daizee
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 11,063
Hi all you Tradaholics,
I decided to spend a few rewards points and add a Case to my EDC Folder line-up. This is my FIRST Case knife ever, and the first slip-joint in a long time. I like bolster-less slippies, and don't have much use for multi-blade things unless it's a SAK. My state carry limit is 3". Also, I've never had a carbon steel folder before (!).
So... I went with the 3137CV.
Da Box:
Yellow Delrin, Brass pins. You can see my fingerprint in the goop that was on the blade. Good that it gets some treatment before shipping, but it was ugly goop. I replaced it with some of my own.
The blade is well-centered, with a slight over-grind on the right side. Thin brass liners. The spine is nicely buffed with no ugly cross-grinding marks and the corners of the spine are nicely dressed.
Lookit that goop! I love this blade shape. The steep belly lets you get under things. This isn't a great profile for scoring material or opening boxes, but I really like it. And you can see in this picture that this blade has a FHG - full hollow grind. I didn't expect that.
Everything is reasonably well-mated at the spine and all the parts are brushed the proper direction with a nice level of finish.
The underside:
In-hand it's a nice size. Compact, but big enough to hold onto. It's a pocketknife, not pretending to be more.
The edge was set on a VERY coarse abrasive. you can see the texture and the incredible burr. That black gook was stuck in the edge surface.
Opening effort is just right. I can pinch it without the nail nook, and the hollow grind helps. There is plenty of blade exposed when closed to get ahold of. The action is a bit rough, but given the price it's totally fine. There is no half-stop, and lockup is positive and appropriate.
The blade is about 1/16" at the spine. It's so thin that I have to wonder why they went with a hollow grind. It is ground so thin that I can hear the blade vibrate when I strum the edge sideways with my thumb (same experience with a Ka-Bar Phat Bob, btw). In fact, it's so thin that I could see a large portion of the edge flex when I put it on my stone. Good news is it didn't take a set. But it's SO thin that the edge will deflect a bit when cutting anything sturdy. So this will be a light-use blade for sure.
The initial edge was frightful, and didn't feel sharp at all. At least it was even. I was surprised that it cut paper - sawed through it, really. About 30-seconds on my find diamond stone followed by a couple passes on a strop cleaned it right up. It's quite sharp now. I'd be disappointed were I not skilled at sharpening.
The handle shape is nice, but boy is it SQUARE, and quite thick for such a small knife. I may address that on the belt sander. TBD. For $23 I won't sweat modifying it.
Overall: I'm happy to have this knife. Not bad for the price for an American-made knife. I'd rather have this than any of the $5-$15 hardware store counter knives. F&F is very good for the price point, with the exception of that huge burr on the edge (easily remedied).
What would I change? Were I making this knife, I would go FFG instead of FHG, and leave about .007" at the edge before sharpening. And possibly do it in 154CM! Oooooh... that would be NICE. And I'd contour the handles a bit more. That's it!
What's next? Yeah, I'm craving a GEC Farm & Field locker in micarta... tell me how much more I'll like that.
Cheers,
-Daizee
I decided to spend a few rewards points and add a Case to my EDC Folder line-up. This is my FIRST Case knife ever, and the first slip-joint in a long time. I like bolster-less slippies, and don't have much use for multi-blade things unless it's a SAK. My state carry limit is 3". Also, I've never had a carbon steel folder before (!).
So... I went with the 3137CV.
Da Box:
Yellow Delrin, Brass pins. You can see my fingerprint in the goop that was on the blade. Good that it gets some treatment before shipping, but it was ugly goop. I replaced it with some of my own.
The blade is well-centered, with a slight over-grind on the right side. Thin brass liners. The spine is nicely buffed with no ugly cross-grinding marks and the corners of the spine are nicely dressed.
Lookit that goop! I love this blade shape. The steep belly lets you get under things. This isn't a great profile for scoring material or opening boxes, but I really like it. And you can see in this picture that this blade has a FHG - full hollow grind. I didn't expect that.
Everything is reasonably well-mated at the spine and all the parts are brushed the proper direction with a nice level of finish.
The underside:
In-hand it's a nice size. Compact, but big enough to hold onto. It's a pocketknife, not pretending to be more.
The edge was set on a VERY coarse abrasive. you can see the texture and the incredible burr. That black gook was stuck in the edge surface.
Opening effort is just right. I can pinch it without the nail nook, and the hollow grind helps. There is plenty of blade exposed when closed to get ahold of. The action is a bit rough, but given the price it's totally fine. There is no half-stop, and lockup is positive and appropriate.
The blade is about 1/16" at the spine. It's so thin that I have to wonder why they went with a hollow grind. It is ground so thin that I can hear the blade vibrate when I strum the edge sideways with my thumb (same experience with a Ka-Bar Phat Bob, btw). In fact, it's so thin that I could see a large portion of the edge flex when I put it on my stone. Good news is it didn't take a set. But it's SO thin that the edge will deflect a bit when cutting anything sturdy. So this will be a light-use blade for sure.
The initial edge was frightful, and didn't feel sharp at all. At least it was even. I was surprised that it cut paper - sawed through it, really. About 30-seconds on my find diamond stone followed by a couple passes on a strop cleaned it right up. It's quite sharp now. I'd be disappointed were I not skilled at sharpening.
The handle shape is nice, but boy is it SQUARE, and quite thick for such a small knife. I may address that on the belt sander. TBD. For $23 I won't sweat modifying it.
Overall: I'm happy to have this knife. Not bad for the price for an American-made knife. I'd rather have this than any of the $5-$15 hardware store counter knives. F&F is very good for the price point, with the exception of that huge burr on the edge (easily remedied).
What would I change? Were I making this knife, I would go FFG instead of FHG, and leave about .007" at the edge before sharpening. And possibly do it in 154CM! Oooooh... that would be NICE. And I'd contour the handles a bit more. That's it!
What's next? Yeah, I'm craving a GEC Farm & Field locker in micarta... tell me how much more I'll like that.
Cheers,
-Daizee
