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- Feb 28, 2007
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I was planning on doing this over the weekend, but it was such a nice day that I ended up taking the afternoon off and visiting my favorite park with a group of knives to review my new S-Curve by Rick Marchand of Wildertools in more detail.
For those of you who haven't caught the sneak peek thread and are unfamiliar with his work, Rick goes by the handle Magnessen here on BF is very active in his participation in W&SS. Rick also makes a habit of showcasing his work in the Maker's Area under the Knife Makers Gallery. So a quick search of his name will bring up many examples of his work. His website is: www.wildertools.com.
Knife model: S-Curve
This is the same knife that Rick submitted to the Camp Knife challenge held by W&SS as organized by Pitdog and testing/reviews conducted by Brian Andrews. For those of you who didn't read this amazing thread, grab a bowl of popcorn and visit this thread first. There is just no way I can begin to approach the depth of review Brian gave all the contest knives: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=687445
Specs:
Blade length: 7"
Blade thickness: 3/16", tapered at handle and towards tip
Blade steel: 1080, full tang
Handle: Walnut (from Heirloom furniture from my wife's family)
Brass pins, peened for mechanical strength + epoxy glued to tang
Wrap - hemp cord covered in epoxy
Sheath: Leather with unique change over carry system.
Okay, onto the review. First, thing I want to talk about is Rick's sheaths. Its hard to fully explain Rick's sheath. Think of leather armor plating and you will get an idea of what they are like. Rick fully impregnates his sheaths in bees wax resulting in a formfitting, stiff and water repellent sheath. You can knock on the sheath with your fingers and its almost like knocking on wood. Mind you there is still some flex to this sheath, but it is really tough stuff.
All of the sewing is done by hand, but on mine, you would be hard pressed to tell because each stick is perfectly straight and they are nicely spaced. The stitching is also inset into the leather so that abrasion at the surface of the sheath does not wear the threading. Rick always places a metal (in the case copper) rivet off centered of the tip at the cutting edge. This is a safety feature to prevent the blade from cutting through the sheath. If it does cut through the leather, it will get hung up on the rivet.
The knife as I said is form fitted. It slides in effortlessly and in the last inch you press down and it literally clicks into place. You can hold the sheath upside and shake it and it will not lose the knife. Finally, there is no exposed stitching on the inside of the sheath. On other leather sheaths I have commonly cut through the threads holding the belt loop during insertion of the knife resulting in the loop opening up. This can't happen with Rick's sheaths.
Every one of Rick's sheaths have a lot of artistic merit to them. He goes to great lengths to achieve random patterns of staining and texture giving it a natural and aged look. Rick is one of those maker who spends as much time, if not more time on his sheaths as he does on the knives.
When I ordered this knife I asked if Rick could make my sheath a dangler. He asked me if there was anything else I'd like. I made an offhand comment that I'd like to be able to use it with a baldric rig also. When I said this, I simply figured that a dangler and baldric could use the same system just having the belt clip to the ring holding the dangler. Instead of going an easy or cheap route, Rick actually designed an incredibly novel sheath system concept.
So here is how it works. The sheath has a locking flap that accepts accessory modules. In its simplest form, you just use the locking flap like you would a clip, and stick the knife through your belt with the locking flap over top of the belt.
The modules offer the flexibility of different carry options. They are basically a ring of leather that slides up the sheath and locks into the locking flap. The first one I'll show is the dangler module.
The dangler does a great job of keeping the knife centered while walking and keeps the sheath out of the way of waist straps from back packs.
more coming....
For those of you who haven't caught the sneak peek thread and are unfamiliar with his work, Rick goes by the handle Magnessen here on BF is very active in his participation in W&SS. Rick also makes a habit of showcasing his work in the Maker's Area under the Knife Makers Gallery. So a quick search of his name will bring up many examples of his work. His website is: www.wildertools.com.
Knife model: S-Curve
This is the same knife that Rick submitted to the Camp Knife challenge held by W&SS as organized by Pitdog and testing/reviews conducted by Brian Andrews. For those of you who didn't read this amazing thread, grab a bowl of popcorn and visit this thread first. There is just no way I can begin to approach the depth of review Brian gave all the contest knives: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=687445
Specs:
Blade length: 7"
Blade thickness: 3/16", tapered at handle and towards tip
Blade steel: 1080, full tang
Handle: Walnut (from Heirloom furniture from my wife's family)
Brass pins, peened for mechanical strength + epoxy glued to tang
Wrap - hemp cord covered in epoxy
Sheath: Leather with unique change over carry system.
Okay, onto the review. First, thing I want to talk about is Rick's sheaths. Its hard to fully explain Rick's sheath. Think of leather armor plating and you will get an idea of what they are like. Rick fully impregnates his sheaths in bees wax resulting in a formfitting, stiff and water repellent sheath. You can knock on the sheath with your fingers and its almost like knocking on wood. Mind you there is still some flex to this sheath, but it is really tough stuff.
All of the sewing is done by hand, but on mine, you would be hard pressed to tell because each stick is perfectly straight and they are nicely spaced. The stitching is also inset into the leather so that abrasion at the surface of the sheath does not wear the threading. Rick always places a metal (in the case copper) rivet off centered of the tip at the cutting edge. This is a safety feature to prevent the blade from cutting through the sheath. If it does cut through the leather, it will get hung up on the rivet.
The knife as I said is form fitted. It slides in effortlessly and in the last inch you press down and it literally clicks into place. You can hold the sheath upside and shake it and it will not lose the knife. Finally, there is no exposed stitching on the inside of the sheath. On other leather sheaths I have commonly cut through the threads holding the belt loop during insertion of the knife resulting in the loop opening up. This can't happen with Rick's sheaths.
Every one of Rick's sheaths have a lot of artistic merit to them. He goes to great lengths to achieve random patterns of staining and texture giving it a natural and aged look. Rick is one of those maker who spends as much time, if not more time on his sheaths as he does on the knives.
When I ordered this knife I asked if Rick could make my sheath a dangler. He asked me if there was anything else I'd like. I made an offhand comment that I'd like to be able to use it with a baldric rig also. When I said this, I simply figured that a dangler and baldric could use the same system just having the belt clip to the ring holding the dangler. Instead of going an easy or cheap route, Rick actually designed an incredibly novel sheath system concept.
So here is how it works. The sheath has a locking flap that accepts accessory modules. In its simplest form, you just use the locking flap like you would a clip, and stick the knife through your belt with the locking flap over top of the belt.
The modules offer the flexibility of different carry options. They are basically a ring of leather that slides up the sheath and locks into the locking flap. The first one I'll show is the dangler module.
The dangler does a great job of keeping the knife centered while walking and keeps the sheath out of the way of waist straps from back packs.
more coming....
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We have a buck that chased a squirrel up a small tree. Too bad I happened to be in a preserve and without a firearm 
