Well, I'd expected to have this done sooner. But you know the old saying: "The best-laid mice...".
I will be repeating what others have said, because it's almost impossible not to.
Please note that anything negative that I say about this knife is strictly nitpicking. It's also very possible
that what I am seeing is wrong. Don't take at criticism, just as observations. I can find nothing
functionally wrong (barring one thing that I'm not sure about, which I'll cover later) with it, and would
buy it in a second (unless I'm broke or Uncle Bill as this special [...]).
The knife is beautiful, both in the materials used, and the manufacture. The blade shape is very elegant,
giving me the feeling that it wants to be a cavalry saber when it grows up. Unfortunately, it looks like
somebody spilled a bunch of mustard on it. Actually, I like the etch a lot. I didn't expect to, because I
wasn't wild about the way my Okapi looked after I'd given it the mustard treatment, but this one looks a lot
better. It totally changes the character of the knife, from a showpiece, to something very comfortable. Maybe
it's not having to worry about scratching a highly polished blade.
The blade has a tiny tendency to curve to the left, looking at it from the top. Tiny.
The guard plate has a very nice shape and feels very comfortable pushing against my index finger. The meeting
of the plate and the blade are not perfect. There are 2 small gaps on the left side, between the slot and the
blade. This is the possibly functional problem that I mentioned earlier. Depending on how far down into the
plate these gaps go, there might be internal rust problems, probably about the time Sol decides to go nova.
Again, a nit.
The handle has a much more natural feel to it than I would have expected, with the drop at the end. The size,
both length and girth are just right for me. The tapering at the end allows the smaller fingers to grip
securely, exactly the opposite of a khuk handle. The finish on the moose antler is much more uneven than it
would have been on a wood handle. Be interesting to see how it would look after a couple years of use. Maybe
Dan could post pictures in the future.
The antler material itself is very interesting, with the texture being more like bone than the buffalo horn
we are used to seeing on the khuks. And I DID NOT expect to see green in an antler. Is that natural, or a
result of the polishing? In any case, I found myself spending more time staring at that handle than any other
part of the knife.
The diagonally cut ring in the handle is rotated a little to the right (nit, squared).
The ray skin on the sheath is much more golden than the picture would have you believe. Beautiful stuff.
HARD. A little of the gold color has been worn off the spine side of the sheath. I have no idea whether that
is a one-time thing, due to the bending of the skin, or whether it will progress. The fit of the knife in the
sheath is one of the tightest I have felt, but the draw is very smooth. Not a fast-draw sheath, but you're
never going to lose the knife, even if you hang upside down, which is more important than a lightning draw.
The blade fits very deeply into the sheath, with only 2 1/2 inches protruding. When I first drew it, I used
thumb and both forefingers, resulting in a very awkward grip, and a bunch of fumbling until I had it securely
in my palm. When I got smart (let that one go) and drew it with my little and ring fingers, I had it exactly
in my hand, ready to work.
The carry on the belt is very natural, with a good angle. As I mentioned in a prior post, it is vary easy to forget about, it is
so light. I had it on the entire time I was tuning my son's bike for his kid's triathlon. Didn't get in the
way. Couldn't for the life of me figure out a use for it in that situation, though.
The belt loop would benefit from a little neatsfoot oil. Seems a tad brittle.
I don't think I've ever knowingly seen a full convex edge. It makes the blade seem much wider than it is,
probably because the eye sees no interruptions for the entire width of the blade. I definitely need to learn
how to do that.
The 'workout' I gave the knife was kind of a joke. It happily slice some chicken, fish, and a melon. Plus
trimmed a few suckers from a plum tree. No villains slain, not even a gopher. Whittled a little from a dry
apple branch. Wish I could have more strenuous work for it.
Thanks very much for the opportunity to examine it, Dan, and for trusting us with it. I only hope that, when
I start making knives, one of them turns out as good as this.
