It's possible my new favorite knife arrived in the mail today.


I got tired of waiting for a longer EnZo Trapper blade to come along in O1 carbon, so I took my chances on a stainless blade. I haven't used the Swedish Sandvic 12C27 steel before, but I've yet to see a bad EnZo blade, so what the hell.

Here it is in comparison to the standard Trapper:


And with the F1 thrown in:


I like the size...just a tiny bit longer than the F1 and with a better point and a scandi grind. Now I just have to choose a handle material and start the making. The geometry is identical to my other Trapper, so it should cut well. The real question is how friendly is the steel...what sort of edge will it take. If I can keep it shaving sharp with only a strop while working wood then it's a keeper. Time will tell.

Boy that Thompsons Knives gets a lot of my money over the years...

Hammer wrote:
Boy that Thompsons Knives gets a lot of my money over the years...

You should approach them with a link to this thread and see if they're interested in making you an official spokesperson to review thier products. You offer some good insight and info.

CW

clippwagon wrote:

Hammer wrote:
Boy that Thompsons Knives gets a lot of my money over the years...

You should approach them with a link to this thread and see if they're interested in making you an official spokesperson to review thier products. You offer some good insight and info.

CW

Thanks Clippwagon, but it'd be a bit like an alley cat offering to be a spokesperson for sashimi, and I think he knows it. His prices are pretty fair so for now I'll just count my blessings.

daedaluscan wrote:Expensive thread to watch this one. Ive bought two knives since it started. I had to resort to the "oh that old thing, I've had it for a while" line wtih my wife. She was not fooled.

Which knives did you get?

Damn those clever women! My wife likes the spoons I carve for her and the fact I can always get a fire going, so she puts up with my purchases. She also appreciates having shaving sharp kitchen knives, though once while chopping carrots she cut the tip of her thumb clean off. She found it in the carrots and, delighted with the clean cut, told me to help her sew it back on. It wasn't a very big piece, and I'm normally a decent helper, but something about it just overwhelmed me. I think it was when she was turning it around, trying to make the thumbprint line up.

About this time the kitchen towel wrapped around her hand reached its saturation point and started dripping out the bottom. I told her I was going to throw up, and while turning the piece around again she distractedly said "Why?" She looked up at my pale countenance, rolled her eyes and told me to make myself useful and rinse off the carrots. Since she couldn't sew with one hand she taped the chunk back on with steri-strips, then gave me the stink-eye every time she bumped it for the next two weeks 'cause it took too long to heal.

When I cut myself I hide like a child, but she can follow a blood trail pretty good. Probably for the best. Little known fact, but tendons don't grow back together without stitches...at least that's what she claims.

Nothing fancy, a Gerber

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004DT4 ... ge_o01_s00

and a Morakniv:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009NZV ... ge_o00_s00

But I really like the look of the EnZos...

daedaluscan wrote:Nothing fancy, a Gerber

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B004DT4 ... ge_o01_s00

and a Morakniv:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009NZV ... ge_o00_s00

But I really like the look of the EnZos...

That Mora is a good knife. Flatten the spine with a file if you want to use a ferrocerium fire starter, as they are usually pretty rounded on top.

Hammer,

Do you sharpen free hand or with a guided system? Do you use diamond stones or traditional water/oil stones? I currently sharpen free hand with DMT Diafold and am considering an EdgePro Apex. Not sure why other than something different.

Thanks.

Frank

I needed a saw/knife for cutting small pieces of wood for camping. I ran across this one that got very high reports on youtube. May not be what your looking for but sure comes in handy.

Its called the GOMBOY and it is incredible.

I now carry it every time I venture into the outback with my cub, hopefully to be transformed into a Cessna 180, soon.

a3holerman wrote:Its called the GOMBOY and it is incredible.

Agreed- backcountry or construction or fine joinery. Very good saws, and usually replaceable saw blade design.

If we're getting onto saws, then the Wyoming Saw is another solid choice.

-DP

fshaw wrote:Hammer,

Do you sharpen free hand or with a guided system? Do you use diamond stones or traditional water/oil stones? I currently sharpen free hand with DMT Diafold and am considering an EdgePro Apex. Not sure why other than something different.

Thanks.

Frank

Hi Frank,
I sharpen free hand with Japanese water stones while at home. In the field I use 1000~6000 grit wet/dry sandpaper stuck to a piece of wood with carpet tape. On the other side of the stick is a hard strop impregnated with aluminum oxide.

Once I get a proper edge on a knife I rarely have to do more than strop it with the aluminum oxide. I might touch it up on a stone or sandpaper once for every twenty times I use the strop. Stropping often and not letting the edge get even moderately dull saves a lot of work, both in the sharpening and in the cutting.

If you look at the factory edge of my new EnZo blade and compare it to the edge on my older Trapper you can see the difference between a ground edge and a edge that's been polished on the strop. The polished edge lasts a lot longer and requires less work to maintain, though getting it there can take a bit of time.

Japanese water stones are a mixed bag. I've never had the high-dollar natural ones, and the manufactured ones can be great, or terrible. If you're interested in sharpening stones, check this site out:
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/category ... gesize=100

DO NOT visit the japanwoodworker if you've been drinking...you can spend an astounding amount of money on things you didn't know you needed.

All this talk of knives had me digging out mine to sharpen. I found my dad's knife that he carried on at least two of his three tours in VN. I start looking into it on the web. It is a Randall Model 15 Airman's knife and it turns out they are selling on Ebay for around $1,500 (it is literally priceless to me since my father passed). I guess it will have to go somewhere a little more prominent now, I also have his "blood chit" from his first tour in 63. All of this just because of this thread...so "thanks"

Headoutdaplane wrote:All this talk of knives had me digging out mine to sharpen. I found my dad's knife that he carried on at least two of his three tours in VN. I start looking into it on the web. It is a Randall Model 15 Airman's knife and it turns out they are selling on Ebay for around $1,500 (it is literally priceless to me since my father passed). I guess it will have to go somewhere a little more prominent now, I also have his "blood chit" from his first tour in 63. All of this just because of this thread...so "thanks"

Take good care of that Randall...it's a cross between and icon, a legacy, a legend and a hallmark. It was probably made by WD (Bo) Randall himself. Bo knew how to make a classy knife. A lot of his styles are a bit dramatic for my taste, but all of them flat out work, which is more than you can say for a lot of knife makers. His knives were never cheap and you couldn't pick one up at the hardware store, so someone who bought one to cary in VN obviously thought it was important.

Post a pic if you can.

thanks

It doesn't seem to show up in the preview, but if you go to my album it is in there.

That's a pretty neat knife! But I guess it better be for $1500! When I was about 6 I took dad's knife and lost it in the woods not sure what kind it was but it was a nice one wish I had it now.

Great piece of history there Headout...
Most of Randal's knives were hammer forged out of rods of O1 Carbon steel, though he did have some stainless knives as well. Either that's a stainless model, or you polished it up, or it wasn't stored in the sheath. The stainless models have SS stamped near the makers mark if I recall correctly.

If I were you I'd cary that with me in the plane just for luck. Might come in handy some day, too. Good knife.

For something like 35 years, I've carried my ubiquitous Buck Folding Hunter while camping, hiking, etc., like this one:



I liked it so much that I wanted a daily knife like it, so for the last 25 years I've carried a much smaller version of the Folding Hunter with mother of pearl handles, a #527 Buck, in my pants pocket--it's no longer made, but it's been a great knife, other than I've had to reglue the M of P handles to the frame a couple of times. From time to time before that, I carried different lesser pocket knives--I've been carrying pocket knives since I got my first one at about age 10.

I also have had a Buck folding boating knife for about 25 years, which has a blade on one side and a fid for splicing lines on the other. It's also no longer made.

Each of the Bucks has had good blades, which take a good edge and keep it for a long time, even under misuse. My daily knife has been used and sharpened so much that its blade is about 3/32" shorter than it was originally, so that I've had to file the blade stopper so that it will fold a little tighter to keep it from snagging in my pocket. The Folding Hunter has opened its share of cans in lieu of a can opener without losing its edge.

I was taught how to sharpen a knife when I was about 11, and I like a sharp knife, so I typically sharpen them before they've lost much of their edge. I was taught to use a series of 3 stones and then a leather strop to finish the edge, but I haven't used a strop in years--I don't plan to shave with my knife! And a stropped edge dulls pretty quickly to nothing better than the finer stone will finish it, anyway.

Cary

Cary wrote: I was taught to use a series of 3 stones and then a leather strop to finish the edge, but I haven't used a strop in years--I don't plan to shave with my knife! And a stropped edge dulls pretty quickly to nothing better than the finer stone will finish it, anyway.

Cary

Gotta respectfully disagree with that part. A shaving sharp knife cuts wood sooo much easier than an almost-shaving sharp knife. Quickly stropping the edge every 20 minutes of cutting will keep it shaving sharp. Stropped regularly, a knife with good steel almost never needs to touch a stone if it's used exclusively for cutting wood and similar material. Opening soup cans will probably mean it needs to go back on a stone...

An almost-sharp knife is like an almost-smooth landing. It might do the job, but it's not sweet...there's no liquor to it.

"If I had half an hour to butcher a steer I'd spend the first fifteen minutes sharpening my knife." -Robert Oppenheimer

(not really)

I found this video of a guy butchering a cow fascinating.

Its a little bloody so don't click on the link if you are squeamish.

https://youtu.be/I8TBvkcSeFk

This might work for you guys without a good sharp knife?

Been following this one, but never really jumped in because like others in this thread, for me a knife is simply a tool, and most of what I tend to do with that tool, departs from the spirit of this thread. I do carry a knife on my person, and a couple more in the plane, but for the most part the knives I carry are geared for hunting. Well... actually, skinning, quartering, and caping.

Since game has entered the equation, I thought I'd share another concept. None of the knives i carry are particularly remarkable, nor are they all that pretty to look at, but every one has been well used. As a general rule I will have one of several small folders in my pocket. Most people that haven't been around skinning much get a chuckle when I pull one out, but for caping, I have always prescribed to the smaller is better. I also don't care for much weight in my pockets. On my belt, or sternum strap of my pack will be a folder, typically something like a Shrade LB7, which is the counterpart to the Buck 110 Cary pictured. In my pack resides a small skinning roll that will have in it a small steel, two more folders, typically a Benchmade D2 or two, and finally a Gerber folding bone saw. I pretty much never saw bone, but the switch blades, and the lightness have kept it in there for all but the most strenuous pack hunts. Being as graceful as Mack truck, I simply won't carry anything that doesn't fold.

Anyways... what got me thinking about this thread again was the monumental task I found my self at the foot of last week. My daughter and I had been on a week long quest after a big bull we had on game cam, and when the final morning of the hunt arrived, she reminded me that she'd rather bring home meat (I think her exact words were "anything with a bone on it's head" ) than leave the freezer empty in search of the big guy. So at first light we set up where we had been watching the local herd come of the prairie and head into the cedars for the day. To shorten the long story, after glassing her up a decent shooter, she made the longer than I like shot and that bull promptly obliged by dropping into the cedar it was in front of. Out of the back of that cedar popped a branch horned bull, and after verifying that it was in fact not her bull back up again, I went ahead and secured our meat for the winter.

Now, I'll go ahead and just say that my daughter can hold her own in all aspects of hunting, but anyone who has had two bulls laying 20 yds apart knows the monumental task that lays ahead to make the difference between game meat, and fine meat... We definitely had our work cut out for us, and to top it off, we also had a need for a couple capes, if these proved to be decent / large enough.

On the hike down from the knoll we were on, my daughter proclaimed that she had a hint of cell service, and since we were only about 20 miles from her hometown, she asked if I'd like her to call a friend who happens to be a taxidermist to come down and lend a hand. Now I am generally an all around meat snob, and really peculiar about game meat handling, but at this point I wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth... I whipped out my little Garmin geko and read her the numbers to the elk and figured at a bare minimum I could use the help skinning, and who else better to help cape than a taxidermist?

It didn't take us long to get to the bulls, but of course being so close we elected to drag push and pull one over to the other for the requisite 'double bull' photo op (cell pics only) and by the time we finished that, the tag filling, and logistic planning, I really didn't have much lead on the first bull when our friend pulled up. I had my knife roll neatly laid out, and looking back I'd guess there were six knives, the saw and steel all spread out, When the young man arrived, he didn't have the frame pack I kinda expected, a day pack or even a small fanny pack for that matter.... No matter I figured... I had knives plenty. Hopefully I wouldn't have to take the time to hold his hand through this

I asked him if he'd like to skin out the one I had started on (it was gutted and clean by now) and he said he would gladly, but added that he preferred the gutless method on elk. I go back and forth between gutted and gutless, but in this case I wanted to try and pull at least one rack of ribs, so gutted it was, but I knew by his comment that he was probably going to be a-ok. At this point I also pointed him towards my roll.

Glancing them over real quick and obviously trying to hide his disapproval, he said "aw I'm good, I brought my own" and out of his pocket he whipped a couple bright orange plastic goodies. Now I'll say again, none of my knives are things of beauty, but these little toys looked right out of the stocking stuffer line at walmart... and needless to say, I ounce again began to doubt the outcome of the young guys ability... and then the cutting began.... wholly ginsu batman!!! I am reasonably sure that I had more deer and elk skinned and gutted before this kid was born than he'd handled in all his young years, but by gosh he proceeded to run through that animal with lightening speed and accuracy that made me wonder why he was a taxidermist and not a brain surgeon . I've seen a whole lotta quick skinners , and a whole lotta good ones, but that combination has rarely fit together... man he was was good. A little ways into the deal he looks over and flips one of his orange bic pen looking things over and says "here... try one of these, you might like it" OMG.... I am pretty sure my knife roll just got cut in half, both in weight and numbers. I asked him about blade breakage or prying. He said he figured I probably had several knives on me up to prying etc...so he brought what he considers his skinners (Prianta-Edge). He offered that the same company makes a traditional bladed knife that had a Prianta blade as a double, and that he carried one of those in his pack for 'standard' knife duties. I'm not entirely convinced I'll replace all the knives I am already so familiar with for my regular knife stuff, but I have no doubts that I am officially a Havalon convert for skinning. These things are just that good..

Two mature bulls, two knives going through two blades ea., and we were skinned, quartered, caped and packing in much less than half the time it usually takes me. And I have done enough of these deals over the years to have it figured...

Anyways... no affiliation of any sorts to the knife maker, dealers, etc.. just thought I'd pass on a new idea... Oh and BTW, I am NOT a 'gadget guy' so for something new and innovative to catch my attention it really does have to blow away my typical tried and true.

Take care, Rob
http://www.havalon.com