Wilkinson Sword Relaunch

I hadn't heard about that. I handled one years ago, but sadly didn't have the money. Maybe I'm glad now. Tell us about the problem.
 
If you do a search here you should find mention of the fact that a few people have known the knife to break around the guard. I once saw Lofty Wiseman use one on TV and wrote to ask him what he thought. He wasn't impressed as his also broke. Ray Mears definitely had a hand in the original design (I emailed him and recieved confirmation of this), as I seem to recall so did Lofty.

The new one seems to have lost the bottle opener and gristle saw and has a rubber coated handle. At least the price is actually cheaper than the original one which was launched at 150 quid in about '87 and then crept up to a couple of hundred!

The Wilkinson Sword site also describes the knife

Wilkinson Sword homepage

Mark
 
This "redesign" appears to be noticeably cruder than the
original and also appears to have lost-as was stated above
-several features that originally attracted me. The price
is more bearable, but I believe I'd pass.

When you can get a Camillus Kabar for $20 or a Sykes-Fairbairn
for $40 or a Becker for $60...
 
I have an out of print book called "Survival" by Len Cacutt that was apparently published in the U.K. in the mid to late 80's. The whole chapter on choosing a knife is devoted to the Wilkinson Sword survival knife. The editor just goes on and on about it and even has pictures of the knife being made in the factory. There are pictures in the book of bone tools being made with the knife as well as animals being butchard with it.

Funny looking back on it now.
 
Markwood,
This question is only marginally related to the knife, although I'm very happy to see it has been relaunched, as I tried to get an original several years ago with no success. My real question is what's the story on Wiseman, I have his "SAS Survival Manual" but I tend to be wary of anyone touting their "special forces expericence" as a method of selling books. You seem to know a little about him, is he the real deal or what? If you need to start a new thread in order to prevent drift that's fine. Thanks for any info you've got.
Also, does anyone out there have any pics/detailed info on the original so that those of us who have never actually handled/seen one in person can make a better comparison. Thanks.
Lagarto
 
Lofty Wiseman is the "real deal" when it comes to SAS survival people. He wrote his book long before the SAS became "fashion victims" along with a number of other Special Forces units.

Regards,

Ed
 
I did a weeks basic survival course with Lofty in 87 and a weeks advanced course in 89. As mentioned above he is absolutely the real deal having been in the SAS for 26 years (apparently you just had to keep threatening to resign and they kept you in despite the 4 year RTU rule). He seems to spend his time doing TV stuff now (Castaway 2000, 'The Heat is on' etc).

Mark
 
IF it works, that would be a mighty fine design. I like the new version MUCH more than the old, and if the tang problem has been adressed, they could have a winner. Of course, it's still going to cost WAY too much for mere mortals. :~} But it sure looks cool, don't it? :~}
 
It's way cheaper than the original version was retailing at. Mind you that could be because of rarity value. The original was going for about 260 pounds! They never billed the original as being 440 steel so I'm wondering if they are using cheaper steel. I might email them and ask.

Mark
 
If they get it right this time, it'll be great. I like the design, out of the ordinary. See, most people think my Dave Beck Wilderness Survival Knife is ugly, but I think it's about the prettiest knife I've ever seen.

I'd love to see a custom version of the Wilkinson Sword knife, made from O1 or D2. Wouldn't even have to have the hollow handle, I'd just like to see some other interpretations of it.

-Jared
Just updated my web page...

www.geocities.com/placeknives/index.html
 
Mark,

We received your email, so I thought I’d reply directly to this forum.
The original survival knife was before my time, but we still have all of our records. The problem with the tangs breaking was caused by the cutout in the tang on the very first version. This cutout had a number of sharp internal corners that acted as stress raisers causing breakage (this was strange – a very basic engineering error). This was modified by machining in fillet radii, which seemed to do the trick. I don’t have any record of the modified version breaking, but I would be interested to hear if anyone knows differently.
When we looked at the redesign, we made sure that we didn’t repeat the mistake. We also beefed up the threaded part from M6 to M8. We don’t quite get a full thread (the blade is only 6mm thick), but this hasn’t caused a problem.
The steel is 440C, as per the original (which was referred to as keenedge). We have experience with this steel, and think it’s pretty good. We are currently testing some of the more exotic steels such as S30V, ATS34, BG42, etc. If they work out, we may use some of these steels in future projects.
We dropped the gristle saw and bottle opener as they actually interfered with the functionality (eg, the gristle saw snags when dressing game).
We are conscious of the price, but this is driven by the features of the knife. For example, the saw teeth are a pain to grind but are much more effective. Similarly, the contours of the guard make it difficult to machine and rivet, but I think it’s worth it for the final result. Also, we haven’t had a major new knife release in ages, so this one was meant as a sort of ‘flagship’ product – in some ways a demonstration of our capability. We do intend to bring out a fixed blade version that will be cheaper.

Hope this was helpful.
 
As above, thanks for the info. I've been checking my email for a reply without thinking to look here.

Cheers,

Mark
 
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