Puma White hunter as bush knife?

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Dec 30, 2008
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What do you guys think of the Puma White Hunter fixed blade as a camp/bush knife? I've been tempted to carry it but i don't know how it holds up. My grandfather bought it years ago, i think someone dated it as a 92 (blade stamped 11 6375, guard stamped 23981 if any of you know about dating it). It seems like a well built blade, feels good in the hand and is front heavy so it feels like a good chopper (i don't do much chopping but the more i'm out the more i feel like i need to bring a machete, but hate the space they take up). So what is the general concensus?
 
IMHO you should put up your grandfathers knife for sentemental and collector reasons.Easy enough to get any number of inexpensive beaters for a good camp-bush knife.
 
I think it would make a fine camp knife, and since your grandfather already used it, leaving it on a shelf is a waste of a real working knife. Probably better in the woods than on the water. Beautiful knife.
 
I know he would want me to use it. He carries a benchmade 710 that i hope to inherit some day, i want to tear it apart and clean/sharpen it! But he insists on using and using it lol. All the knives he's gotten me i end up using, i like the idea more of using a knife he's given me than letting them sit because i know he gave them to me for a reason, to use. But there is a fine line between using and ruining, which is why i'm askin you all how the steel will hold up to woods use. If it won't it will just stay in a lockbox. I'd like to pass it down to someone to use as my grandfather and i have.
 
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I know he would want me to use it. He carries a benchmade 710 that i hope to inherit some day, i want to tear it apart and clean/sharpen it! But he insists on using and using it lol. All the knives he's gotten me i end up using, i like the idea more of using a knife he's given me than letting them sit because i know he gave them to me for a reason, to use. But there is a fine line between using and ruining, which is why i'm askin you all how the steel will hold up to woods use. If it won't it will just stay in a lockbox. I'd like to pass it down to someone to use as my grandfather and i have.

Puma steel is excellent steel. It will take a very good edge. Yes it is front heavy and will chop pretty well for it's size. I have friends who have older ones who have told me about times of using them to fell small trees to make a quick LZ for extraction back in 'nam. I think it would be just fine in the woods as that is what the knife was made for to begin with. Just exercise some good maintenance if used around salt water, those hi-carbon blades will rust and pit without proper care in such an environment.
 
The steel will hold up. It's steel! Just cut softer stuff with it. :)

Obviously, it's a big knife that could use a small companion for detail work. But we all carry one of those anyway, right? Just be careful when you start swinging a heavy blade around. Don't let the momentum pull it into your leg or a fellow camper's arm or a nearby rock. The Himalayan Imports forum has a good sticky on safety with khukuris, which would be good reading.

Latest and Greatest Safety Thread. REQUIRED READING!
 
Made the first half of 1989. Looks like it is stainless so I have no idea how the steel holds up. The original "Pumaster" steel was legendary in it's day as outlasting all others in hunting camps.

If you decide it's a user go out and use it, it makes a fine camp knife unless you are doing a lot of wood carving.

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I thought it was stainless, i can not find one thing on it. Hope someone chimes in with more experience.
 
Don't worry about it, just take it out and use it and enjoy it. Life is really too short to collect things others will end up inheriting in the long run.

Use your tools, enjoy your life and be safe out there.
 
The White Hunter was designed for the "East African White Hunters Association" in 1956 and became the first part of a series of hunting knives for different areas of the world. I suspect the "Hunters Pal", "Hunters Friend", "Skinner", and "Bowie" were part of the series.

The White Hunter in stainless came out in 1980 and doesn't have the collector value of the older carbon Pumaster steel knives. Since yours has been sharpened and used already (I think) you may as well get it out there and make some use of it.

Here are a few links for you to check out....

http://pumaknifecompanyusa.com/faq.aspx

http://www.pumaknifeman.com/PumaKnifeStory.html

http://www.pumaknives.de/chronicle_102.php
 
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If the etching is still visible on the blade. See if it says "Pumaster steel" if it does it is carbon steel.
 
A beautiful knife. It was my most coveted design as a kid. I have never owned one but have researched it since it was introduced. Some say the handle is the weak point. Stag can be brittle, so be careful of overuse as a chopper. Wish Grandpa gave me one.
 
I'd say use it. It's a time proven design. If it was made in 92, it's stainless. Their steel is a German version of 440C. I had a pretty good Puma knife collection with about 5 Whitehunters. I had the wood handle version called the Auto in carbon steel as well as a stag handled carbon one. I still have a newer 1997 White Hunter. The only thing I didn't like was the smallish handle.
Scott
 
I think the design is a bit unusual for something called a hunting knife. And I'm certain I'd rather saw than chop anything substantial with it. As something to use with a bit of versatility from hunting to splitting sticks I can't see a problem if the design works for you. I've never heard anyone knocking the craftsmanship that went into making one.

Video on the making here.
 
I remember a friend of my parents showing me his White Hunter knife (and Mauser rifle he'd personally taken from a German) back in the early seventies, I thought it was pretty big juju!
 
Yeah, it says stainless right on the blade. Hmm, so stainless it is. It's been sharpened with a few scratches on the blade. How does the edge on the back work as far as using it to split wood? How's the teeth on the saw hold up? I'm guessing it's for bone and not wood. One of the links Ramm9 listed has told me my knife was made in the first half of 1989 as he had said :)
 
I think the edge on the back is for breaking bone.
It should work for breaking up small branches.
 
That is so cool... never new that existed-an original WSK design :) Puma's knifes are sweet, I've got one of their black plastic handled slipjoints-it's a pretty sturdy knife.
 
I've got one that dates to 1967. The sheath rotted away and I got a new one from Puma. It is sharp as a razor and makes a passable chopper. The saw teeth are still mostly there. It was my only 'big' knife for quite a while and I wouldn't part with it.

Use that knife, it will serve you well.
 
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