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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Traditional Forum thanks
- Thread starter MT Damascus
- Start date
Kris you are a class act my friend! :thumbup:
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2016
- Messages
- 661
Amazing generosity and great pics. Everyone wins with this one :thumbup:.
black mamba
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2009
- Messages
- 22,939
Way to go, Cory! Be sure to thank your kids and the old blue Coleman! 
5K Qs
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2014
- Messages
- 15,152
Kris, thanks for the supremely generous and informative GAW! :thumbup::thumbup: Asking the entrants to tell a bit about something they value was an excellent idea and a way to "build community" (it reminded me of the "Mug Shots" thread you started, another of my favorites from the perspective of building community). I suppose what folks considered special was usually not too surprising (although I was surprised to learn that you're married to a mathematician 
): family, pets, family heirlooms, etc.
I didn't intend to enter the GAW (that knife was far too special for me to be comfortable with the idea that there was a small chance that I could own it), but I did intend to post a "not an entry" with something I valued even though I wasn't officially playing. But time got away from me this week, and I'm way late to this party, but I'm going to post something after the fact anyway!
Like many others indicated, my family is paramount to me. Here's a pic of my wife, my daughter, and me with one of our three dogs:
Here's a photo of another of our dogs, forlorn at my wife's preparations to go visit our daughter in Spain a couple of years ago. Our dogs must be special to us, since that dog is currently wearing a "head cone" and recovering from surprisingly expensive cataract surgery!
Finally, some special possessions appear in the following pic. On top is a watch I got from my Dad, who got it from his dad, who got it from his uncle, who got it from the railroad for 25 years of service. On the bottom is an Imperial jack that once belonged to my father-in-law. And in the middle is a Case peanut I won in the first BF GAW I ever entered; to me, it's representative of the wonderful community that exists here on The Porch. Oh, and in another of the amazing coincidences that seem to afflict my "knife life", the sponsor of THAT GAW is the winner of THIS GAW!!
Congrats, Cory; no one is more deserving of Kris' generosity than you, sir! :thumbup::thumbup:
- GT
): family, pets, family heirlooms, etc.I didn't intend to enter the GAW (that knife was far too special for me to be comfortable with the idea that there was a small chance that I could own it), but I did intend to post a "not an entry" with something I valued even though I wasn't officially playing. But time got away from me this week, and I'm way late to this party, but I'm going to post something after the fact anyway!
Like many others indicated, my family is paramount to me. Here's a pic of my wife, my daughter, and me with one of our three dogs:
Here's a photo of another of our dogs, forlorn at my wife's preparations to go visit our daughter in Spain a couple of years ago. Our dogs must be special to us, since that dog is currently wearing a "head cone" and recovering from surprisingly expensive cataract surgery!
Finally, some special possessions appear in the following pic. On top is a watch I got from my Dad, who got it from his dad, who got it from his uncle, who got it from the railroad for 25 years of service. On the bottom is an Imperial jack that once belonged to my father-in-law. And in the middle is a Case peanut I won in the first BF GAW I ever entered; to me, it's representative of the wonderful community that exists here on The Porch. Oh, and in another of the amazing coincidences that seem to afflict my "knife life", the sponsor of THAT GAW is the winner of THIS GAW!!
Congrats, Cory; no one is more deserving of Kris' generosity than you, sir! :thumbup::thumbup:
- GT
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
- Messages
- 3,685
Very nice sentiments Gary, thanks for sharing. Cory, your knife is in the mail, you should see it on wed. I did find Doc's business card and COA, so those are in their too, enjoy. Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Kris
Kris
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2011
- Messages
- 2,183
Outstanding generosity Kris. You're truly a class act my friend.
Cory, I know the feeling you're having with this. I had it myself when I received the Ironwood brother to the Doc Hagen LC that is headed your way. Congratulations sir.
Since I missed the entry portion I will share a little. My wife and kids,3 of them, are the best things in my life. As far as other things I value, for me it's the friends made along the way in this journey of life. Friends that when you talk the conversation is easy. Some I have shared much with others that the sharing has begun more recently.
Kris, one day I will get a chance to buy you a beer, I am looking forward to that my friend.
Chris
Cory, I know the feeling you're having with this. I had it myself when I received the Ironwood brother to the Doc Hagen LC that is headed your way. Congratulations sir.
Since I missed the entry portion I will share a little. My wife and kids,3 of them, are the best things in my life. As far as other things I value, for me it's the friends made along the way in this journey of life. Friends that when you talk the conversation is easy. Some I have shared much with others that the sharing has begun more recently.
Kris, one day I will get a chance to buy you a beer, I am looking forward to that my friend.
Chris
- GT
I love that watch case. My grandfather spent his career with Union Pacific passenger service. If it's not too much trouble, would you mind showing the face of that 25th anniversary watch? (With an appropriate knife) of course.
Congrats again to Cory. Would love to read your thoughts once it's in hand. :thumbup:
Cory Hess
Basic Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2014
- Messages
- 2,116
I've been keeping up on this thread and trying not to post, so as to keep from making too much of a fool out of myself with my excitement over winning this knife. Firstly, I want to say thank you to all of you who offered congratulations. I really appreciate the sentiments.
Luckily Kris gave me a two day notice on when I could expect this package to arrive. This gave me just enough time to plan out my Wednesday and make proper preparations. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss the delivery, and this was the best solution I could come up with.
The package showed up in the late morning. In the box with the knife Kris included a COA and business card for Doc Hagen. The knife was safely stowed in a padded leather zippered pouch. When I opened the pouch and pulled out the knife the first thing that I noticed was the weight of this knife. It is quite a bit heavier than I had expected. My scale has it weighing in at 4 oz. even, which is nearly as much as my Queen-Ruple trapper even though the trapper is 3/8" longer and has two blades. I really like the weight of this knife. It feels very substantial in-hand. The next thing I noticed was the thickness of the blade. It quickly became obvious to me where that weight was coming from. The blade is 1/8" thick at the spine, which is a full 25% thicker than the blades on my Tidioute 23. There's no two ways about it, this knife is made for serious use. All of my folders get put into one of three categories in my mind. There are my small, elegant knives such as pen knives and peanuts, mid-sized knives like the 77 barlow and S&M 69, and large heavy duty knives like my 23, 21, and Queen-Ruple trapper. This Lanny's Clip is definitely in the heavy duty category, which is my favorite type of knife to collect, carry, and use.
The stag on this knife is perfect. I know that really gnarly popcorn stag makes a great picture, but for carrying I prefer stag that doesn't vary widely in thickness or depth of the valleys. Doc Hagen selected and hafted this stag perfectly so that it's very comfortable in the hand, yet still has a lot of character. It's the kind of stag that looks great brand new and will still look great 100 years down the line. In-hand the stag almost feels like jigged bone, it's that consistent. The stag is also positioned so that the valleys run up towards the upswept end of the knife, especially on the pile side. The stag is fitted flawlessly to the frame of the knife. There are no visible or tactile gaps or unevenness between the stag and the liners or bolsters. The pins are all beautifully peened and raised just enough that you can feel them. The inlaying of the shield is flawless. I don't think you can find more perfectly planned or executed stag.
The frame of the knife is put together very well. The blade is a little off center when closed, favoring the mark side. The backspring is perfectly flush in all three positions. There is a hairline gap between the backspring and the pile side liner, not nearly big enough for me to worry about at all. When opened the spine of the blade meets up with the backspring almost perfectly. You can see the line where the two meet, and you can barely feel it when running your finger over this joint. Other than this the entire back of the knife feels like one piece whether open, closed, or at the half-stop. It's really put together nicely.
The blade itself is a thing of beauty. The grinds are consistent, even, and well defined. The curve of the clipped portion of the blade is especially nice. From what I can tell, an inside curve is a hard thing to pull off. If I run my finger along the spine of a blade with an upward curve I can almost always feel little irregularities where the grinds make little turns, even on high end production and some custom knives. The curve of the spine on this clip is impeccable. There are no detectable flaws on the spine or swedge. The swedge itself is cut very evenly from one side to the other. The pull is a nice crisp 6, with very solid lockup in the open and half-stop positions. The mill relieved liners provide all of the benefits to the action that you would expect in a knife of this caliber. It's simply a joy to work, and easily pinchable. Doc Hagen's maker's mark is very elegant. It is beautifully etched into the tang. I prefer blades that will patina over stainless, but I have had great experiences with 154CM and am eager to give this CPM-154 a try. I fully anticipate falling in love with the way this knife performs.
On first impressions of this knife, I'm going to give it a 9.9 out of 10. I did a whole lot of nitpicking in this post, but the fact of the matter is that this knife is as fine a knife as I ever wish to own. It's obviously head and shoulders above anything else I've ever owned. I've had the pleasure of handling some truly great knives made by the likes of Ken Erickson, Tony and Reese Bose, and Bill Ruple, and I can say that this knife is definitely in that realm. It's obvious that Doc Hagen is very skilled in his craft. I've had problems in the past with not using a knife because it's too nice. I definitely foresee an issue where I'm going to struggle putting this knife in my pocket and actually putting it to use. I'm going to force myself to get over it with this one, because I think it will be a long time coming before I'm able to have the opportunity to use a knife that I'll enjoy as much as this one. I haven't been able to wipe the smile off of my face since the mailman dropped that box in my hand.
Mr. Loomis, I want to offer you my most sincere thanks. You have given me a knife that I don't currently have the means to go out and purchase for myself. I am truly humbled by this gift. I feel very undeserving to own a knife like this, much less to have it gifted to me. I will feel indebted to you for a long time coming. I spent some time with my brother-in-law today, and of course I was showing off my new treasure. I can't even begin to describe the look on his face when I told him that some man from the Internet that lives in Montana had sent me this knife as a gift. He actually argued with me for a minute saying "No, why would somebody do that?". It made me realize how much we take this community for granted. It's not often that a knife this nice is given, but it's not uncommon to have several giveaways running at a time or for somebody to mention that they've been looking for a knife only to have somebody pipe up and offer that knife for free. This is unheard of in the real world, and it goes against everything that we know to be true of the Internet at large. There are very few things in my world as fine as my new knife, this community and the people I've met here is one of them. Kris, you have given me so much more than a pocket knife, and for that I thank you.
Now, for the obligatory show off pics, though they're not as good as the pictures that Kris has already posted:
Luckily Kris gave me a two day notice on when I could expect this package to arrive. This gave me just enough time to plan out my Wednesday and make proper preparations. I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss the delivery, and this was the best solution I could come up with.
The package showed up in the late morning. In the box with the knife Kris included a COA and business card for Doc Hagen. The knife was safely stowed in a padded leather zippered pouch. When I opened the pouch and pulled out the knife the first thing that I noticed was the weight of this knife. It is quite a bit heavier than I had expected. My scale has it weighing in at 4 oz. even, which is nearly as much as my Queen-Ruple trapper even though the trapper is 3/8" longer and has two blades. I really like the weight of this knife. It feels very substantial in-hand. The next thing I noticed was the thickness of the blade. It quickly became obvious to me where that weight was coming from. The blade is 1/8" thick at the spine, which is a full 25% thicker than the blades on my Tidioute 23. There's no two ways about it, this knife is made for serious use. All of my folders get put into one of three categories in my mind. There are my small, elegant knives such as pen knives and peanuts, mid-sized knives like the 77 barlow and S&M 69, and large heavy duty knives like my 23, 21, and Queen-Ruple trapper. This Lanny's Clip is definitely in the heavy duty category, which is my favorite type of knife to collect, carry, and use.
The stag on this knife is perfect. I know that really gnarly popcorn stag makes a great picture, but for carrying I prefer stag that doesn't vary widely in thickness or depth of the valleys. Doc Hagen selected and hafted this stag perfectly so that it's very comfortable in the hand, yet still has a lot of character. It's the kind of stag that looks great brand new and will still look great 100 years down the line. In-hand the stag almost feels like jigged bone, it's that consistent. The stag is also positioned so that the valleys run up towards the upswept end of the knife, especially on the pile side. The stag is fitted flawlessly to the frame of the knife. There are no visible or tactile gaps or unevenness between the stag and the liners or bolsters. The pins are all beautifully peened and raised just enough that you can feel them. The inlaying of the shield is flawless. I don't think you can find more perfectly planned or executed stag.
The frame of the knife is put together very well. The blade is a little off center when closed, favoring the mark side. The backspring is perfectly flush in all three positions. There is a hairline gap between the backspring and the pile side liner, not nearly big enough for me to worry about at all. When opened the spine of the blade meets up with the backspring almost perfectly. You can see the line where the two meet, and you can barely feel it when running your finger over this joint. Other than this the entire back of the knife feels like one piece whether open, closed, or at the half-stop. It's really put together nicely.
The blade itself is a thing of beauty. The grinds are consistent, even, and well defined. The curve of the clipped portion of the blade is especially nice. From what I can tell, an inside curve is a hard thing to pull off. If I run my finger along the spine of a blade with an upward curve I can almost always feel little irregularities where the grinds make little turns, even on high end production and some custom knives. The curve of the spine on this clip is impeccable. There are no detectable flaws on the spine or swedge. The swedge itself is cut very evenly from one side to the other. The pull is a nice crisp 6, with very solid lockup in the open and half-stop positions. The mill relieved liners provide all of the benefits to the action that you would expect in a knife of this caliber. It's simply a joy to work, and easily pinchable. Doc Hagen's maker's mark is very elegant. It is beautifully etched into the tang. I prefer blades that will patina over stainless, but I have had great experiences with 154CM and am eager to give this CPM-154 a try. I fully anticipate falling in love with the way this knife performs.
On first impressions of this knife, I'm going to give it a 9.9 out of 10. I did a whole lot of nitpicking in this post, but the fact of the matter is that this knife is as fine a knife as I ever wish to own. It's obviously head and shoulders above anything else I've ever owned. I've had the pleasure of handling some truly great knives made by the likes of Ken Erickson, Tony and Reese Bose, and Bill Ruple, and I can say that this knife is definitely in that realm. It's obvious that Doc Hagen is very skilled in his craft. I've had problems in the past with not using a knife because it's too nice. I definitely foresee an issue where I'm going to struggle putting this knife in my pocket and actually putting it to use. I'm going to force myself to get over it with this one, because I think it will be a long time coming before I'm able to have the opportunity to use a knife that I'll enjoy as much as this one. I haven't been able to wipe the smile off of my face since the mailman dropped that box in my hand.
Mr. Loomis, I want to offer you my most sincere thanks. You have given me a knife that I don't currently have the means to go out and purchase for myself. I am truly humbled by this gift. I feel very undeserving to own a knife like this, much less to have it gifted to me. I will feel indebted to you for a long time coming. I spent some time with my brother-in-law today, and of course I was showing off my new treasure. I can't even begin to describe the look on his face when I told him that some man from the Internet that lives in Montana had sent me this knife as a gift. He actually argued with me for a minute saying "No, why would somebody do that?". It made me realize how much we take this community for granted. It's not often that a knife this nice is given, but it's not uncommon to have several giveaways running at a time or for somebody to mention that they've been looking for a knife only to have somebody pipe up and offer that knife for free. This is unheard of in the real world, and it goes against everything that we know to be true of the Internet at large. There are very few things in my world as fine as my new knife, this community and the people I've met here is one of them. Kris, you have given me so much more than a pocket knife, and for that I thank you.
Now, for the obligatory show off pics, though they're not as good as the pictures that Kris has already posted:
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2011
- Messages
- 3,685
Cory, I am happy that it made it safely in your hands. Enjoy carrying and using it, as I did.
Kris
Kris
