The New T.H. Rinaldi Tempest

Hey Cliff,

Yes, I have heard from Ernest. He was very forthcoming and eager to see his blades tested. As he put it,"Good enough just isn't good enough." He is going to send me an A-2 4th Gen. bowie that he heat treated to test later this week. He also has a few other designs that he wants me to test as well.

As soon as I've had a chance to put the bowie through its paces, I'll post a review.

In the meanwhile, I am eagerly awaiting the return of my super Tempest from Trace's shop. I miss that little fighter, I must say.

Mario

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Gaucho

Tuvo muy mala suerte...se callo en mi cuchillo.




[This message has been edited by Gaucho (edited 04-04-2000).]
 
Mario, glad to see you got in touch with Mayer and will be getting some blades, however what about the 4'th generation bowie from Mayer that you looked at already? WIll you be describing the results of working with that?


-Cliff

[This message has been edited by Cliff Stamp (edited 04-05-2000).]
 
I will, along with the results of the ones that Ernie is sending me. The bowie that I've already tested was made when he was first setting up shop, and it was not heat treated by him, so some of my findings may not be representative of his current work. I simply wish to be as accurate and fair as possible.

Mario

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Gaucho

Tuvo muy mala suerte...se callo en mi cuchillo.


 
Excellent, it would be very valuable to have a before and after kind of performance evaluation of the blades so as to guage the impacts of Mayer's own heat treat method.

-Cliff
 
Greetings All!

Just a quick update. I got my Tempest back from Trace at the end of last week, and I have to tell you guys that he did a tremendous job on the slight modifications that I asked for.

First, he rounded off the edges of the micarta scales on the finger groove side of the handle. It now just melts in my hand. The feel is now perfect, even after a long training session- no hot spots at all.

Next, he profiled a false edge along the clip of the spine behind the tip and increased the pointiness of the tip to improve thrusting. What a difference! My Tempest now thrusts cleanly through a leg of lamb to the hilt with very little resistence. I tell you, God is in the details. Small changes in a fighting knife can produce significant changes in performance.

Trace assures me that he will encorporate these slight design changes- plus lightening the handle to shift the point of balance forward slightly, improving the feel in forward grip even further- into future Tempests. With these changes, I can comfortably state that the new Rinaldi Tempest is an absolutely outstanding midsized fighter.

Bravo Trace!

Now its time to send my baby to Matt Draper for a custom IWB sheath.

Mario



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Gaucho

Tuvo muy mala suerte...se callo en mi cuchillo.


 
Hey Mar: Glad you like the little mods. I should have made it like that the first time. But as I have come to learn on projects such as this, its a pretty hard to get EVERYTHING just right the first try:-) That blade was profiled with a sketch I drew sitting next to the grinder..LOL!!! Anyway you be sure to keep me up to speed on how it works with your FMA training, I would also really like to see a picture of you and some of your "Players" training if possible. Thanks again for the kind words.

Trace Rinaldi
 
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