W&SS Forum Custom Neck Knife Challenge!!!

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Nice job all- congrats Christof! Lots of sweet blades I would love to own.

Now a question, anyway to sticky all the challenges so they are easy to view/find later?
 
My edge retention score was higher than the first three finishers but my cutting scores are crap. Does this mean that I maintained a crappy cutting edge through out the test?! lol :)
 
Excellent Review!!!

Congrats to ALL the makers, you should be proud!!!! Thanks to the Testers for the thorough reviews and easy to understand spreadsheet!!! :thumbup:

Don't have many small customs, but I do have one from one of the makers here with another on the way and another of the contestants entries persuaded me early on to order a knife from him too!!! Guess my lack of little custom knives will be taken care of shortly!!! If I had a bit more sofa change, more of these makers would be getting pm's!!!!;)
 
I don't want to call anyone out and PM would be fine but would some of the testers mind giving me some feedback on my knife. Obviously fit and finish is what killed me, and I knew there were some issues when I sent the knife in. I have already corrected those mistakes with some tips from a fellow forum maker. I am learning every knife!
 
Wish I could have gotten mine done on time. Any word on the hardness and edge thickness on the 3V blades or any of the blades for that matter?
 
Brian Sargent said:
My edge retention score was higher than the first three finishers but my cutting scores are crap. Does this mean that I maintained a crappy cutting edge through out the test?! lol :)
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This is one of those mysteries...the edge retention test was a measure of actual sharpness at the end. Some of the knives that had a sharp edge and good geometry just wouldn't cut as well as they should, and I do not have an explanation.

Having never used or carried a neck knife, this was an interesting experience for me. For the knife/sheath system evaluation, I ended up making a circuit through the trees and brush by camp with each knife around my neck to see which ones carried well and which ones made their presence known too much. And there are always obvious trade offs; to get a thin light neck knife, you have to sacrifice ergonomics. For the wood carving, a variety of wood was used. I used dry ponderosa pine, while the other judges used dry black oak, dry incense cedar, and green incense cedar.

A few of my observations (note that these are mine, not the group's average; everyone has different ideas about what they like in a knife, so bear that in mind):

Christof - This one was simply outstanding with the wood carving. I have handled some of his knives before and seen the effort he puts into making a sharp edge, and it really works. The blade geometry worked against it in the food prep. If you want a carving knife, this would be hard to beat. It wasn't one of my favorites in the carry department.

Wildertools - Very nicely executed blade, and the sheath is a work of art. I have never been a fan of cord wrapped handles, but this was well done and worked reasonably well. The sheath fits the knife well (quite tightly, actually, which means that as the sheath breaks in it won't get too loose, important for a knife that carries upside down). Didn't cut very well at the end of the test.

Culberson - Good overall blade shape and grind, good ergonomics for me, and it carried well. The sheath was a little rough around the edges, but worked well. Another one that didn't cut well at the end.

KFU - I liked this one a lot. It did pretty well with the food prep, and did really well with the wood carving and rope cutting. Ergonomics were pretty good for me, but not the best of the bunch. The sheath is good and it carried well.

Gray Wolf - Well done scandi grind that did surprisingly well with tomatoes, and quite well with wood carving. Ergonomics were middle of the road. Although the sheath looked good, as Mike noted, I would be worried about losing the knife. Still good and sharp at the end. If I were a scandi grind fan, I would be interested in getting one.

AA Forge - This was my overall favorite. It may not have been the best in more than one category, but the overall combination would suit me the best. Good blade execution, good ergonomics, nice sheath, carried well, held its edge, and cut well in all categories.

Brian Sargent - When this came out of the box, it won the looks competition. The handle is beautiful, and the ergonomics are very good. The blade shape is what I like, but I don't care for the coating, and the grind is well off center. As stated above, I do not understand why it did not cut better, since it had a sharp edge and thin blade geometry. I liked the sheath a lot, too. It carried reasonably well.

Bush Monkey - Didn't cut food well, but excelled with wood and rope. The handle didn't work for me. Nice and light.

Scout - This was a mixed bag. Fit and finish weren't very good, and the ergonomics were not good for me either (not surprising for a thin handle). But did it ever cut. I was impressed with how well it cut just about everything, you can't judge a book by its cover. Still quite sharp at the end. And it carried very well. If I were going to carry a knife around my neck all the time and didn't want something bulky or heavy, I would take a long hard look at this one.

Zander - Did well in the food prep, but not so well in wood and rope. Still sharp at the end. The sheath is well made, and carried fairly well for its weight.

Ryan W - I echo what Mike said. Light, decent fit and finish. The edge bevel was big enough that it was almost a mini-Scandi grind. Suffered in the cutting.

Big Chris - Heavy for a neck knife, and the fit and finish weren't the best. Sheath is rough. But it surprised me with how well it cut everything. It was one of the best overall across all cutting categories. Still quite sharp at the end, and the ergonomics worked well for me. It would make a great small belt knife.

C Bryant - A true neck knife, it carried very very well. The sheath was very well done, perfect combination of fit to the knife and retention. Suffered in the cutting categories, though.

BACustomknives - This is one that I wanted to love...interesting handle that, for me, had the best ergonomics of the group. Decent blade grind. The sheath is large, though. And it did not do well in any of the cutting categories.
 
Brian Sargent said:
My edge retention score was higher than the first three finishers but my cutting scores are crap. Does this mean that I maintained a crappy cutting edge through out the test?! lol :)
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The only thing that makes any sense to me is maybe your secondary edge was to steep.

The grind looked thin and the edge was sharp, so that's about the only thing it could be.
 
AA Forge said:
The only thing that makes any sense to me is maybe your secondary edge was to steep.

The grind looked thin and the edge was sharp, so that's about the only thing it could be.
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I think you're right. For some reason I liked that coating ...... thought it was cool! That forced me to do the secondary bevel different than I normally would. I should have just took it back to the belts and blended it to a zero edge. Good learning experience for me. Clean blades for me from now on.
 
lambertiana said:
AA Forge - This was my overall favorite. It may not have been the best in more than one category, but the overall combination would suit me the best. Good blade execution, good ergonomics, nice sheath, carried well, held its edge, and cut well in all categories.
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I agree. It was a very nice looking knife and it performed the best. What more can you ask for? The sheath looked fine to me other than it was up right rather than upside down. Someone said it was too big for a neck knife but many including Ricks were also 3" blade and 4" handle. Everyone has there priorities and if I am going to use a knife I evaluate the knife, and check the sheath for pass/fail for functionality. That said the evaluation criteria was posted up front so the evaluators did their job.
 
HornyToad said:
I agree. It was a very nice looking knife and it performed the best. What more can you ask for? The sheath looked fine to me other than it was up right rather than upside down. Someone said it was too big for a neck knife but many including Ricks were also 3" blade and 4" handle. Everyone has there priorities and if I am going to use a knife I evaluate the knife, and check the sheath for pass/fail for functionality. That said the evaluation criteria was posted up front so the evaluators did their job.
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Thanks for the kind words guys.

This being my first neck knife, I'm just glad it kept up.
 
Brian Sargent said:
I think you're right. For some reason I liked that coating ...... thought it was cool! That forced me to do the secondary bevel different than I normally would. I should have just took it back to the belts and blended it to a zero edge. Good learning experience for me. Clean blades for me from now on.
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One thing I have noticed is that blade coatings like yours frequently increase drag when cutting. That is why I prefer uncoated blades.
 
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Excellent show guys !!! you all did well and everyone came out a winner (who sent their knife in) :( Man what a lot of work went into this, kudos to all the testers, looks like a lot of work... you guys rock !!!

shamed I didn't get my knife in..
 
right on Jason.. way to go... thanks to all who participated... there were some nice looking knives in that bunch.. must have been difficult..
 
It's an awesome batch of knives for sure. Feel lucky that we had the opportunity to handle them all. Glad the community felt that we were up to the task, and that we could be trusted (then again, haven't shipped the knives back yet and Mexico is just a few miles away, so maybe the trust part is premature). :cool:
 
Brian Sargent said:
If you trade em' down south ........ get me a leather belt and a LOT of zannies for Bill! :)
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I've already worked out a blanket trade deal but I'm sure there' some wiggle room. They're throwing in some blue pills to sweeten the pot...are those zannies?
 
See if you can get some Chicklets for mine. I love that crap!
 
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