what about the knives?

[cognitivefun]

I wondered what your thoughts are about the HI knives. The ones sold separately.

AK Bowie

JKM-1

Kumar Karda

Uncle Bill Especiale

Kagas Katne

Bilton

Pen Knife

The JKM-1 looks intriguing but they all do

 

[Daniel Koster]

AK Bowie = have had 3, liked them all. Nice blade, bumpy handle.

JKM-1 = fun lil' bugger, too small for me...but whadda price!

Kumar Karda = I got one with the smallest handle I've ever seen on a KK (less than 3 inches). Went to Sarge with some other things in a trade. Great engraving on the handle.

Uncle Bill Especiale = Never had enough guts to just get it. Can't come up with a practical purpose for it. No trailer queens in my house. All users....even the Patang....in fact, I used it to clip off the topmost branches on my christmas tree that were too high to reach.

Kagas Katne = fun to carry, easy to sharpen. does exactly what it's supposed to - open letters.

Bilton = have two in the kitchen. Son has his own by Sgt. Karka. Of the 9 I brought in the BBofB to the MWKK04......7 hand handles that were "not rotationally aligned"......didn't hurt sales, of course. Someone went home with two!

Pen Knife = I'm partial....though if I had it to do all over again, I would have made the handle 1/2" longer....that is, shortened the blade by 1/2". I don't mind 3-fingering it though. Still pretty fun.

 

[Dave Rishar]

Only speaking of the ones I have direct experience with:

Kumar Karda: what a gorgeous knife. I gave it away as a present. The new owner is reluctant to use it much because it's too nice. I'm eventually going to get one for myself; I've been trying to snag a special, but even at full price with a basic wood handle, it's still a bargain in my opinion.

Bilton (Karka-style): too nice to use, period. Also went away as a gift. The handle was too short to get the entire hand on it, but really, I don't think the Karka biltons are meant to be used. I've never handled a baseline HI bilton so I won't speculate.

Kagas Katne: picked one up on a whim. Beautiful horn handle with a cream-colored vein running through it. Again, almost too nice to use, but it took and held one of the best edges I've ever seen. I keep it in my LBV for when I need a *sharp* knife. I'll probably wind up getting a few more.

AK Bowie: my pride and joy. I don't use it often but if I had to start selling things, it would be one of the last to go. Imagine a tremendously thick meat cleaver with a point ground on to it. It doesn't seem to throw chips as well as the khuks do but it's certainly handier. The handle was a bit too slim for me.

 

[Hibuke]

I only have a Penknife and a couple of Biltons, so I can only comment on those...

I was part of the original members jumped on the bandwagon (so to speak) when the development of the original Penknife design started. I only said a couple of comments, but I snagged one from the first batch that resulted from the original development project...

It's a great small chopper. It's tackled wildly-growing ivy with no problems. It also chopped through green coconuts without a complaint, smiled, and asked for more. It's also chopped and split wood for kindling and bonfire use when no chopping block was available...

The Biltons are a handy lil' knife. Great belt-carry knife anywhere. Sadly, I haven't found that many uses for them. I'll try one of them out at a friend's BBQ-farewell party tomorrow night. See how that goes... It's even classy enough that I wore it with a full 3-piece suit to my friend's Black-tie 21st Birthday party...

 

[Green Ice]

I have the Kagas Katne and it opens my letters every day. The JKM is just great. I gotta look into the Pen Knife.

Ice

 

[Nasty]

Got and *use* them all except for the UBE...some in multiples. Have given away more. I would not be without them...period. Awesome handmade forged knives all.

One note in particular...the KK, properly sharpened becomes a 3" inflexible razor blade that is a perfect "OMG, where did he have that" when properly deployed (think about DIJs advice in looking empty handed). At the same time, it is cheap enough to ditch er...lose and innocent as it's name "letter opener". In fact, I'm surprised that Danny doesn't have these listed as his favorites...but then, a Ninja wouldn't give up his secrets anyway...

 

[Shann]

Kumar Karda: Great looking antler handle, probably the most traditional looking "american" type HI I've got. Sharpest right out of the box too. Haven't asked it to do anything.

AK Bowie: Big honkin' knife. Used it to chop some and it worked okay, but was a bit thick and the handle was not my favorite. The "lanyard" ring at the end of the handle bit into me pretty bad. Sent it off to Dan Koster for some work, can't wait to get it back.

Seax: Love it. Don't really know what to use it for, but it handles quickly and can be used for light chopping and is wicked pointy stabby. Very comfortable in the hand, the sheath is pretty much useless.

Kerambit: Evil looking blade, the handle is much too small for me, but its beautiful chandan, so I'm not goint to change it. The curved blade makes it easy to carry and the finger hole takes away worries about the handle not being secure. Don't really know what to do with it, but I like it.

Kagas Katne: really sharpened up well, good for any small knife work, although too thick to be a razor. I rounded off the handle so that a two finger grip could be held tightly without hurting the palm of my hand. Easily a box cutter\letter opener and small enough to keep in your pocket like a folder.

Sgt. Karka Bilton: Beautiful horn handle and great scabbard. Was doing to round off the handle like the kagas katne, but too pretty to do that to it. Easily sharpened up. I used it for some around the house stuff. Like many HI products, even the smaller ones, the thickness of the blade makes it less than ideal for slicing, but it is sharp and I've used it to cut up chicken, etc.