- Joined
- Feb 25, 2001
- Messages
- 6,675
Ive got months of usage of this knife under my belt now, so I thought Id post up a little critique of the Robeson ATS-34 wharncliffe whittler slipjoint. Big thanks go out to Bullman Cutlery for finding this knife for me. It seems like Bruce can come up with anything I ask for!!!!
Anways, this is one of the famous ATS-34 slipjoints, manufactured by Queen under the Robeson name. Its part of the Robeson PocketEze family, which is scribed on the knifes shield. The scale material is tan jigged bone. While Im not a huge fan of tan bone, the fit and finish on the knife is exceptional. All of the rivets were deeply punched down, so there are no nasty edges sticking out like on many of my slipjoints. The back spring meets perfectly with both the bone scales and brass liners, so there are no edges on the back of the knife for your pocket to catch on.
The walk and talk of the knife is also very well done. Two opposing blades, of different sizes, placed on a single back spring, must be quite tricky to properly implement. I have a few of these, and there is always a compromise. Either a large blade doesnt have enough walk and talk or the small blade has too much. Sometimes both. Queen performed some sort of old world voodoo magic on this knife, because it displays none of these symptoms. The main blade opens and closes with a terrific snap, and so does the small pen blade. I dont know how they did it, but I like it a lot. To top it all off, the pen blade snaps open at the half way point also, which is always a nifty feature.
The main blade itself is a glory to behold. I absolutely adore wharncliffe blades. Wharncliffes look stunningly classy, and are a pleasure to use when whittling intricate grooves in wood. The size of the blade is also perfect for detail whittling; not too small to be useless, but just big enough for the tough to reach stuff. I dont understand why so few manufacturers make wharncliffe whittlers. The wharncliffe is one of the most useful blade shapes Ive ever used.
My only complaint about this knife is the back edge of the main blade, where it comes into contact with the back spring. This right angle edge is cut very sharply, where most all of my other slipjoints are somewhat rounded off in this area. This sharp edge has caught in my pocket on occasion. This is by no means a big complaint, but I was surprised to see something negative on such a great knife, where many lesser knives do not suffer from this imperfection. But seeing as everything else about this knife is so good, I really shouldnt complain.
The factory edge on the knife was about standard for slipjoints; basically a butter knife. Ive grown to live with this over the years. The downside on this occasion was that an ATS-34 edge is kind of tricky to profile on such a small slipjoint. You cant exactly clip the knife onto a Lansky and use the diamond hones. I just had to spend the time with a bench stone and SharpMaker, and do it right. It took a while compared to 440a steel, but the exercise was worth the time and effort. Ive got an edge that holds forever, and its on a slipjoint!!! Amazing!!!
All in all, this is an awesome knife. Sharpening it may be tougher than youre accustomed to, but you get a drop-dead quality cutter in the end. Well done Queen!!!
Anways, this is one of the famous ATS-34 slipjoints, manufactured by Queen under the Robeson name. Its part of the Robeson PocketEze family, which is scribed on the knifes shield. The scale material is tan jigged bone. While Im not a huge fan of tan bone, the fit and finish on the knife is exceptional. All of the rivets were deeply punched down, so there are no nasty edges sticking out like on many of my slipjoints. The back spring meets perfectly with both the bone scales and brass liners, so there are no edges on the back of the knife for your pocket to catch on.
The walk and talk of the knife is also very well done. Two opposing blades, of different sizes, placed on a single back spring, must be quite tricky to properly implement. I have a few of these, and there is always a compromise. Either a large blade doesnt have enough walk and talk or the small blade has too much. Sometimes both. Queen performed some sort of old world voodoo magic on this knife, because it displays none of these symptoms. The main blade opens and closes with a terrific snap, and so does the small pen blade. I dont know how they did it, but I like it a lot. To top it all off, the pen blade snaps open at the half way point also, which is always a nifty feature.
The main blade itself is a glory to behold. I absolutely adore wharncliffe blades. Wharncliffes look stunningly classy, and are a pleasure to use when whittling intricate grooves in wood. The size of the blade is also perfect for detail whittling; not too small to be useless, but just big enough for the tough to reach stuff. I dont understand why so few manufacturers make wharncliffe whittlers. The wharncliffe is one of the most useful blade shapes Ive ever used.
My only complaint about this knife is the back edge of the main blade, where it comes into contact with the back spring. This right angle edge is cut very sharply, where most all of my other slipjoints are somewhat rounded off in this area. This sharp edge has caught in my pocket on occasion. This is by no means a big complaint, but I was surprised to see something negative on such a great knife, where many lesser knives do not suffer from this imperfection. But seeing as everything else about this knife is so good, I really shouldnt complain.
The factory edge on the knife was about standard for slipjoints; basically a butter knife. Ive grown to live with this over the years. The downside on this occasion was that an ATS-34 edge is kind of tricky to profile on such a small slipjoint. You cant exactly clip the knife onto a Lansky and use the diamond hones. I just had to spend the time with a bench stone and SharpMaker, and do it right. It took a while compared to 440a steel, but the exercise was worth the time and effort. Ive got an edge that holds forever, and its on a slipjoint!!! Amazing!!!
All in all, this is an awesome knife. Sharpening it may be tougher than youre accustomed to, but you get a drop-dead quality cutter in the end. Well done Queen!!!
