Addiction

Yesterday I paid a visit to my favorite Case knife dealer and picked up a few nice folders - a stainless Swayback Jack and carbon steel Medium Stockman, both with really nice stag handle slabs .  This morning I was adding them to my knife inventory and figured it was time for a group portrait.  I normally individually photograph my knives both for inventory/insurance purposes and in case I want to use the photos in this blog, but I had never taken a 'group photo' of my small folders in their storage case.  I set up the camera and took a quick photo:

What you see above represents just a fraction of my collection, and holds only my small  pocket folders I don't put to regular use.  Frankly, very few of them have or will ever see any real use.  They are eye candy - to be held, admired for their fine workmanship and unique design or construction elements, then to be put away for future admiration sessions.  And so it is with most of my Case pocket knives.  About half of this collection is made up of Case knives, most of them higher grade examples with exotic handle materials or limited edition designs.  There are a few 'workman' grade Case blades in the picture, ones I hold in reserve in case I lose my daily carry knife (which is the one knife in the picture with the blades opened).

I also have a clear bias towards one style of knife, regardless of maker.  That is the traditional three-blade stockman pattern:

I've carried a knife of this style for most of my adult life and think there's no finer example of a classic American pocket knife pattern.  That's why my collection tends to focus on stockman pattern knives.  All of the knives in the bottom row are stockman patterns by different manufacturers.

Looking over the collection a few observations struck me beyond my obvious slobbering admiration for Case products.

• Country of origin is not an indicator of quality.  I have examples from the US, Germany, England and China in this collection.  Some American knifes are the worst executed of the bunch.  Some of the best executed were made in China.  In fact, the knives in this collection that were made by Buck are an interesting example of what I'm talking about.  The folders made in Buck's Chinese factory are better fitted and finished than similar knives produced in their US factory.  Now, the US produced Buck folders are not bad, it's just that their Chinese knives are clearly better.  And cheaper.
• There are huge holes in my collection - time holes that is.  I've been interested in knives most of my life and I've been 'accumulating' since I was a teenager (back when teenagers could legally buy knives).  The holes represent two factors.  First is available cash.  Providing for a growing family is expensive, particularly on the paltry salary of a junior Army officer.  As the kids were growing up there wasn't much spare cash to put towards knife collecting.  As I needed a blade I'd pick one up cheap at the PX, or go haunt places like the late, great Cumberland Knife & Gun shop in Fayetteville, NC hoping to grab one of the less expensive production blades by talented designers like Al Mar.  But the real hole was created by loss and theft.  At one point I had a whole duffle bag full of knives 'disappear' during a move from Fort Belvior to Germany, and I've lost perhaps a dozen knives during the normal course of my military duties.  I have, quite literally, dropped knives around the world.  Perhaps it's my way of dropping bread crumbs to make sure I can find my way back.  I dunno.  But on the training grounds and battlegrounds of Germany, Korea, Central America, Saudi Arabia and Iraq I've managed to lose something close to a dozen knives.  Some were lent out and never returned, some fell out of the sheath during late night road marches, some decided they'd try to beat me to the ground during parachute jumps, and a few were actually broken in use.  So what I have today is a collection that mostly reflects my collecting activity of the past decade.  I remember many of the knives that are no longer with me. Most had a good story to tell.  
• I'm clearly a traditionalist at heart.  The world is full of folders designed on state-of-the art CAD systems and constructed using materials more suited to the Space program than pocket knives.  They are great products, but I'll have none of that in my collection.  If a pocket knife isn't made of steel, brass, wood, bone or stag I won't even give it a passing glance.  Gimmie' my knives just the way they were back in the good old days, when John Wayne was making westerns, you could still buy 100 octane gas and taking a pocket knife to school wouldn't get the SWAT team called out.
• And last but not least - it's a great time to be collecting knives!  The availability and quality has never been better (really, it hasn't).  The Internet, on-line shopping and on-line auction sites have fundamentally changed knife collecting.  It's just a lot more fun today than it was 20 years ago.

Stay sharp!

Blade Of The Month - January 2013

This month's Blade of the Month isn't a knife.  It is the now ubiquitous pocket tool, often generically referred to as 'The Leatherman'.

Leatherman Wave

Like the words 'aspirin', 'band-aid' and 'kleenex' a commercial name has come to refer to a generic line of products that are more correctly known as multi-tools.

Leatherman gets the recognition, however, because they were first on the scene with the concept and from the beginning their products were always at the top of the heap in terms of quality and design.

It is difficult today to understand the impact the Leatherman design had on the knife and tool market when it appeared 30 years ago.  Before Tim Leatherman invented the Leatherman there was... not much, really.  In the Victorian era the cutlers of Sheffield created some pretty spectacular multi-tool pocket knives but those were mostly for display at exhibitions and trade fairs; more demonstrations of manufacturing prowess than commercial products intended for real world use.  Later we had the Swiss Army Knife, the Boy Scout knife and a few really oddball interchangeable tool systems that were better suited to the toolbox than the pocket.  The Leatherman was the first well designed, well made and truly useful tool kit you could easily carry on your belt or in your pocket.

What made the Leatherman successful was the basic approach to the issue.  Things like Swiss Army Knives are pocket knives with a few tools incorporated.  The Leatherman is a tool kit that incorporates a knife.  By not being bound by the traditional pocket knife design Tim Leatherman was able to design the tool using a different approach to the problem.  The result is a multi-tool kit that can be used to repair eyeglasses or tune up a HMMWV without breaking a sweat (and I've seen the Leatherman used for both of those repair jobs). 

I was on active duty in the Army when these things hit the PX system sometime in 1983.  The impact was immediate.  Suddenly EVERY Soldier was carrying one and the PX had trouble keeping them in stock.  The original model, the PST (Pocket Survival Tool), was so well designed and made that it stayed in the Leatherman lineup for over 20 years.  

Leatherman PST II

The basic functionality of the PST really hasn't been improved upon.  Subsequent Leatherman models added more tools and locking mechanisms but the basic design was so sound that it hasn't changed.  It's that good.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then the Leatheman has been flattered almost to death.  Within a few years it seemed just about every knife manufacturer had their interpretation of the Leatherman on the market.  Most were pretty good.  SOG came out early with some good designs that gained wide acceptance in the US military.  Gerber and Buck still list fairly good multi-tools in their catalogs, and even Victorinox (the Swiss Army Knife people) got into the act, putting out a beautiful but over-built and overly heavy example.

But in my opinion Leatherman's design and execution are still the best.  That's why when someone asks "What kind of multi-tool should I get?" I just answer, "Get a Leatherman.  It doesn't much matter which one because they are all good."

So Happy 30th Birthday, Leatherman.  And keep 'em coming!

Stay sharp!

Spam & Steel

An absolutely gratuitous shot of a J.D. Davis drop point hunter in 52100 steel.

Nothing much to say.  Just though it was time for a cheesecake shot of a good custom blade.  The Spam?  It went into a Spam & cheese omelette.  Yummm!

New Year's Resolutions

It is mid-January and I'm still mulling over my New Year's resolutions.  I've never been a big believer in resolutions to begin with - I'm as lousy at keeping them as I am deciding on them.

Of course there's the usual - lose weight, get more exercise, pay off all our credit card bills, etc.  I make those kinds of resolutions every year and come each December I marvel at how little I was able to accomplish.  If procrastination is a gift then I'm doubly blessed.

I do make some resolutions that are very easy to keep.  Watch less of the Oxygen Channel, spit at the TV every time I see Joy Behar's ugly mug, that kind of thing.  I think I have a 100% success rate at those types of commitments.  But really, to truly enjoy sticking to a resolution it must be more personal, better tailored to one's particular weaknesses.  I have a feeling that this year millions of folks have made the same resolutions I did - less Oxygen, more spitting - so I've been looking for a few resolutions that I can keep and really enjoy sticking to.

Since this is a blog mainly about knives (really, it is) I figured it was time to evaluate just where I am as a user/accumulator/collector.  I look at my collection inventory and I realize that I've been a pretty undisciplined collector over the past few years.  Hell, except for minor concentration on Case pocket knives I've pretty much tried to vacuum up everything that caught my fancy - the old crow and the shiny object story.

It's time to slow down and think about what and how I want to collect and strategize about how to build a collection.  The good news is that there's never been a better time to be a knife collector.  Knife manufacturers and custom knife makers are turning out extraordinarily high quality products at quality levels never before seen in the industry.  Prices are pretty darned good too.  The bad news is that knife manufacturers and custom knife makers are turning out extraordinarily high quality products at quality levels never before seen in the industry, and the prices are pretty darned good too.  It's like opening a bag of peanuts.  You are never going to stop at one.

But I want a collection, not just a pile of knives.  Therefore my New Year's resolution is to slow down, evaluate, develop a strategy and start to build a focused collection.  Quality over quantity.  Yeah, that's it.  Focus.  Strategy.  Quality.  Take your time.  No impulse purchases.  Slooooow and steady.

Now where did I put that Smoky Mountain Knife Works sales flyer...

Stay sharp!

Redneck Is A State Of Mind

The term 'redneck' describes a state of mind, not a state of residence.  It implies a rejection of certain civilized mores, like not sitting down to the table in a sleeveless shirt or asking for foam in your latte.  In a very real sense the redneck is the anti-metrosexual (though to be honest the redneck as a species existed long before the metrosexual came along, and the term 'metrosexual' really describes the anti-redneck).  Are we getting too esoteric here?  OK, moving along.

There's a guy on YouTube that likes knives and hunting, and he's not shy about it.  He posts a lot of videos about knives and knife use.  But unlike a lot of the knife review crap you see on YouTube, this guy is the real thing; he actually uses his knives to field dress deer and he shows you, in graphic detail, how well they work or don't work.  He's also not shy about calling an expensive knife a piece of junk; if it doesn't work it doesn't work regardless of how much it cost.

Virtuovice is his YouTube name and he has one heck of a following - a virtual cult hero.  The guy is seriously into hunting, guns, blades and fresh meat.  And beer.  Lots of beer.  Put him in a sleeveless t-shirt and drop him into a stadium to watch an Alabama football game and he'd fit right in.

Except that... he's Japanese!  I don't mean that he's of Japanese descent, he's Japanese born and raised.  In Japan.

So we have a beer (and sake) drinking, knife loving hunting nut who does own and wear sleeveless shirts. Sounds like a redneck to me.  Who cares if he's Japanese.  Like I said, redneck is a state of mind, not a state of residence.  But then get this - the guy is a medical doctor!

Now we have a beer drinking, knife loving, hunting nut Japanese medical doctor redneck. How cool is that! Even cooler, he's not shy about applying a little medical technology to one of the great questions of our time - how well is my knife constructed?

Every once in a while Virtovice will toss a bunch of knives into his x-ray machine so we can get a look inside the handles to see just how well the knife is constructed.  Here's just one of his x-ray videos:

The results can be surprising.  A lot of folks who buy a knife thinking they are getting a full tang blade may be disappointed to find their knife has a lot less metal in the handle than they thought.  Now, there's nothing wrong with stick tang knives (a 'stick tang' refers to a design were the tang is just a narrow piece of steel enclosed in the handle).  If properly designed a stick tang knife can be nearly as strong as a full tang design, and certainly strong enough for general use.  However, poorly designed stick tangs have a nasty habit of snapping where the blade enters the handle.

In this video Virtuovice x-rays a couple of my favorite knives.  The Fallkniven F1 is, as I already knew, a (nearly) full tang design.  It is easy to see why this knife blade is a favorite of custom builders, who buy the blades without handles from Fallkniven and put their own fancy handle scales on them.  The Ka-Bar USMC knife is a surprise to me because of the width of the stick tang.  In past posts I've criticized this particular knife because of the tang design, but I'm heartened to see so much steel inside the handle. Looks like I'll have to re-evaluate it.

And last, the Buck Vanguard.  Although this has the narrowest tang of any of the knives in this x-ray the way Buck designed the transition from the full blade to the stick tang means it is a very sturdy design.  The sloped transition from the blade to the tang means there still plenty of meat at the highest stress point where the blade enters the handle.

A great video, and there's lots more out there on Virtuovice's YouTube channel.  His English is a little rough and his accent can be a little thick, but the guy knows his knives and he puts out good, informative (and occasionally humorous) videos.

Stay sharp!

Brian

Blade Of The Month - The BuckLite Max Folder

When people write about knives, either in print or on the web, they tend to extol the virtues of the newest, sexiest designs.  There's little to be said for pedestrian, inexpensive knives.  It seems the more money someone spends on a knife the more compelled they feel to write about it.  A lot of it is crowing to help them feel better about dumping so much money into a blade.

Yet there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of low cost quality knives made by major manufacturers that work so well they become the favorites of those that carry them.  A knife doesn't have to be expensive or forged out of unobtanium to be effective.  It just has to work well.

One knife that has emerged as one of my favorites is a simple $20 knife from Buck.  The BuckLite Max model 482.

BuckLite Max 482.  This is the medium model - my favorite.
I like is so much I had C.J. and Chuck Buck sign the blade
at the 2012 Blade Show.

Why does it work so well for me?  For my daily needs it is the perfect combination of size, weight, blade shape and features.  This knife has been in my pocket almost continuously for the past year.  All other lockback folders I've tested for daily use have fallen by the wayside, mainly because of weight, size or blade shape issues.  Here in the deep South, when you are wearing lightweight shorts during the extended hot summers you do not need or want a heavy, overly large blade in your pocket.

What keeps the weight down is the knife's simplicity of construction.  It is just two glass reinforced nylon handle scales mated to a blade.  There are no handle liners or bolsters to add weight.  Of course the blade lacks the sophisticated pivot support found in more expensive (and heavier) folding knives.  This makes the knife, in theory, less rugged and more prone to breakage under heavy use.  Again, in theory.  In a year of use I have had no problem with this knife blade loosening around the pivot pin.  Of course I don't abuse it.  If I've got to do some cutting that will put a lot of torque on the knife handle I'll go get a fixed blade knife.

No, you won't be able to pry your way out of an armored personnel carrier with this knife, but for general cutting chores it's just about perfect.  For a mere $20 (eBay vendor price) it can't be beat.

Stay sharp!

Brian

While Waiting On Corporate To Make Up Their Minds...

My last post described my troubles with a new Svea 123 gas stove.

Notice the thin red ring?  It bubbles when the stove is hot!

Since that posting a few things have happened.

Right after I wrote the blog post I decided to contact the vendor, Backcountry.com, for a replacement stove.  Since this stove was purchased through Amazon (Backcountry is an authorized Amazon vendor) I used Amazon's normally outstanding exchange/return system to notify Backcountry that I wanted an exchange.  Well, four business days ticked by with no contact from Backcountry.  Hmmm...  I checked with Amazon and confirmed that Backcountry had received the request.  It was starting to not look good from a customer service perspective.

About day four I got tired of waiting and decided to contact Primus (the manufacturer of the stove) directly through their website to see if they could do anything for me.  The next day I got an email back from Primus asking me to send the stove in for evaluation.  I did, and as I was walking out of the Post Office after having sent the stove off I got a call on my iPhone from Backcountry asking if there was anything they could do for me!  I didn't take the call, but later that day they got an email from me letting them know I was clearly dissatisfied with their service.  Is one sample point an indication of a trend?  No.  Backcountry may offer outstanding service and I'm the unlucky outlier who fell through the cracks.  However, a quick Google search for reviews of Backcountry's customer service reputation reveals they've got some issues.  I'll think hard about ordering from them again.

Well, Primus has had my stove for just over a week now and no word yet on how they intend to handle the issue.  Here's hoping for a new stove!

In the meantime...

On one of my nocturnal laps around the internet I happened to stumble on a very used Swedish Optimus 8R stove for sale on eBay (or evil-Bay, as many call it).  I put in a low bid and to my utter surprise I won.  I started to wonder why nobody outbid me - did I miss something in the listing that should have warned me off?  I didn't notice anything, so I waited fretfully for the stove's arrival.

Just a few days later the stove showed up.  I unboxed it and gave it a quick visual check.  It was well used, but not abused, and appeared to be more dirty than anything else.  I tore the stove down to it's major components, scraped all the soot off and went after the major parts with Brasso.  The steel case needed a good scrubbing in soapy water and came out looking fine, with just a little paint loss.

Optimus 8R after a good clean-up

But would it light up and run properly?  That's always the big question with used stoves.  These brass stoves are very simple devices and there's not much that can go wrong on them, but if they don't work properly replacement parts can be hard to find.

So I filled up the tank with Coleman gas (the only fuel you should use in these stoves, by the way) poured fuel in the priming cup and touched it off to heat up the vaporizer tube.  After a few minutes the priming flame had burned down and it was time for the big test.  I opened the fuel valve and held a match to the burner head and - flame!  A few seconds of smoky yellow flame then the burner settled down to produce a beautiful blue ring of flame and the wonderful roar these old stoves are noted for.  The thing runs like a champ.

Flame On!

Putting out some steam!  Since this is a knife blog I threw a
Cold Steel Mackinac Hunter into the shot to keep things kosher.

There seems to be some minor pressurization issues that I hope will be solved with a new gasket for the fuel tank cap (ordered all they way from Merrie Olde England) and this gal should be good for another 20 years of service.

But this Optimus is a 50+ year old design.  How well does it stack up to more modern pressurized liquid and gas canister stoves?  We'll take a look at that another time.