Death of a King, Return of the Queen, Arrival of the Prince.

RoyalM

RoyalM

Joined
Dec 10, 2007
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PART1: Death of a King

So a bit of a cryptic thread title but it will explain itself shortly.

For the last 8 months or so I've been working with a couple of guys on building a survival school. Various shelters, benches, tables etc all had to be made and of course this gave me plenty of time to use my blades, axes and saws. My go to blade was my SYKCO1311 (the King), I used this blade pretty much every weekend for 8 months straight. Jobs included limbing downed trees, cutting saplings, sharpening stakes etc, I even took down a live tree 4 inches in diameter to see if it could be done. Most of the wood we used was live or very recently dead due to storm damage, there was however some dead standing that we used.

Here's a few pics of what we were building, things were going very well and the camp/school started to look really good:











Then things took a turn for the worse:






I'm not a small guy and through height and weight (6'4", 230lbs) I can get a fair bit of power into my swings, this allows me to lop off some thickish branches fairly easily. However the woods we were in are pretty hard and the toffee/caramel coloured bits at the base of branches were the hardest wood I've ever cut. I never felt the blade chip out or even heard it. I just looked down and thought "that doesn't look right". The chip was abut an inch long, maybe a 1/4 inch high.

To be continued, Busse content coming.
 
Part 2: Return of the Queen

My first step was to contact Renee and see what my next steps regarding the SYKCO1311. That in hand I returned to my trusty back up blade, as the the show must go on. My CGFBM (the Queen) was dusted off and treated to a quick sharpen then put straight to work. Always up to the task I returned to the woods with fresh purpose.

The 'Queen' and baton.









Occasionally I had need to split some longer pieces of wood as you can see. The baton was used liberally and didn't stand a chance.

I'm glad to say the camp was soon finished and more teaching, less building, could begin.

Time for a decent fire and a bit of relaxing.



Then a bigger fire for warmth at night, hence all the splitting and chopping.

 
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Part 3: Arrival of the Prince

It's not all hard work at the camp/school sometimes we spend a fair few hours talking and eating local delicacies:







Here's 'The Prince'. Pretty much this knife stays on my belt as soon as I'm in the woods until I leave. The camo is wearing off, I like the worn in look though and the knife still performs exceptionally. This is a 16" diameter pizza box containing kebab meat, chicken pakora, mixed pakora, onion bahji's and chips/fries. This is for 2 people. We call it a "munchie box". Once you've eaten as much as you can you chuck the box and remaining contents on the fire. It's amazing how well huge amounts of grease and fat burn.
 
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Conclusion

Now to bring you up to speed on my Royal family.

1) The King returned to his homeland was committed to the grave and resurrected, returning to Scotland to once more take up his place. By this I mean Renee asked me to ship my blade back, told me it was covered by warranty, had a new once made and shipped that back to me.

2) The Queen served me well while the King was away however she has now gone back into standby. A great knife and one I hope to never sell but she's just a bit to heavy and hard work for every day woods usage.

3) The Prince continues to be my go to knife. Most weekends I get away for a day or two to the woods and this is the knife on my belt. I have a few other mid sized users but this is the benchmark and my favourite.

A group shot of my blades relaxing at home waiting for the next challenge.



The Silky did remarkably well until it snapped. I'd get one again but it'll be babied from now on. You will note I only have one 'proper' sheath and that is for the CGFBM, the rest have been made by me using an old bit of plastic piping (SYKCO1311 sheath) and some lifting straps/strops (DSFTM).

I should say a massive thanks to Renee and all at Scrap Yard Knives. This all happened during Blade, staff vacations, a couple of national holidays and a ganzaa I believe and yet they still looked after me. Hopefully I'll not be testing out the Bussekin warranty again for quite some time. Although this did happen to another knife at the weekend. It's ok it wasn't mine and we weren't even using it hard. Bottle top for size.



 
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waitin´ for the update and consclusion of this story.

Always nice to see some blade useage. :) :thumbup:
 
Thank you so much for a totally awesome story and pix!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Best of luck with your new school, and we need more stories from it!!!!!! :D
 
So cool that scrapyard made you another 1311!!! I have been worried that if I break mine they would give me a $200 shop credit and that I would have to kick in $$ to get an 1111. Thanks for sharing.
 
Lots of hard work. Great job! That camp DOES look great! :cool: Sorry to hear about the 1311 but glad you are getting/have gotten a new one!
 
Lord have Mercy you gave that DOG a Whoopin' and nice to know that with such a great warranty you are back in the Woods Survival Business...Great Story....:thumbup:
 
Great story, and great pics! That is a whopping chip. Those 13's have always really appealed to me. The thinner, faster, longer blade is great.

No worries, just use them, and let that warranty give you confidence.

Glad the Shop took care of you.
 
Thread of the day! It has everything! I laughed. I cried. I envied fine steel. :cool:

Also, FWIW, I absolutely love my Silky saw, it cuts so quick, but I've started to carry a spare blade for it because they tend to break or bend when I get overly enthusiastic about my sawing. :D
 
Great pictures and awesome story telling! :thumbup: It's always wonderful to see the knives in use. That is one spectacular looking camp area.
 
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