Tom Anderson Razor Knife Modification

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boyntonstu

Joined
Dec 25, 2003
Messages
30
I bought a knife on Ebay that intrigued me. It is a razor folding knife. The blade markings are: design by Tom Anderson, 440 Stainless, Master Cutlery and of course China. I has a rectangular blade 2-3/4 x 3/4 with 2- ~0.100" x 1 holes cut into the top part of the blade near the edge making it a skeleton razor.

Since I wanted my knife to be razor sharp, I said why not buy this guy and see what happens?

The first thing that bothered me was the blade overhang extension lever that extended about 1 inch beyond the front of the knife. (straight razors have this kind of 'finger' extension but they don't lock as this knife does) I ground off all but 1/8" of it and polished the edges to make them smooth. At the rear of the knife there was a corner where the lanyard hole is located. It was a square corner and quite sharp. To the grinder and buffer and walla!
A nice rounded corner. Although the edge was razor sharp under inspection it was rough and I prefer a polished edge.

Using my homebuilt sharpening system, the result is great! It is quite a conversation piece but with unknown (at this point) wear qualities. It makes for an ideal EDC.

Incidentaly, my sharpening system is based on a 3/4 hp grinder running backwards with a 3/4 plywood rough wheel and a 3/4 many layer cardboard wheel. Both are 7 inches in dia. I use a red rouge stick on both wheels.

The cardboard came from WalMart meat packages and were used a layer separators. They are quite thin. I used quite a number of them and bonded them together with Elmers white glue.

I cannot upload photos here, but I will upload a photo to Webshots in a few days (in my Elevator Cable knife album).

The ‘before’ photo is here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?viewItem&item=2212520119&category=475

Has anyone seen one of these razor knifes on Ebay? Or even owned one?

Believe it or not I bid $0.01 and won it with $5.95 postage of course. LOL

BoyntonStu
 
that is actually a pretty cool looking knife! I'll be interested to hear how you like its performance over time. I think the long finger at the base of the blade is for one-hand opening, does it still work for that purpose once you shortened it? Also, does it have a pocket clip? Please let us know more about the knife after you've used it a while!
 
thats a cool looking knife! how is F&F on it? i just might have to get one...and of course, is it shaving sharp?;)

Kenny
 
The knife is way cooler with the finger bobbed to 1/8". Just press it and it acts like a switchblade. Also, by rounding the lanyard corner and polishing the curve, it also feels way smoooth.

As for sharp. How many would doubt a razor being razor sharp?

However, after improving the edge with my paper sharpening wheel to a polished razor edge, I doubt if one could find a sharper "knife".


The F&F is surprisingly good. It does not look or feel like a sub $10 knife. As for testing, what kind of real world test would you suggest?

The blade is NOT meant for prying but it will cut anything I can think of.

IMHO Certainly worth a few bucks and a few licks with a hack saw and the grinder. (It was real hard to cut with a regular hacksaw blade. I actually used a Tungsten Carbide wire blade to cut it.

I wish that I knew the exact 440 grade, but it is quite hard judging from the effort to saw off a little piece.

No clip (I didn't want one for pocket carry anyways).

BoyntonStu

Anyone near me in Boynton Beach, FL or Fort Pierce, FL?
 
Excuse my resurrecting an old thread, but I just picked up one of these knives for next to nothing on e-bay (Sweeney Todd eat your heart out!) Has anyone else been tempted, or are they just junk?!



 
Jack Black said:
Excuse my resurrecting an old thread, but I just picked up one of these knives for next to nothing on e-bay (Sweeney Todd eat your heart out!) Has anyone else been tempted, or are they just junk?!



Click to expand...

i bought one a couple of years ago, but it hasn't had much use. the blade was razor sharp when i got it (not surprising, seeing how it's a straight razor design). my main complaint is that the liner lock is not very strong. there was also a tiny bit of lateral blade play when open.
 
Is that a Tom Anderson design or a Tom Anderson custom ? I know way back he designed knives for a couple diff places....
 
John T Wylie Jr said:
Is that a Tom Anderson design or a Tom Anderson custom ? I know way back he designed knives for a couple diff places....
Click to expand...

It's a Tom Anderson design. Made in China for Master Cutlery, an importer of generally low end knives. I bought somebody one for Christmas in 2006. The scales on the one were some grey colored laminated wood. I played with it a little before giving it to its recipient, and the little protrusion is actually pretty handy for fast one hand opening. On the example I played with, if you forcefully open the blade, the lock will engage positively every time. However slow opening it did not result in as positive lock up.
 
Thanks guys. I only paid around 5 bucks for it, so I haven't lost too much :)

I'll probably play around with it and then give it away.

Has anyone tried shaving with it out of interest?!

I've mainly seen these knives in grey micarta, but this one is white bone (I dread to think whose! :eek:)
 
I actually got one of these last week. The etching on the side of the blade was crooked and the liner lock is really flimsy. I gave it to a friend the next day. The blade was really thin, but sharp (440). I guess for 5 bux its ok but i really had no use for it. I just wanted to see what it was about.
 
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