- Joined
- Apr 25, 2007
- Messages
- 3,536
Most of you are by now very familiar with Bryan Breeden's very good knives. I came to know Bryan through the forums here, and have liked his knife designs for quite some time. Bought a Pathfinder from him a couple months ago. Although it's a great knife, it's just not perfectly comfortable in my hand. When I saw Bryan's Peacemaker model on the forum, I knew I had to have one.
It just so happens that both Bryan and I live in Nebraska, and while I'm in college we are about 1.5 hours drive apart. Bryan very kindly invited me to come down to his shop and see the knifemaking process, talk outdoors stuff, and so forth. Of course, I couldn't help but take him up on that offer. So, last Sunday I made the trip down to the farm and spent most of the day there.
(Rocketbomb prepares for a vicious beating...)
Might as well get this out of the way right now, while there I completely forgot to take pictures of the construction process or Bryan's shop. Was busy talking to him, his nephew, and some of his other family that was around that it slipped my mind completely. Okay, let the beatings begin...
If you ever get the chance to meet Bryan, DO IT. He and his family were very kind and hospitable, he even fed me lunch while I was there. We spent a lot of time discussing knife design, wilderness and survival stuff, and all kinds of other stuff. Bryan showed me a whole slug of knives and books from his collection. We did some firemaking stuff as well. He also showed me around some of the shelters and trails the have made on the farm, which was very cool. Talked about some plant identification and uses as well. Bryan is very knowledgeable about his outdoors skills, and I learned a lot of new stuff from him.
He is very efficient in the knife shop. He had a pretty simple setup in the shop, but it was plenty effective. Bryan takes a lot of care in doing his knives, and it shows. Grinds are nice and even, edges are thin and have good geometry, and he does very good work on the handles. Although he puts plenty of care into the rest of the knife, I was very impressed with the attention to making handles comfortable. He does quite a bit of hand-shaping to get the handles rounded nicely and very comfortable.
Another thing you will notice in Bryan's shop is the very large variety of cut-out blades and patterns. He really makes a huge variety of blades, and is always tweaking his designs. Also, as many of you know, he does designs drawn up by customers, which is very cool. Bryan also showed me some of the very first knives he made, and a few other knives along the line that he has made. Since setting up shop in March, he has made about 120 knives. The progression was plainly visible, and his most recent knives are becoming very impressive in quality.
He also does some very good leatherwork. It may not win many beauty contests, but the sheaths are built to last and work very well. His most recent sheaths have been made with some thinner leather that he got in, and he isn't that happy with it. I think it is fine and will last just as well, but Bryan prefers the thicker leather he had been using before.
Okay, this is getting really long. Time to cut to the chase... The above describes pretty well what we did all day--make a knife and talk a bunch.
I had Bryan make me one of his Peacemaker knives. I handled a couple he had sitting around before deciding on this. Even handled the famous Osage handled Peacemaker. (That is a fantastic-looking knife) At first I thought 6" would be too long for a blade, but after handling a couple in that length, decided that it was just right for this knife. It really does handle like a smaller knife. The balance is very good. Went with 5/32" thickness and natural canvas micarta handles with white liners. Bryan started working on the knife at about 9:30 AM, and by about 5:30 or 6:00 PM, I had this:
Bryan has also started treating his sheaths with an oil/wax treatment, which makes them softer and more water-resistant. It also makes them look very good.
In hand, the Peacemaker is definitely a good-sized piece of steel. The handle is quite large, which is just how I like a handle to be. I also like the more generically-shaped handle, which reminds me a bit of a Kephart handle shape. It lends itself very well to multiple grips, which is very good because I switch grips a lot.
Here's the Pathfinder next to some familiar cutlery. Left to Right, a SAK Farmer, a Pathfinder, the Pathfinder sheath, Peacemaker, and Peacemaker sheath. You can see the difference in the sheaths from the oil/wax treatment clearly. Overall, the Peacemaker is only 1/2" longer than the Pathfinder, because the Peacemaker has a 6" blade but a 4.5" handle.
I also had Bryan put a convex edge on the Peacemaker after using a couple of his knives. I had been very skeptical of convex edges before using one. They really do cut very well, and seem to keep their edge very well. It remains to be seen how well this knife sharpens, but I don't expect to have any problems.
Have not yet had a chance, other than playing with it at Bryan's place, to take the knife out and use it how it's supposed to be used. Hopefully this weekend I will get out and do some hiking, then I will post some good and proper pictures of the knife for y'all.
In summary, Bryan is a very good guy and an excellent knifemaker. If you get the chance, have a chat with him, he's very personable and quite the interesting character as well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and ended up with a great knife to boot. Thanks to Bryan for a great experience.
I hope anybody else who got this far enjoyed the article has enjoyed it. I've been up a long time today, hiked several miles at Husker Harvest Days, and I'm not really coherent enough to write an article that is succinct and easily readable. This would have been much more interesting with shop pictures, but that's just how it goes...
And as a teaser, keep an eye out, I think I convinced Bryan to do a small wharncliffe utility knife. Should be a neat little design.
Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
It just so happens that both Bryan and I live in Nebraska, and while I'm in college we are about 1.5 hours drive apart. Bryan very kindly invited me to come down to his shop and see the knifemaking process, talk outdoors stuff, and so forth. Of course, I couldn't help but take him up on that offer. So, last Sunday I made the trip down to the farm and spent most of the day there.
(Rocketbomb prepares for a vicious beating...)
Might as well get this out of the way right now, while there I completely forgot to take pictures of the construction process or Bryan's shop. Was busy talking to him, his nephew, and some of his other family that was around that it slipped my mind completely. Okay, let the beatings begin...
If you ever get the chance to meet Bryan, DO IT. He and his family were very kind and hospitable, he even fed me lunch while I was there. We spent a lot of time discussing knife design, wilderness and survival stuff, and all kinds of other stuff. Bryan showed me a whole slug of knives and books from his collection. We did some firemaking stuff as well. He also showed me around some of the shelters and trails the have made on the farm, which was very cool. Talked about some plant identification and uses as well. Bryan is very knowledgeable about his outdoors skills, and I learned a lot of new stuff from him.
He is very efficient in the knife shop. He had a pretty simple setup in the shop, but it was plenty effective. Bryan takes a lot of care in doing his knives, and it shows. Grinds are nice and even, edges are thin and have good geometry, and he does very good work on the handles. Although he puts plenty of care into the rest of the knife, I was very impressed with the attention to making handles comfortable. He does quite a bit of hand-shaping to get the handles rounded nicely and very comfortable.
Another thing you will notice in Bryan's shop is the very large variety of cut-out blades and patterns. He really makes a huge variety of blades, and is always tweaking his designs. Also, as many of you know, he does designs drawn up by customers, which is very cool. Bryan also showed me some of the very first knives he made, and a few other knives along the line that he has made. Since setting up shop in March, he has made about 120 knives. The progression was plainly visible, and his most recent knives are becoming very impressive in quality.
He also does some very good leatherwork. It may not win many beauty contests, but the sheaths are built to last and work very well. His most recent sheaths have been made with some thinner leather that he got in, and he isn't that happy with it. I think it is fine and will last just as well, but Bryan prefers the thicker leather he had been using before.
Okay, this is getting really long. Time to cut to the chase... The above describes pretty well what we did all day--make a knife and talk a bunch.
I had Bryan make me one of his Peacemaker knives. I handled a couple he had sitting around before deciding on this. Even handled the famous Osage handled Peacemaker. (That is a fantastic-looking knife) At first I thought 6" would be too long for a blade, but after handling a couple in that length, decided that it was just right for this knife. It really does handle like a smaller knife. The balance is very good. Went with 5/32" thickness and natural canvas micarta handles with white liners. Bryan started working on the knife at about 9:30 AM, and by about 5:30 or 6:00 PM, I had this:
Bryan has also started treating his sheaths with an oil/wax treatment, which makes them softer and more water-resistant. It also makes them look very good.
In hand, the Peacemaker is definitely a good-sized piece of steel. The handle is quite large, which is just how I like a handle to be. I also like the more generically-shaped handle, which reminds me a bit of a Kephart handle shape. It lends itself very well to multiple grips, which is very good because I switch grips a lot.
Here's the Pathfinder next to some familiar cutlery. Left to Right, a SAK Farmer, a Pathfinder, the Pathfinder sheath, Peacemaker, and Peacemaker sheath. You can see the difference in the sheaths from the oil/wax treatment clearly. Overall, the Peacemaker is only 1/2" longer than the Pathfinder, because the Peacemaker has a 6" blade but a 4.5" handle.
I also had Bryan put a convex edge on the Peacemaker after using a couple of his knives. I had been very skeptical of convex edges before using one. They really do cut very well, and seem to keep their edge very well. It remains to be seen how well this knife sharpens, but I don't expect to have any problems.
Have not yet had a chance, other than playing with it at Bryan's place, to take the knife out and use it how it's supposed to be used. Hopefully this weekend I will get out and do some hiking, then I will post some good and proper pictures of the knife for y'all.
In summary, Bryan is a very good guy and an excellent knifemaker. If you get the chance, have a chat with him, he's very personable and quite the interesting character as well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and ended up with a great knife to boot. Thanks to Bryan for a great experience.
I hope anybody else who got this far enjoyed the article has enjoyed it. I've been up a long time today, hiked several miles at Husker Harvest Days, and I'm not really coherent enough to write an article that is succinct and easily readable. This would have been much more interesting with shop pictures, but that's just how it goes...
And as a teaser, keep an eye out, I think I convinced Bryan to do a small wharncliffe utility knife. Should be a neat little design.
Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow.
.
