New Koyote

Rotte

Rotte

Joined
Aug 30, 2008
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3,214
So my Koyote problem is growing--new Koyote creation arrived in the mail today.

Blade came razor sharp, and I instantly set to cutting stuff up. Pine, paper, leather, cordage. This thing is a cutting machine. Blade is just under 7" and oal is 12". Blade is thin which keeps it feeling light and lively in the hand. The handle and thumb ramp offer multiple grips.

Christof came up with the design when I was asking him for a knife for a trip I'm hoping to take to Alaska this coming summer. I've been calling it the Alaskan, not sure what he calls it.

So off to diner and it got slicing duty for a stir fry I was prepping:

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Worked well for a camp knife. The edge geometry is designed for rougher duty, but it is viciously sharp.

Sorry for the bad picture, I'll try to get a few more up as I test it out, just thought I'd share a shot now.
 
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The Alaskan it is! This is also the design that is off to the camp knife challenge. The challaenge and the work on the project for Rotte came at close enough times that I sort of combined the thought processes some.
 
Well I thought there was a resemblance....

I'm going to try to put it through my own challenge testing--I'll post some shots as I go. I'll just say that after fooling around with it for a day, it feels like one of the most versatile knives I've used.
 
That is a great looking knife, it should be a nice camp knife.
 
Hey I just handled a knife like that this weekend ;)

Its a cool design! Love the wood handles on it!
 
For everyone to know- I have a few of these ordered by various people, with and without some variations. I'm going to be trying out a slightly broader handle, a thumbramp without and with different filework, and some blade length variations.

I'm also doing one with a bird's head rear for a bit more chopping retention.

Of course, we'll see how the challenge itself goes and I'll be getting more input from Biran, I am sure!
 
OK guys, lots of testing to come, but I was fooling around with the Alaskan camp knife again this evening.

A few swipes on the strop and it was scary sharp. Managed to nick my finger, so the knife is officially mine now. Right forearm is baby's butt smooth now.

The spine is squared off and feels like there may even be a little burr. Got me to thinking...used the spine to throw some serious sparks from a misch metal rod. This was from a mish metal rod I have trouble with usually. I'm not sure if the 15N20 steel does something different, but it really threw sparks well.

Sorry no pics. I'll try to capture some later.
 
I don't think it's the steel as such. But I finish straight spine sections vertically on a platen on my grinder at low speed with 220/320/400/sometimes 800 grit and the edges are ridiculously square. sharp, even. I think that's best for scraping and firesteels.

I try to knock the edges a tiny, tiny bit, on the dropped edges and thumbramps, for the fingers.

edit- I mean, the steel is a good steel for striking, certainly- but I don't think it's necessarily better than 1075, 1084, 1095. Though with the nickel in there... I dunno. maybe I should test this more in depth.
 
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So I went out with the new Koyote (Alaskan) today. We got some snow last night, it melted off pretty quickly in the sunshine this morning. Temps in the low 30's, but nice.

Here's a pic from the begining of the day:

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And the Alaskan warming up in the sun:

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I got a little lost in the moment and just wandered around for a while, really nice start to the day. This area has Mulies, Elk, and some times Moose. There are bear warnings, but I've never seen sign here. I didn't notice it getting colder, but at some point I thought a fire and cup of tea would be nice.

The Alaskan was put to service splitting wood and making shavings:

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My hands were actually really cold at this point (gloves still in the daypack) and it was hard to operate the camera because they were numb.

I had trouble making fuzz sticks with the dry pine that was lying around, the fuzz just snapped. So I made a pile of pine shavings. The angle of the handle makes it very easy to slice with and the edge held up well as I got a good pile of shavings. I tried sparking the shavings directly with a ferro rod but it was pretty tough with cold hands. I used a little jute string to make tinder and it caught a spark easily. (Note the snow in the old fire ring and cool sheath.)

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Fortunately it didn't start snowing until after the fire was going. It started as a squall and ramped up to a blizzard with 30 meter visibility.

I had used my compass to take some bearings while walking in, otherwise it might have been interesting trying to get out.

Here's the end of the day before the snow really got going:

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The Alaskan performed quite well. Even with cold hands I had a good grip, and the drop edge really does allow a great variety of grips. Edge holding was really good with the cutting and shaving--perhaps not an extensive test, but it felt good even after batonning a couple small logs apart for the fire.

This is a good knife.
 
Outstanding! Questions: I know you hit the filework with a bit of 400 grit to knock the edges a bit, is it still uncomfortable using it today? It's easy to leave it as optional, but I'm wondering if there's a less abrasive finished jimping style I can apply that will do the trick.

And the handle, I know a few people think that the design could use an eighth of an inch of breadth, so I'm wondering how it was in the cold. And diy ou use it with gloves at all?

Love the photos!
 
OK, some of my answers may seem a little paradoxical, but that's just a reflection of my fussiness. :D

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I didn't put my gloves on. Why, I don't know, 'cuz my hands were cold. I think I kept expecting it to warm back up. I didn't actually believe it was anything more than a snow squall. So I never used the knife with gloves. But I think it would be fine with gloved hands. However, I'd still like the handle to be a wee bit thicker and a wee bit deeper. I have big paws and love a big handle.

As to the jimping. I did soften the jimping a bit with some 400 grit. The jimping does give a nice secure feel--especially with cold fingers! But I don't think it's necessary. If anything, I'd make the jimping very shallow. But the thumb ramp provides good leverage, so I think jimping is extraneous.

Gotta say, that spine throws some serious sparks off a ferro rod. I think I used one from Going Gear today.

Here's an interesting shot looking up; I was walking by the base of the rocks and there was an inlet formed by a fissure caped by a large boulder, it formed a kind of natural chimney:

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Little icicles hanging off the one side. Snow flake burred the lens a bit.

I'll do some glove testing soon.
 
I said how much I liked this design when I first saw it on the camp knife challenge thread and my fondness for this design has only grown......love it !!!!

I'm not really a big knife kinda guy but I could see a thin stocked knife like this really getting some use !!!!!
 
pitdog said:
I'm not really a big knife kinda guy but I could see a thin stocked knife like this really getting some use !!!!!
Click to expand...

It's funny Pitdog; this knife doesn't feel like a big knife. I'm kinda like you in that I like smaller, EDC-type knives. I think the way you can really choke up on this one, combined with the thin stock, gives it a small knife feel.

:confused:
 
I have the LBK (little big knife) spearpoint and now the alaskan is gonna be named the BLK? :D :D :D
 
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