Timberline Aviator -- opinions on this knife please?

peacefuljeffrey · Feb 8, 2003

Hi everyone. I was just looking online at a Timberline Aviator (TM94021), and it's a pretty interesting chisel-ground tanto-style fixed blade "tactical" knife. It's also $140 plus shipping.

Does anyone HAVE one of these? How do you like it? Have you had to sharpen it much, and does the 440C tanto blade do well with hand-sharpening, with regard to keeping a nice corner at the tanto angle of the 'belly' of the blade? I don't yet own a tanto knife, and the main reason is that I imagine this phantom fear that sharpening attempts will end up rounding-off that corner, and I wouldn't like that.

I know that the Aviator is the smaller version of the SpecWar that was selling for over $200 in catalogs just a year or two ago (but I think that one might have been a titanium blade). I think the price has come down on all of them. Is this a knife worth getting?

Sergiusz Mitin · Feb 8, 2003

I have one and honestly I dont like it. This knife has good handle, excellent multi-carry sheath, decent (IMO just right for survival knives) steel and really poorly designed blade. It is close to impossible to do something sensible with chisel ground on improper (for right handers) side, single side sharpened blade with geometric point shape. If this knife should serve as pilot survival knife as it is claimed I really feel sorry about the pilots who could stay in wilderness with this blade in the hand.

This silly designed, probably mostly for fad, blade foils all advantages of entire knife design.
It could and I think it should be very good piece if it would have simply shaped drop point blade ground on both sides and conventionally sharpened.

Unfortunately such knife doesnt exist, this is not real photo but the fruit of my experiments in computer graphic. However this is the way how TIMBERLINE Aviator should look. In this case it would be very sensible choice for its declared use.

Before you would buy it just think what you really expect from your knife cool look or usefulness?

AlonzoMosely · Feb 8, 2003

Serg, you should be a knife designer. How did you do that?

Sergiusz Mitin · Feb 8, 2003

Maybe I wouldnt be even the worse in this area

, however the problem is that Im poor bladesmith and all my designs would born only in my imagination and computer graphic software.

How I did it? I put the knife into my flatbed scanner, scanned it and saved as JPEG. Then I imported it into Corel DRAW! window and started to abuse both program and image. I dont remember step-by-step proceeding, it was some years ago. One I remember surely it was pretty hard work, somewhat over my qualification in this matter

DANJ · Feb 8, 2003

That is amazing, the knife looks soooo real!!!!

Sergiusz Mitin · Feb 9, 2003

The etching on the blade makes illusion of reality. I just copied it from original image using mask tool and then pasted to my drawing. Im not sure it is legal according American laws, so, just in case:
Disclaimer: Aviator is TIMBERLINE registered trade mark and so on (speaking about knives of course). No copyright breaking intended. It was just a joke.

If seriously I would be very glad if TIMBERLINE would issue this pretty promising knife with this kind of blade. This images were published in some Polish and Russian magazines Im cooperating with and I gave the copies to John R. Danthon, president of GATCO (Great American Tool Company) meeting him at IWA Trade Show (Nuremberg, Germany). I hoped this could cause TIMBERLINE (part of GATCO) folks to add this blade style to their production line. Unfortunately I was wrong, they didnt...

peacefuljeffrey · Feb 10, 2003

'cause if they redesigned the knife with a double ground drop point like you whipped-up in the picture there, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I have always loved that handle. I think it makes the knife. What's it made of? What is the black coating on the blade? And what is the proper side for a right-hander's chisel-ground knife to be ground on?

Sergiusz Mitin · Feb 10, 2003

The blade is made of 440C stainless steel what is less brittle than ATS-34 or 154CM and somewhat more stain resistant what makes it better choice for general utility outdoors or survival knives. It holds the edge slightly worse than hi-end counterparts (ATS-34 for ex.) but you always can touchup your bale as long as it stays in one piece and isnt badly damaged, right?

The nandle is described like Craton in companys catalog (I have pretty old one, probably 3+ years old, then the Aviator just appeared), however in my opinion it is glass fiber reinforced nylon. The knife has full tang construction according manufacturer.

The blade is coated with the black (in fact graphite-gray) titanium-nitride based coating, pretty hard in my experience.

The multi-carry sheath is made of Kydex and it is simply excellent, providing a lot of carry positions and completed with some additional accessories like shoulder harness, low-carry belt strap, attaching screws and even screw driver for them. Here are some pictures I have made.

The proper side of chisel ground blades could be the right one holding the knife as for bread cutting. Because when you work with real chisel you are holding it with flat side towards cut wood and with ground one upwards, right? And now imagine you would hold it inversely your chisel blade would rise itself in cut wood and you couldnt cut anything any precisely if at all.
However knife is not chisel and I have no ideas why I should pay $100+ for chisel ground knife blade if real chisel costs only few bucks... It is fairly hard to do any precise and straight cuts with this bastardized blade. Just imagine that you should cut something with normal knife holding the blade slanted, out of its symmetry plane. For me this would be like some kind of advanced masochistic training...