Thinking of cutting down my condor hudson bay...

R

RDog

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Jul 28, 2011
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I feel my condor hudson bay knife is just way too large to be practical...at least for me. If I need to chop I use a axe or hatchet.

I was thinking of cutting the blade down to around 6 inches, has anyone else cut down a hudson bay? How did it turn out? Have pics?

I'm in the planning stage and hoped for some tips.
 
I haven't seen anyone do that before. I think it's a great size, myself, as the extra length is good for food prep in addition to chopping. If you do the mod, though, don't forget to post lots of pics! :D:thumbup:
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
I haven't seen anyone do that before. I think it's a great size, myself, as the extra length is good for food prep in addition to chopping. If you do the mod, though, don't forget to post lots of pics! :D:thumbup:
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+1
I like big blades. If I want them smaller I usually just try to find a smaller blade around the size I want. (Since Condors aren't expensive, anyway)
 
The Hudson Bay is 1075, isn't it? 1075 is a shallow hardening steel and the Hudson Bay is a relatively thick knife. As such the center of the blade is going to fairly soft pearlite. If you cut it foreward from the back of the handle it might work. You'll need to rehandle it. If you cut it back from the tip you'll ruin the blade unless you do a new heat treat. I'd suggest you buy a Mora or another Condor and trade or sell your Hudson Bay.
 
Bo T said:
The Hudson Bay is 1075, isn't it? 1075 is a shallow hardening steel and the Hudson Bay is a relatively thick knife. As such the center of the blade is going to fairly soft pearlite. If you cut it foreward from the back of the handle it might work. You'll need to rehandle it. If you cut it back from the tip you'll ruin the blade unless you do a new heat treat. I'd suggest you buy a Mora or another Condor and trade or sell your Hudson Bay.
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You can through-harden 1075. Who told you you couldn't? :confused:
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
You can through-harden 1075. Who told you you couldn't? :confused:
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Every TTT diagram I have seen regarding 10XX steels have a very narrow time window for avoiding the pearlite nose during quench. And the lower the carbon, the shorter the window. High manganese might lengthen that window but I think it would still be less than 1 second. So you probably miss the pearlite along the edge and for several hundreths of an inch on the surface. But the interior of the blade will pick up pearlite and still be softer than the edge/surface even after tempering. Disclaimer: Superquench might be able to pull the heat out fast enough to avoid most of the pearlite nose but then there are other problems. An oil or straight water quench with this thickness of blade won't miss the nose.

Now 5160 with its 5 second window won't have more than 1 or 2 RHc points difference between the interior of a thick knife and the surface.
 
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I would say trade for shorter or just buy a bushlore to go with it. Hudson bay in condor's version is my all time fav for value to usefull ratio.
 
bo t, i use nothing but 1075 but in the form of a john deere disk and even at 56 rockwell (factory jd heat treat) it laughs at a carbide drill in a mill and i consider myself lucky to make it all the way through. i have reprofiled and reground test knives i have made way beyond 1/4" back from the original edge i first put on and it sharpened up just as freaky sharp as the first edge i put on from the beginning. i do an edge quench and the edge is between 63-65 rc.
 
:o Thanks FortyTwoBlades and Richard J. Just went and skimmed Verhoeven. The pearlite nose shifts due to larger grain size giving more time to quench. So, without knowing the grain size of the steel in the Hudson Bay it is impossible to know if the blade would through harden with an oil quench. My apologies to the OP. Does anybody know the grain size of the steel used in the Hudson Bay knife?

FYI 1086 with a grain size of 14 quenched into room temperature oil showed a drop in hardness from an HRc of 65 at the blunted edge the edge to 37 at 3/16" thickness. When the grain size was 11 there was no change in hardness. Source Verhoeven.
 
Although I have been a "knife guy" for 30+ yrs I am a noob when it comes to the technical aspects of metallurgy...So no apologies needed Bo t, it was good food for thought.

At the moment I have put the blade to use in the kitchen...(the wife gave me one of those looks...) I still want to cut it down, but in the mean time its cutting pork like a champ, onions and other vegetables are another story...breaks them more than cuts.

My reason for wanting to cut it down vs. sell it is at the price of one new its just not going to be worth it. My first impression of it was nothing but positive, but the more I handled it the more the size seemed to be a bit of a joke. It may be a good chopper, but not as good as an axe or hatchet/hawk...and my Moras will clean game and cut mushrooms better any day. Yes I should have picked up a bushcraft basic or bushlore, as they would likely be more to my style. live and learn.

I keep telling myself I don't need another knife untill I break or lose one of the ones I have...so I keep putting off a new condor buy, and thats what made me think of cutting down my hudson bay. Rest assured that when I do I will post pics and share the info.
 
I'll go against the grain here. If it's not what you like, cut it down. Unless you like buying knives that won't get used, I see no reason not to.

I have modified quite a few Old Hick's to my own personal preference, it's easy and very satisfying to use something of your own creation. Cover the end of the blade with masking tape and sketch out whatever profile you want. Wide painters tape works well. When you get it right, use a razor blade to cut along the line and remove the tape from the scrap area. Then grind or file to match the tape. If there is too big a chunk to grind off, the corner edge of a file or dremel with a cut off wheel can cut through on a line close to your pencil mark.
 
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