Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Candian Belt Knife

Peter;
The scales are from a California Bighorn ewe skull cap that a late friend found on a hunt many years back. He was kind enough to give them to me as well as a truckload of other goodies before he passed on. Every time I use the knives I think of him and get a grin because he was quite the character.

Thanks for the kind words on the knives as well.

The grind lines were an intentional experiment after doing a bit of reading from some knife makers on how differing grind lines affect the blade strength.

The photos don't show that the blades are tapered to be very thin from the scales forward. I like thin blades but also understand the compromise a thin blade can present if one isn't careful.

That said Peter, I can pretty much take a small ungulate apart with a small pocket knife, so for the most part I don't use belt knives as pry bars or hatchets.

As a last thought, I believe it is the position and angle of the handle that makes the Russell design work so well. The blade shape is functional to be sure, but to me not appreciably more so then many other variations of a drop point blade shape I've tried.

I believe you know this about me Peter, but I do have a bit of an unhealthy "thing" for trying new steels and blade shapes.

This was the lineup that was slated for testing this fall. I ended up using at least 5 different blades on the 11 or 12 deer that ended up on the meat pole in our yard this fall.


Have a good weekend Peter, all the best to you and yours.

Regards,
Dwayne

I have used the Frost Mora knives and the Cold Steel CBK is a much more robust knife. I have found the Frost Mora design to be difficult to maintain a sharp edge on, once it gets dull. The CM blades are so thin that they chip and leave sort of a serrated edge if I'm not careful to maintain a light touch. The SS blades seem to work better, for me, but again I don't think that the are as good an inexpensive hunting/utility knife as the Cold Steel CBK. If you need a thinner blade, the Victorinox 4" serrated paring knives have worked well for me and at $4 per, they are cheap enough to be throwaways.

Standard disclaimer; "YMMV and since my experience is mine alone, your experience is likely to be different.".

Jeff

Very good looking knives, Dwayne. The sheath job is equally appreciable.

How long did it take you to do all three?
Ted

"As a last thought, I believe it is the position and angle of the handle that makes the Russell design work so well."

It has been my experience from using them that this is true. Notice that the centerline of the handle is higher than the centerline of the blade. This seems to give more leverage when cutting or slicing downward.

The rounded shape of the top of the handle fits into the palm of your cupped hand very well, making for a comfortable and secure hold.

I have made more of the 4 inch drop point Loveless design than any other type, but for strickly using, I prefer the Russel.

For making the first cut, opening up the belly on a game animal, the deep belly of the Loveless style is probably earier to use, especially to prevent cutting a gut.

But from then on, the slimmer, less rounded blade of the Russel works much better when cleaning up the inside of the animal.

The ones pictured are not exact copies of the Russel, but are slight modifications I made. I doubt if my changes made the design any better, but it was just something I wanted to do.

Jeff,


The model thats popular over here is the Clipper and the ones I've used have a stainless steel blade, but they can be had with carbon steel as well. Its the top knife in the pic below



With the SS model, the blade is actually a 3 layer "laminate"..I've no idea of the details, but they are fairly soft, but take a razor edge quite easily.

I've also used the Victorinox parring knifes and they work a treat for removing the anus on our small Muntjac.

Another knife that I have that works very well for that is a Ka-bar caper below;



Again, the steel is not unduely hard, but is easy to sharpen/touch up in the field.

As you can tell, I don't actually *need* a Canadian belt knife, but I'm just interested in trying a different design!

Regards,

Peter

Yukoner;
Thank you for the kind words Ted, I appreciate them.

I'm very much a self confessed tinker with a multitude of things it seems. My late father was the same way and I've been blessed in that making many things just "make sense" to me somehow.

Regarding the time frame, I can only recall that I did one blade first and then decided it wasn't "quite right". If memory serves, the smaller of the two was the 2nd one.

The sheath occurred to me when I saw a set by a knife maker here on the 'Fire, perhaps a Dozier set?

Anyway as my larger fixed blade knives travel in my pack anyway, I thought the twin sheath idea had merit, so I wandered out to the shop where I have half a hide left from the days when I fooled with saddle and tack bits and pieces and made the sheath up.

I believe the sheath was a few hours only and the knives took quite a bit longer, but can't recall exactly how much longer - sorry about that.

All the best to you and yours this weekend Ted.

Regards,
Dwayne

The most important stuff in life isn't "stuff". - BC30cal

Nice.

antlers;
Thank you kindly, I appreciate it.

All the best to you and yours, wherever this finds you all.

Regards,
Dwayne

Have used one of the Trout and Bird knives for years. Steel keeps a reasonable edge and sharpens easily. I think for the most part Buck knives have better steel but the Rusells are easy to sharpen and fit my hand well. I like them.

The Frost Clipper is the Mora style that I've used. As noted, I've had better success with the stainless blades, but don't think that they are as good or robust a blade as the thicker/heavier blade on the Cold Steel CBK.

I'm a "pelvic bone splitter" not an "anus remover", but I've gutted/cleaned a number of whitetail deer with the 4" serrated Victorinox paring knives and my trusty Sagen "pelvis bone splitter" Saw.

Jeff

I may have got my new 'do-everything' belt knife in the mail today...

Don Stevenson custom made sheep horn knife....beautiful belt sheath, great size and fit in the hand...

Will post pics tomorrow!

Do a search for "R Murphy". They make a carbon steel clone. And its inexpensive enough to try out.

I see nobody has mentioned the Herter clone. It was a pretty good knife, too.

I have a number 1 I bought in Monterey, CA in 1973, the Cold Steel clones and a Grohmann R4S Survival Knife. I have no complaints about the knives...

The Herters clone was and still is the model made by R Murphy.

I looked long and hard and settled on the Bark River - which you can more or less customize when ordering. Absolutely love it. Was right about the shape being near perfect. Thinking of getting a cold steel one for a friend. Here is a bark river that could pass for mine.

I bought a bunch of the Cold Steel clones. I hadn't seen them except pictures on the internet. But they were $11 at the time. I planned to bust the scales off of them and re-scale them with somthing nice and put them into new sheaths. Well, when I got them it was apparent they they weren't a full tang and had a "stub" tang moulded into the plastic handle. I did make new sheaths for them, I couldn't stand the nylon ones, but the knife has been great considering the cost. I use it as a camp and canoe knife. I've given a couple away with the new sheaths to friends and they love them. I'd never used the design, but after I have I like it. Good for everything from spreading peanut butter to wildlife disassembly. They're cheap enough I can keep one in the duffle, car glove box. and canoe bag. Anyway it was a good gamble for me. CH

I have one of those Barks and a few of the Russells (see earlier post in this thread). While I really like the Bark, I do like the shape of the Russell better for all around field use.

If someone would clone the Russell exactly and use very good steel with a nice sheath, they would have a good combination and seller.

.

I've used the Original (no.1) Russell/Grohmann Canadian Belt Knife for over twenty years... have two of them. Have tried other knives, but always come back to it... best general purpose hunting knife I've ever used.

Personally I've found the stainless version top-drawer. Can't speak to the Carbon...

Mac-how much does that knifer weigh?

Dober

(saw Mikey at the game)

I have the #1 and #2 Russell. I got them as a Christmas present nearly 15 years ago now. I love them. They certainly aren't much to look at, but I've gotten past that. They fit very well in the hand and just feel right to me. But for opening up a moose, I haven't found anything better than a Stanley Hook blade. I did three moose and a deer with one blade. It opens them up like a zipper and because the moose hide is so thick, it didn't cut all the way through to the gut. They are about $6 for 5 blades and around $4-10 for the retractable blade knife. The best part is that if one get's dull, you can just flip it around or pop in a new blade.

It's not meant for the insides though. I only use it to open the hide along the legs and belly. After that I used my belt knife until someone offered to 'sharpen' it with a file. Had to re-establish the edge with stones when I got home . It wasn't long after that that my regular hunting partner decided to use his cheapo sharpener on it despite me telling him I just finished re-establishing the edge and I didn't want anything to do with his rolled-edge/burr-creator he calls a sharpener.



I have one of the Clippers that Pete's talking about. Not a bad utility knife for things I don't really want to use my Russell's on. I just don't use it very often.