a fire tinder I like the cotton balls with petroleum jelly, I just take a straw and cut it into 3 inch lengths and use a toothpick to stuff the soaked cotton balls in as tight as i can get it, then melt the ends of the straw closed with a lighter. No mess and packs a lot more than you would think.

Dave, that is quite an exhaustive kit. I'm surprised you can fit all of that into a tin. You've really covered your bases, and that's one of my biggest weaknesses, first aid. I have a small disposable scalpel blade in sterile packaging and 2 bandaids, but no antiseptic or anything else. I had an experience once where I was injured in the woods and due to my leg being hurt (nothing serious, it just slowed me down a lot) I barely made it out that day without spending the night, arrived at my vehicle a little after dark. But it got me to thinking that a small pack of pain pills and even over the counter stimulants might be a good idea as a last ditch effort to fight pain and fatigue, in the case of injury. I will have to give that a little more thought.

I also have a question for you. What do you use the chem lights for? I have carried light sticks before, and found them neat, but I never had a specific purpose that caused me to carry them regularly. But you obviously have a well thought out kit there, I'm curious what you do with them.

Keep us posted on the Combat Master sheath for the SAFE knife Utah, I'm interested to see how it turns out.

Sam

 

[Gaston444]

My kit is heavy on fire making supplies, but the other items that Sam and J-Utah mentioned would be next in line.

That looks a lot like my usual knife kit in priorities: However instead of several of those rope "fiber bundles", I often carry only one... I figure it can be used a few times if you are careful (?)...

What I put in their place is a cube of "Strike Force" fire starting cubes (styrofoam like), as they can burn in the wind, supposedly hot and long enough to even dry wet wood (as I say supposedly, but the later cubes are smaller than the earlier ones, and some have to be cut down further)... They are crushable, so well suited to the hollow handle's protection... They are meant to work with the "Strike Force" striker, but that is way too bulky: With shavings off of them, they will light up from something smaller. I rate fire starting as hard and somewhat unpredictable in windy conditions, with fumbling hands, so I also add regular strike anywhere matches, often secured head to butt with transparent tape, or even with their wood shaft trimmed a few mms to minimize volume. The Scotch "magic" transparent tape is often looped in a long length to act as a pulling mechanism to extract the deeper stuff in the handle: I absolutely hate to have any fight getting things out, and making it easy with no rattling and volume waste is a bit of a trick.

Some of my knife kits also have what looks like a huge rectangular section match that burns a long time, but requires a striking paper: So that is (occasionally) 3 separate fire starting methods, rod/wheel "lighter", Strike Anywhere matches, the big rectangle match with fuel incorporated, and 2 separate kinds of fuel: Rope and Strike Force cube... None of my knives so far has taken all five items simultaneously... I think 4 is tops... Of this, only the wheel/rod would last any length of time...

When the knife has both a hollow handle and a sheath pouch waterproof plastic box kit (only my Randall 18 is so blessed, with a plastic box cut specially to replace the sharpening stone), the handle is free for more volume beyond one or so more Strike Force cubes, and the "extra" then becomes Advils in a plastic bag (10-11 has proved the limit)... I usually place 5 ft of line with a small weight and hook in place, but the typical small wood streams don't inspire much confidence in the usefulness of that... A 14 mm compass is added if there is any room, but I avoid the buttcap location. The ones I use have very simple no digit dials, and are "rated" to some "standard" in some way I forget... For anti-rattling I like to add a folded or unfolded unopened bandaid or two, if needed. Tissue band aids on dry skin are a lot more tenacious than old "smooth" ones, so they have some marginal uses compared to the old plastic bandaids: Even if overwhelmed with blood, if they were stuck to a clean dry patch of skin, they will still hold as the blood dries around them...

One big issue is the sharpening implement: So far only nylon sheaths have pouches large enough for my preferred Dia-Sharp 4" coarse diamond hone. The Reeves has had a round diamond hone very well secured to the sheath's thickness, but the knife for some reason is still unconfortable to carry inside the pants compared to most others: The hard squarish sheath tip is partly to blame, but there is something else going on...

The sharpener is the one major item I often skimp on. The most brilliantly integrated sharperner I own is in the Neeley SA9 leather sheath, which has a stone under a rear sheath flap: Smooth integration that couldn't be better for my usual inside the pants carry, but it is just a stone and not a diamond hone, unfortunately...

Gaston

 

[cricketdave]

Tom, I agree. I love those Suunto's. I really love the larger face, it is just easier to read the markers, and I too have found them to be accurate and durable. I don't mean to be down on the compass in the buttcap feature, it is definitely taking advantage of space and makes sure you always have a compass handy. I have just had some negative experiences myself with that feature, so have been hesitant to embrace it. And what is that sparking tool? It looks neat, and needles are always handy. I like the focus on fire in your handle, I have always thought of hollow handle knives as basically a knife with a built-in match safe.

J-Utah, I agree with Bowie, nice collection! You are certainly not hurting for hollow handle knives there. Thank you for the compliments, I am truly glad you are pleased with my work. I am glad you have found this thread, you obviously have a lot to contribute.



Dave, that is quite an exhaustive kit. I'm surprised you can fit all of that into a tin. You've really covered your bases, and that's one of my biggest weaknesses, first aid. I have a small disposable scalpel blade in sterile packaging and 2 bandaids, but no antiseptic or anything else. I had an experience once where I was injured in the woods and due to my leg being hurt (nothing serious, it just slowed me down a lot) I barely made it out that day without spending the night, arrived at my vehicle a little after dark. But it got me to thinking that a small pack of pain pills and even over the counter stimulants might be a good idea as a last ditch effort to fight pain and fatigue, in the case of injury. I will have to give that a little more thought.

I also have a question for you. What do you use the chem lights for? I have carried light sticks before, and found them neat, but I never had a specific purpose that caused me to carry them regularly. But you obviously have a well thought out kit there, I'm curious what you do with them.

Keep us posted on the Combat Master sheath for the SAFE knife Utah, I'm interested to see how it turns out.

Sam

Part of it goes in the knife handle the rest squeezes into the kit you just have to pack carefully lol. The chem lights come in handy for lots of things. The little yellow piece of rubber there will fit on a fishing line and also holds one of the chem lights and they work well as a bobber in low light. I've used them on hammock strings so I don't clothesline myself and they give enough light to read a compass in the dark without being too bright. They can also be used as cats eyes on the back of a hat if your following someone and need a point of reference in the dark. Just as an aside, the larger ones when put on a string and then if you melt the bottom end enough to poke a hole and then spin around like a idiot, well it looks like an alien had a orgy at your camp site. So theres that too.

For first aid the bandaids, little flat packs of antibiotic ointment and a flat alcohol swab take very little room. In a few kits I have used tiny tubes for some pain meds, a tooth ache or migraine is seriously debilitating when your a long ways from home. I use 44 cal shot capsules to hold the pills If you have ever loaded your own ammo, you can buy shot shell inserts to make snake shot, little plastic tubes that you fill with shotgun pellets. They will hold 2 to 3 tylenols, very handy. Speer makes them most gun shops that sell loading supplies carry them. Cheap too.

I almost always carry a deck of cards with me in a pocket as well, if you get lost just sit down and play solitaire. Sure enough someone will come by pretty soon and tell you to play the red jack on the black queen.

 

[Gaston444]

Nice touch the pack of cards!

I forgot to add I do put into the knife the ever thoughtful needle with a few feet of sewing string wrapped around it: Hopefully I'll be luckier than Rambo, and it will be for clothing and not for skin! (In the movie, his handywork keeps oozing throughout the entire film: It really is interesting just how much attention they actually pay to the injury throughout the rest of the film: I've seen it many times, and only noticed this recently)

Great idea the sandpaper to touch up the edge Dave!: I'm almost embarrassed I never considered it!: The only issue is that Waterproof "Black" sandpaper tends to be a lot coarser than similar "permeable" "soft" 600 grit paper (I don't understand this, as grit should be grit, and below 600 has been dropped at my local hardware store...), but it is still an idea to consider... This would solve my sharpener space problem...

At the local Canadian Tire, there is a small survival kit that contains a "thermal" blanket (crumpled about the size of two fists together): It looks like fairly thin foil/fabric of some sort: Just how potentially useful is this I wonder? I assume the main purpose is to keep humidity from the body...

Gaston

 

[TAH]

I don't mean to be down on the compass in the buttcap feature...

Sam, I agree. I do not care for a compass in the buttcap for the same reasons you mentioned above. I have two buttcaps for my Randall and prefer the one with no compass.

And what is that sparking tool? It looks neat...

Here is mine: Link

Here is a smaller version: Link

Here is another style: Link

Here is some history: Link

"thermal" blanket...thin foil/fabric...I assume the main purpose is to keep humidity from the body...

The main purpose is to provide warm through reflecting body heat, but they also provide some protection from wind and rain.

 

[cricketdave]

Nice touch the pack of cards!

I forgot to add I do put into the knife the ever thoughtful needle with a few feet of sewing string wrapped around it: Hopefully I'll be luckier than Rambo, and it will be for clothing and not for skin! (In the movie, his handywork keeps oozing throughout the entire film: It really is interesting just how much attention they actually pay to the injury throughout the rest of the film: I've seen it many times, and only noticed this recently)

Great idea the sandpaper to touch up the edge Dave!: I'm almost embarrassed I never considered it!: The only issue is that Waterproof "Black" sandpaper tends to be a lot coarser than similar "permeable" "soft" 600 grit paper (I don't understand this, as grit should be grit, and below 600 has been dropped at my local hardware store...), but it is still an idea to consider... This would solve my sharpener space problem...

At the local Canadian Tire, there is a small survival kit that contains a "thermal" blanket (crumpled about the size of two fists together): It looks like fairly thin foil/fabric of some sort: Just how potentially useful is this I wonder? I assume the main purpose is to keep humidity from the body...

Gaston

Adding to what TAH said about the blanket, they make a good reflector for your fire, they will keep heat in your body if wrapped in one as long as you don't mind feeling like a burrito and they tend to rip first time you move much in one. The larger heavier versions that are designed like a tarp are much more durable but take up more space.

 

[guns_and_labs]

Esee arrowhead,

I used to have an arrowhead in there, until I realized I suck at spear hunting. Now I carry fishing gear in the kit and a pistol...

For a fire tinder I like the cotton balls with petroleum jelly, I just take a straw and cut it into 3 inch lengths and use a toothpick to stuff the soaked cotton balls in as tight as i can get it, then melt the ends of the straw closed with a lighter.

I found some paper straws that work well, too.

 

[radicalbearpaw]

Hey cricketdave, I know its been a couple weeks but I'm still working in my jack crain commando knife replica, it looks really frigin good, we have had like 3 or 4 feet I'd snow in the past two weeks so u been busy with that and haven't had as much time as I would of liked to work on the blade, plus I'm still short my hollow handle which the company I get them from told me 4 weeks till they had more, but I'm thinking next week they should have them in, I'll be buying at least 10 to keep in stock!

 

[cricketdave]

Cool I'm looking forward to seeing it!

 

[radicalbearpaw]

Does anyone else see the absolute ridiculous price on eBay right now for the jack crain commando knife?? Seriously? Wow! He lowered the price from $2500.00 to $2200.00 dollars, amazing I'm sure everyone's just jumping at that great deal! ...... which brings me to my next point kids, DON'T SMOKE CRACK! come on seriously, my replica should be done by the weekend and I promise mine will Never break!

 

[radicalbearpaw]

I'm emailing the guy now and asking him who guys dealer is

 

[cricketdave]

The close up photos of the fit and finish of the Crain knife are underwhelming. I really don't care for the saw teeth, and the sheath, wow thats not what I would expect with a higher priced knife. The stitching has issues as well as the general design. Looks like he whipped it up in a real hurry and didn't take a lot of care in making it. Just take a look at how well thought out Sam's sheaths and stitching is in comparison.

 

[radicalbearpaw]

Oh I agree 100% its horrible, I mean I understand jack doesn't make them anymore I get that but I talked to a guy from Europe who has one of the originals from the actual movie and he wanted 2300, and that knife was one that was supposedly on set and was beautiful, this thing is junk compared to that one. I'm telling you right now after mine is done and bead blasted nice, if everyone likes it I'm gonna start making more if them, some with no saw teeth, some with even in front clip. ..I just love the design of the knife, but come on at that price, that's a joke, that guy is throwing a price in the air and seeing which sucker it will stick to

 

[Gaston444]

The close up photos of the fit and finish of the Crain knife are underwhelming. I really don't care for the saw teeth, and the sheath, wow thats not what I would expect with a higher priced knife. The stitching has issues as well as the general design. Looks like he whipped it up in a real hurry and didn't take a lot of care in making it. Just take a look at how well thought out Sam's sheaths and stitching is in comparison.

There was a video review on Youtube of the smaller LSII, and I have to say my impression was -superficially- the opposite in terms of the workmanship (the sheath did look simple and minimal in "burlyness"): Ebay blocks off my viewing of the listing you talk about, so I can't access the photos of the knife you saw... If you are selling knives internationally on Ebay, try to avoid the word "knife", and "fighting" and "combat" maybe: They are real idiots about this for Canada...

The video reviewer of the LS II said the attention to detail was unreal; it seemed very good from the video and pictures I saw... I agree I never understood how the saw was supposed to work: A big, big turn off... Even the Randall saw looks much more functional...

I found the concept of the big ring loop sheath strange: Is that what you find objectionable with the sheath? Or is the leather too thin?

The only hollow handle knives I have left to get now included the Crain, maybe the First Blood, but most of all the Parrish, which would probably be the least expensive, but hardest to find in good condition... I still fume at the -mint- $800 one I let slip by in January...

One HH I have completely dropped from my radar screen is the Al Mar SF-10: I feel it is really too long at 10", and I really don't like upward curving points. The length gives it a chopping potential that is completely wasted by the all around hollow grind, and wasted even worse by the thin blade stock: 3/16" is simply wrong at this size: Still a beautiful knife, but I'll bet it is very blade light, and may even balance behind the guard...

One of the reasons I dropped it is also that I generally like to get one of each maker, and I think the big Al Mar "Special Warfare" is a much better knife in every respect (despite not being HH): It even is a proper 1/4" thick, and keeps it 3/4 of the way forward (few Al Mars are that thick)...

On the "blade weight" matter, on another site I was directed to a video that recommends batoning over chopping, and the arguments I have to say did somewhat sway me...: Particularly in the way the edge is taxed only once for each cut: The video repeatedly emphasized saving on the edge, noting among other things how the curved point portion was much harder to sharpen correctly (something I have always noticed, and put much effort into improving on all my knives)... A very good "point" to note that sharp points, in the field, are even harder to achieve I think...

Gaston

P.S. I'll soon post a "impression" evaluation of the few "new" ones that I got... Testing on some will have to wait for Spring... A quick preview of some of them:

 

[radicalbearpaw]

I've been building a pretty much exact replica of a crain life support for the pay 2 weeks, oh ya Dave I did cut out 2 identical blanks, soon as I finish the first one I'll get the second done allot quicker. I should have you some pics this weekend. I'm gonna bring the blade to my friends shop to get bead blasted probably Friday if I finish grinding

 

[cricketdave]

Gaston,

Its not that the leather is thin, its very poorly stitched and finished. It looks a lot like he bought the cheapest grade of leather he could get at Tandy, threw it together will little forethought and stitched it badly. The edges are not finished well, he sewed right off the end of the belt loop, he did no finish work on the strap and his stitches are very uneven. Like he didn't have his sewing machine timed quite right. He didn't even bevel the edges and looks like he didn't use a groover to line up his stitching.

I certainly would not be happy with that had I made it let alone for a 1000 dollar knife when it was new.


Radicalbear I really am looking forward to seeing how the knife comes out.

 

[Gaston444]

Does the knife look all right, or could the knife be a fake? I remember hearing there were some fake Crains around... I wonder if he is still making them?: I do know some of them were dated on the ricasso 2003 AD(!). His site was rather... Weird... To anyone who might be new to knives, don't order from him, in case you don't know...

Gaston

 

[Gaston444]

Anyway... Here is a brief evaluation of the hollow handle knives I have so far:

Boker Apparo. Probably the dullest knife out of the box I have ever seen (70° inclusive on a 2.5 mm edge at best!). It cost me $89 at Razoredgeknives to make it one of the sharpest knives I've ever seen (about 20° inclusive on a 0.35 mm edge)... Even the clip is now sharper than almost any knife I've seen... The new edges are centered to the spine, which is no mean feat... On the downside the knife went from 7.0" to 6.8", and, though nicely coarse for toughness, as I asked, this finish still got scratched from my contrivance of putting leather strip "rails" to adapt the loose Spec-ops sheath insert to it... To do this I later had much more success putting in nylon strips, not leather, which scratches under pressure while nylon only "rubs"...

I got rid of the Savage sheath, as I did not like going snapless on such a short blade with such a big handle: The Savage leather was good, but the snaps were weak, as are the Randall snaps. Unlike the steel Randall snaps, the brass Savage snaps did not tolerate being "squeezed" for a more secure snap closure release...

I know the Spec-ops insert is supposed to be removeable, and heat shrinkable to fit the blade, but this to my mind would still scratch the blade compared to inserting nylon strip "rails", which I found work perfectly, if placed correctly just below the secondary grind line. A tight plastic fit would scratch metal when foreign debris gets in anyway (I could never figure out the interest for Kydex sheaths for this very reason)... The old Eagle sheaths were definitely better thought out, with "hairy" rolled up rubber inserts: Superior to all other sheaths in my opinion... Also, I never could figure out how to remove the Spec-ops insert: It seems to me it would require some major deforming efforts exerted on the nylon... I did my usual "trimming" of the sheath insert, by slicing its tip out of the nylon at the back, then sawing its protruding end to the length I want, then folding the nylon cloth back over the sliced open area and securing it there with large gobs of superglue: It will never undo itself that way... This makes for much easier inside the pants carry, and I hate an oversized-looking sheath as well...

The sheath pouch and hollow handle combined makes for a lot of stuff that can be carried! Balance point is just behind the guard, but the guard's huge mass will definitely assist in chopping, and the full 1/4" stock, plus the guard, plus the 0.35 mm edge at 10°, should give it surprising chopping power for its size (you can still baton on the rather unaggressive sawback with little problem)...

The knife itself is very functional (probably the strongest HH handle attachment of all those by production makers), and despite the guard looking like it belongs on a sword, it isn't that bothersome when cutting... The guard does hurt the appearance of the knife because of the blade length I think... I think the knife would have been much more attractive with an 8" blade. The saw is designed to cut push-pull but I doubt it is very effective: It is self-cleaning, but seems also very inefficient...

Chris Reeves Jereboam Mk II, 2004 vintage. Fairly sharp at 13° angle on a 1 mm edge, but from the factory it came with very slightly rounded edge sides that I flattened, maybe closing the angle to 11 or 12° while I was at it. I've grown to really dislike this knife over time, because it does not ride well inside the pants. Supposedly it is no heavier than around 16-17 onces, but it feels much, much heavier than that... The hard square sheath tip is unpleasant. The feature I like least about this knife is the fact, common to most big knives, that the edge angle is opened towards the point. My #1 pet peeve with most big fixed blades is that they grow much duller towards the point: They should put in some thought into mitigating that...

Other peeves: The hollow handle's wall thickness is way overkill at 1/8", meaning the compartment is deep but also very narrow: Way under an inch, 20 mm or thereabouts, so you can't put much into it... But the worst feature of the compartment is the deeply threaded buttcap, which threading goes on for way over 1/2" into the handle, creating huge deep shoulders that push everything deeper out of reach as you screw it shut, so you can't get to it... The best way to counter this, if you want to get anything in, is to arrange the top of your stuff into a narrower slightly "conical" arrangement that will tend to slide into the buttcap's hollow as you screw it in... Extremely poor hollow handle design in my opinion: Virtually all other HHs are way easier to get stuff out, and much more capacious, including the Apparo.

Final nail in the coffin of this knife is the steel: The A-2 is underhardened to 55, and this low edge-holding on A-2 yields no gain in brittleness (and the brittleness it demonstrated in use confirms this). Edge holding seems lower than expected in tests on wood, even taking the 55 Rc into consideration... The knife is easy to resharpen, so with only light use that is all I can confirm about this personally, but I tend to trust the sources on the low edge-holding: This is why I added the sharpener to the sheath...

Balance point is 1/4" in front of the guard, and the knife chops exactly on par with a Becker BK-9, but the hollow handle is far more confortable and vibration-free when chopping, and this is pronounced enough I think it might be universal to hollow handles vs full tangs...

Neeley SA9. I thought this was the best designed hollow handle knife of them all, but it is kind of a surprise in person: It feels light, much lighter at 9.5" than the 8.75" Chris Reeves... It balances barely on the guard, so the blade does not feel heavy at all (bad), and the whole knife feels long but not cumbersome in any way (at least that's good): Look at the modest sized guard, the reasonably-sized handle, the functional blade width... The compartment has the attachment bolt exposed inside, so you can put more stuff around the bolt...: The tube walls are thin, and the buttcap threading limited to 1/4", making for an absolutely huge inside capacity for the size (roughly 40% more than even the Apparo, 30% more than Randall, and probably twice or more that of the Chris Reeves). The handle cord is very thin, and it verges on the slippery because of that. Still feels nice.

Everything about this knife is truly Wagnerian, especially the sheath: This is a Model 18 sheath in comparison:

There is also more, in that this knife is far more precisely ground than any fixed blade I have ever seen: It is so precisely ground that it gave me a peculiar feeling I have never felt before with a knife: Just looking at it, the surfaces were so true and unvarying that it seemed like the blade was moulded in plastic... Incredible... This is the only sabre-ground fixed blade I have ever seen to be perfectly symmetrical on the secondary grind line, which lines were absolutely straight as well... Even the Chris Reeves is a long, long way from perfect symmetry on its secondary grind lines, which should give you an idea of the insane level of quality on display here (for way under the price of a Randall)...

There are two downsides to this knife: The edge rubs pretty much all the way into the leather, but this should abate soon with wear, and it seems a deliberate display of immaculate fit, rather than an error in judgement: It doesn't seem to have much effect on the edge anyway, since the edge rides in the small channel it makes...

Far worse than that is the edge geometry, an incomprehensibe Boker Apparo-like monstrosity, with a 3 mm edge base or more... I thinned down the edge by closing the angle to around 30° inclusive, leading to the tall bevels you see: I figured 3-4 days of heavy work, it took 2... The edge is now surprisingly aggressive, but with a 3 mm + edge base, this knife will forever feel clumsy in small precise tasks... I don't get it, but it is what it is...

My very troubled, crooked guard Model 18 finally came back with the guard ground down to a symmetrical appearance (the only way to fix this Randall-made $520 disaster), then it was Cerakoated to fix the high speed staining of its 0-1 blade (seriously stained while washing fingerprints!), and finally resharpened by hand, all courtesy of "Razoredge" knives for around $50: The result I think was stupendous: The edge on it is the sharpest edge I have seen on any knife, even over the re-worked Apparo: Perfectly flat sides all the way to the amazingly sharp rounded tip: Truly a work of wonder... I think with use you will open up the bevel with a micro-bevel anyway, so why not start with around 20° inclusive?: The edge doesn't feel weak or too thin at all, and the flatness of the sides, without any micro-bevel, really speaks well of Josh's workmanship.

On the aesthetic side, the result is kind of jarring: I was hoping for a Parrish-like look. It looks kind of brutally functional, but not like a Parrish... Remember the guard size was forced on me, because I had to have Josh cut out the guard's badly misaligned lashing holes... The Cerakoating elliminates all of Randall's "interesting" (read: crummy) blade finishing technique, and is tough as nails: I absolutely love it, and the bronze color was an error that turned out much better than the original Coyote brown I wanted(!). The knife looked better without cord, but since it wasn't knurled I wanted to have big cord so that it nearly fills-in the buttcap's width... It is not the prettiest result, but I still love it (it looks great in the sheath): You won't confuse my Model 18 with anybody else's Model 18...

Note how the two blades are vastly different in blade ricasso width, and the 14 has 19 teeths, the 18 has 18... And please note these two knives I chose were by far the most alike out of a whole bunch that were waaaay out there (11 teeths on some...). The 14 has been refinished by Randall (it took 4 weeks, which is a lot better than the 9 week they warn about), and they did bring the original point geometry down to something quite useable, with only 1 mm of length loss, which is very commendable... On the downside, there were two sizeable nicks on the right front hollow, and I will have to re-finish the hollow part myself (the nicks are already gone by sanding, so it will not be that hard this time around, compared to the horrible diagonal "flats" of the original factory-new hollow grind): At least the hollow's surface is a true hollow this time around...

Randall "satin" finishing has all these weird "swirls" in it, and outside the hollow I will leave those swirls on the flats alone, but this should give you an idea of what their finishing is like, since you hardly ever see it brought out in photos (it hides very well from cameras):

The nylon-rail lined insert of the Spec-ops worked like a charm this time around, and the knife fits very tightly without any friction: The snap was reversed and repositioned as well (strangely enough, the 18 will have to keep its leather sheath,as the 18's handle simply does not like the Spec-ops sheath, and the nylon "rail" inserts left friction marks on the Cerakoat, which I had to polish off):

I'm now pretty happy with what I have, and I can't even say I regret getting the Randalls. Their edges are 0.5 mm thick, and that certainly beats 3 mm on the Neeley(...) I probably won't be buying much for a while now, as this is pretty much most of what I wanted, besides maybe a Parrish or First Blood in the far future...

Gaston

 

[RX-79G]

Gaston,

Really interesting reading, and great pics.

I'm very surprised about the final edge angles you've chosen. I would think they would be very delicate for a "chopping" blade. When you say "20 degrees inclusive" you're saying 10 degrees per side, right? Are these steels up for that? I would think all of these blades are made of fairly ordinary steels like 440C, and the Randall's O1 is only hardened to 55 or so. I'm surprised you'd want to go smaller than a Mora at less hardness on a big, heavy blade.

BTW, I didn't see why Randall didn't fix their screwed up knife. What happened with that?