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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.
Upcoming Northwoods #54
- Thread starter robot37
- Start date
Nice!
And thanks, Sam, for the run down on how you did it :thumbup:
I've been practicing on some of my beaters, but not comfortable enough yet to take the plunge on the Forest Jack
Best way to start, soon you'll be convexing all your knives
Hi friends, this is a beautiful design, no doubt about it...BUT...being an equal end, does it feel like your grip might slip towards the blade when you are using it? Especially when the covers are so polished? I have several alox swiss army knives and sometimes it feels like my grip slips or creeps towards the blade when using it. Any thoughts after having the 54 for for a while now and using it?
Hi Marc, it is a slender knife but the extra length helps with grip. You also have a decent kick before the edge starts. I'd say pretty much every traditional slipjoint carries that risk and, certainly the smooth bone combined with an oily paw and hard use could lead to a sticky end...!
The stag versions are much more substantial in the handle and you could look at GEC's multi-bladed knives as these will give you more to grab
Hi Marc, it is a slender knife but the extra length helps with grip. You also have a decent kick before the edge starts. I'd say pretty much every traditional slipjoint carries that risk and, certainly the smooth bone combined with an oily paw and hard use could lead to a sticky end...!
The stag versions are much more substantial in the handle and you could look at GEC's multi-bladed knives as these will give you more to grab
Thank you Sam. I have a single blade 73 and I think due to the handle shape with the butt swelling in the palm of your hand it feels pretty secure, well in comparison the the alox sak anyway. I even find the 15 pretty secure but I think the reason being is the smaller size lets me lock the butt in my palm. The 54 being longer will not give this option. I just thought it might be a potential issue but by the sounds of your experience, probably not. While I have you, I was meaning to ask how does the 54 compare to your 92?
very different animals!
The #92 feels much more like a delicate knife, again the extra coping blade and long(ish) frame make it very useable. Much lighter spring and smaller bolster makes it a nimble knife and as many have said the slightly odd swaybackish frame make it surprisingly comfortable in a variety of grips. Your pinkie tends to find the curve at the butt, making it a nice knife for delicate work.
The Northwoods #54 is a funny thing, slender frame with a chunky blade yet, somehow it works!
Gotta go, my son's waking up
The #92 feels much more like a delicate knife, again the extra coping blade and long(ish) frame make it very useable. Much lighter spring and smaller bolster makes it a nimble knife and as many have said the slightly odd swaybackish frame make it surprisingly comfortable in a variety of grips. Your pinkie tends to find the curve at the butt, making it a nice knife for delicate work.
The Northwoods #54 is a funny thing, slender frame with a chunky blade yet, somehow it works!
Gotta go, my son's waking up
I've been carrying my new camel bone for a few days now. I really like this knife: not too heavy and the single blade makes it very comfortable in the hand. The only complaint I have is that the spring force is very heavy (already cut myself once)!!!! The #54 should be a great work knife with its stout blade and large frame. Definitely a winner for KSF!
View attachment 354301
P.S. With apologies to Derrick, I polished off (most of) the forge finish on the blade using Flitz; the camel bone was just too nice to go with the "rough" look.
Ive been thinking of doing this to my cashmere FJ. Yours turned out really nice, I'm hoping to get my blade polished like that. Is it easy to do?
joeymoey, it wasn't difficult to remove (most of) the forge finish using Flitz metal polish and an old rag; it took me about an hour to do. Just a word of caution before you begin: the photo I posted doesn't show much detail. The metal finish under the forge finish still has a "rough" look to it: there are tool marks and small pits in the metal, and there's still some residual forge finish in the smaller pits near the pivot area. If you want a true mirror finish, you might want to sand the finish off using progressively finer grades of wet/dry automotive sandpaper, then polish. The rough final finish didn't bother me as much, I just wanted it to shine like the rest of the blade. Hope this helps. Good luck!
-Greg
- Joined
- May 30, 2012
- Messages
- 2,076
When the colored camel bones were first released, I happened to check the site, and saw all or most of the colored ones were available. I felt like I had first choice of any one I might want. So I figured I would give it until the next day to decide on which one I might want, but when I went back to make my choice, almost all of them had been sold except a few of the purples and black ones. So, I never ended up ordering.
So last night I was going back and forth between different sites checking out all the knives on my "wanted" list. I decided to check out the Northwoods Forest Jack again even though I knew all my first choices had already been taken. When I clicked on the Forest Jack link, there was a green and white bone back up for sale! The green and white bones would have been my first choice, so I jumped on it, and placed my order. It actually looked like the green and white bone that would have originally been my first choice.
I don't know if it was taken down to be a keeper and then put back up for sale, if it was one that wasn't originally listed, or if it was a returned/sent back to factory for adjustments one. Whatever the case, I'm delightfully surprised that I was able to get my first choice colored bone Forest Jack after all! This has been a lucky week for me with winning two give aways, getting gifted a pipe, and now the green and white Forest Jack is on it's way!
I'll be sure to post photos of it when it arrives.
So last night I was going back and forth between different sites checking out all the knives on my "wanted" list. I decided to check out the Northwoods Forest Jack again even though I knew all my first choices had already been taken. When I clicked on the Forest Jack link, there was a green and white bone back up for sale! The green and white bones would have been my first choice, so I jumped on it, and placed my order. It actually looked like the green and white bone that would have originally been my first choice.
I don't know if it was taken down to be a keeper and then put back up for sale, if it was one that wasn't originally listed, or if it was a returned/sent back to factory for adjustments one. Whatever the case, I'm delightfully surprised that I was able to get my first choice colored bone Forest Jack after all! This has been a lucky week for me with winning two give aways, getting gifted a pipe, and now the green and white Forest Jack is on it's way!
I'll be sure to post photos of it when it arrives.
Congrats on scoring a beautiful knife, burnside. I picked a green and white camel bone, too. There's a lot of depth and texture to the color.
It's definitely a keeper, whether you're looking for a collector or work knife. One warning: hope you have a strong thumb nail because the spring tension is VERY heavy (might be why it was returned). Can't wait to see your pix!
-Greg
- Joined
- May 30, 2012
- Messages
- 2,076
Your photo is one of the reasons why I was a little bummed that I missed out on the white and green camel bone originally. It looks very textured. Is it smooth to the touch or can you feel the grain in the bone? I really like the scandi grind on these.
The bone feels smooth to the touch. The blade grind is a saber, not a scandi (there's actually an edge grind on the blade) but I'm sure it can be re-profiled or convexed to suit your wishes.
-Greg
Thanks for the reply and info. I'm definitely going to remove the forge finish, I'm just not sure how involved ill get with it. Not sure how much I will polish it up after the finish is removed. Going to have to see how it turns out and looks. Ill post some pics when I finish altho it won't be for a few weeks+.
~ Joe
- Joined
- May 14, 2011
- Messages
- 2,772
I really like the light green ones, but when I saw this one, I had to have it! The cracks remind me of mammoth bark ivory but the handles feel perfectly smooth.
- Joined
- May 4, 2001
- Messages
- 1,553
Good grief this is a beautiful model, and the execution looks stellar! Speaking of the upcoming two blade model, it sure would be neat to have one with two full size blades ~ one blade with the saber grind like the single blade version, and the second blade with a full height flat or hollow grind. Would make for an awesome user able to handle just about all tasks you could throw at it ;~)
