Here are a few biggens for ya.............

I think big knives have their place in camps and when hiking. They are great for loping off tree limbs, and can even be used for splitting firewood.

You could also field dress a game animal if you didn't have a something better, and if you wanted to chop through the pelvic bone, a good large knife should be up to the task.

If I were going the large knife route, which I have, I would want it a little thicker than a knife used for general cutting. A thicker knife would not cut as well, but it would be stronger, plus a bit heavier for those chopping chores.

One of the handiest tools I carry when hunting is a pruner about the size of a large set of pliers. These will cut though a 1/2 inch limb with ease, and if you are walking though a thick area, especially with a lot of briars, it is easy to make a passagway in a short amount of time. I have found these work better than most knives for cutting briars and small limbs and brush.

Big knives are cool but real limited in use, I have a few that never get used. Back in the day the Marbles Trailmaker, top 2, were used to cut everything from trails to bread and were a handy camp item.

I dont see how a guy could gut game with one, quarter yes, but it better be a big critter.

Nice big Marbles knives you have there. I like the top one best. What is it's model name?

Biggest knife I currently own has a nine inch blade. It's a Bark River Knife & Tool offering. It's the one all the way to the right.



It's not only fully up to any wood chopping task, it's razor sharp, too. Spilled a good bit of my own blood with it with just an accidental light touch.

The one on the top is called a Trailmaker, most had a blade style like the one in the middle but a very few were Lovelass drop point's like that one. Its the only stag/stag one I have ever seen.

You know the guy who runs Bark River was the main man at Marbles till 2001, and for the life of me I cannot recall him name, but the quality and service went down hill after he left IMHO.

Bark River makes some awesome knives and has some of the best customer service in the knife industry. When I still hunted the UP, pre wolfs, I would have them clean, sharpen and buff my knives on my way back to the lower while I pawed over all the stuff that was in R&D.

It was like letting the fat kid watch the candy.

I still have a few prototypes in the safe from those stops.

Cool. Did you notice that my Bark River has almost the exact same blade as your Marbles?

Here's another big knife that I have and like:

It's a Voorhis custom.

Here's another shot of it:

Here are a few of my fav Marbles styles knives........

Trailcrafts on the left

Feildcrafts in the middle and

Drop Points on the right.

I tossed in a NIB 100% unused 4 1/4 inch Ideal for grins, my fav vintage Marbles.





Sorry its so blurry.......

PP

Awesome! Beautiful bunch of knives, that. Am I mistaken, though, in thinking there's quite a bit of redundancy in that bunch?

You are not, I have a REAL soft spot for those 3 styles of kinves. I have a bunch of other styles, just like them the best.

I have a a fairly large knife, to me anyway......

Thats a cool old blade RD!

Yep. Very nice. I've got it's identical twin.

That knife is actually my dad's and he probably got it a long time ago. He is a WWII vet, a Marine still and all around good dad and grand dad.

Ka-Bar Still makes them exactly the same as ever. They still come in a box exactly like the one in your picture. I bought mine about ten or fifteen years ago. Good knives. There are much tougher knives available nowadays, but unless you are determined to destroy a knife with abusive use, the Ka-Bar can handle any reasonable survival knife task.

PS If you'd like to see someone intentionally destroy one of these knives by putting it to work doing things knife should never be asked to do, watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK6wSzXr_GE

It takes a long time to watch all segments of this test, but it's fun to watch. Just click on the next part until you have viewed all of them. They will come up on the right.

Although I always hate to see a nice knife, essentially intentionally destroyed, these tests do serve a function in comparing one knife to the other in the most extreme circumstances.

Cool vid, what's with the mask?

Don't think I'll try that with the May Bird & Trout I'm getting.

I think this guy, for some reason, doesn't want to be recognized. Also, probably as protective gear in case a shard of steel goes flying towards his face.

Not, I wouldn't think so. You really have to be prepared, pretty much, to throw a knife away after a test like that.

Not sure what kind of test that was or is it just what happens to someone who stops taking their meds

Well, there is a place for destruction tests. Folks use the results to compare one knife to another. People do the same sorts of things with combat handguns, such as Glocks. The military does these kinds of tests on equipment they are considering purchasing for the troops.

Sorry to bring up an old post, but I love knives!!!

This is the only real nice quality big knife I have. I have some big fantasy knives but they're just for show.

This Case XX Kodiak is probably as old as I am...hell, it maybe even 30 years old (I'm 28). It was given to my dad many moons ago by the man who would later be my Scoutmaster. It's never seen any use (as far as I know of). And it became mine once my dad passed.





I need to get some polish and work on the hand guard and pommel and bring that brass back to its original shine

Nice stuff.

passport

Guess you better stop over and pick one of these up.


Tim

Tim, I can see you are going to assist me to the poor house. I have developed a craving for that lower knife shown above.

What steel did you use? What is the thickness of the blade? Could you do those scales in say green micarta?

Sam
Hey buddy, anything I can do to help.

They are out of 52100, .250" at the spine, 58Rc.

The handles are canvas micarta. I made these two only.
Current plan is to let one go and to keep the other.

Probably won't do more unless enough interest is out there.

You can chop wood, drive tent stakes, field dress elephants, dig a cat hole, etc.... with one of these camp knives.

Tim

Tim,

I am committed out through the first of the year, but if you still have that lower one then, or can make another, I'm in.

The gentleman you refer to that used to run Marbles, and then left there is named Mike Smith. He was the previous owner of Blackjack knives in Effingham, Illinois and went to Marbles after closing that. Sometime later he opened his own place again calling it Bark River Knife and Tool.

I've spoken with him on the phone before...nice guy.

As far as the video goes thats Noss. He does alot of stuff with knives that you probably shouldn't. But he is unbiased. Has a website with videos of every knife he has tested. http://www.knifetests.com/

frogman43
I belive that would be Mike Stewart.
Tim

OOOPs, my bad, Stewart is right. What was I thinking??

Mike Stewart....pleasant fellow on the phone...

I like big knives a lot and I think they fill a useful niche as an alternative to the light hatchet. The most urgent needs in an unexpected overnight with no tent will usually be shelter and fire. A knife big enough to chop with can built a pole shelter and cut small firewood. If you are out long enough to start eating small game and fish, you won't be too fussy about how neat a job you do of cutting these morsels up into cookable and eatable chunks. A big knife can do that. I don't think the 7 inch blades are long enough and heavy enough to chop well. I like a 9 or 10 inch blade. I have the Cold Steel Trailmaster and like it. I like the looks of 'Roadkill's big knives, especially the bottom one with the spear or drop point. The down side of the big knife is weight. The CS Trailmaster is 17+ ounces plus the sheath, but a small hatchet is about 21 ounces too so take your pick.

I have a fairly big knife and a hatchet in my kitchen bag. I have never carried a blade longer than 3 1/4 inches while hunting. The hatchet's primary purpose is to drive in tent stakes and trim tree limbs. I once watch a guide use a large blade for digging and clearing a tent site - my Ingram remained in my pack. My main focus it going light while hunting. My camp is transported on 4-wheelers so weight isn't an issue, chainsaw is the way to go if you are planning big cutting jobs.

Hey Tim, how about a D2 saw chain- gawd makes me giddy just thinking about it.

How would you sharpen it? Certainly not with a file.

I have never seen one, but I have heard someone makes Tungston Carbide saw chain.

Come to think about it, the steel chain saw teeth are made from, and at the same hardness, seems like it would make a pretty good knife.

My bad, I should have added a smiley face to the D2 chain comment.

I think nitriding, titanium, or some other hard material would work on the original edge but cutting trees is such a nasty environment for a cutting edge. Tungston carbide is extremely brittle and tends to shatter on interrupted cuts, not saying it couldn't be done just it would be a real challenge to get it to work. I can imagine a saw chain with removable inserts but I would leave that project for the government.

Googled Wikipedia and learned I was wrong again, "Chains must be kept sharp to perform well. They become blunt rapidly if they touch soil, metal or stones. When blunt, they tend to produce powdery sawdust, rather than the longer, clean shavings characteristic of a sharp chain; a sharp saw also needs very little force from the operator to push it into the cut. Special hardened chains (made with tungsten carbide) are used for applications where soil is likely to contaminate the cut, such as for cutting through roots."

No, really, I think a chain made from D2 would work pretty well.

You would have to use one of those grinder sharpeners to sharpen it, but I think it would outlast any tooth that can be sharpened with a file, as normal chains are.

The problem with nitriding or Titanium (TiN) is that it would work very good for a while, until it wore through the coating or you ground it off from re-sharpening.

Then, depending on the steel underneath the coating, if it was soft, you wouldn't be able to keep it sharp for any length of time.

Cutting through a log and into the ground and hitting a rock might break a tungston Carbide tooth, but I don't think it would break all of them.

Years ago, a relative had a large, hollow oak tree blow down in her yard and she asked me to cut it up for firewood.

Even the limbs were a foot or larger in diameter. I cut through one of the limbs, which was hollow, and on the trunk end of the limb was a huge snake all coiled up. It had climbed the hollow tree and and into the limb.

The saw blade missed it by about 1/2 inch. It was still alive and it scared the daylights out of me.

Here is a big knife that I forged a few weeks ago.

Now that's interesting.................

Details?

I have one of these also, but this pic is from Rob's site

I use an Anvil pruner a lot too. They work great for cutting through the joints of a rabbit and other small game. miles

Forged from 3/8 inch thick 1095 bar stock. Differential heat treated to create the hardening line (hamon), tapered tang, para cord wrapped with lanyard, hand sanded to 1000 grit and etched in acid and polished to reveal the hardening line. I used it to cut a 2x4 in half and it still shaved hair off my arm after.

Few of my big marbles

Are those Deleware Maids that Loveless made years ago when he first started making knives?

Marble Arms 1998-2001 (Mike Stewart era).

10" trailmaker
9" loveless trailmaker
7' trailmaker

5160M carbon steel with cyrogenic quench, convex ground.