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Best Pocket Knife?


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  • 3 weeks later...
25 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

What kind of steel are they and how hard was the heat treat to do?

the one with red/black is cpm154, the damascus is 1095 and 15n20, the rest are aeb-l stainless.

the stainless and cpm are a little in depth. have to normalize then wrap in stainless foil. then get up to about 2000 and do plate quench in aluminum. have also done cryo quench with the aeb in dry ice and acetone. all the aeb tested to around 60rockwell after temper which is pretty good. 

the 1095/15n20 is easy. one step 1475 then straight to oil.. . then an etch in ferric chloride. that shit rusts and i wont do any more. 

i have tried all kinds of different steels and will probably use aeb-l, 440c and cpm 154(when i can get it) only from now on.

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21 hours ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

What do you know about EN 45? I have blade made of it that I have filed down and all that, but I don't know if it has been heat treated. I suspect it hasn't, but in my searches before I couldn't find much about heat treating it.

sorry i didnt see your response.

 

not sure specifically about  en 45,  but a google says it is a spring steel.. high carbon. common stuff.. but good. i have made a bunch of stuff out of leaf springs and mower blades.

the place i buy steel from doesnt have en45  listed. when you say filed down i assume you mean it has a bevel?

take a file, flat bastard will work... scrape it across the edge, if it grabs, it isnt heat treated. if it just scates across then it is. you can always get it to 1475 or so and let it air dry slow. that will soften it back up.

after that, sand the shit out of it to whatever slickness you want.

i like spring steels, they are easy to treat and will get sharp easy. bad part is they rust pretty bad especially if you try to etch or gun blue them. 

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16 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

It's a hand forged blade from Crazy Crow Trading Post I'm making into a Searles style bowie. I posted back up a ways. Had to flat file all the forging marks out and stuff. Sounds like it probably isn't treated.

now start at the top and start sanding... when you get to the bottom it should be slick..

IMG_2020.JPG

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On 11/24/2019 at 9:36 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Finished the rough file work on my Searles style bowie blade. The original Rezin Bowie presentation knife made by Daniel Searles had an ebony grip. Lucky for me I have a good sized chunk of ebony I brought back from Senegal almost fifteen years ago. The accents were silver, so I'm going to have to try my hand at lost wax casting to make this piece as nice as possible. But for now I'm trying to finish up another leatherworking project, so this will probably take the back burner for a bit.

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This is what it looks like, minus some surface rust from sitting around in a shop for nearly a year. It still needs to be sanded down to the final finish and heat treated before I start on making the handle. Gonna have to figure out how to cast some silver parts to do it proper, but there is a method I found that doesn't require any special equipment. I probably wont get to it for quite some time because I have to much other stuff and other projects going on right now.

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18 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

This is what it looks like, minus some surface rust from sitting around in a shop for nearly a year. It still needs to be sanded down to the final finish and heat treated before I start on making the handle. Gonna have to figure out how to cast some silver parts to do it proper, but there is a method I found that doesn't require any special equipment. I probably wont get to it for quite some time because I have to much other stuff and other projects going on right now.

nice. after you sand that down to what you like, heat to 1475 or so and quench. it should be hard.

 

good luck on the hidden tang. i recommend a whitetail base horn. that would be cool. something like this cut down and drilled out.

IMG_2022.thumb.JPG.fb7de6a453160e42cc2967aa3107a8a3.JPG

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This is an original Searles Bowie knife.

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Daniel Searles was a blacksmith/bladesmith from Baton Rouge who made at least one knife for the Bowie family back in the 1820-1830's. Whether or not his knife was the or one of the original bowie knives is a matter of historical debate, but there is no doubt that he was making fine knives for gentlemen around the time of the Texas Revolution. Seeing as how I have ancestors who came to Texas during the republic days from Catahoula Parish, I would like to recreate a knife that would have been something like they might have had if they were inclined and capable of affording such an object. The goal is for it to be as historically accurate as possible, so I have some ebony wood just like he used to make the handle out of, and I intend to use cutler's resin to secure the blade just like they did back in the day. I even save the filings from the blade to use to dye the leather for the sheath to make it as historically accurate as possible. Museum quality is the goal.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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On 12/4/2020 at 1:06 PM, Carl Spackler said:

Any recs on Japanese water stones in terms of manufacturers, grits, etc.?  Was thinking of branching out from the Spyderco Sharpmaker, and was looking into water stones, but I don't know much about which makers are reputable, etc.

That's all I use now, I just get the biggest ones I can find on Amazon in normal and fine grits. Looks like most of what I've bought is by Suehiro...

Amazon

Suehiro D1069 Deluxe Japanese Stone #1200 - Sharpening Stones - Amazon.com

edit: looks like I use a 1,000 or 1,200 along with a 6,000 fine grit. I also have a flattening stone to resurface them

 

Nordstrand Flattening Stone - Sharpening Tool for Re-Leveling Waterstone, Whetstone, Oil Stones - Coarse Grinding Lapping Plate with Grooves and Rough Grit - Flattener Fixer Sharpener for Waterstones - - Amazon.com

 

Edited by GringoSalado
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  • 3 months later...
On 3/26/2021 at 6:30 PM, Patricio Swayze said:

Looking to sell this MKM Isonzo. I never carried it and I need to feed my photography problem. Bought it new for $85. I don’t think I have the box anymore. Will let it go for $50.  Anyone interested, DM me. 
 

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i have that exact knife.  it's my edc.  a little bulky for my pocket but a great quality knife.

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Anyone ever buy from knifesilo.com?  Prices seem too good to be true, but I took a chance and bought a few knives there anyway.  They have some discontinued Benchmade models you can't really find anywhere but the secondary market.  They have a Gold Bugout and a Gold Foray for like $400 a piece and 10% off on top of that if you buy two or more knives.  No tax (to Texas) and free shipping.  They appear to be a UK company but they have a place in FL as well.

This thread has cost me a lot of money at this point.  I was not really ever a knife guy.  Bought some Ganzos because of this thread and then at like $20 what's a gifted knife among friends.  So I would give them away to anyone at the house who admired one and then just go buy more, different models.  Graduated to a couple of Kershaws and that held me over for a year or more.

Was more of a gun guy but that market sucks so bad now I can't bring myself to pay over MSRP for new guns if you can even find what you want and ammo is up 300% or so year over year.  So  I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and decided to take a look at Benchmade.  I bought a 4170BK automatic and was smitten.  At the time I didn't know shit about knives or Benchmades and still don't know a lot.

Then I saw a few Gold class models online...holy fuck.  $550-1000 for a knife took me a while to wrap my head around.  I was like I just went from a Kershaw price point to a $340 price point.  I can't pay double that for a knife...can I?  Yes.  Yes I can.  I saw the 908-161 Gold Stryker and watched a YouTube unboxing of it and I had to have that motherfucker.  And that was not the end of it.  I can't get enough of those Damasteel blades.

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19 hours ago, Hozz said:

Anyone ever buy from knifesilo.com?  Prices seem too good to be true, but I took a chance and bought a few knives there anyway.  They have some discontinued Benchmade models you can't really find anywhere but the secondary market.  They have a Gold Bugout and a Gold Foray for like $400 a piece and 10% off on top of that if you buy two or more knives.  No tax (to Texas) and free shipping.  They appear to be a UK company but they have a place in FL as well.

knifesilo.com is 100% a scam.  Avoid.

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14 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Wait, what happened here?

So if you go there and you search by brand for Benchmade you will see the 3 most expensive items they have in stock are discontinued models that they have listed at prices significantly below MAP.  Again I was new to Benchmade and this didn't set off the alarm bells it should have...I just thought I had found an Internet diamond in the rough.  And you can definitely find mainstream places that discount Benchmades, Amazon almost always does and lots of places do like 15% of MAP.  But these knives were discontinued, ie rare, and like 40% off MAP.

So, anyway, I ordered all three of these knives, not just because they were a great deal but because I was interested in all of them, especially the 2 gold class.  Well my order status had not updated so I contacted them.  The interaction did not leave me feeling confident.  They said the order had shipped so they could not cancel it but they could not provide me with tracking.  Ok...from there I did some research and what I found was...not good.

First if you search knifesilo.com in Google the first hit after their website is a lengthy thread about how they are a scam on one of the leading knife forums on the Internet.  Then there are a bunch of hits to Reddit threads saying similar shit.  I went back to their website and googled the two addresses they have listed...one in the UK one in FL.  They are both residential addresses.  Not warehouses, not store fronts.  Just a street view of some house in the UK and some apartment looking place in FL.  Ironically, this morning, they finally got back to me with tracking and they did send me something on April 2, from CA, that is supposed to arrive here today.  So I will check back in when I get the package.  Other people in similar situations have gotten the wrong model, the wrong brand or even things that were not knives.  Like clothing.

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On 4/5/2021 at 5:53 PM, Lat22 said:

I just bought a Work Sharp Mk2 to keep all of my blades sharp. It's an amazing little piece of machinery.  Not sure my Spyderco Sharpmaker will ever see the light of day again.

Good to know, I've always wondered about those.  My brother gave me a wharthog V sharp for Christmas and I've got every straight bladed item in the house uber sharpened right now.  

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3 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Good to know, I've always wondered about those.  My brother gave me a wharthog V sharp for Christmas and I've got every straight bladed item in the house uber sharpened right now.  

How are you liking it?  I wasn't familiar with that product until I saw your post.  It looks like it's a Spyderco Sharpmaker on steroids.  The good thing about the Warthog is that it sharpens both sides of the blade at once, whereas with the Sharpmaker you've got to go back and forth between the ceramic rods to sharpen both sides of the blade.  

I've got both a Sharpmaker and a WorkSharp.  I love the Sharpmaker for its ease and simplicity.  You can break it out and start sharpening in a matter of seconds.  The WorkSharp does a good job of putting an edge on, but it's nowhere near as convenient as the Sharpmaker.  Seems like the Warthog might be a happy medium between the two.

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/7/2021 at 7:36 PM, Carl Spackler said:

How are you liking it?  I wasn't familiar with that product until I saw your post.  It looks like it's a Spyderco Sharpmaker on steroids.  The good thing about the Warthog is that it sharpens both sides of the blade at once, whereas with the Sharpmaker you've got to go back and forth between the ceramic rods to sharpen both sides of the blade.  

I've got both a Sharpmaker and a WorkSharp.  I love the Sharpmaker for its ease and simplicity.  You can break it out and start sharpening in a matter of seconds.  The WorkSharp does a good job of putting an edge on, but it's nowhere near as convenient as the Sharpmaker.  Seems like the Warthog might be a happy medium between the two.

 

Apologies, I thought I had answered this.  I like it. I don’t have much to compare it to, but it works well, seems quality made, and is a breeze to use once you get it “set”.   It produces a great edge (like many others I’m sure).  Everything I own is sharp now. Maintaining the edge on my edc (same knife everyday) is a 90 second ordeal every few days or once a week. 

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image.png.7d574351408092aa8ce33b15426d548f.png

 "Beautiful hand made fixed blade Damascus steel knife with custom handle and leather sheath. The acid dipped Damascus steel blade offers a unique pattern with a nice clean edge. The handle is a combination of wood and bone in classic Red, White and , Blue with a star set in the end and a stainless bolster. There is no manufacturer stamping on the blade being hand made. Leather sheath with belt loop included."

Overall length of the knife: 8.0" Blade edge length: 4.0" 

 

 

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