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I don't generally make sheaths for non-koyote knives because it tends to back us up on orders. However, I have been known to do it on occasion
Koyote Knives Leuku Bushcrafter Passaround
- Thread starter tonym
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I don't generally make sheaths for non-koyote knives because it tends to back us up on orders. However, I have been known to do it on occasion
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Yaknow- actually, you probably DO know- yaknow, simple isn't always easy. I can do V grinds and start with round stock and all that, so why do I do these this way? Well, barring differences in handle designs- which range from coffin to a tapered butt to whatever in betweens, and there are variations in belly curves and such.
I'm really striving for simplicity. There are advantages- the slab sided blade actually works really well for a lot of tasks. Batoning tends to- in my experience- be easier. The handles in general give you more options on holding for use. There is thought that goes into the simplicity.
It's my answer to the Tracker, I guess. the exact opposite- take everything that isn't necessary for a sturdy field knife out and see what's left
There's also an ergonomics argument. I find that ergonomics has come to mean replacing one good tool with 10 or more limited use tools that won't allow you to work the way you need to, but only the way they are designed to allow you to. I guess that's great at McDonalds or something, but it doesn't fit my values of ergonomics.
The sheaths... well. My knives WORK well, but don't always shout their presence, yknow. The sheaths get head turns everywhere, and deserve every bit of it. bulletproof indeed.
So, we'll see what the final verdict is, and I'm looking forward to it. :thumbup:
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I did notice right away that choking up on the blade was VERY easy. You can choke up almost to the point.
TF
TF
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Thanks for checking in TF! I think you will find the knife to be very well thought out and a pleasure to use in many different grips. Something about the simplicity of a straight spine with an upswept blade that is just so useful! Have fun and don't pull any punches while using it. Something I came to find about Koyote's thin stock; it takes a beating like a much thicker blade, and always returns true! Have fun.
By the way, please cross off JWilliams name and address from the list. He has to back out of the pass around.
Thank you
By the way, please cross off JWilliams name and address from the list. He has to back out of the pass around.
Thank you
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Blade Length from Handle: 4.796
Handle Length to Blade: 4.373
Usable Handle: 3.866
Handle Width: 0.833
Blade Thickness: 0.097
Blade from Spine to Blade: 1.418
Width of Grind: 0.275
Length of File Work on Spine: 1.300
Fit and Finish:
Handle: The handle is an odd shape in that it does not have a butt swell. It left me feeling that my hand would slip off the handle at first sight. The black micarta was very thick and not contoured to have a palm swell. The handle is a little more squarish at the top of the handle and rounds toward the bottom.
The handle is well contoured and finished. The blade is well blended into the handle and the two small pins and lanyard tube are perfectly blended as well. I think the fit and finish of the handle is matte, simplistic, but very well done.
Blade: The blade is FAT in terms of thickness from top to bottom. Flatly the largest blade width I have ever used - especially in such a small package. I have an intial feeling that this blade will be too wide. The blade is left as forged except the spine and the grind. The spine is squared nicely and is fairly 'sharp' to the touch. In my opinion, a must for a bushcrafting knife. The blade also has 9 file work divots to allow for the thumb to gain additional grip. They are simplistic in nature - but also well done. The grind is well done. A simple slack belt grind to leave a great convex edge.
Sheath: Damned near perfect in my opinion. Thick, well crafted, well thought out, bullet proof, well oiled - just great. I loved this sheath and simply can't say enough about it.
Using the Koyote Leuku:
I decided to make some simple bushcrafting tools to review this knife. I started by making a bow drill set.
I battoned the wood for this set first. I was using an 18 inch piece of medium density wood. I worried at first about the thickness of this blade and batonning. I found out that I should not have. I flatly beat the snot out of this blade during my tests (into oak) and it had no issues. I used a oak batton and tapped the wood into place. I found that the width of the blade became a real asset while battoning. It was wide enough to give you more control as you passed through the wood and you could keep your battoning straighter than you could with thinner knives.
Being over 4 inches long - it gives plenty of room to batton through fairly wide wood with little issue. The point, being nothing like a spear point also gives you reassurance if you hit close to the tip. In no time I had a hearth basically made.
I then had to clean up the hearth. For this I simply tried to take as wide of curls off the wood I could to make a flat hearth on both sides. This is where one of the issues with the knife became apperant. The grind is a little too steep - the knife wants to skip on you and not bite as much as it should. The blade does not want to curl wide curls easily. I grabbed my aurora (which is a flat grind) and found it a bit more adept at taking wide curls off the hearth.
With this said - I am not saying that the knife could not cut - it certainly could - the wide grind just didn't allow it to cut as well as my Aurora. Koyote called this a "Convex Scandi" and would agree with his description. Others commented on the grind as well and Koyote had this to say:
"I'm wondering... I don't generally ship with a very steep angle. But it's a funny grind in some ways since it's like a 'scandi convex' and the sharpening work along the whole bevel. Is it possible it's steepening up a bit because of that? If so it's a quick fix.
Or, it's just possible it's a steep angle compared to other scandis! (Mine are generally about 9-12 degrees each side and match up fairly well with the convex.)"
I moved on to drilling. The knife did not excel in this matter. Because it is not a spear point - I did not think it would. It made a fine dimple - but it would be a PITA to drill holes with this blade. I was not enjoying my experience with this knife so far. It wasn't cutting as well as my other knives and it wouldn't drill. Would I even like this knife?
I then burned in the hearth after making a spindle and cut the notch:
I was having a bit of trouble getting the blade to plunge cut as well, again because of the thicker grind on the convex, and I reached up as shown above and put my other thumb on it. This is the exact moment the tide starting turning in my mind about this knife.
I started using the blade differently. I choked up more - put both hands on it more - and started cutting a bit differently with it. I decided after a few cuts to batton a bit while making this notch. Again, I had control with the batton - and with both thumbs on the blade - I had a TON of control with fine work like cutting a notch. I finished the notch and actually started smiling... this knife surprised me - I need to rethink how I use this knife a little.
I grabbed another piece of wood. I choked up and started making curls.
Wow - they were thin and the cut was very natural and controled. I loved the fine work I could do with it. I choked up more:
I found I could comfortable choke way up on this knife. What the hell - is this big thing a whittler?
I started messing around a bit with fine work. WOW! This knife allowed for many flatly odd hand holds and the fine work was simply unbelievable. I could use it as a draw knife - I could take little curls off - I could switch up and make nice divots.
That was when I realized something else. The handles simplistic design allowed for all of this. Because of the lack of palm and heel swell I could move my hand freely up and down the handle and do a lot of different stuff I could not do with other handles. I really started to like this knife.
I grabbed my hearth again and realized I had NO trouble removing 3/8ths curls - but when I went larger it started skipping on me a bit. I can see where I am at with this knife.
Continued...
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It loved the fine work - and did just fine with the larger stuff - okay - fine. Let me do the Zen thing and use the knife for what it is - not for what I want it to be.
I started drawing the knife toward me more - doing more detailed work. I was having fun. This is a big knife - that acts in many ways like a smaller knife. Cool!
Okay - back to the bow drill. I quickly battoned a handhold and busted out a coal.
Yeah - yeah - whatever. I sat down. I grabbed more wood. As you can see above - this thing was a fuzz stick master. I made fuzz stick after fuzz stick - and had never made curls so thin. This prompted an idea. I grabbed a softer bit of wood - and began scraping with the spine. It was a pleasure to do so because it was square and sharp. The blades width also made this easier and capable of using two hands. I grabbed my firesteel and WOW - I has sparks. This knife was a fire making natural in this way. Great.
The steel was no worse for the wear. This reminded me. How sharp is this knife - and how well does it hold an edge. I touched it back up on the strop to wiping hair away sharp and sat down.
I just started beating on this knife. I cut oak like it was going out of style. I battoned oak. I CROSS battoned oak. I even chopped at oak. And then I curled oak as best I could. I walked over to the paper - and found it was still VERY sharp. I was impressed with the edge retention. I ran my finger nail down the wood after chopping with this knife and did notice at this point a few blemishes in the edge. This was to be expected after the ass kicking the knife took in my hands - and after about 5 minutes with some 2000 grit and the strop - she was as good as new. Easy to sharpen for sure.
A note about the handle. I began to really like this handle. It is on the large size - so you may want to have Koyote take your hand size into account. If you like the aurora width - the Leuku is even a tad larger. I found that the micarta was well done - simple - no hot spots and not a single slip. The more I used it - the more I liked it.
A note about the file work. I liked the file work - no biggie - but it may not be necessary - or it may need to be longer if the use likes it. Because I was choking up on the knife so much - the file work may need to be eliminated or extended. Whatever. I found that cutting was easier when you put your thumb on the spine.
I allowed this knife to take over my Aurora's spot on my hip for two full days and I had a lot of fun with this blade. Koyote mentioned he was going for simple - and well done. I think he has it with this blade. He may want to rethink his grind on this knife - he may not want to. The more I let the blade dictate what it wanted to do - the more fun I had.
Also - the more fire I made with it - the more fun I had. The fuzz stick in this picture was made with the Leuku.
Continued.
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Lasting Impressions:
There is a lot of bang for the buck in this knife. If this was the only knife I had and the SHTF - I could live with that. It may not hog wood out or drill like a spear point - but it was a very capable knife and it allowed for a huge amount of uses. I liked how versatle it was - not only the blade but the sheath. I could wear this knife a myriad of ways, use it a myriad of ways - and get it to do what I wanted to do.
When I cleaned it to ship off - I began to understand the lack of a polish on the blade and leaving it 'as forged'. It is a natural finish and I don't have to think about it - or worry about a petina. The knife, in this way, just wants to be used. This is not the prom queen knife that you take out once in a while. You drag this one through the bush and you don't care what she looks like. Why - she works - and who cares what she looks like. Simple is better in this case. I liked this knife for that. Besides - when she is on your hip - the sheath turns enough heads!
I felt really honored to be able to test the blade out, the sheath out, and have as much fun as I did. This one surprised me a bit - and I am glad it did.
I will ship it off tomorrow to the next in line. Thanks to everyone that made this happen for me. It means a lot!
There is a lot of bang for the buck in this knife. If this was the only knife I had and the SHTF - I could live with that. It may not hog wood out or drill like a spear point - but it was a very capable knife and it allowed for a huge amount of uses. I liked how versatle it was - not only the blade but the sheath. I could wear this knife a myriad of ways, use it a myriad of ways - and get it to do what I wanted to do.
When I cleaned it to ship off - I began to understand the lack of a polish on the blade and leaving it 'as forged'. It is a natural finish and I don't have to think about it - or worry about a petina. The knife, in this way, just wants to be used. This is not the prom queen knife that you take out once in a while. You drag this one through the bush and you don't care what she looks like. Why - she works - and who cares what she looks like. Simple is better in this case. I liked this knife for that. Besides - when she is on your hip - the sheath turns enough heads!
I felt really honored to be able to test the blade out, the sheath out, and have as much fun as I did. This one surprised me a bit - and I am glad it did.
I will ship it off tomorrow to the next in line. Thanks to everyone that made this happen for me. It means a lot!
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You knocked that one out of the park man, great writeup. Very appropriate work with it and good observations. Awesome pics too, I need to make a light box!
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Great review Talfuchre! Do you mind if I use some of your photos in my portfolio?
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Take what you want. If you want the raw photos- or more - let me know.
TF
TF
Wandering_About
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Nice review Talfuchre. I think you've discovered one reason I like rather plain handle shapes and no swells. I tend to use lots of different grips and move my hand(s) around on a knife a lot, and that works better with a handle more along those lines.
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thanks for the review! this has been a fun thread to follow.
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awesome review. I've always fought the urge to make a knife everyone wants and try to make a knife that just works.
Draw knifing, scraping, and tracking (the broad blade) have always been very important to me. I suppose my personal definition of survival or bushcrafting includes a bit more carpentry than some. One of my touchstones that kept me coming back to this basic shape was the question "would I want to make a bow with this?"
Talfuchre- I know what you mean about the filework. I'm 50/50 on it. The spearpoint EDC knives I do with the thumbramps can benefit from the filework, for sure. On the leuku style bushcrafters I'm not so sure. I do actually try to keep it short so that it is more useful for the thumb specifically without taking away from the scraper edge. Maybe I should have gone a third inch less on this one. But your other suggestion fo going all the way up could be interesting.
The integral guardlike aspect of the handle is fairly new. I first put it on an SD knife, but I have to say that I like it a lot. So far, I think it has gotten pretty positive comments.
Rocketbomb- I am not sure where I started getting into the habit of holding knives all sorts of 'wrong' ways. I think a lot of it goes back to my early reenactment stuff, where I simply didn't have access to "proper" tools and sorta figured that if someone could manage with a flake of rock, I'd manage with a knife and found that knives like the buck 119 were too restrictive. But it's also come out of my time in the Navy doing things with the wrong tool
Draw knifing, scraping, and tracking (the broad blade) have always been very important to me. I suppose my personal definition of survival or bushcrafting includes a bit more carpentry than some. One of my touchstones that kept me coming back to this basic shape was the question "would I want to make a bow with this?"
Talfuchre- I know what you mean about the filework. I'm 50/50 on it. The spearpoint EDC knives I do with the thumbramps can benefit from the filework, for sure. On the leuku style bushcrafters I'm not so sure. I do actually try to keep it short so that it is more useful for the thumb specifically without taking away from the scraper edge. Maybe I should have gone a third inch less on this one. But your other suggestion fo going all the way up could be interesting.
The integral guardlike aspect of the handle is fairly new. I first put it on an SD knife, but I have to say that I like it a lot. So far, I think it has gotten pretty positive comments.
Rocketbomb- I am not sure where I started getting into the habit of holding knives all sorts of 'wrong' ways. I think a lot of it goes back to my early reenactment stuff, where I simply didn't have access to "proper" tools and sorta figured that if someone could manage with a flake of rock, I'd manage with a knife and found that knives like the buck 119 were too restrictive. But it's also come out of my time in the Navy doing things with the wrong tool
Great review,Talfuchre! I too,have been following this thread with great interest.
And do let me say,you have some very good survival skills. Hard learned and well practiced,I'm sure.
Very well thought out knife,it seems. For me,just needs a thinner edge profile.
And do let me say,you have some very good survival skills. Hard learned and well practiced,I'm sure.
Very well thought out knife,it seems. For me,just needs a thinner edge profile.
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Christof,
You mentioned something I forgot in my review. The integral guard is something I really liked. It protected your hand without getting in the way.
I think what I learned about this knife and other knives is that every design has weaknesses and strengths. You have to sacrifice some things - to get other things. I think when you take a look at the edge grind, for instance, you may not want to thin it out as you may loose strength in the blade. Everything seems to be a trade off. What I really enjoyed about this experience, and other pass arounds, is that it allows me to learn and grow for almost free. This is because of the generousness off those involved in the passaround.
TF
You mentioned something I forgot in my review. The integral guard is something I really liked. It protected your hand without getting in the way.
I think what I learned about this knife and other knives is that every design has weaknesses and strengths. You have to sacrifice some things - to get other things. I think when you take a look at the edge grind, for instance, you may not want to thin it out as you may loose strength in the blade. Everything seems to be a trade off. What I really enjoyed about this experience, and other pass arounds, is that it allows me to learn and grow for almost free. This is because of the generousness off those involved in the passaround.
TF
Wandering_About
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Rocketbomb- I am not sure where I started getting into the habit of holding knives all sorts of 'wrong' ways. I think a lot of it goes back to my early reenactment stuff, where I simply didn't have access to "proper" tools and sorta figured that if someone could manage with a flake of rock, I'd manage with a knife and found that knives like the buck 119 were too restrictive. But it's also come out of my time in the Navy doing things with the wrong tool
I grew up on a farm in Nebraska and learned that every tool has about ten times as many uses as it's intended to have
so it just comes naturally to me.Great review TF. :thumbup: :thumbup:
In many ways your opinions mirror my own.
Two things that stand out from the reviews in this passaround are:
1) The reviewers always seem a bit skeptical about the handle until they put it to serious use.
2) Christofs heat treatment on the 15N20 can sure take a beating.
This continues to be a very interesting thread.
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
Big Mike
:thumbup:In many ways your opinions mirror my own.
Two things that stand out from the reviews in this passaround are:
1) The reviewers always seem a bit skeptical about the handle until they put it to serious use.
2) Christofs heat treatment on the 15N20 can sure take a beating.
This continues to be a very interesting thread.
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space."
Big Mike