Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Who likes big knives?

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.