use of martin american frontier knives?

[cbach8tw]

Has anyone used the early american style frontier knives by Martin Tactical? I have a French trade knife (I had it made with 3/16 stock) and a varmint hunter on the way. I love to hear everyone's uses or see pics of them in action. I still need to get out and use mine more, I am leary of taking my nicer knives (not really safe queens) until I get more proficient in sharpening and more experience, so I do usually take decent quality, not bad knives to practice and just use them. Eventually, these knives will be with me whenevern I go camping.....or which of my other knives I decide to take along. I also have Becker, rat 4, and others. I guess, I just wanted to hear your opinions on Martin knives in general if you do not have the early american frontier blades.

 

[t1mpani]

Somehow I missed this one.

I do not have any of their frontier series, but have a WSK, a few larger knives based on Randall patterns, and some medium sized utility knives from Martin. In my opinion, they turn out a hell of a nice knife. Grinds tend to be very consistent, their solder joints are clean (and I've never seen one with a gap---which can't be said of my experiences with Randall) and in general, they're just very nicly put together. Heat treatments tend to be spot-on as well, and they do know how to turn out a nice sheath!

If there's one downside I can think of--and really this is more a matter of personal preference--their edges tend to be sharpened at a very...ummm..."rugged" angle, and so I almost always have to reprofile them to my preferred geometry. The good news, though, is that their primary grinds tend to get down pretty thin, so the edge adjustment is a very quick and easy thing, and then you're off and running.

They're great people to deal with (as you've probably already ascertained) and they don't get near the attention on these boards that they should.